June 6th Kubo v Ohtonari - Hawks steamrollered

In the previous game against a pitcher with a poor record (Rasner of Rakuten) Tigers played rather poorly. This time against Ohtonari (1-6 before the game) was different. The batters took full advantage of his bumbling and scored freely. Kubo was also very good - he did give up two runs but these came from Hirano's defensive error (fielding whilst better was still a bit wayward at times). A question mark does remain over whether it was necessary to pitch Kubo over nine innings. Certainly, Mayumi wanted to give him a complete game but with a six run lead after the seventh it might have been better to rest him and let the relief take over. The two replacement relievers (Kanemura and Tsutsui) would have benefited from an innings each to turn their arms over. Scores

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

Starting lineups

Hawks
1. Kawasaki (Short)
2. Honda (Second)
3. Ortiz (Third)
4. Tamura (Right)
5. Petagine (First)
6. Shibahara (Left)
7. Hasegawa (Centre)
8. Yamazaki (Catcher)
9. Ohtonari (Pitcher)

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. Kubo (Pitcher)

Kubo got off to an ideal start in Hawks first. He struck out Kawasaki who always looks slightly scared of the pitcher, got Honda to ground out and struck out Ortiz to end the innings. Toritani started Tigers first by lining out but then Hirano hit into left - one which fell short of left. Murton hit straight at Ohtanari who failed to field and the ball cannoned off him past the dive of Honda into right. Arai then punched his second pitch past Ortiz at third for a two base hit 1-0 Tigers runners on second and third. Brazell struck out in three and one has to say that it was a particularly inept piece of batting - swinging at three of the same kind of pitch.Johjima hit to right but this was a standard fly out and the innings was over. Tamura led off Hawks second with a hit to centre which Asai could have reached but even so he misread the bounce and almost fluffed the take. Petagine was next and hit a fly to centre which Asai dropped. Hawks now had runners on first and second with no outs. Shibahara tried to bunt but in a superb piece of play Brazell picked up and threw to third in time to get the runner out. Then Yamazaki hit into a double play to end the threat. Tigers second was rather good for Ohtonari - he struck out all three batters. Admittedly one was Kubo but he did well with Sakurai and Asai. Kubo struck out two in Hawks third with Kawasaki grounding out to end the innings. Murton walked with two out in the third and then stole second. As he set off Yamazaki threw to second but also trod on Arai's foot. This was painful for Arai who had to limp around for a while and receive a bit of on field treatment. Still he wasn't seriously hurt and was able to continue. Arai walked but then Brazell hit straight to the pitcher - an easy out and no run resulted

