July 14th Kubo v Nakata - A former Tigers killer

Nakata who owned Tigers in his first season no longer has that pleasure. In fact, he doesn't really look comfortable pitching against the Tigers and even though he wasn't spectacularly bad was eventually pulled before the end of the seventh. Most of Mayumi's decisions worked this game and Tigers managed a tight victory. Kubota is due to pitch on the 17th after a long conversion. Iwata will return on 22nd July (he has hip problems) but apparently there is talk of bringing Cheng back into the rotation and possibly Shoh (2009 No.1 draft pick). Whilst it is good to see the latter so soon one expects he will disappear after his start. Tigers still need to send Fukuhara and Shimoyanagi down and bring up their younger pitchers. scores

         1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Dragons  0 0 0 1 0 2 0 1 0 4 8 0
Tigers   0 0 0 3 0 0 2 0 X 5 7 0

Starting lineups

Dragons
1. Ibata (Short)
2. Araki (Second)
3. Morino (Third)
4. Blanco (First)
5. Wada (Left)
6. Fujii (Centre)
7. Koike (Right)
8. Tanishige (Catcher)
9. Nakata (Pitcher)

Tigers
1. Hirano (Centre)
2. Sekimoto (Second)
3. Katsuragi (Right)
4. Kanemoto (Left)
5. Brazell (First)
6. Arai (Third)
7. Toritani (Short)
8. Kanoh (Catcher)
9. Kubo (Pitcher)

Kubo started the first in an assured manner and the Dragons half was rapidly over. Hirano led off the bottom with a hit and was bunted to second by Sekimoto. Katsuragi who was ineffective and is puzzling as a No.3 struck out and Kanemoto grounded out so nothing happened. Dragons second was also quiet as Kubo retired the batters in order. Tigers second was the same. The Dragons third saw their first hit, a single to Tanishige. Nakata struck out and this innings was scoreless. So far pitchers had been in control and the scoreless theme continued throughout the Tigers third.

Kubo's control then wandered in the fourth. He dead balled Araki who if truth be told made a meal of it. Certainly the impact would have been painful but the rolling around like an international soccer player looked a bit contrived and in fact there was a suspicion that Araki could have deliberately left his arm in the way of the pitch to get the base. Whatever the case, Morino then hit nicely to right for a two base hit, runners on second and third. Kubo was rattled and unleashed a wild pitch allowing Araki to score 1-0 Dragons, runner on third. This seem to galvanise Kubo who then proceeded to retire the next three batters to get out of the innings with only one run damage. He definitely redeemed himself with this pitching. Nakata also started the fourth with a dead ball - of Sekimoto. This was a very stupid move as it knocked his rythym out and he walked Kanemoto. Up stepped Brazell and hit hard to right driving in two runs, Kanemoto going from first to home in a fine piece of running 2-1 Tigers, runner on second. Arai flew out but Toritani hit to centre and Brazell hurried (as much as he was able home), 3-1 Tigers runner on first. Kanoh grounded out to end the innings with a comfortable lead. Kubo was very good in Dragons fifth striking out all three batters he faced. In Tigers fifth Sekimoto hit with two out and then in a bizzare out wandered too far off base and was caught and tagged out. In Dragons sixth with one out Araki hit, his supposed injury not affecting his play much at all. He stole second though this was close and quite likely he was out (the umpire being in the wrong position to judge). Morino flew out to short and it looked like Kubo would get out of the innings safely. Next was Blanco and Kanoh came to the mound to have a chat. What happened next was pure luck. Blanco swung and shattered his bat but the ball carried well over Toritani into left field for a hit, bad luck for Kubo 3-2 Tigers runner on first.
Wada hit to centre and Blanco showed a fair turn of pace for a big man to reach third with Wada on first. Fujii was next and he hit nicely to right driving in Blanco 3-3 scores tied, runners on second and third. Finally, Koike flew out to end the innings but Kubo's lead had gone. Tigers sixth saw Nakata's final effective innings, once again he struck out Katsuragi and then got the other two batters.

Kubo returned for Dragons seventh, Mayumi did want him to get the victory. He was effective, retiring the batters in order. If Kubo could do it then so could Nakata, or so Ochiai's reasoning went. Things started badly with a hit to Arai. An out followed and then Kanoh hit to right, runners on first and second. Kubo of course didn't return and instead Hiyama (pinch hitter) faced Nakata. With the count full, Tanishige had a word with Nakata but Hiyama didn't follow the script. Normally, a right field batter he drove his next pitch to left centre beating Araki who was standing close to second. Arai raced home 4-3 Tigers runners on third and crucially second. Exit Nakata who looked very upset about the whole business. Mayumi decided to make sure of the extra run and replaced Hirano with Takahashi. He had one aim, to hit a sacrifice fly and with more power than Hirano did exactly that, hitting Payano (replacement pitcher) deep to right. Kanoh hustled home 5-3 Tigers, runner on third. Sekimoto flew out to right and ended the innings. To replace Kubo, Mayumi went with Atchision. He showed some stunning pitches but couldn't string them together and also had some mediocre stuff with him. This is what the Dragons chose to hit. With two out Blanco hit to centre. Wada walked and Fujii hit again this time to left. Once again Blanco showed good speed to make home 5-4 Tigers, runners on first and third and things were suddenly tight again. Tatsunami flew out but once again Atchison had stumbled. Tigers eighth was pitched by Payano again who retired the batters neatly in order. Of course, Mayumi chose Fujikawa to save the match. He got Tanishige to strike out with an outrageous high ball and then an easy ground out from Fukuda. Ibata proved more resiliant and battled quite hard before finally flying out in foul ground. Tigers victory.

Mayumi's decision making had worked rather well this game. Of course, Brazell's contribution had been enormous and even though Hiyama took the hero interview the winning run had actually been because of Takahashi's sacrifice fly. Dragons would have tied the game without this. However, you can't give a hero interview to anything less than a sayonara sacrifice fly so Hiyama it was. To be fair he had batted very intelligently and it was a good RBI. Kubo picked up his fourth win and had pitched with more consistency than before. Fujikawa recorded his tenth save and is gradually becoming more consistent. It will be interesting to see how Kubota pitches but first we have to get through another Fukuhara game.