August 5th Kubo v Muranaka - Sekimoto comes through

Just as I wrote that Sekimoto needs to hit with runners on - he finally did so. The game was tight and dominated by the pitchers with Kubo performing superbly. Amazingly Mayumi showed very good sense and didn't over pitch Kubo who finished his eighth innings on 102 pitches. Swallows pitcher, Muranaka also pitched well but couldn't hold things in Tigers seventh. For Tigers the problem proved to be Kyuji who suffered from a severe onset of nerves and lacked confidence and speed on his pitches. He threw within himself and whilst throwing fast would have solved his problems didn't feel confident enough to do so. Still he showed that he is a great pitcher. He got himself into the worst mess imaginable but then got himself out of it. To my mind the sign of a great pitcher is not that he is always perfect but that he overcomes adversity to triumph. Kyuji did that last night. Scores

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

Starting lineups

Swallows
1. Aoki (Centre)
2. Tanaka (Second)
3. Kawabata (Short)
4. Hatakeyama (Left)
5. Whitesell (First)
6. Miyamoto (Third)
7. Balentien (Right)
8. Kawamoto (Catcher)
9. Muranaka (PItcher)

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

Murton was rested and we saw Uemoto (Mayumi's favourite) start. It would have been better to have someone else as Uemoto is - like most of Mayumi's choices - pretty ineffective. Swallows are probably the most balanced team in the Central League at the moment but Tigers have regressed with the temporary loss of Murton. Kubo was a bit of a question mark as well having made a real hash of his previous start. Still he started well enough - with two outs he did give up a right single to Kawabata in Swallows first but then induced Hatakeyama to ground out. Muranaka, though, had the better start of the two, retiring the batters in order and striking out two. Kubo started Swallows second by walking Whitesell but then Miyamoto hit into a double play. Ballentien grounded out to Arai to end the innings. Tigers second saw Arai hit straight at Muranaka. The ball hit his leg and cannoned off into the path of Kawabata who threw to first for the out. Muranaka needed to leave the field for treatment but then came back. He gave up a single to Brazell but nothing came of this with Kanemoto swinging too early as usual. Swallows third and the batters fell in order. Tigers third was similar with Uemoto collecting his second strike out. So far the pitching had dominated and the batters had been basically floundering around helplessly.

This continued in the fourth with the Swallows batters falling nicely in order. Hatakeyama in particular was fooled by an excellent pitch down the middle from Kubo to strike out looking. Tigers fourth was much the same though with the batters falling in order. Both Whitesell and Miyamoto flew out in foul ground swinging too soon which left Balentien. He was cannier and drew a walk. Still with Kawamoto next Tigers had nothing to worry about - or did they? Kawamoto managed to stretch for and poke a low pitch into the left corner for a two base hit. Swallows had runners on second and third. The next batter was Muranaka and he grounded out safely to Kubo to end the threat. Tigers first two batters in the fifth did nothing and then Asai hit to short and beat the throw to reach first. However, he was followed by Fujii and guess what - Fujii was out to end the innings. It was with a bit of trepidation that we faced the Swallows sixth. Kubo had struggled in the fifth but what would he do in this innings. Aoki helped out with a totally brain dead bunt straight to Brazell. It's difficult to know what he was thinking or even if he was thinking at all but it helped immensely. Tanaka drew a walk but neither Kawabata who flew out to right nor Hatakeyama who grounded out to short could move him off first. The action, such as it was, moved to Tigers sixth. This game was being played at a fantastic pace. Tigers three batters fell easily.

Swallows seventh belonged to Arai. Whitesell led off the Swallows innings hitting to right. He was pinch run for by Miwa. Next was Miyamoto who hit a fierce line drive along the third baseline where a tumbling Arai took a fine catch. He rolled onto his feet and fired the ball to Brazell for the double play catching Miwa off base. Next Balentien drove to left where Arai scooped the ball up and threw to first for the final out - great fielding. Tigers seventh started with a right hit to Toritani. Arai flew out but then Brazell also hit to right - Muranaka was beginning to drift - Tigers had runners on first and third and the sacrifice was on. Kanemoto was next and as usual swung too soon and popped the ball up to third. A real waste and a foolish swing. Sekimoto (pinch hitter) followed and taking advantage of Muranaka's drift drove the ball hard into the right corner. It was certainly one run but as the ball bounced off the wall Balentien fumbled and dropped it giving Brazell time to make home as well 2-0 Tigers, runner on third. Sekimoto was then pinch run for by Shibata - one of Mayumi's pointless changes. Next was Fujii but he swung and grounded out weakly to Kawamoto to end the innings. Still it had been productive for the Tigers and it looked like they would win now. Kubo returned for Swallows eighth - on 86 pitches it was perhaps reasonable. He did have to work a bit but after retiring Kawamoto on a full count he struck out Takeuchi and then Aoki to finish the innings on a high. Eight shut out innings on 102 pitches with three hits and three walks - it had been a fine pitching display. Kyuko replaced Muranaka who hadn't been as good as Kubo but still had done pretty well. Kyuko did well retiring the batters in order and Tigers eighth was scoreless. They would have to make do with the two runs they had. Mayumi, of course, sent Kyuji to the mound. He was coming off that surprising home run and blown hold of a couple of nights ago and this perhaps affected him. He faced Tanaka who hit straight to Arai. Arai wasn't paying attention because he fumbled the take and Tanaka was safe on first - a disappointing error. Kyuji was pitching within himself, that much was obvious but was also having trouble finding the zone. A slow straight ball was driven into centre by the next batter, Kawabata and Swallows had runners on first and second with no outs. Hatakeyama hit a grounder to second unfortunately, the double play wasn't a possibility and Swallows had runners on second and third. Miyada (pinch hitter) walked to load the bases and things looked difficult. Next was Miyamoto and with the count at 3-2 Kyuji threw a high outside pitch. Miyamoto half swung but checked himself in time - ball! Oshidashi 2-1 Tigers, bases loaded. The only good thing about this was seeing the expression on Mayumi's face - very nice. The next batter was Balentien who was an easier prospect. He was more likely to swing and did so merrily finally swinging at a low fork for a strike out and the second out. It began to look like Tigers would get out of this with a win. Kawamoto was the final batter and he wasn't up to the challenge swinging at a high pitch for the third strike and the end of the innings. Tigers victory.

Kyuji had almost blown it but had come through to hold the victory and record his 23rd save. It had been close though and if Kawamoto had made a lucky contact Swallows would probably have gone on to win. It was a game dominated by pitching and Kubo had been superb. In recent games Tigers pitchers have been pitching around 100 pitches and one hopes this continues. It shows that good sense is finally prevailing.