September 28th Akiyama v Shichijo - Defanged and declawed

Pressure is growing on Mayumi as is the abuse from the fans. Most teams fans are quiet and suffer in silence but not Tigers fans. They tend to make their opinions very clear and the hatred and loathing of Mayumi's management is almost universal. Things were even worse this game and a security guard followed Mayumi as he walked from the field after the game just to be sure. Sakai owner is publicly saying that the fan hostility will not affect the decision on whether to keep Mayumi or not but take this with a pinch of salt. Fan considerations rate very highly in the Tigers scheme of things especially this level of hostility. There has been no news on whether Tigers have been talking with Nashida or Ochiai so you can be pretty sure that they have made contact. This doesn't mean that Tigers will be under new management next season but one can always hope and almost the entire Tigers world is hoping. Scores

          1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R  H E
Tigers    0 0 3 0 0 0 0 2 0 5 11 1
Swallows  0 2 0 0 0 6 0 0 X 8  6 2

Starting lineups

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

Swallows
1. Aoki (Centre)
2. Tanaka (Second)
3. Kawabata (Short)
4. Hatakeyama (First)
5. Balentien (Right)
6. Miyamoto (Third)
7. Takeuchi (Left)
8. Aikawa (Catcher)
9. Shichijo (Pitcher)

Swallows are on a roll and can start a useless pitcher make errors and still beat Tigers. Akiyama wasn't too bad but like everyone he was handicapped by Fujii and pitched too long for his first start back. What was amazing was Shichijo lasted as long as he did - he was truly poor, Sugiyama level in fact. With Hirano and Shibata out in Tigers first Toritani had their first hit of the night. He stole second but then Arai didn't convert and flew out to left. Akiyama had a better start and retired the batters in order. No strike outs but three solid outs which boded well for the future. Tigers then managed to blow their first chance. Brazell led off Tigers second and struck out swinging but Murton hit to centre. Kanemoto flew out to Aikawa but Fujii managed to hit to left and then Akiyama also hit to load the bases. This was a great situation against a faltering pitcher (two of Tigers most useless batters having had hits). Hirano though didn't wait long enough but flew out to short to end the innings. Akiyama also ran into trouble in Swallows second. Hatakeyama led the innings off with a single. Balentien walked to set up runners on first and second with no outs. Miyamoto bunted the runners to second and third and then Takeuchi tried to hit the sacrifice fly but only reached second. Two outs down and one to go - it looked like Tigers would get out of the situation safely. Then Fujii took a hand and decided to walk Aikawa to get at Shichijo. A pointless move but fair enough - the bases were loaded and Shichiro skied his first pitch to Fujii which he dropped allowing the ball to roll away. Two runners were home 2-0 Tigers, runners on second and third. If you're going to set up a bases loaded situation you shouldn't be dropping the ball - this was terrible work by Fujii. Aoki took a full count and walked to load the bases again but then Tanaka grounded out to short to end the innings. Tigers needed to hit back quickly and with Shichijo on the mound this was a distinct possibility. Shichijo walked Shibata to start Tigers third. Then Toritani hit to centre - runners on first and second with no outs. This time Tigers did what was needed and Arai hit his 250th home run to left - a three run shot 3-2 Tigers. Brazell walked and that was the end of Shichijo who had been uniformly abysmal. He was replaced by Ichiba who got Murton to fly out. Murton should have waited. Then Kanemoto and Fujii both grounded out. Tigers hadn't handled the latter part of the innings well at all but thanks to Arai had a lead. Kawabata started Swallows third with a hit but then fell to a Hatakeyama double play. Balentien grounded out first pitch to end the innings.

Ichiba managed to walk Akiyama who was having a good day with the bat as well. Hirano bunted him to second but then the next two batters, Shibata and Toritani failed to move him round and the innings was scoreless. Takeuchi picked up a one out walk in Swallows fourth but Akiyama was equal to the challenge and finished the innings striking out Whitesell (pinch hitter). Tigers fifth was pitched by Matsui and with two outs he gave up a hit to Murton. Next was Kanemoto who is now in his non productive mode and struck out looking. It's all very well wanting to retain Kanemoto but he is not really productive and he is slow in the field with a poor throw. The odd home run whilst impressive is not really enough for a number seven. Akiyama did very nicely in Swallows fifth and the batters fell in order. This was the case for the Tigers sixth as well. Now at this point Akiyama had done well but had thrown 96 pitches over five innings. For his first start in the top team this was enough and another innings was really taking a risk. As we know Mayumi is basically clueless about pitching and so Akiyama was put in for another innings. He started by walking Hatakeyama and then faced Balentien. Balentien hit nicely to left for a two run home run 4-3 Swallows and the lead had gone. It hadn't been a good pitch and for this we also have to blame Fujii who called for the straight. Miyamoto was next and hit to left and Mayumi did what he should have done before the innings and switched pitchers. Akiyama was replaced by Fujihara who was dismal. Takeuchi bunted Miyamoto to second and then Aikawa hit his first pitch to left over Kanemoto who was standing in for the single 5-3 Swallows, runner on second. Kawashima walked to set up runners on first and second and next was Aoki. He hit to centre - once again over the field (this was really poor calling) - a triple this time. Both runners were home 7-3 Swallows. Nishimura replaced Fujihara and faced Tanaka. Tanaka hit deep to right for the sacrifice fly 8-3 Swallows. Finally, Kawabata flew out to short but it had been a devastatingly effective innings for the Swallows.

Oshimoto took Tigers seventh and gave up a lead off hit to Shibata. Toritani grounded out to third but a wild pitch took Shibata to second. Arai struck out and Brazell grounded out to short to end the innings. Tsutsui pitched Swallows seventh and was very effective. He struck out all three batters he faced. Matsuoka pitched Tigers eighth and ran into trouble with Murton who singled to left to lead off. Kanemoto lined out to second and then Lin (pinch hitter) hit a grounder to second. Tanaka fumbled this and Tigers had runners on first and second. A chance to do something. Hiyama (pinch hitter) flew out to right - no joy there. HIrano hit to short to load the bases and with one out to go Shibata was the next batter. He swung at his third pitch and set off anyway as Aikawa dropped the ball. Aikawa picked up and threw to first but missed managing to bounce the ball off Shibata's helmet. The swing had brought one runner home and the error brought another one home 8-5 Swallows, runners on first and third. Toritani though didn't wait and hit too soon flying out to second to end what could have been a very good innings. Kojima took Swallows eighth and retired the batters in order - he was pitching to Komiyama but really this catching farce is getting too much. We have to put up with second level catchers just because the management are too pig headed to admit they made a mistake in trying to convert Kanoh to an outfielder. Tigers ninth was of course Lim and this time pitching for a save. He struck out Arai but Brazell hit a two base into left centre. Murton hit his first pitch to third for a ground out - once again waiting would have helped. Finally, Kanemoto struck out swinging to end the innings and the game. Swallows victory.

Swallows had been amazingly effective scoring 8 runs on 6 hits. They had also been very vulnerable and Tigers should have made more of their 11 hits. We have to admit that despite their mistakes Swallows deserved the victory. They are playing better than the Tigers and they have the better management. It has gotten to the stage where Mayumi's stubbornness and total lack of understanding of the game from a management perspective is losing games. The front office's stubbornness in keeping Mayumi in place is also ensuring that games will continue to be lost. Mayumi needs to do the decent thing and fall on his sword taking the useless Fujii with him. Then Tigers can begin to salvage the rest of the season and regroup for next season.
Corrected the spelling of Shichijo's name