April 30th Fossum v Nishimura - Hiyama's bold stroke

With a nice series win against the Swallows, Tigers moved back to Koshien for the big Golden Week series against the Giants. Both teams have momentum at the moment and both are surprisingly well matched. Tigers have perhaps the more power but Giants have greater speed even with the loss of the superlative Matsumoto. Tigers sent Fossum to the mound and he did quite well in what was probably the most important match of his career to date. His fastball could still do with a bit more velocity but is developing nicely now. Scores

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

Starting lineups

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

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

Giants first started with the first two batters grounding out. However, Ogasawara is batting well and he crushed his first pitch into the right gaia for a solo home run 1-0 Giants and a good start for them. Ramirez tried the same channel but was further round and presented a straightforward fly out to Sakurai to end the innings. Tigers response was immediate, Murton hit to left and was bunted to second by Hirano. Toritani flew out but Arai hit to short. Sakamoto was none too sharp and Murton was able to make home 1-1 scores tied, runner on first. Johjima flew out to end the innings. Giants second was quiet and the batters went down in order. Sakurai hit in Tigers second but nothing came of this. Giants third proved interesting and a little farcical. Chono led off with a hit. He was bunted to second by Nishimura and then Sakamoto drove a two base into right 2-1 Giants, runner on second. So far so good for the Giants. It got even better when Wakiya walked and the runners stole second and third with one out. Then it started to go wrong. Ogasawara grounded out to second but Sakamoto decided he was going to try to reach home. The throw to Johjima was sharp and he was quick to block the plate. Sakamoto reveresed direction being chased to third by Johjima. Wakiya meanwhile had reached third so we had two Giants batters on third. For good measure Johjima tagged them both, Wakiya actually being the third out. The Giants had blown a very good situation. Tigers wasted no time in getting back into things in their third. Again Murton hit and was bunted to second by Hirano. This time Toritani drove a two base hit over Tani and Murton was home 2-2 scores tied runner on second. Arai grounded out but Johjima took a dead ball which set up runners on first and second. Next was Brazell who once again showed his worth by hitting to right. Toritani flew home beating the tag by Abe for another run 3-2 Tigers, runners on first and third and the lead for the first time in the game. Sakurai grounded out to third and it was still tight.

Giants fourth saw some nice pitching from Fossum to preserve the lead and the batters fell in order. Murton picked up a walk in Tigers fourth but Hirano could only ground out to short. Giants fifth also saw the batters fall in order. Nishimura hadn't looked entirely confident the previous innings but seemed to do well enough in the fifth keeping the game tight and not allowing any runners on base. Arai did pop one up to Ogasawara in foul ground but he dropped it. This brought cheers and applause from the Tigers fans but Arai flew out on full count and so didn't take advantage of the error. Giants sixth started quietly with Sakamoto flying out to centre. However, Fossum started to drift and Wakiya hit to right. This was followed by a very nice hit from Ogasawara who put the ball past Brazell and enabled Wakiya to reach third. Ogasawara only made first. Ramirez lined out straight to Hirano but then Abe had a lucky impact which managed to bounce its way into centre field for a timely hit 3-3 scores tied, runners on first and third. Fossum struck out Tani to end the innings - a nice piece of pitching but the match was as close as ever. Sakurai hit with one out in Tigers sixth but Katsuragi hit into a double play to end the innings. Katsuragi is not batting particularly well this season.

Fossum didn't return for the Giants seventh. He hadn't pitched too badly but hadn't been able to establish any kind of control. Giants incompetence had saved him in the third and as I said his fastball still needs more velocity. He was replaced by Tigers new signing, Kawasaki who looks a very accomplished relief pitcher. Lee grounded out but then Chono hit. He was bunted to second by Nishimura and after a mound conference it was decided to walk Sakamoto. This could have been a rather foolish move as Wakiya can hit but it worked out well this time as the latter hit straight to Toritani for the final out. Kanemoto (pinch hitter) led off Tigers seventh but he flew out to Ogasawara in foul ground. Once again Hirano was asked to bunt again and one has to question the sense of this. There was one out and Hirano is batting .328 at the moment - a more sensible move would be to let him try to hit. However, the bunt is loved above all things in this sort of situation and a bunt it was. Just to emphasise the folly of this Toritani banged his first pitch down the throat of centre for the final out. For Giants eighth Mayumi chose Kubota and he was ruthlessly efficient taking eight pitches to dispose of the Giants cleanup in an excellent display. Nishimura retired at the end of the Tigers seventh and was replaced by Kubo. Here Tigers batting can only be described as spectacularly inept. Arai hit to left breaking his bat in the process but making first with ease. Then Johjima, Brazell and Sakurai proceeded to swing at any rubbish that Kubo served up and all struck out. Kubo did throw some good pitches but the batters just swung without any sense of discrimination at anything even the bad ones. By now both closers were warming up, Kyuji Fujikawa for Tigers and Kroon for Giants. Mayumi decided to bring Fujikawa on for the Giants ninth. Tani flew out and then Lee struck out swinging and the contrast between the outs of the Tigers eighth and this one was marked. It was a good high pitch from Fujikawa - the sort that has the batter fooled and swinging before he realises. Chono hit to right and the Giants fans got excited but Takahashi (pinch hitter) grounded out to end the innings. For Tigers ninth Hara decided not to use Kroon but instead sent Ochi to the mound. This was not a bad choice as Ochi has generally been very reliable against the Tigers. For those that wish they can watch highlights of the innings over at Steve says Kanpai. Katsuragi flew out to short which brought Hiyama (pinch hitter) to the plate. His first pitch was a low slider which he belted to left centre. This went a long way and actually just missed being a home run. Chono tried to take it and missed and Hiyama motored round to third sliding in to just beat Ogasawar's tag. This was a great chance for Tigers. The Giants pitching coach came out to have a word with Ochi which didn't do any good as he walked Murton to set up runners on first and third. Ochi looked like he was panicking. He then faced Hirano who let his first pitch pass outside for a ball. Abe then had a word with him but the next three pitches were balls and the bases were loaded. All the time the Tigers fans kept up a crescendo of noise. Ochi is probably sick of the 'washoi' chance march by now. His pitching didn't improve and his second pitch to Toritani was dispatched along the first baseline for a sayonara hit 4-3 Tigers.

This was an excellent victory and the Tigers streak now stands at three. Fujikawa picked up the win and it had been an excellent high risk move to send in Kubota and Fujikawa early in a match which could have gone into extra innings. However, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Hiyama and Toritani were the games heroes and it is nice to see the former receiving recognition for his role as a catalyst in the victory. Kawasaki had looked very impressive and once again it looks like Tigers have managed another good signing from Lotte.