August 21st Nohmi v Takahiro Aoki - A gift to the Carp

Brazell made a return as a pinch hitter which shows he is not too badly injured. The game saw a poor innings by Nohmi who pitched very badly but also a poor decision by the first base umpire in which Higashide was wrongly ruled safe. He had bounced a hit over Nohmi and it was taken and thrown by Hirano to Katsuragi who had to stretch to reach it. The umpire ruled that he had left the base but the replay clearly showed that he hadn't. This turned out to be a significant mistake as Carp went on to score five more runs and put the game out of sight. However, this sort of mistake should not happen and really the base umpires in Japan do tend to be poor. More training is needed here and the Tigers coaches do need to argue the points. Mayumi just sat in his dugout and did nothing - not the sort of thing we want from our manager. That being said, Tigers batting was poor. Against pitching like that of Hasegawa we really should have had one or two runs but we ended up with nothing. This was a truely abysmal performance. Scores

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

Starting lineups

Carp
1. Higashide (Second)
2. Akamatsu (Centre)
3. Phillips (Left)
4. Kurihara (First)
5. McClain (Third)
6. Amaya (Right)
7. Kokubo (Short)
8. Ishihara (Catcher)
9. Takahiro Aoki (Pitcher)

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

Nohmi's first was pretty deceptive - the batters fell in order and everything looked comfortable. In fact it looked like the start of a typical good Nohmi performance. Aoki gave up a one out hit to Hirano. Toritani then grounded out to short but Carp could not turn the double play though they did get Hirano. Toritani was safe. He tried to steal second but was thrown out to end the innings. Nohmi then lost focus and control in the Carp's second. He started by walking Kurihara. Then with one out Amaya managed a hit to him which set up runners on first and second. Kokubo walked to load the bases and then Nohmi dead balled Ishihara. oshidashi 1-0 Carp bases loaded. Takahiro Aoki was next but Brown decided that something was on and sent Shima (pinch hitter) to the mound. He hit a sacrifice fly 2-0 Carp runners on second and third. Here the umpire made his fatal error - he just wasn't paying attention. Here also the Tigers coaching team failed, they should have argued the issue. So bases loaded with two outs and Nohmi went to pieces. Akamatsu hit nicely to left 3-0 Carp bases loaded. Phillips dispatched a very smooth two base hit to left centre to clear the bases 6-0 Carp, runner on second. Kurihara dug a low pitch out which luckily for him (as it wasn't a good hit) landed in front of Asai. Phillips was home 7-0 Carp runner on first. Finally McClain struck out and he was furious with himself throwing his helmet on the ground in a fit of pique. Hasegawa took the mound for the Tigers second - it would have been a miracle if Tigers had overturned a seven run lead but they were in the position to score some runs especially as Hasegawa registers as mediocre. Kanemoto started brightly enough hitting a two base to right centre but then the next three batters cluelessly got out and the innings was scoreless. Surprisingly Nohmi returned for Carp's third - Mayumi could have pulled him but nowadays he just sits in his dugout and makes bad decisions. Amaya led off the innings with a hit and made second on Kokubo's ground out. This was as far as he got as Nohmi's control was much better. Tigers third was dismal, all three batters struck out swinging but really they flattered Hasegawa who wasn't that good and whose control was dodgy. However, no one wanted to show any application

Phillips had a two out two base in Carp's fourth but Nohmi's poor pitching seemed to have disappeared and he didn't advance beyond second. Hirano led off Tigers fourth with a hit. Hasegawa struck out Toritani but then walked Kanemoto, runners on first and second. Arai though hit into a double play but it needed a neat piece of fielding from Higashide to carry it off. Carp's fifth was quiet as Nohmi retired the batters in order. In Tigers fifth Katsuragi led off with a hit. This should have been a single but an incredibly poor bit of fielding by Amaya at right allowed the ball to escape and Katsuragi made second. Sakurai worked the count full and then blew it by flying out to second. Kanoh hit beautifully to left but the ball just died and he was out and then Brazell (pinch hitter) hit to centre. In the second Kurihara had done the same thing and got away with it. No such luck for Brazell who fell to a nice take by Akamatsu around his calves. Nohmi was replaced by Watanabe for Carp's sixth. Nohmi hadn't done too badly and actually only gave up two runs - the rest came from the umpire's incompetence. Watanabe never looks confident and one can say he hasn't benefited from the new regime. He did well enough in the sixth retiring the batters in order. Tigers sixth was quiet with Toritani who was batting very poorly striking out looking to end the innings. He really wasn't focused and he should have been.

Watanabe returned for Carp's seventh and he shouldn't have done so but this is just another sign of the laziness that passes for management from Mayumi. Why not give another reliever the chance to turn his arm over? Why not give Abe a run out, or Tsutsui or Kanemura? Surely Mayumi has learnt something from managing the team? Anyway with one out Phillips hit to left and then made second on a wild pitch. McClain then hit a nice fat meatball to left which you knew was a home run as soon as it left the bat 9-0 Carp. Amaya walked and Kokubo hit to right setting up runners on first and third. Ishihara walked to load the bases but finally Kimura (pinch hitter) grounded out to end the innings. Hasegawa was replaced by Makino for Tigers seventh and he retired the batters in order. Mayumi did decide to give Kanemura an innings in the Carp's eighth and he retired the batters in order. He would have probably done so in the seventh if he had been used then. Tigers eighth was also quiet as the batters fell in order. Kanemura returned for the Carp's ninth (what about Abe or Tsutsui) and started with a walk to Kurihara. He made second on a wild pitch and third on Kida's (pinch hitter) ground out but Kanemura struck out Amaya and got Kokubo to ground out to end the innings. Tigers ninth saw Hayato Aoki take the mound and he got the three batters he faced to ground out. Carp victory.

A thoroughly unsatisfactory performance by the Tigers. They do go like this towards the end of shi no rodo and have in fact been swept by the abysmal BayStars at Kyocera dome during this period. The batting was abysmal and the management so poor it is unbelievable. One expects the manager to learn not sit on his butt and mumble. Mayumi is still young and not in his dotage yet (one hopes). I am not saying Tigers would have won but they had the opportunity to fight and score runs and didn't bother. Carp's victory did rely on a huge error by the umpire but to be honest though they are second rate you don't see them giving up. In this respect Tigers could learn a lot from them.