April 14th Standridge v Yudai - Standridge is terrible

One couldn't have seen the incompetent Dragons winning this game without the help of Standridge's excrucible performance today. He really was dreadful and whilst Wada's handling of the seventh was inept we can at least put this down to inexperience. The thing was Dragons pitcher Yudai was also poor and had to be removed quickly as well. Scores

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

Starting lineups

Dragons
1. Ohshima (Centre)
2. Araki (Short)
3. Morino (Third)
4. Yamasaki (First)
5. Wada (Left)
6. Ibata (Short)
7. Nomoto (Right)
8. Oda (Catcher)
9. Yudai (Pitcher)

Tigers
1. Hirano (Second)
2. Yamato (Centre)
3. Toritani (Short)
4. Takahiro Ara (Third)
5. Johjima (First)
6. Murton (Right)
7. Ryota Arai (Left)
8. Komiyama (Catcher)
9. Standridge (Pitcher)

Standridge had nothing resembling control and it was evident from the first. Ohshima singled to right and then Araki singled to left. Dragons had runners on first and second. Next was Morino who hit deep to centre. Yamato ran back to take and missed the take which came down very near the wall. A poor piece of fielding by Yamato but the Dragons runners used the chance to both make home 2-0 Dragons, runner on second. Standridge then dead balled Yamasaki and walked Wada to load the bases. So far there were no outs but the next batter Ibata provided that grounding out to second. Unfortunately, a runner also scored 3-0 Dragons runners on second and third. Then Standridge walked Nomoto to load the bases. This would have been a good point to replace him. Still he managed to strike out Oda and no doubt the Tigers bench felt that he would be able to get the pitcher out. No way - Yudai hit to Murton at right who fumbled the take and two more runs scored 5-0 Dragons, runners on first and third. Ohshima came up again and singled to second bringing in another run 6-0 Dragons runners on first and second. Finally, Araki put Standridge out of his misery by grounding out. Yudai wasn't much better it must be admitted. After Hirano had flown out, he walked Shibata and then Toritani hit to Ibata and made first safely - runners on first and second. Arai hit deep to left over Wada's head bringing in both runners 6-2 Dragons. Arai tried to take third but was tagged out as he slid in. Johjima singled left and it needed something from Murton but he could only ground out to end the innings. Surprisingly Standridge wasn't too bad in the Dragons seecond and retired the clean up in order. It just went to show how bad he had been in the first. Yudai was in trouble again in Tigers second. Ryota Arai bounced one infield. Yamasaki lumbering in misfielded and then threw poorly to Yudai who was running to first. Ryota Arai dived and was safe. Komiyama hit to Araki who messed the take up and he made first safely with Ryota Arai on second. Shunsuke (pinch hitting for Standridge) bunted them to second and third and why use a pinch hitter for this when you can use your pitcher? It wasted the out which became two outs when Hirano flew out in foul ground. Yamato hit right and this brought a run home 6-3 Dragons, runners on first and third. Toritani needed to do something but he grounded out to second to end the innings. Standridge was replaced by Tsuru who wasn't particularly good but was a massive improvement on the American. Still we saw a perfect ilustration of the Dragons ineptness. They started the innings well with Ibata hitting to centre. Then Nomoto also singled to centre to set up runners on first and third with no outs. Takagi (Dragons manager) decided a squeeze play would be useful here and Oda the next batter shaped to bunt. He successfully bunted the second pitch but then impeded Komiyama who was trying to get the ball. In the meantime Ibata had reached home but back he went to third with Oda being out for interference. Next was Hirata (pinch hitter) and once again Takagi went for the squeeze. This time it flew up in the air and was taken by Tsuru who threw to first where Hirano was covering. Nomoto was caught off base and despite his dive was too late. A double play and quite frankly amateur stuff from the Dragons. As Hirata had been used to pinch hit Dragons new pitcher was Tajima - a rookie. He got Arai but then Johjima singled. However, Murton hit into a double play to end Tigers third. Not a good game for Murton either.