Kubo ran into problems in the fourth. He gave up a two base hit to Honda. Ortiz hit to left past Arai's dive and Hawks and runners on first and third with no outs. At this stage one would have given odds against Kubo pitching a complete game and that Ohtonari would be the winning pitcher. Tamura hit straight to Arai who caught Honda off the sack and he was out - runners on first and second. Kubo then walked Petagine (his only walk of the game) who he found difficult to pitch to and loaded the bases. Tigers needed a double play - they almost got it. Shibahara hit straight to Toritani who threw to Hirano for the force out. Hirano's throw was poor - too low for Brazell to take and he couldn't even get a glove on it. Two runners were home and Shibahara was able to make second. 2-1 Hawks, runner on second. Without Hirano's throwing error the runs would not have been scored. Kubo didn't let it get to him but got Hasegawa with an easy ground out to centre. Still Tigers poor fielding had put them at a disadvantage. Thankfully, Tigers had seen the best of Ohtonari and his pitching was all downhill from here. With one out in the fourth Sakurai spanked a solo home run to level the scores 2-2. Kubo then retired the bottom of the order for Hawks fifth and things were back on an even keel. Toritani who had been quiet up until then led off Tigers fifth with a hit. Hirano bunted and beat the throw to reach first safely, runners on first and second with no outs. Murton then hit to centre and Toritani turned on the burners and was home 3-2 Tigers, runners on first and second. Arai's hit bounced off Ohtonari but this time straight into the path of Kawasaki which made the double play a formality. A rather lucky break for the Hawks even with Hirano on third. Brazell then flew out to left and the innings was over. Hawks sixth saw the last real Hawks challenge. With one out Ortiz hit to left - actually, the ball bounced viciously and Arai did well to stop it with his shoulder but it was called a left hit. Tamura also hit to left and there were runners on first and third. Petagine struck out as Kubo finally figured him out and then Tamura tried to steal second. Johjima's throw blocked the sack and Tamura was run down and tagged out for the final out of the innings. Ohtonari was finally sunk in Tigers sixth. He started by getting Johjima to ground out and there were no signs of what was to follow. Sakurai hit to centre. Then Asai also hit to centre to set up runners on first and second. Still Kubo was next and even though he has driven in runs he wasn't expected to do so. In fact Kubo tried to bunt and failed then faked a bunt before hitting nicely into the gap between short and second. This was actually pretty wide and probably short had moved nearer to third for the bunt. Intelligent play by the Tigers pitcher. Sakurai rounded the bases and was home 4-2 Tigers, runners on first and second. A wild pitch took the runners to second and third and then Toritani hit to right, just beyond second bringing home the runners 6-2 Tigers, runner on first. Hirano bunted him to second but was unable to beat the throw from third this time. At this point Akiyama took Ohtonari out of the game and brought on Fujioka which didn't really change things. Murton hit to centre again for his second RBI of the day 7-2 Tigers and he was able to make second. The next batter was Arai who hit towards third. Ortiz failed to take it and the ball continued into the outfield. Murton was safely home and Arai was on second 8-2 Tigers. This last hit was adjudged an error by Ortiz and certainly he got his glove on the ball. Finally Brazell grounded out to second to end what had been a disaster for the Hawks.

By contrast Hawk's seventh was an anticlimax - Kubo comfortably retired the batters in order. One of Tigers old boys pitched the seventh for Hawks - Kanezawa who reached the Fukuoka side by way of Nippon Ham. He had pitched for Tigers from 2001 to 2006 before being traded by Okada. Kanemoto (pinch hitter) hit but Kubo who was going to pitch the eighth struck out to end the innings. With a six run lead he could afford to be relaxed. Incidently, the Pacific League Oendans and the Dragons Oendan cheer each out their pitcher gets. Tigers fans will cheer the final out of the innings - most of these are a standard two bar fanfare with the chant of outo tacked onto the end. The Hawks chant is incredibly elaborate and sounds as if someone got a bit too creative after a few beers. It actually got drowned out by Tigers fans several times when they started their tunes - it was so long. With one out in Hawk's eighth Kawasaki hit to third. The ball bobbled viciously and Arai took it on his shoulder - he certainly took some knocks and in fact it had been a nice piece of fielding but not enough to stop the runner reaching first. Kawasaki made second on Honda's ground out before Ortiz flew out to Hirano to end the innings. The pitcher for Tigers eighth was Yang and he gave up a one out right hit to Hirano who had three hits in the game again. Murton hit to centre again - this time a comfortable two base and Hirano was home 9-2 Tigers, runner on second and Murton's third RBI of the game. Arai walked but then Brazell struck out looking and Johjima struck out swinging to end the innings. Kubo had no problems in Hawks ninth the final out being Shibahara who grounded out to the pitcher himself. Tigers victory.

A crushing defeat by the Tigers of the Fukuoka side. There wasn't much good the Hawks could take from this game. By contrast, the Tigers could be very happy. Kubo had pitched well and had been backed up by some good batting. Murton is settling into third nicely and drove in three runs. Hirano is creative and hitting freely and both Arai and Toritani had RBI hits. Brazell's inability to hit with runners on continues but he showed some very good fielding this game which more than made up for this problem. Hawks had been outplayed and outclassed.