August 14th Standridge v Akagawa - Tigers hold on

Sometimes you despair - not about the victory I hasten to add which was hard fought and well earned but about what goes on in Mayumi's mind. Mayumi has decided to punish Watanabe and he has gone down to ni-gun. However, his replacement is....Fukuhara. I really don't understand this one. Mayumi says he wants to solidify the bullpen but Fukuhara has exhibited no aptitude for bullpen pitching whatsoever when he has been used in that respect. In fact when he was used against Orix he was abysmal. One gets the impression that our kantoku is regressing and understanding less and less about the pitching. On a more positive note both Arai and Johjima have reached 70 RBIs with Johjima on course for 30 home runs this year. Brazell also hit his 80th RBI of the year. Scores

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

Starting lineups

Swallows
1. Aoki (Centre)
2. Tanaka (Second)
3. Ishikawa (Right)
4. Whitesell (First)
5. Hatakeyama (Left)
6. Aikawa (Catcher)
7. Miyamoto (Third)
8. Kawabata (Short)
9. Akagawa (Pitcher)

Ishikawa was replaced by Takeuchi before the game started.

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

Tigers needed Standridge to come through for them and he did rather nicely. He did walk Takeuchi with two out in Swallows first but then got Whitesell to ground out to end the innings. Akagawa didn't start so well. Murton hit to left. Hirano bunted him to second and then Toritani hit to right. Tigers didn't attempt the run and Murton stopped at third with Toritani on first. Arai grounded out to short but this allowed the run to score 1-0 Tigers, runner on second. Brazell picked up a dead ball but Kanemoto grounded out to second to end the innings. Hatakeyama led off Swallows second with a hit. He made second on Aikawa's ground out and then Miyamoto hit to short. This didn't result in a run but Swallows had runners on first and third with only one out. They blew the chance - Kawabata hitting into a double play to end the innings. Tigers second was rather subdued with the batters falling in order. Swallows third was similar with Aoki being effectively neutralised by Standridge. Once again Murton led off the innings with a hit - this time Tigers third. Again Hirano bunted him to second but this time Toritani walked. Arai was up again and hit powerfully to left bringing home Murton 2-0 Tigers, runners on first and second. Brazell hit to right and Toritani was home 3-0 Tigers, runners first and second. Kanemoto was next and he lined out - unfortunately, Whitesell was close enough to make the tag before Brazell could get back to first in time and the innings was over but it had been very productive.

Whitesell hit a two base in Swallows fourth but nothing came of this. Johjima hit to lead off Tigers fourth but then Sakurai hit into a double play. Standridge was the final batter and he struck out to end the innings. Swallows fifth was quiet with the batters falling in order. In Tigers fifth, Toritani reached first on an error but then Arai couldn't convert him and flew out to right to end the innings. In Swallows sixth Tanaka hit with one out and then Whitesell walked to set up runners on first and second with two outs. Standridge was beginning to tire but had enough to get Hatakeyama to fly out to right. Brazell started Tigers sixth by grounding out but Kanemoto hit a two base. One hopes that he is finally beginning to hit regularly. This brought a change of pitching - Akagawa being replaced by Yoshikawa. Akagawa hadn't been particularly good but not abysmal and had managed to deal effectively with a lot of the batters he faced. He just didn't have that little extra to keep the Tigers off the scoreboard. Yoshikawa wasn't successful and Johjima hit his first pitch into right with Shunsuke Fujikawa (pinch runner) making home 4-0 Tigers, runner on first. Johjima then tried to steal second but was thrown out and Sakurai flew out to end the innings.

Standridge returned for Swallows seventh which was clearly a mistake. Standridge has recently been suffering from stiffness in his back and so attempting to pitch him for a very long session was not wise. In addition he had thrown over 100 pitches and this was enough. Mayumi though is blind to such considerations as these. Aikawa led off with a hit to left and then Miyamoto walked. Mayumi woke up and replaced Standridge with Kawasaki. Standridge had pitched very well - taking a shut out into the seventh but would ultimately be charged with two runs. Kawasaki faced D'Antona (pinch hitter) who hit a successful two base into the left corner 4-1 Tigers, runners on second and third with no outs. This was ominous. Mayumi went for musical pitchers and brought on Nishimura (maybe he should have tried him first?). Nishmura walked Iihara (pinch hitter) to load the bases and things looked positively scary. Aoki was next and he flew out to centre but not far enough for Swallows to risk the sacrifice. One out - bases loaded. Tanaka flew out to left and this one was far enough - the runner on third easily reaching home 4-2, runners on first and second with two outs. Only one out to get which proved to be Takeuchi who flew out to right. Tigers had escaped with a useful lead and Swallows hadn't quite been able to exploit the situation to the full. Masabuchi pitched Tigers seventh and retired the batters in order. For Swallows eighth, Kubota took the mound. He battled the lead off Whitesell for a while before getting bored and leaving one in the zone which Whitesell hit nicely to left for a solo home run 4-3 Tigers. It was a bit too tight for comfort. Kubota woke up and retired the next three batters to end the innings with a slender lead. Tigers eighth was pitched by Watanabe who retired the batters safely and it was all down to Kyuji Fujikawa and the ninth. Onizaki struck out for the first out but then Iihara walked. Aoki hit to third and beat the throw and there were runners on first and second with only one out. Tanaka was next and his first pitch was hit straight to Toritani for the game ending double play. Tigers victory.

Tigers had pulled off a good victory against a hot side. Standridge picked up his well deserved eighth victory and Kyuji Fujikawa his 20th save. Tigers had made sure that they were in with a chance of stopping the losing streak but had had to fight all the way.