Tsuru then settled down a bit and pitched reasonably. Your heart wasn't entirely out of your mouth but Dragons lacked the ability to score against him. In the fourth he retired the batters in order. Tigers fourth was also quiet and Tajima was doing the same to Tigers as Tsuru did to the Dragons. The Dragons fifth ended with a nice strike out looking from Tsuru and no runners on base. The same thing happened in the Tigers fifth - one still wasn't impressed with the Dragons but their pitching was functioning as it used to. Still, Tajima had a bit of luck - Yamato got hold of one and turned it to left. It just died but was very close to being a home run. In Dragons sixth, Tsuru walked Tanishige (replacement catcher) and he was bunted to second by Tajima. However, Ohshima grounded out to second to end the innings. Tigers sixth was quiet but you began to expect big things in the seventh.

However, there was still the Dragons seventh to get through. Tsuru returned and one felt that this was a mistake. He had pitched four innings of relief and that was enough. The innings started innocuously with Araki grounding out but then Tsuru walked Morino. Yamasaki was next and got a lucky hit which went left where Ryota Arai took then dropped the ball as he went to throw allowing runners on second and third. At this point Tigers held a mound conference and Komiyama pressed for a new pitcher. Yabu decided no - they should stick with Tsuru and furthermore they would deliberately walk Wada. This happened and Tigers had loaded the bases. Next was Ibata and with the count at 2-2 Tsuru threw a low slider to bring the count full. The next pitch was fouled and then Tsuru threw one outside the zone - oshidashi 7-3 Dragons and if looks could kill Tsuru would have been carried off the mound. Finally, Komiyama got his new pitcher, Tsutsui. There was an immediate change in atmosphere, Tsutsui was fresher and better striking out Nomoto and Tanishige to end the innings. If the pitching change had been made earlier Dragons wouldn't have gotten the run. It was then Tigers seventh and Takagi also stuck with his relief pitcher. However, Shibata (pinch hitter) singled left. Here Tajima was replaced by Kobayashi who wasn't any better. There then followed a series of pinch hitters but without any reason. It was pointless to replace Komiyama with Kanemoto as the replacement catcher Okazaki isn't half as good. Kanemoto did single but Tigers needed more than singles. Asai was next replacing Tsutsui and it was only Donue's (replacement third) poor fielding that allowed Asai to reach base and Dragons missed the chance of a double play. With the bases loaded Tigers needed some results but Hirano hit his first pitch straight to Morino at first. Asai was just able to dive and make the sack safely before Morino tagged it. Then Yamato hit a grounder to third who threw to home for the force out. Bases still loaded but two outs. Toritani singled centre and a run scored 7-4 Dragons with the bases loaded. Another pitching change followed with Yamai taking over. He faced Arai who swung at everything including his third pitch a ball he should have left alone ending the innings. Tigers had wasted a chance. Wada should have left Ryota Arai and Komiyama in and then used his pinch hitters from Tsutsui onwards. Fukuhara took over for the Dragons eighth and retired the batters in order having a surprisingly easy time of it. Now that the seventh was over Dragons had reached their elite pitchers Asao and Iwase. Asao was as dominant as ever and very rapidly ploughed through the Tigers middle order without being troubled by a base runner. Fukuhara though had a torrid ninth but once again the Dragons couldn't convert their runners to runs. Araki lined out to Johjima and Donue flew out. But then Okazaki contrived to walk Wada. Next was Ibata whom Fukuhara managed to dead ball - it was difficult to see why he managed to lose control of that pitch. Nomoto hit a short one to third and then was able to reach first and load the bases. However, Tanishige came to the rescue and flew out to centre as he so often does. Iwase pitched the ninth and with one out managed to walk Brazell (pinch hitter). Why wasn't he used in the seventh with runners on? Hirano flew out and then Sekimoto (pinch hitter) struck out swinging. Dragons victory.

Apart from the first the Dragons had struggled to score. Of course with six runs in the first it could be argued that they didn't need to but the number of chances they wasted through inept batting was amazing. Tigers tactics were poor. Tsuru shouldn't have pitched the seventh and Wada shouldn't have replaced his catcher. It was a shame about Arai striking out in the seventh but he had added to his run collection having 14 RBIs now. Standridge will probably learn from his abysmal showing today and one hopes that next time he will do better.