October 5th Nohmi v Nakazawa - Murton breaks the record

Congratulations to Murton and to the Swallows who were gracious enough not to try and prevent Murton from breaking Ichiro's record. This game was a complete massacre and even though Nohmi wasn't particularly good, he didn't need to be. With a nine run lead after the second Tigers victory was never in doubt. Giants also won but Tigers remain second and crucially retain home advantage for the first stage of the Climax Series. They do need to win the remaining two games against Yokohama to be sure. Rakuten having disposed of Marty Brown have settled on Hoshino as their favoured candidate for kantoku, Hoshino is known to want to return to coaching and with Mayumi around for another year Rakuten represent a good opportunity. Tigers management have indicated that they will not stand in his way if he wants to resume management but so far there has been no announcement from Hoshino himself about his intentions. Scores

          1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9  R  H E
Tigers    0 9 2 1 0 0 0 2 3 17 19 2
Swallows  0 0 1 0 3 0 0 0 0  4  9 1

Starting lineups

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

Swallows
1. Aoki (Centre)
2. Fukuuchi (Left)
3. Hatakeyama (Third)
4. D'Antona (First)
5. Iihara (Right)
6. Tanaka (Second)
7. Morioka (Short)
8. Fukukawa (Catcher)
9. Nakazawa (Pitcher)

Nakazawa's first gave no indications of what would happen - he struck Toritani out looking but then walked Hirano. Murton was next and as noted above Swallows had no intention of pitching round him. He hit straight to short for a straightforward double play and the innings was over. Nohmi also started well getting Aoki to ground out to him and retiring the next two batters. Things went pear-shaped for Nakazawa in Tigers second. His control deserted him and he walked Arai. Kanemoto grounded out to second for the force out and then Brazell got a painful dead ball on his arm. Johjima hit to right to load the bases and with one out this was a good scoring chance. Shunsuke Fujikawa hit to bring home a run 1-0 Tigers, bases loaded but the next batter was Nohmi. Nakazawa's nightmare started here. He walked Nohmi in four suddenly unable to locate the zone oshidashi 2-0 Tigers, bases loaded. Toritani struck out and things looked better but then Hirano drove nicely to left bringing home a run 3-0 Tigers, bases loaded. Murton was next and he later said that having the runners on eased the pressure - he was able to focus on bringing them home. He hit to centre to bring two runners home 5-0 Tigers, runners on first and second. The record was his and he would receive a presentation from the Swallows mascot as well. Arai hit to left and Hirano was home 6-0 Tigers, runners on first and second. This brought up Kanemoto who slammed a three run home run into the centre stand 9-0 Tigers. The game was basically won but one wonders why Nakazawa was left in to give up 9 runs. He was replaced by Hashimoto before the score got even worse and Hashimoto was able to get Brazell to ground out to end the innings. Swallows second was quiet with the shell shocked batters falling in order. Tigers third was more of the same as Hashimoto found himself in difficulties. Johjima hit to right again to lead off the innings. Shunsuke Fujikawa flew out and Nohmi bunted Johjima to second. Toritani drove a two base hit to centre which brought home Johjima 10-0 Tigers, runner on second. Hirano had his second scoring hit of the night - a two base 11-0 Tigers, runner on second. Murton walked but this time Arai swung too early and flew out to second. Swallows were reeling but tried to fight back in the bottom. Morioka took a dead ball and then Fukukawa walked - runners on first and second with no outs. Noguchi (pinch hitter) flew out to right but this allowed Morioka to tag up and take third. Then Aoki hit a sacrifice fly to left 11-1 Tigers, runner on first. Fukuuchi was the final batter and he grounded out to third to end the innings.

Masabuchi faced Tigers for the fourth. Kanemoto struck out but Brazell hit a low pitch nicely into the right stand for a solo home run 12-1 Tigers and the game was a bit like batting practice. The next two batters fell easily and the innings was over. Swallows fourth was an innings they didn't need - a quiet one. In Tigers fifth Toritani walked and then with HIrano out Murton hit again - runners on first and third. This time Arai grounded out to second to end the innings. Swallows fifth was Nohmi's worst as he was a bit casual but also the Swallows made a concerted effort to get back into the game. Tanaka led off with a hit to right. Morioka hit to left - runners on first and second. Fukukawa hit to left which brought Tanaka home 12-2 Tigers, runners on first and second. The first out of the innings came, Kawamoto (pinch hitter) flying out. Aoki hit to centre and here a throwing error allowed a runner home 12-3 Tigers, runners on first and second with one out. Fukuuchi hit to left to bring home another runner 12-4 Tigers, runners on second and third another error allowing the runners to advance. Here Nohmi decided to stop the fun and got Hatakeyama to fly out to first and then struck out D'Antona to end the innings. Swallows had tried hard but had lacked the firepower and by the end of the innings were still certain to lose. Lin (replacement right) hit straight to Lee (who had replaced Masabuchi) leading off Tigers sixth which the Swallows pitcher messed up and he was safe on first. Brazell hit into a double play but then Johjima hit as well. Tigers batters were getting on base with ease. Shunsuke Fujikawa failed to move him round and flew out to right. Watanabe replaced Nohmi who had pitched well enough to pick up his eighth win. Watanabe was in relaxed mode and retired the batters in order striking out two.

Lee pitched Tigers seventh and retired the batters in order striking out both Toritani and HIrano looking. This was the second time in the game Toritani fell looking. Messenger pitched Swallows seventh and gave up a leadoff hit to Fukukawa. This didn't help them as with one out Aoki hit into a double play and ended the innings. Things started to come alive again in Tigers eighth. De La Cruz was the unfortunate victim. With two out Lin hit to left. Next was Brazell and his second home run of the night was a powerful blow into the left stand 14-4 Tigers. Johjima had his fourth hit of the night and was replaced by Komiyama. The final out though was Shunsuke Fujikawa who flew out to right. Fukuuchi led Swallows eighth off with a hit but then Hatakeyama hit into a double play. D'Antona was the next to try and he hit to left. Iihara though grounded out to end the innings. Tigers ninth and the Swallows Watanabe on the mound. Tigers batters did not let up - Once again the first two outs went down smoothly enough but then the third batter, this time Hirano hit. Murton hit a two base into the right corner and Hirano hustled home 15-4 Tigers, runner on second. Arai stroked a two base to left to bring Murton home 16-4 Tigers, runner on second. Kanoh (pinch hitter and replacement left) hit to left and Arai was home 17-4 Tigers, runner on second - Kanoh having made second when the Swallows were not paying attention. Saka (replacement first) proved to be the final batter grounding out to second. For the Swallows ninth we had a Komiyama/Sugiyama combination - hardly something to scare any batting lineup and potentially very risky. But still with the lead that Tigers had it wasn't anything to worry about. Mayumi can't really use Komiyama in pressure situations though and he does need a catcher who can perform this role to relieve Johjima at times. This has to be Kanoh and Mayumi needs to realise this. With two out Sugiyama unsurprisingly lost control and dead balled Fukukawa. Takeuchi (replacement right) hit and Swallows had runners on first and second. Maybe they would salvage a little pride in the final innings. It was not to be as Aoki hit to right but only managed to fly out and end the game. Tigers victory.

A crushing demolition of the Swallows who on the night had had no answer and been totally outclassed. Murton ended the night on 213 hits and had driven in three runs as well. Both Arai and Brazell had driven in runs and Tigers could take heart from this win. Their next two games are at Yokohama but if they play anything like they did this game they can be sure to retain second place and the home advantage for the Climax Series.