April 7th Standridge v Sugiuchi - More trouble for the Giants

Fujii's propensity to waste pitches was very much on display here. Working with Standridge he took 104 pitches over 6 innings with three hits and a walk and dead ball. Sugiuchi took 105 pitches for seven innings. In both his starts Standridge has only managed six innings but once again walked away with the win. As long as teams cannot hit Tigers will be OK but once Tigers come up against a pitcher they cannot hit (see the Dragons) they will be in real trouble. Still it is nice to see Wada and Yabu paying attention to pitchers limits. This is a great improvement on Mayumi and Kubo. Scores

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

Starting lineups

Giants
1. Sakamoto (Short)
2. Bowker (Left)
3. Chono (Centre)
5. Abe (Catcher)
5. Murata (Third)
6. Takahashi (Right)
7. Ogasawara (First)
8. Fujimura (Second)
9. Sugiuchi (Pitcher)

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

Things started well for Tigers with Sakamoto lining out and Bowker grounding out. Chono singled and then stole second. A wild pitch took him to third but Abe struck out to end the innings. Hirano led off Tigers first with a single. Yamato grounded out to Bowker who messed it up putting runners on first and third. Yamato then stole second to put Sugiuchi under pressure. Arai hit a grounder to third giving Hirano enough time to get home 1-0 Tigers, runner on third. Brazell tried to hit deep and flew out to end the innings. Giants second was quiet with the batters falling in order and one has to give credit to the Fujii Standridge combination here - they worked well. Fujii singled in Tigers second with two out but with Standridge next the outcome was never in doubt and Tigers second was scoreless. With one out in Giants third Sugiuchi picked up a walk but both Yamato and Bowker struck out and no score resulted. The attempt to disrupt Sugiuchi didn't work though. Yamato singled in Tigers third with one out but then Sugiuchi maintained control and Tigers couldn't add to their slender lead.

Giants cleanup surrendered cleanly in the fourth - a clearly demoralised side. Tigers batters did much the same in their fourth and things remained quiet. Giants fifth was notable for Ogasawara lining out to centre - a superb diving catch by Yamato otherwise it was buisness as usual. From the Tigers fifth we began to see more strike outs as the batters tried to hit their way out of the stalemate. Both Standridge and Hirano fell this way. Giants sixth saw a blown chance. I mentioned how Fujii wastes pitches and this was apparent in Giants sixth. With two out. Bowker singled to centre. Chono walked and then Abe picked up a dead ball to load the bases. Murata was next and he struck out swinging to end the innings. Tigers sixth saw all three batters go down the strike out route.

Tsutsui took over for Giants seventh - Wada wisely deciding that another innings from Standridge was asking too much. He did well striking out all three batters. Giants were feeling the pressure. Still Sugiuchi was pitching well and returned the compliment in Tigers seventh striking out two of the three batters he faced. Enokida took over for the Giants eighth and for once worked well with Fujii retiring the three batters he faced. Tigers eighth was pitched by Yamaguchi - Hara deciding that there was no need to push Sugiuchi into another innings. Yamaguchi was secure and the Tigers batters fell in order. Fujikawa took over for the Giants ninth and gave up a hit to Chono (who picked up three hits in the game). He then struck out two before Chono was able to move to second on a wild pitch. However, the final batter, Takahashi flew out to end the innings and the game. Tigers victory.

Tight and lucky is the only way to describe this victory. One has to say that Tigers pitching had done well but had been rather lucky and Sugiuchi rather unlucky. He had pitched better than Standridge and walked away with a loss. Fujikawa picked up his third save but is not as dominant as he was.