June 4th Shimoyanagi v Komatsu - Hiyama becomes Tigers No. 1 pinch hitter

Hiyama now has 109 hits as pinch hitter which puts him at No. 1 on Tigers all time list. This is very impressive. Asai was brought into the side to add more power and last season was starting to hit well before he was injured. Tigers did well this match - keeping Orix under control with some nice play and some nice pitching. Once again Shimoyanagi threw less at the corners and more in the zone and it worked again. Scores

           1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R  H E
Buffaloes  0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 2  8 1
Tigers     0 0 0 2 1 1 2 0 X 6 15 1

Starting lineups

Buffaloes
1. Sakaguchi (Centre)
2. Akada (Right)
3. Gotoh (Second)
4. T. Okada (Left)
5. Kitagawa (First)
6. Hidaka (Catcher)
7. Ikki (Third)
8. Komatsu (Pitcher)
9. Ohbiki (Short)

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

Shimoyanagi's first innings was a gem - he was quickly into the swing of things and retired the batters easily. It is nice to see that he can still pitch well even though he is fading. Komatsu's first was interesting - Toritani hit to left and T. Okada dropped it (Toritani is still batting lead off). Toritani used the opportunity to make second. Hirano walked and this seemed to wake Komatsu up as he struck Murton out looking. Arai grounded out moving the runners round to second and third but this time Brazell flew out to left and this time Okada - no doubt with his heart in his mouth - made a safe catch to end the innings. Buffaloes first hits came in their second - Kitagawa hit to left with one out and then another out later, Ikki also hit to left to put runners on first and second. Next was Komatsu - yes, Buffaloes pitcher batted No. 8 and he flew out to centre. Tigers responded with more hits, Johjima led off the second with a centre hit. Then Asai hit as well and Shimoyanagi's ground out took the runners to second and third. Toritani as up again but he grouded out to second. So far Tigers had stranded four runners in scoring positions. Buffaloes third saw some more good pitching from Shimoyanagi who retired the batters in order, striking out Sakaguchi and Akada to end the innings. Hirano led off Tigers third with a nice hit to right and Murton followed with another right hit - runners on first and third with no outs, surely this time Tigers would score. No - Arai hit a grounder to third who of course threw to home in time to get Hirano. Arai was safe on first and Murton on second. Brazell then hit a liner straight to first and Arai was caught off base for the third out. So far we have to say Tigers execution had been a trifle inept.

Buffaloes fourth started quietly with two outs going down but then Kitagawa banged a two base. Shimoyanagi didn't panic and in a nice piece of pitching struck Hidaka out to end the innings. Finally, in Tigers fourth they managed to convert runners. It started with Johjima's two base hit. Sakurai hit to right but Johjima was only able to make third before being held up. Asai struck out which brought up Shimoyanagi. He poked one into right - there is only really one way to describe it but it brought home a runner 1-0 Tigers, runners on first and third. It had taken Tigers pitcher to do what the batters couldn't. Toritani hit a grounder to first and this time the runner on third was home 2-0 Tigers, runner on first. Hirano hit to centre and Tigers had runners on first and third again but Murton flew out to right and the innings was over. Still Tigers had fot a nice lead. Buffaloes needed to respond and with one out in their fifth did get Komatsu on first courtesy of Arai's error. Ohbiki then hit into a double play to end the innings. Tigers then proceeded to make up for their earlier lackadasical attitude to driving in runs. Arai led the fifth off with a hit. Brazell hit to left and Arai made third. Johjima then hit deep to centre, Arai tagged up and made home 3-0 Tigers runner on first. Neither Sakurai or Asai were able to moved him round and the innings ended. It was also the end of Komatsu who hadn't really been effective - he would be replaced by Anan for Tigers sixth. However, before this happened Sakaguchi led off Buffaloes sixth with a hit but was immediatley forced out by a Akada double play. Gotoh then struck out to end the innings. Two batters fell in Tigers sixth before Hirano who is hot at the moment tried an imaginative bunt hit to short and made first safely. Murton hit to left to set up runners on first and third and then Arai hit to centre driving in the run 4-0 Tigers, runners on first and second. The game was slowly and surely slipping out of Buffaloes reach.

Shimoyanagi returned for Buffaloes seventh - amazingly he had thrown under seventy pitches in his six innings. He struck out T. Okada then walked Kitagawa. Tsuji (pinch hitter and replacement catcher) obligingly hit into the double play to end the innings. It is rare for Shimoyanagi to go beyond six innings and to just throw 79 pitches in all for no runs shows that he had pitched a blinder. Buffaloes pitcher for the Tigers seventh was Katoh. Immediately, he gave up a hit to Johjima. Sakurai picked up a walk and the runners advanced to second and third on Kanemoto's (pinch hitter) ground out. Next was Hiyama (pinch hitter) who drove the ball left for a timely hit and the sole first place as Tigers most prolific pinch hitter 5-0 Tigers, runners on second and third. Toritani then hit a sacrifice fly to left and it was 6-0 Tigers, runner on second. Hirano grounded out and the innings was over. The new pitcher for Buffaloes eighth was Nishimura. With Ikki out, Goh Kida (pinch hitter) hit a two base over right. Ohbiki grounded out moving the runner round to third which left just one out to get. Unfortunately, Nishimura's next pitch wasn't good and Sakaguchi punched it into centre for a timely hit 6-1 Tigers, runner on first. Akada struck out looking to end the innings and really Buffaloes had needed to score more to mount a challenge. They were running out of innings. Tigers eighth was pitched by Furukawa who walked Arai. Arai made second on a wild pitch but didn't go any further and the innings was scoreless. Kawasaki started the ninth and gave up a lead off hit to Gotoh. He then struck out T. Okada and Mayumi switched pitchers. He currently uses Kawasaki for short periods only but Kawasaki is proving a very useful pitcher indeed to have. Sugiyama was the replacement pitcher and this proved to be a bit of a mistake. Kitagawa hit a two base to left and there were runners on secod and third. Here Orix showed that they were a beaten side. Taguchi (pinch hitter) hit a sacrfice fly when more was needed 6-2 Tigers, runner on second. Ikki then flew out to left to end the game. Tigers victory.

Tigers had taken their time to get going but once they had got the first runner home, the runs flowed steadily. Shimoyanagi had pitched superbly for the win and had showed something like his old skills. The batting had been good with Hirano once again shining. Buffaloes had had no counter to Shimoyanagi and by the time they did start to score were berefit of ideas on how to build a big innings. This had been a well worked win for Tigers.