June 13th Standridge v Watanabe - Marines snatch victory

This game like a rather famous one back in 2007 almost ended up as a humiliation for the Marines. Having built up a five run lead they managed to throw it away and needed a stroke of luck to win in extra innings. There were lots of positives for Tigers in this the final Inter-league game - their fightback, Brazell hitting a home run with a runner on, the performance of Nishimura, Lin's batting etc. Marines had done well against Standridge who had a very bad off day but apart from that they had struggled to bring runners home. Scores

         1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 R  H E
Tigers   1 0 1 0 3 0 1 0 2  0 8 18 2
Marines  2 3 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 1x 9 11 0

Starting lineups

Tigers
1. Toritani (Short)
2. Hirano (Second)
3. Murton (Left)
4. Kanemoto (DH)
5. Arai (Third)
6. Brazell (First)
7. Johjima (Catcher)
8. Sakurai (Right)
9. Lin (Left)

Pitcher was Standridge

Marines
1. Nishioka (Short)
2. Imae (Third)
3. Iguchi (Second)
4. Kim (First)
5. Ohmatsu (Left)
6. Saburo (Right)
7. Fukuura (DH)
8. Satozaki (Catcher)
9. Okada (Centre)

Pitcher was Watanabe

Tigers got off to a very good start this game getting to Watanabe immediately. Even though relations between the two teams have improved considerably since 2005 there is still a rivalry which makes for often hard fought contests. Hirano hit nicely to centre and made second on Murton's ground out. Kanemoto walked and then Arai hit to left field bringing Hirano home 1-0 Tigers, runners on first and second. Brazell grounded out to end the first but Tigers had a lead. Standridge would squander this though. He didn't pitch well and his control was poor in the extreme. The Marines first started with Nishioka striking out but then Standridge dead balled Imae. Iguchi hit and then Kim walked to load the bases as Standridge just couldn't locate the zone. Ohmatsu hit to right, a two base which brought two runners home 2-1 Marines, runners on second and third. Saburo collected a walk to load the bases again but luckily for Standridge Fukuura hit straight to Toritani for the double play and the end of the innings. This had been a lucky escape for the Tigers. Lin had his first of four hits in the Tigers second but nothing came of this. Standridge returned for the Marines second and if anything his pitching had deteriorated. Satozaki led off with a walk. Okada bunted to Standridge but the throw was not made and there were runners on first and second. Nishioka then bunted the runners to second and third and Tigers were in real danger. Imae grounded out and there was a glimmer of hope but it was extinguished by Iguchi who hammered out a two base bringing both runners home 4-1 Marines, runner on second. Kim was next and he hit his first pitch to right centre as well bringing Iguchi home 5-1 Marines, runner on second. Mayumi acted quickly and brought in Uezono for the final out which he successfully got inducing Ohmatsu to ground out to second. Watanabe then almost proceeded to put Tigers back in the game. He gave up a hit to Murton and then did the same with Kanemoto. Arai walked to load the bases with one out - the next batter was Brazell. He hit a sacrifice fly to centre and Murton was home 5-2 Lions, runners on second and third. Johjima then flew out to centre to end the innings. Marines still held a comfortable lead. In their third Saburo collected his second walk of the game but Uezono kept him from advancing beyond first.

Once again in Tigers fourth, Watanabe ran into problems again. Lin hit to right and then with two out Hirano walked. Murton was next and he needed to hit but couldn't manage it and flew out. Marines needed some insurance as they were giving up hits in big amounts and it would only be a matter of time before they started to give up runs. They got that insurance in the fourth. With Nishioka out, Imae hit to left. Then Iguchi hit another two base and Marines had runners on second and third. Kim walked in four to load the bases and Mayumi decided that a new pitcher was needed. He went with Kawasaki who had successfully got out of a bases loaded jam a few games back through a double play. Maybe not the best pitcher to use as he came from the Marines and they know his pitching. Ohmatsu took a strike and then banged the ball back into centre for a timely hit 7-2 Marines, runners on first and second. The pitching change hadn't worked. Saburo struck out and Mayumi switched to Nishimura for the final out which he duly got. The insurance came just in time because the meltdown of Watanabe which had been building in the third and the fourth finally happened in the Tigers fifth. Kanemoto struck out looking but Arai hit. This time Brazell hit nicely and powerfully for a two run home run 7-4 Marines. Johjima grounded out but then Hiyama (pinch hitter) hit a two base. Lin hit to left and Shunsuke Watanabe (pinch running for Hiyama) was home 7-5 Marines, runner on second. Watanabe was hurriedly replaced by Furuya who got Toritani to fly out in foul ground to end the innings. Watanabe had thrown an incredible 121 pitches in less than five innings. The lead was still there but much reduced. Satozaki led off the Marines fifth with a hit over the infield. He was forced out by an Okada third ground out and Okada himself was thrown out trying to steal. Finally, Nishioka struck out looking. Uchi took Tigers sixth and almost blew his stint. He started by giving up a lead off hit to right to Hirano. Then Murton hit to centre and Tigers had runners on first and second with no outs. Kanemoto grounded out to first which moved the runners round to second and third but then both Arai and Brazell struck out. Nice pitching but a bit of a wasted chance for the Tigers. Imae collected a dead ball in Marines sixth but here Nishimura struck out both Iguchi and Kim and then got Ohmatsu to fly out to centre to end the innings.

