April 14th Kubo v Gonzalez - Kubo excels

Jim Allen has an article on Murton in today's 'Hot Corner' (The Daily Yomiuri online) which is quite interesting. Unfortunately, Murton's run of getting on base every game since the start of the season came to an end last night. Kubo was superb over seven innings and Tigers took the series with a tight fought game which was in doubt until the eighth innings. Even then, the Giants could have still grabbed it at the death. Scores

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

Starting lineups

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

Giants
1. Sakamoto (Short)
2. Matsumoto (Centre)
3. Ogasawara (Third)
4. Ramirez (Left)
5. Abe (Catcher)
6. Chono (Right)
7. Kamei (First)
8. Wakiya (Second)
9. Gonzalez (Pitcher)

Gonzalez dominated the Tigers last season and would start out in much the same way in this game apart from one blemish. His first innings to the Tigers batters would be shaky but he managed to get out of it. He started by striking out Murton but Sekimoto got hold of his first pitch and it carried over the wall for a solo home run 1-0 Tigers. Toritani hit but Kanemoto grounded out. However, an Arai walk set up runners on first and second. Johjima was next and he flew out to left to end the innings. Kubo didn't pitch wonderfully in his previous start against the Giants and so the question was how would he respond. He gave up a one out hit to Matsumoto but then induced an innings ending double play from Ogasawara to protect the lead. Tigers second saw Sakurai hit but the next two batters failed to convert and Sakurai stayed on first. Kubo retired the Giants batters in order in the second with some very fine pitching. Gonzalez managed to dead ball Toritani in Tigers third but once again Tigers were unable to take advantage of this. Kubo by now was dominant and once again the Giants batters fell in order and their third was over rather quickly.

Tigers fourth saw yet another batter get on base, this time Johjima with a lead off hit to short. However, Brazell and Sakurai failed to move him round and with the last batter being Kubo - a score was never going to result. Giants fourth was quiet as Giants top of the order fell easily and quickly to Kubo. Tigers fifth followed the same pattern and one expected the Giants fifth to do so as well. Actually it didn't. Ramirez led off with a hit to short which Toritani dived for and snagged but behind him and by the time he was up and ready to throw Ramirez had waddled to safety. Kubo then proceeded to spray balls all around the zone before Abe hit to left and Giants had runners on first and second with no outs. Chono then shaped to bunt. It was a good bunt moving the runners round to second and third and brought up the chance of the sacrifice fly. If this was a Tigers batter he would probably have failed but Giants do the basics well and Kamei hit his first pitch to left. Kanemoto took it but because of the injury to his right shoulder the throw was rather weak. This allowed to Ramirez to accelerate to full waddle and make home safely 1-1 scores tied, runner on second. With two out and Gonzalez up after Wakiya, Johjima decided to walk the latter to get at the pitcher and this worked perfectly with Gonzalez grounding out to short to end the innings. Tigers sixth saw the batters fall 1-2-3 as they struggled to hit Gonzalez. Sakamoto led off Giants sixth with a hit. He made second on Matsumoto's grounder to first, the bunt having failed. Sakamoto then started straying off second and Kubo tried to pick him off. The throw was excellent but Toritani failed to take and Sakamoto made third on the error. Sakamoto would have been safe anyway if Toritani had taken the throw and it could have been a costly error. Ogasawara walked which brought up Ramirez. It was nice to see Kubo's response - after a conference he got Ramirez to hit into a double play - a big double play to end the innings.

Gonzalez was starting to tire by the time he got to Tigers seventh. With one out he walked Sakurai. Next batter was Kubo who was always going to bunt. This proved to be quite a battle and eventually Kubo bunted perfectly. Both first and third ran in too quickly and first missed the ball. No one was covering the base and so Kubo was able to make first safely with Sakurai on second. Murton then got a good impact on his first pitch and it flew into centre but Matsumoto was waiting and took the catch. This was a bit of bad luck as it had been a very nice hit. Then Sekimoto drove one straight into the glove of Gonzalez for the final out. Giants seventh started with Abe grounding out. Chono drove one to left for a hit but Kamei then hit straight to Brazell for the double play and the innings was over. Yamaguchi took the mound in place of Gonzalez who had pitched rather well. Toritani hit but then Kanemoto grounded out. Giants tried to work the double play but Sakamoto's throw was way above first and Kanemoto was safe (somehow this escaped being ruled an error). Arai hit nicely to left and then Johjima took a dead ball to load the bases. This brought up Brazell who battled Yamaguchi before digging one out and putting it into right field. It was a bit of a stretch for
Brazell but landed in the right place for the Tigers. Two runners home, two runs scored 3-1 Tigers, Johjima on second and Brazell on first. This brought a change in pitching with Kubo (pachimon) taking the mound. Sakurai hit to centre to load the bases. Mayumi sent Hiyama to the plate but he hasn't found his grove yet and struck out. Murton flew out and the innings was over. Incredibly during the eighth Mayumi had had Kubo warming up for another innings but with the lead Kubo was replaced and Kubota pitched the innings. He started well getting Wakiya to ground out and then faced Lee (replacement first). Lee's second pitch was a 147 kmh straightball high and left which he latched onto and hit just inside the left foul pole for a home run 3-2 Tigers. Sakamoto grounded out but then Matsumoto managed a bloop single which a Hirano (replacement second) dive couldn't quite reach. The next batter was Ogasawara whom Hara had decided not to replace this game. Kubota had to contend with him and try to keep Matsumoto from stealing second. He handled both tasks extremely well - Matsumoto stayed on first and Ogasawara struck out swinging to a superb pitch low and going away from him to left. Innings over. Kubo struck out Sekimoto in Tigers ninth and was then replaced by Kaneto. He got the next two outs and it was all down to Fujikawa. After all the Tigers struggles Fujikawa had rather an easy innings striking the Giants out 1-2-3. The final out did need a some nice work from Arai and Sekimoto (moved to first). Arai dived and took a drive from Chono which he threw to first. Sekimoto was almost doing the splits when he took the ball just before Chono touched the sack. Game over and Tigers victory.

Once again 'Steve says kanpai' has a short selection of video highlights of the game for those who haven't seen them including an interview with Mayumi. This was another great victory and Kubo had a well earned hero interview. He picked up his second win and Fujikawa his fifth save of the season. Tigers had stayed focused and despite some poor fielding in the sixth had generally kept the Giants under wraps. Once again both Kubota (home run aside) and Fujikawa had pitched very well and had been the difference between the sides. Tigers have now won four in a row and are playing better than before but still need to tighten up their fielding.