May 5th Messenger v Sawamura - Smugness wins out

There is no doubt about it - Sawamura looks smug and supercilious. He did though manage to expose Tigers weakness (not Fujii though he was pathetic) but the batting. Tigers had so many opportunities and wasted them all. Kanemoto at four again was a dead loss. A number four batter is supposed to drive in runs and try and hit. Kanemoto did neither and ducked the responsibility of the position. It was interesting to see that yesterday's hero in the Tigers victory was Tsutsui - making Arai the hero would have showed Wada up to be a poltroon which is what he is but one doesn't demonstrate it. Scores

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

Starting lineups

Giants
1. Chono (Centre)
2. Fujimura (Second)
3. Sakamoto (Short)
4. Murata (Third)
5. Takahashi (Right)
6. Tani (Left)
7. Bowker (First)
8. Sanematsu (Catcher)
9. Sawamura (Pitcher)

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

Messenger would start well though he had to reject a lot of Fujii's calls. Generally he seemed to be rejecting about three of them for each pitch. But then Fujii did demonstrate why he was let go by Rakuten this game. Chono was swinging at anything which was lucky as he should have left the strike out pitch. Fujimura and Sakamoto didn't really get anywhere either. Tigers first though was a complete mess up. Toritani started well singling to left. Then Wada wanted Hirano to bunt. None to happily he tried but once he got to two strikes shaped to bunt and swung. This worked well - the ball looping over the infield for a single. If he had hit properly he would have flown out to second. Tigers had runners on first and second. Murton hit deep to right and the runners tagged up and moved round to second and third. All nicely set for Kanemoto but the chump walked to load the bases. He could have tried to hit but didn't and this was a total negation of responsibility. Arai swung at his first pitch but didn't get far enough and flew out shallowly to right. Then Brazell struck out swinging to end the innings. Sawamura had escaped his first pinch. Murata led off Giants second hitting a two base to right - the commentators included Furuta and Yano and Furuta noted that this was the catchers fault - a very poor call. Next was Takahashi who hit weakly infield. This was fielded by Messenger who threw poorly to first and Brazell could not take. Murata had already moved round to third and used the opportunity to make home 1-0 Giants and runner on second. Hara then wasted an out having Tani bunt the runner to third. Bowker grounded out to first for the second out. Next was Sanematsu who pounced on a poor inside pitch and hit into centre for another run 2-0 Giants. Finally Sawamura struck out swinging for the end of the Giants second. Sawamura was anything but solid in his pitching - in fact he was mostly dismal. He dead balled Shibata to start Tigers second but then Fujii - who also suffered from poor batting - hit into a double play. Even the gift of a Messenger double didn't move Tigers as Toritani flew out to left to end the innings. Giants third saw a comedy of errors - this time generated by the umpires. With one out Fujimura tried a bunt hit to third. Arai picked up and threw nicely to first where the throw just beat Fujimura. However, the first base umpire made a mess and ruled it safe - all very incompetent. Still with a runner on base Hara signaled the steal. Fujii threw to Hirano but was late - he has a weak arm. However, the second base umpire evening things up gave the out. Sakamoto managed to single and then Murata flew out to left - Kanemoto not dropping this one. Hirano led off Tigers third by bouncing a pitch of Sawamura's right leg for a single. Sawamura needed treatment but was able to continue. Murton struck out swinging and then Hirano tried to steal second being thrown out by Sanematsu. A worse throw than Fujii's to be honest but Sakamoto was better at taking and tagging. Kanemoto faced Sawamura and swung mistiming and deflecting the ball into Sanematsu's testicles - ouch! As Furutat said if that happens to a catcher leave him alone. Do not ask 'Daijobu?' as he certainly isn't. After a pause Kanemoto then struck out swinging to end the third.

Giants fourth was quiet with two of the batters striking out looking both of which looked dubious to say the least. The Koshien umpires were not at their best. Arai led off Tigers fourth with a single. Then Brazell hit right and Tigers had runners on first and third. Shibata grounded out to third and Arai started for home but was sandwiched and tagged out. In the meantime Brazell took third and Shibata second. Next was Fujii and his chance to put runs on the board. Sawamura decided to take him on and struck him out. Then Messenger - lightning does not strike twice and Messenger also struck out to end the innings. Once again Tigers had wasted a great chance. Giants fifth was quiet with the batters falling in order and Tigers got the chance to try again for their fifth. Toritani led off with a walk. Hirano managed to hit into a double play this time. Murton hit left and made second on a pass ball. However, once again Kanemoto ducked his chance and took the walk. Arai tried to hit but mistimed and flew out to centre to end the innings. Arai at least is trying - Kanemoto is doing nothing. Giants sixth saw no one on base and nothing happening. Sawamura then lifted himself for Tigers sixth and produced an innings totally out of character for the game. Three batters, three strike outs, Brazell swinging, Shibata looking and Fujii (of course) swinging.

Giants seventh was quiet with the batters falling in order. Tigers seventh was also the same and it began to look as if Tigers would lose the game. I have written how Fujii and Fukuhara get on but we had the most bizarre display from Fujii in Giants eighth. Fukuhara follows Fujii's calls which are often inept and conventional in the extreme. This was the case with Sanematsu who singled. Sawamura bunted him to second and you thought that Hara was using Sawamura to avoid wasting a pinch hitter. Still a bunt and one out. Here Fujii seemed to go to pieces getting up and constantly signalling to Fukuhara. He did this four or five times and one wondered about his sanity especially as he did it once then squatted down and got up to do it again. Fukuhara viewed all this with equanimity and induced a fly out from Chono to Hirano. Then for some reason Wada decided to switch to Enokida. Certainly the innings had taken a long time but this was down to Fujii not Fukuhara. Enokida faced Abe (pinch hitter) and totally ignored the catcher throwing an inside pitch on an outside call. This induced Abe to fly out to end the innings. Surprisingly, given his pitch count Sawamura returned for Tigers eighth. He did well with the first two outs but then Arai hit a two base over centre. This brought a pitching change with Yamaguchi taking over and facing Brazell. He hit to second for the ground out and Tigers had wasted another chance. Watanabe took over for Giants ninth and once again did not really work with Fujii who was by now pretty useless. Sakamoto singled to centre which was a Watanabe mistake. Murata flew out to left - Fujii and Watanabe in rare agreement. Takahashi grounded out to short moving Sakamoto to second. Tani walked with Watanabe following Fujii's guide. Then Watanabe just ignored Fujii and got Bowker to fly out to centre. Nishmura pitched Tigers ninth and started by getting Shibata to ground out. Sekimoto (pinch hitter for Fujii) walked and then Hiyama (pinch hitter) singled to set up runners on first and third. Toritani hit very deep to centre flying out but giving Shunsuke (pinch runner for Sekimoto) plenty of time to get home 2-1 Giants. Hirano hit along the first baseline where Bowker fielded and stepped on the base. Giants thought they had run but the umpire ruled foul. There was no doubt about the next pitch though - Hirano grounded out to second to end the game. Giants victory.

A disastrous Golden Week for Tigers 1 win, 6 losses and 2 ties. Wada's lack of management experience and lack of judgement has been cruely exposed. Against Tigers toughest opponents he has been shown to be totally inadequate. The recall of Fujii and the use of Kanemoto at four indicate someone without an understanding of even the basics. Tigers have a day off and then play two games against Carp in Niigata. They do need to restore Komiyama and move Kanemoto back down the order.