August 11th Sho v Soto - A dismal game

There was not much excitement in this one - in fact there has been very little excitement in the entire series. Three runs in total have been scored and Tigers offense has been poor. Dragons no longer have any offense anyway but one would expect Tigers to do better. Several possible explanations suggest themselves for this. Firstly, Tigers hate Nagoya Dome and are more interested in getting out of the ground than actually playing. Their only victory was due to their pitcher not their batters. Secondly shi no rodo is beginning to bite or thirdly Dragons pitchers are very good. Actually, the first explanation is the most likely. Tigers are dreadful at Nagoya Dome against a team which Carp swept in the same stadium. The culprit this game was Arai who batting No. 4 is not expected to waste a bases loaded situation. His performance in the series has not been up to standard. But really, none of the offense did well and the lack of power in the lineup is becoming glaring. Too many lightweights occupying batting positions because of Mayumi's lack of judgment severely restricts scoring chances and a chance to build a big innings. 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  1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 X 1 4 0

Starting lineups

Tigers
1. Hirano (Centre)
2. Uemoto (Second)
3. Toritani (Short)
4. Arai (Third)
5. Brazell (First)
6. Shunsuke (Left)
7. Fujii (Catcher)
9. Sho (Pitcher)

Dragons
1. Araki (Short)
2. Ohshima (Centre)
3. Guzman (First)
4. Morino (Third)
5. Wada (Left)
6. Hirata (Right)
7. N. Donoue (Second)
8. Oda (Catcher)
9. Soto (Pitcher)

The surprise of the day was the use of Sho on his first ever professional start. This was OK but he needs work more on his pitches. The reason for using Sho was to shift Iwata to one of the Swallows games probably the Friday one. Tigers met Soto again and struggled once more though it must be said Soto was better this game than the previous one. Even so there was still an element of swinging wildly at an unknown pitcher on the off chance of something happening. Tigers first was a quick innings - Toritani managed a hit with two out but then he barely had chance to settle on first before Arai swung at his first pitch and grounded out to short to end the innings. Arai has been very poor this series. Araki walked to start the Dragons first and then managed to steal second. Ohshima grounded out taking Araki to third and Guzman hit a fly to centre. This wasn't far enough for Araki to chance home and he stayed on first. Next was Morino who hit to left. Araki was home 1-0 Dragons but then Morino tried to go for second and was caught and tagged out. Inept running by the Dragons third. Tigers second saw Brazell strike out on a full count but then Murton and Shunsuke rapidly followed him and the innings was over. Sho walked Wada to lead off the Dragons second. Hirata lined out to third and then Donoue hit into a third double play and that innings was over. Tigers third and with two out Hirano walked, With Uemoto at the plate he was caught off base and tagged - or was he? Photos of the event show Guzman missing the tag and losing his glove in the process. This was poor umpiring and clearly the Nagoya umpires have to raise their standards. Dragons third was much better for Sho with the batters falling in order and Sho finding the zone nicely.

Tigers fourth saw Toritani at least work the count full before flying out to left but neither Uemoto or Arai shone. Ohshima led off Dragons fourth with a hit to centre. Guzman immediately followed with a hit and Dragons had runners on first and second. Morino bunted - a No. 4 batter bunting? Dragons really are a limited side with limited talent and ideas. It took the runners to second and third though with one out. Wada hit to left for the sacrifice fly which Shunsuke took in foul ground. He let fly a cannonball to Fujii who tagged Ohshima out at the plate for the final out. At least Tigers fielding was good. Tigers fifth was abysmal - all it took was six pitches with batters swinging hopelessly without thought and falling in order. Dragons fifth wasn't much better and after Hirata struck out Sho only needed three pitches to dispose of the next two batters. We now come to Arai's mess up. Soto started Tigers sixth well and got Fujii to ground out. Asai (pinch hitter) he struck out but then Hirano hit to short and made first safely. Next was Uemoto who hit to centre as Soto got a bit nervous. Then Toritani drew a walk to load the bases. This is the kind of situation that your No. 4 should be able to exploit - one doesn't expect a grandslam but a timely hit would have put the Tigers at least level and probably in the lead. Instead Arai hit too soon and grounded out to Morino for the final out and the chance had gone - a waste. With Sho pinch hit for Mayumi sent Fukuhara to the mound. Sho hadn't been that impressive, if truth be told. He lacked consistency and nerve but given that this was his first ever professional start he can be forgiven. Fukuhara gave up a one out hit to Araki who stole second. Ohshima bunted him to third - a similar situation to the third. However, against such a feeble team Fukuhara is made of sterner stuff and Guzman grounded out to end the innings.

Soto returned for Tigers seventh and was clearly tiring. Tigers should have taken more advantage of this situation but didn't. With two out Shunsuke hit to right. He then stole second on a delayed steal as Fujii managed to collect the first dead ball of his Tigers career. Tigers now had runners on first and second. Sekimoto (pinch hitter) was next but after working the count full, struck out looking. This was irresponsible and unimaginative batting - he was there to hit, not to shift the responsibility to Hirano (the next batter). Kojima pitched Dragons seventh and with one out had a wobble, walking first Wada and then Hirata to set up runners on first and second. He recovered though and both Donoue and Tanishige (pinch hitter) were induced to swing too soon and fly out to Uemoto. That innings was scoreless as well. Asao pitched Tigers eighth and started with a lead off hit to Hirano. Uemoto then grounded out to Asao forcing out Hirano but escaping the double play. Toritani flew out but having escaped a double play Uemoto decided to steal and was thrown out - Tigers steal moves were really well read by the Dragons. End of innings and pretty much end of the game. There were just the formalities to go through. Nishimura started the first of these pitching the Dragons eighth. He got two outs but then walked Ohshima. This didn't help Dragons as Guzman struck out swinging to end the innings. Asao then started Tigers ninth and got Arai to ground out to short again. He was replaced by Iwase who gave up a hit to Brazell - Tigers had a runner on. Murton really needed to go for a home run but hit his first pitch to third for an easy double play. Unintelligent batting which just about sums up Tigers performance. Dragons victory.

Dragons pitching had been good but then for the most part so had Tigers. They had lost a winnable series against a fading and struggling team. On the broader canvas of the Central League though things worked out well for them. Swallows lost keeping the games between at five. Giants also lost and remain in third. The Dragons stayed in fifth. They do need to pick up the bating though and do something next series. OK our idiot manager is a problem with his selections but the core of the team is not playing and seems to be taking a holiday. Holiday mode off - Tigers should be doing better.