June 29th Tsuru v Bullington - Bullington strikes again

Another winnable game down. Whilst Bullington pitched well he was once again vulnerable but Tigers failed to take chances. Some of the batting was inept in the extreme and unfortunately we are unable to develop any consistency. Tigers sacrifice game is also poor - true they managed to get one but there were two others which were spurned and these would have been decisive. Tsuru started quite well with an unfortunate propensity to give up hits in clusters - one hopes he grows out of it in his next few starts. However, Mayumi is undecided as to whether Tsuru gets another start - why? A pitcher gives up a couple of runs and loses because the Tigers batting fails and is punished. One hopes it doesn't happen this way but lets get rid of Mayumi before it does. Scores

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

Starting lineups

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

Carp
1. Higashide (Second)
2. Soyogi (Short)
3. Maru (Centre)
4. Kurihara (First)
5. Matsuyama (Right)
6. Ishii (Third)
7. Amaya (Left)
8. Ishihara (Catcher)
9. Bullington (Pitcher)

Tigers wasted their first chance immediately. Bullington walked Murton to lead off the first. He was bunted to second by Hirano and then Toritani hit to centre. Murton stopped on third and OK we don't have the speed of the Carp but these conservative holdups waste chances. Tigers now had runners on first and third and even in this situation a deep sacrifice fly would have been suitable. However, Arai hit straight to thrid for a double play to end the innings and waste a chance. There wouldn't be many more of those throughout the game. Tsuru started well enough though a little nervously - he did use a lot of pitches and this is a major problem of pitching to Fujii who does waste a lot of pitches. Maru picked up a walk with two outs but Kurihara flew out to right and the innings was over. Brazell hit to centre to lead off Tigers second but Sekimoto hit into another double play - this was poor batting as waiting might well have led to a walk (a 3-1 count). Kanemoto grounded out tamely to Bullington to end the innings. Matsuyama started Carp's second wtih a single to centre. He advanced to second on Ishii's ground out and then Amaya hit his first pitch into centre and Matsuyama raced home 1-0 Carp, runner on first. One can't help contrasting this with Tigers similar situation in the first. Carp do know that they aren't going to drive in many runs so they take their chances when they come. Amaya stole second but Tsuru struck out Ishihara and Bullington to end the innings. Tigers third saw Fujii lead off with a hit and he was bunted to second by Tsuru. Neither Murton, nor Hirano did anything but Tigers had had runners on in all three innings so far and had produced nothing. Once again Carp showed how it was done. With Higashide out, Soyogi hit to centre. Maru went left and Carp had runners on first and second. Kurihara hit his first pitch to left as well and the runner was home 2-0 Carp,runners on first and second. Matsuyama struck out looking - some nice pitchng here but then Ishii walked to load the bases. Amaya was next and he proved to be the final out - hitting to second. Carp now had a useful lead.

Tigers fourth was quiet - Bullington had settled down and retired the batters in order. Tsuru was still a little shakey - in Carp's fourth he got the first two outs and then gave up a hit to Higashide. Higashide tried to steal second but was thrown out - Fujii getting it right for a change. Sekimoto led off Tigers fifth with a walk but was then extinguished by a Kanemoto double play. Fujii then grounded out - Tigers had reverted to their habit of swinging too soon. Carp's fifth was also quiet, Tsuru now that he had settled down was pitching nice stuff but had thrown a lot of pitches (98 over five innings) as much due to his catcher as him. Tigers sixth saw Lin lead off as a pinch hitter for Tsuru but the innings was quiet. The Carp's sixth was pitched by Kawasaki. He had a quiet outing as well and retired the batters in order.

Tigers seventh started with Toritani blasting a two base hit. A wild pitch took him to third and then Arai did something right and did what he should have done in the first; hit a deep fly to right. Toritani was home 2-1 Carp. Brazell grounded out and Sekimoto struck out swinging to end the innings. Fukuhara pitched Carp's seventh and retired the batters in order. Apart from the second and third Carp didn't really generate much at all. An object lesson in how to take your chances. Tigers eighth started with another chance. Kanemoto led off the innings and with no runner on hit - a two base to left centre. Fujii bunted him to third which seems a waste of an out though there was a chance of a sacrifice now. Here Mayumi sent Hiyama to pinch hit - this I would have thought in this situation was questionable. I would have preferred Asai who is more likely to try and hit it deep. Still it's a marginal difference. Hiyama struck out as Bullington summoned his last reserves of strength to prevent the score. Murton followed and he hit poorly to first for the final out. Tigers last chance had gone down. Watanabe pitched Carp's eighth and faced Kimura (replacement short) who bunted to third and was able to get away with the bunt hit. Maru flew out in foul ground and then Kurihara grounded out to third which did move Kimura to second. This didn't help as Akamatsu (replacement left) grounded out to Toritani to end the innings. Tigers ninth was pitched by Sarfate, Carp's closer and he was as reliable as he has been in his previous games retiring the Tigers batters in order. Carp victory.

Not exactly a satisfactory performance. Arai in particular is playing really poorly but the batting isn't anything to write home about in general. Tigers had done well in restricting Carp to two runs but really hadn't taken their chances at all. Bulllington had been vulnerable and poor option taking by the Tigers batters as much as the pitcher's ability to produce something special had caused this defeat. A serious rethink about the role of Kanemoto and the catching is needed if the Tigers are going to be able to end the season on a high note. With the current management this is not going to be likely.