Tigers seventh saw another pitching change - Itoh faced Johjima and gave up a two base hit. Fujikawa grounded out to second which moved the Tigers catcher round to third and then Lin banged the ball deep to right for the sacrifice fly 7-6 Marines and Tigers were almost there. Toritani grounded out. Marines response in their seventh was a Saburo lead off hit. A bunt took him to second and then Satozaki flew out to right with his first pitch. So far so good, Imae was still on second and Nemoto had just hit a fly to left which Lin dropped. This was a disaster for Tigers - Imae was home 8-6 Marines and Nemoto was on second. Nishimura stayed calm and picked up the Nishioka ground out to end the innings but Lin's mistake would prove costly. Yabuta pitched Tigers eighth and was another one who had a bit of a dicey innings. He gave up a hit to Murton and then another one to Arai before getting Brazell to ground out to third and escaped the innings. Watanabe replaced Nishimura and managed a hit to Nishimura but proving that anything but the ninth is OK retired the next three batters smoothly. Kobayashi took Tigers ninth but didn't have the luck of his compatriots - it was Tigers last chance and Johjima started it well with a hit. Sekimoto (pinch hitter) walked and then Lin hit his first pitch for a two base to right bringing home Johjima 8-7 Marines, runners on second and third. A wild pitch brought Yamato (pinch running for Sekimoto) home tying the scores 8-8 with Asai (pinch running for Lin) on third. Here Tigers could have won it if they managed to execute the sacrifice fly - they had no outs. Toritani struck out though and then Hirano grounded out to short but Asai went for home anyway only to be tagged out. Hirano was safe on first but didn't advance any further as Murton flew out to centre. Watanabe returned for Marines ninth and was immediately in trouble walking Saburo. Heiuchi (pinch hitter) bunted Saburo to second and then Satozaki was deliberately walked. Here Mayumi went to Kyuji for the final two outs. Whilst he was working on the first one Saburo and Satozaki engineered a double steal which served to increase pressure on Fujikawa but he still struck out Minami (pinch hitter). Then he struck out Nishioka to end the innings. The game was now in extra innings. One contrasts this with the 2007 game in which Watanabe gave up the winning hit to Zuletta in the ninth from a similar situation. Using Kyuji in this situation had given the Tigers another chance.

Kanemoto then proceeded to increase the Tigers chances in the 10th when he led off with a hit. Tigers needed to bring him round but here we have to say that Arai, Brazell and Johjima wasted the chance as it took all of 4 pitches for Kobayashi to despatch the three batters. Waiting would have worked better - Kanemoto himself worked the count full before hitting. This was poor work by 5-6-7. Imae led off Marines tenth and struck out this brought up Iguchi. He swung at Kyuji's first pitch - a 151 km/h fastball which was caught by the wind and went into the stand for a sayonara home run 9-8 Marines. You only hit one of these if you are very good a la Tyronne Woods or rather very lucky and Iguchi was the latter. Marines had their consolation victory but hadn't shone this game or in any of the games against the Tigers.

Tigers final Inter-league record was 11-12-1 an improvement on last year. As I mentioned there were lots of pluses for the Tigers in this game but what does stick out is the profligacy with scoring chances. Tigers wasted so many and even though Marines did waste some they didn't have as many. Maybe Mayumi should have used a different pitcher in the 10th but then one cannot plan for the kind of luck that Iguchi had (he is a good batter but not a home run batter). Using Kyuji in the ninth had given the Tigers a chance of victory but they hadn't taken it this time. If the pitching can hold out Tigers are in with a very good chance of a pennant but the batting needs to improve.