April 18th Kubo v Tateyama - Missing the corners

Kubo's control was not as good as his previous start and he had trouble with the corners of the zone on his early pitches. This allowed Swallows to overturn a two run lead but they didn't look that much better than Tigers in doing so. Tateyama had the edge in the pitching stakes but still needed the help of Milledge who's little bit of cheating prevented an innings ending double play. Tigers once again wasted chances and Brazell in particular didn't bat intelligently. Scores

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

Starting lineups

Swallows
1. Tanaka (Second)
2. Ueda (Centre)
3. Milledge (Left)
4. Hatakeyama (First)
5. Kawabata (Short)
6. Miyamoto (Third)
7. Balentien (Right)
8. Nakamura (Catcher)
9. Tateyama (Pitcher)

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

Kubo would start well and Tateyama poorly though the situation would be reversed as the game went on. However, this is relative as both pitchers threw well with Tateyama having the edge and being able to go eight innings without being overpitched. It also protected Swallows fragile relief from danger. In the Swallows first the batters were retired in order. Hirano is hot at the moment and once again he led off Tigers first with a single. Once again the pointless bunt was laid down by Shibata taking Hirano to second. Toritani singled left and Hirano charged round only to be stopped at third. This was unnecessary and poor third base work by the coach. Arai hit to Tanaka at second grounding out but this time there was no stopping HIrano and he was home 1-0 Tigers, runner on second. Brazell flew out to second to end the innings. Swallows couldn't respond in their second - the batters fell in order to some nice pitching with Miyamoto striking out most satisfactorily to end the innings. Murton and Kanemoto both fell over themselves to be out and then Komiyama singled. The last batter was Kubo who struck out swinging. With things going well in Swallows third and two down, Kubo started to experience his first control problems walking Tateyama on a full count. Tanaka grounded out to end the innings but Kubo's control wasn't quite tight enough. Hirano to the rescue though leading off the Tigers third with another single. Once again a bunt from Shibata - I can remember how frustrating it was when Toritani was lead off and Hirano was being used to bunt all the time. Some things never change - it's still frustrating. Toritani grounded out to Tateyama which kept Hirano on second. Arai was next and he dug a difficult pitch out to single to centre. Once again Hirano was home 2-0 Tigers runner on first and Arai now has 16 RBIs. Brazell hit his first pitch straight to second for the final out.

Ueda led off Swallows fourth by working the count full and then singling to centre. Kubo's placement being wayward - he was getting behind the count now. Next was Milledge who singled left to set up runners on first and third with no outs. Hatakeyama swung at his first pitch and put it nicely deep enough for Ueda to tag up and score 2-1 Tigers runner on second. Kawabata hit a liner to Arai whose throw to first caught Milledge off base and he too was out - a nice piece of fielding. Once again Murton and Kanemoto couldn't solve Tateyama and both struck out. Komiyama hit nicely along the baseline but a good jump by Miyamoto saw the end of the Tigers fourth. Swallows fifth was quiet with Kubo's pitch to Balentien being very smart getting the Swallows right to fly out to centre. Tigers fifth started with Kubo striking out and then Hirano singled for the third time in the game. Shibata didn't bunt but hit and grounded out to second. Hirano made second base safely and Toritani tried to hit into right. He would have made it but for the fact that his bat broke and Tanaka took a nice catch to end the innings. Things went wrong for Kubo in Swallows sixth. He struck out Tateyama but then his placement wandered and Tanaka drove into centre. Once again he had placement trouble and Ueda hit left - runners on first and third but this time with no outs. Kubo then panicked and was all over the place walking MIlledge to load the bases. This brought Yabu to the mound for a conference and it was decided to go for a double play. This was actually well executed. Hatakeyama was induced to hit to first where Brazell fielded well and threw to second. The angle and time availabie though meant that Toritani had to stay close to the base and Milledge took full advantage of this using his hand to grab Toritani's leg as he slid in and prevent the throw to first. Tanaka was home 2-2 scores tied with runners on first and third. Kubo was non to pleased and failed to focus so that when Kawabata hit to right he pierced the infield to bring home a runner 3-2 Swallows, runners on first and second. Swallows though couldn't really build on this and Miyamoto struck out to end the innings. Still they had reversed the lead. Arai and Brazell were quickly out in Tigers sixth and then Murton singled. He stole second nicely and Tigers had a chance to restore the balance with Kanemoto. Kanemoto though flew out - swinging too soon as he often does.

Kubo returned for Swallows seventh - he hadn't actually pitched too badly apart from his placement so it wasn't surprising. He got the first out and then Nakamura swung at a pitch. The ball was almost fielded by Brazell but was deflected to Hirano. He threw to Kubo who couldn't beat Nakamura to the sack and Swallows had a runner on. Tigers players looked rather dissatisfied at the outcome but it was one of those things. Tateyama bunted Nakamura to second and you breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed. Swallows weren't going to score. Tanaka struck out swinging to a nice pitch. Tigers seventh was an anticlimax with no one reaching base. For Swallows eighth Kubo was replaced by Tsutsui. He worked his way through the batters finishing by striking out Hatakeyama very nicely. Tateyama pitched Tigers eighth and also retired the batters in order very nicely catching Arai with a superb pitch to end the innings. He had pitched better but one thing that caught the eye was the icepack on his arm after he finished. This wasn't just the standard pack but the whole arm which was bandaged and immobilized. It looked rather serious though of course it wasn't. Tsutsui started the ninth and got Kawabata to ground out. There was then a pitching change and Watanabe took over. He was dodgy - Miyamoto grounded out but Balentien walked. Pachimon Hiyama took over and tried to steal second but Komiyama's throw was perfect and he was tagged out for the final out. Barnette took over for Tigers ninth. Brazell who had been kept in because his power might be useful grounded out weakly to short - a very poor shot. Murton grounded out to a fine diving take by Miyamoto but Kanemoto singled to centre. This brought on Hiyama (pinch hitter) who had an epic battle with Barnette before flying out to right to end the game. Swallows victory.

Tigers hadn't played that badly and had made sure that Swallows didn't get too far ahead. Unfortunately, they couldn't solve Tateyama on the night and after a good start fizzled out. They hadn't really batted poorly just that things hadn't gone their way. Kubo needs to be a bit more careful with his placement but then he hadn't pitched too badly either. It was just one of those nights.