March 28th Shimoyanagi v Fujie - BayStars first win

As is often the case with these series the end result was 2-1 with the BayStars taking the final game. It's difficult to say how things will go from one series but BayStars should be worried. They generated 1 run from 11 hits this game (the others came from an error and a sacrifice fly). However, their pitching was very sound especially the relief. Tigers relief, of course, was sound but suffered from a Mayumi bad decision (walking Murata with one out in the seventh innings). The BayStars went on to load the bases and score the sacrifice fly. We also saw the first use of the video replay in a Tigers game for a Castillo hit (it went Tigers way). Scores

          1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R  H E
BayStars  0 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 3 11 0
Tigers    0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 2  5 1

Starting lineups

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

Shimoyanagi didn't pitch well but also didn't pitch too badly. However, what was worrying was that he only went five innings instead of his usual six. He had runners on in every innings but for the most part the BayStars couldn't take advantage of this. In fact BayStars first innings started with a leadoff hit to Uchikawa but the next three batters failed to convert and the innings was scoreless. Tigers first was quiet with the batters falling in order as Fujie rapidly established control. Shimoyanagi then ran into trouble in the second. With one out Yoshimura hit a two base to right. Castillo followed with a hit and then stole second - runners on second and third. However, BayStars failed to exploit as Shimoyanagi struck out Hashimoto and then easily got Fujie to ground out and end the threat. Tigers second saw the batters fall in order. In BayStars third Shimoyanagi got the first two outs but then gave up a hit to Kinjoh. Next batter was Murata who hit a two base out to Sakurai at right. This would have set up runners on second and third if the throw had been good. However, Sakurai messed the throw to the relay fielder up in a big way and Kinjoh waiting on third seized the chance and made home safely 1-0 BayStars. Sledge then took full advantage of a rattled Shimoyanagi to hit nicely to centre driving in Murata 2-0 BayStars. Yoshimura walked but Castillo flew out to Brazell at first to end the innings. Tigers then tried to hit back but Fujie had enough control to retain the lead - just. Sakurai hit a solo home run to make up for his error 2-1 BayStars but the other batters were unable to generate anything.

Hashimoto led off BayStars fourth with a hit as Shimoyanagi continued to scatter hittable balls around with gay abandon. Fujie tried to bunt but was out to the three bunts rule and the next two batters grounded out. Hirano led off Tigers fourth with a hit and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Then Toritani walked and Tigers had runners on first and second with no outs. The Tigers faithful began to have hopes of a nice innings with Fujie faltering. Sadly, it was not to be, firstly Kanemoto who in this series has looked like a decorative ornament not a No. 4 batter flew out and then Arai (who has been marginally more useful) hit into a double play to end the innings. Nice pitching by the BayStars youngster. In BayStars fifth Shimoyanagi gave up a another hit, this time to Sledge but nothing came of it. Fujie walked Brazell in Tigers fifth - only his second walk - but like the top of the innings nothing came of the runner on base. Tsutsui replaced Shimoyanagi for the BayStars sixth and faced Castillo. He blasted one high against the centrefield wall which caused the umpires to call for the video. After some consideration they decided it was a two base. Michael Westbay in his highly readable blog 'Bayside West' thinks that it was a home run and it is true that this set of umpires are rather clueless but they did have the benefit of the replay and one has to think that maybe this time they got the decision right. With Castillo on second Tsutsui then struck out the next two batters but Castillo was able to steal third. However, Uchikawa lined out to Toritani to end the innings. Tigers sixth saw Murton lead off with a hit and Hirano bunted him to second. At this point Obana decided to replace Fujie with Takamiya. He got both Toritani and Kanemoto to preserve the slender lead.

BayStars seventh saw more trouble for Tigers. Egusa replaced Tsutsui and with one out gave up a two base hit to Kinjoh. Next batter was Murata and here Mayumi made his big mistake and decided to walk the BayStars No. 4. With runners on first and second Egusa then walked Sledge to load the bases and things were looking ominous. Mayumi sent Kubota to the mound and he gave up a sacrifice fly to Yoshimura. 3-1 BayStars, runners on first and third. Castillo grounded out and the innings was over. One felt that the BayStars should have made more of this situation but they had a two run margin. This lasted only until the bottom of the innings when Brazell hit his first home run of the season - a solo off Sanada. The margin was back to one 3-2 BayStars and it would be down to their pitching to hold onto the win. Sakurai also hit but Katsuragi (pinch hitter) flew out to end the innings. Kubota was replaced by Nishimura who gave up a hit to Hashimoto. Inada bunted him to second but he went no further and the innings was scoreless. Ushida walked Hirano in Tigers eighth but nothing came of this. For BayStars ninth we saw Messenger who did well retiring the batters in order. It all came down to Yamaguchi as BayStars closer. He had a perfect ninth and retired the batters in order. BayStars victory.

Brazell had hit his first home run on the season and Tigers could to some extent be happier with their production 2 runs from 5 hits than the BayStars 1 run from 11 hits. The latter had been helped by a couple of errors but had taken their chances. Where they had scored was that their pitching was excellent and this enabled them to stay in the lead. Tigers batters had failed this game and the cleanup has not yet sparked into action. In fact of the Tigers 13 runs so far 9 have come from 6-7-8. This is going to be very useful in the future as long as 3-4-5 also produce.

[Edited by: Christopher on Mar 29, 2010 9:24 PM]