July 5th Standridge v Iwata - Mayumi messes up

I do want to see Iwata v Iwata sometime. This was another uninspired grind at that soulless hole,, Nagoya Dome. Dragons lack batting talent so they make do with good defence and pitching and wait for their opponents to make mistakes. It generally serves them well. Dragons Iwata (the pachimon) is fairly new and hasn't faced Tigers before so they didn't know what to do. His first three starts were defeats so you would have thought a batting lineup with the talent of Tigers would continue this trend but no they floundered around cluelessly as they always do when faced with an unfamiliar pitcher.
Mayumi's pitching management was once again pathetic - one runs out of negatives to describe it. Standridge had had to work hard all evening and by the end of the sixth had thrown 112 pitches. If Fujii had got on base in the Tigers seventh Standridge would have been replaced by a pinch hitter. Instead Fujii struck out and Mayumi decided to squeeze another innings out of Standridge. This kind of management is just too stupid to be believed - if it is time to replace the pitcher what is the benefit of putting him in for an extra innings? As it was the damage wasn't too great because the Dragons seventh only took 6 pitches but someone does need to speak to Mayumi and curb this overpitching of starters. Then of course, Mayumi screwed up the Dragons ninth by putting Kobayashi on the mound instead of Fujikawa. In these tied situations using your star closer in the non-save situation is more likely to lead to victory. Mayumi's lack of awareness cost Tigers a tight game. We also saw Kanemoto again and his poor base running probably cost the Tigers a scoring chance. Fujii hit a single and Kanemoto tried to go from first to third. Morino was blocking the base path and the throw was good. Kanemoto's only option in that situation was to charge Morino to dislodge the ball and reach base. Instead he tried to slide in and was tagged out. If he wasn't prepared to charge (and Toritani did it against Murata the game before) he should have stopped at second. It was good that Kanemoto tried for the extra base but he needed to get it right. Scores

         1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9  R H E
Tigers   0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  0 6 0
Dragons  0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1x 0 9 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. Standridge (Pitcher)

Dragons
1. Ohshima (Centre)
2. Iwasaki (Short)
3. Morino (Third)
4. Wada (Left)
5. Hirata (Right)
6. Koike (Mizuta)
7. Mizuta (Second)
8. Oyama (Catcher)
9. Iwata (Pitcher)

This game was a pitchers duel with Iwata benefiting from the afore-mentioned problems Tigers batters have with unfamiliar pitchers. Tigers first three batters struggled and fell one after the other. Dragons first saw Ohshima lead off with a hit. A bunt took him to second but Morino flew out to centre but then Wada walked to set up runners on first and second. Hirata flew out to right to end the innings. Tigers second saw Sekimoto hit a single with two outs but of course Kanemoto failed and grounded out to first. Koike led off Dragons second and hit deep and far to centre. Hirano positioned himself right on the wall and timing his jump perfectly plucked the ball out of the air for the out - great fielding. Another out followed and then Oyama hit to centre. However, the final batter was Iwata who grounded out to short. Fujii led off Tigers third with a huge two base hit to left centre. One might have to re-evaluate his batting as he is hot at the moment and is htting a lot. This was then wasted by Tigers - Standridge tried to bunt and was hopeless but eventually struck out swinging. Murton swung at one too soon (which was a feature of Tigers batting this game) and flew out to Oyama. Hirano did the same and flew out to third and the innings was over. Chance gone. With one out Iwasaki hit a two base along the right baseline in Dragons second. Morino grounded out to Standridge and then the Tigers pitcher completely fooled Wada into striking out looking and the Dragons had missed a chance as well.

Tigers fourth was quiet with some particularly uninspired batting by the clean up. In Dragons fourth Mizuta hit with two out but nothing came of this. Tigers fifth saw Sekimoto strike out swinging. Kanemoto walked on a full count and then Fujii hit into right field. If Kanemoto was prepared to try and take third he needed to charge the fielder but he didn't and was tagged out. Morino threw to second for the double play but Fujii who had seized the chance to take second was safe. Unfortunately the final batter was Standridge who struck out swinging to end the innings. Poor base running by Kanemoto had ruined a chance. Dragons fifth saw another two out hit - this one to Iwasaki but nothing came of this either. However, Standridge was having to work very hard for his outs. Murton fell easily in Tigers fifth and then Hirano fell to fine line catch by Mizuta at second. Toritani walked and stole second but Arai grounded out to third to end the innings. In Dragons sixth, both Wada and HIrata struck out looking but Standridge was clearly tiring and his command of the edge of the zone was going. Koike hit to left and with a huge effort Standridge was able to get Mizuta to ground out to Toritani. Dragons had had runners on in every innings of Standridge's session and he was clearly tired at the end of the sxith.

Iwata was much more comfortable and returned for Tigers seventh. However, he was leaving pitches to be hit to centre and with one out Sekimoto did just that. Kanemoto then snatched too soon and Fujii struck out. This was the moment Mayumi decided he could squeeze another innings out of Standridge. A decision born more of pigheadedness not of a reliable evaluation of the situation. Mayumi was lucky. Oyama flew out first pitch. Guzman (pinch hitter) lasted four pitches before grounding out to short and Ohshima grounded out to Toritani first pitch. Mayumi had gotten away with it but shouldn't have taken the risk. Asao pitched Tigers eighth and gave up a lead off hit to LIn (pinch hitter). Murton grounded out forcing out Lin but Hirano also hit nicely to centre - Tigers had runners on first and second. Toritani swung at his first pitch and flew out to second and then Arai hit at Asao. This wasn't a bad hit but as he made contact Arai's bat broke and the force of the shot was much reduced. This made it easy for Asao to field and throw to first for the out. Enokida pitched Dragons eighth and struck out Iwasaki. Morino hit to centre but both Wada and Hirata flew out, Wada to first and Hirata to Asai at left. Kawahara pitched Tigers ninth and walked Sekimoto. This didn't help as the next two batters were out easily. For Dragons ninth, Mayumi got it wrong again and went with Kobayahsi. His first pitch - a warmup (it looked like) was dispatched by Koike into left field for a single. Mizuta bunted Koike to second which brought up Donue (pinch hitter). There was a mound conference and it was decided to deliberately walk Donue who has quite a reputation as a pinch hitter. Actually, it would have been better to get the out, two out with a runner on second is better than one out with runners on first and second. The risk was worth it. Donue duly walked and Ochiai sent in Oda (pinch hitter). Kobayashi was too high with an inside pitch which Oda turned over Arai where it landed just inside the foul line for a hit. Koike was home 1-0 Dragons, sayonara victory.

Tigers had really failed to take advantage of their chances in this game (not that there were many). Dragons hadn't done that well but had executed when needed. Once again, Mayumi's poor management skills had been exposed and I wonder how much longer we have to endure this inability to manage. Fujii is on a hitting streak and if he keeps it up he could end up quite a useful No. 8. Tigers do also need to find an answer to their problems facing new pitchers - to lose to a pitcher with Iwata's record isn't that impressive. Something also needs to be done about the overuse of the starting pitchers which is starting to get ridiculous.