March 26th Andoh v Randolph - Opening Day

Tigers have a good powerful lineup, nice relief and very basic starting pitching. Andoh was indifferent, lacking in finesse and control. What kept the Tigers in control was the relief pitching and it is nice to see Kubota back. He was excellent with all his old control and placement nicely recovered. Anyway onto the scores.

          1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R  H E
BayStars  0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 3  6 0
Tigers    0 0 0 5 0 0 2 0 X 7 10 1

Starting lineups

BayStars
1. Ishikawa (Short)
2. Hayakawa (Centre)
3. Uchikawa (First)
4. Murata (Third)
5. Sledge (Left)
6. Castillo (Second)
7. Hashimoto (Catcher)
8. Yoshimura (Right)
9. Randolph (Pitcher)

Tigers
1. Murton (Centre)
2. Hirano (Second)
3. Toritani (Short)
4. Kanemoto (Left)
5. Arai (Third)
6. Johjima (Catcher)
7. Brazell (First)
8. Sakurai (Right)
9. Andoh (Pitcher)

Ishikawa would lead off the first innings for the BayStars with a hit. Hayakawa bunted him to second but an Uchikawa liner caught him off base and he was out to end the innings. Tigers first was quiet as Randolph who started superbly was in complete control. Murata led off the BayStars second and here Andoh's poor pitching became apparent. His second pitch to Murata was lazy and the BayStars third turned it nicely into the left stand for a solo home run 1-0 BayStars. Andoh woke up and retired the next three batters limiting the damage to the one run. Tigers second saw Randolph walk Arai but then Johjima's first at bat for his new side was a double play, end of innings. BayStars third was quiet but the bottom was a little more exciting. Randolph began to have control problems. He walked Sakurai with one out. Andoh then failed with three bunts but Murton hit to third, runners on first and second. However, Hirano grounded out to short and the innings was scoreless.

Yoshimura led off BayStars fourth with a hit. He was bunted to second by Uchikawa (more on asking your No. 3 batter to bunt later). Murata hit hard to left and Uchikawa was home 2-0 BayStars, runner on second, one out. Next up was Sledge who hit to left over Kanemoto for another two base hit 3-0 BayStars, runner on second. Castillo flew out to right to move Sledge to third but then Hashimoto grounded out to end the innings but BayStars were in a commanding position. Tigers bounced back immediately, taking advantage of a deteriorating Randolph. Toritani led off the fourth with a walk. Kanemoto hit, a rather fortunate affair which bounced luckily over the head of first, runners on first and third (Toritani having shown some nice base running to reach third) with no outs. Next batter was Arai who lofted one high into the ceiling. If it had been in an open air ground it would have been a huge home run and Arai certainly thought that this deserved that status. The umpires (who to be honest where pretty clueless throughout the game) decided it was a two base hit. This brought Toritani home and put Kanemoto on third 3-1 BayStars. Next was Johjima who swung wildly at his first high pitch and then rammed his second pitch into the centre field wall for a two base hit 3-3 scores tied, runner on second. As I mentioned in the post about the batting lineup, Sakurai bats number eight and he is a very powerful batter. He seized a low breaking ball from Randolph and slammed it into the centre stand for a two run home run 5-3 Tigers and the game had been turned around. Andoh returned for BayStars fifth and held the lead nicely retiring the batters in order. Randolph was replaced by Kaga, a side-armer for Tigers fifth and he was very competent also retiring the batters in order. Tsutsui replaced Andoh for BayStars sixth, Mayumi not wishing to risk Andoh with BayStars' clean up again. He was sharp and retired all three batters he faced. Tigers sixth saw a wasted chance. Johjima hit to centre. Brazell followed with a hit which put runners on the corners, once again a Tigers runner (this time Johjima) making two bases. Tigers were in a great position. Sakurai struck out and Mayumi sent Hiyama (pinch hitter) to the plate. Obana (BayStars manager) decided to change his pitchers and Kaga was replaced by Takamiya. This caused Mayumi to switch pinch hitters and bring on Yano. There was a pause whilst Johjima checked that he wasn't being replaced (or maybe made it clear that he wasn't going to be replaced) and then Yano struck out. So from runners on first and third with no outs Tigers now had two outs and hadn't managed to add to the score. One has to say it was also nice pitching by the BayStars pitchers. For the final out Obana switched pitchers again, this time to Kizuka who induced Murton to ground out to short - an escape for the Yokohama team.

BayStars seventh saw Kubota return. His first out followed nicely but then Hashimoto bounced one to Toritani who let fly a very poor throw to first. Brazell was drawn off base but whilst in the air swung his glove and claimed he tagged Hashimoto on the way past. The replay was inconclusive (it was only shown once and really Japanese TV needs to improve its use of replays) and the umpires decided Hashimoto was safe. Yoshimura then hit into a perfect 4-6-3 double play to end the innings. Tigers seventh started with a Hirano hit to first. First fielded this OK but Kizuka, the pitcher was slow and Hirano beat the throw (head sliding of couse) - safe. Here we saw a truely stupid decision from Mayumi - he asked Toritani to bunt. Obana had done the same with Uchikawa. What is it with managers asking your No. 3 batter to bunt? Both batters are very dangerous with runners on but this is just a waste. Tigers were also 5-3 ahead, the bunt was unnecessary. Anyway the bunt was successful but then Kato, the pitcher walked Kanemoto setting up runners on first and second. This brought another change of pitcher, Sanada. He faced Arai who grounded out but moved the runners round to second and third. Next was Johjima who turned one nicely over Murata for a two base hit 7-3 Tigers, runner on second. The final batter was Brazell who struck out. Messenger pitched the BayStars eighth and was secure retiring the batters in order. In Tigers eighth Katsuragi (replacement first) hit with one out. Murton walked and then Hirano hit to second. Castillo advanced and allowed himself to be tangled up with Murton. letting the ball go by. The umpires conferred and gave Murton out for impeding the player but replays rather suggested the opposite. Murton was aggreived but it is nice to see the BayStars tradition of cheating being maintained. Toritani then grounded out to end the innings. The final innings was pitched by Kyuji Fujikawa. It wasn't a save but Mayumi was desperate for the win. The first out was Uchikawa who flew out to the other Fujikawa at right (making his Tigers debut). The next two outs followed smoothly. Tigers victory.

A nice result for the Tigers. The batting had shown too much power for the BayStars to handle and once Tigers took the lead, BayStars were in damage limitation mode. Neither Randolph or Andoh impressed but Johjima had a dream debut and with the relief showed that he hasn't lost his skills or ability whilst in America. Sakurai also had a good game and this was a nice start for the Tigers. Arai (who has a lot to prove this year) also showed the right attitude but still we have the problem of Mayumi. Maybe the team can work round him though.

[Edited by: Christopher on Mar 28, 2010 3:45 PM]