May 23rd Iwata v Nakayama - A bit of relief

Reality finally asserted itself and we discovered why Buffaloes are bottom of the Pacific League. Their pitching was abysmal and their catching was woefully inadequate - it is nice to come across a team with a worse catcher than Fujii but it also explains why he was able to play for several years at the Buffaloes. One greets the win with a feeling of relief rather than any great joy - the weaknesses are still there but the reshuffle of the lineup did work though it remains to be seen how it will fare against stronger opponents. The hideous joke of Kanemoto batting No. 4 continues and this one example exposes Wada's total inability to judge the usefulness or otherwise of a player. Scores

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

Starting lineups

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

Starting pitcher: Iwata

Buffaloes
1. Nonaka (Left)
2. Ohbiki (Centre)
3. Baldris (Third)
4. Lee (First)
5. Gotoh (Third)
6. Kitagawa (DH)
7. Kawabata (Right)
8. Nakamura (Centre)
9. Saitoh (Catcher)

Tigers reshuffled lineup actually produced results from the start. With Hirano and Yamato both out Toritani hit a three base into left centre, sliding safely into third. Here was a chance for our No. 4, Kanemoto to drive in a run but he fluffed it again and took the walk. Admittedly,, Nakayama wasn't pitching well at all but really Kanemoto's inability to drive in runs (and it's not for the lack of opportunity) is rather shameful. It was left to Takahiro Arai who should still be batting No. 4 to single to left and bring home Toritani 1-0 Tigers, runners first and second. Murton though grounded out to short and ended the innings. Buffaloes also started well with Ohbiki picking up a one out walk. Then Baldris singled to set up runners on first and third. Once again Fujii was clueless and Iwata wasn't much better. Lee was next and hit straight to Toritani to initiate a double play, this one being easy to get Iwata out of trouble and preserve Tigers lead. Sekimoto led off Tigers second with a walk and was bunted to second by Fujii - a wasted out. Why is Fujii batting eighth though ahead of Ryota Arai? At least Okada had the sense to put his catcher at ninth. More unimaginative rigidity from Wada. Ryota Arai managed to strike out looking this time but then Nakayama walked Hirano. Yamato worked the count full and singled to left to bring home Sekimoto 2-0 Tigers, runners on first and second. Toritani flew out in foul ground but Tigers were scoring again. The Buffaloes second was quiet with the batters not being able to handle Iwata. Tigers third saw Murton single with two out. Here we had a charming piece of Wada idiocy for the third out, having Murton try to steal - he was thrown out. Some players should only steal on rare occasions as they are not so fast. This attempt was predictable and should have been avoided. Fujii and Iwata weren't exactly working well together and Nakamura led off the Buffaloes third with a single to third. We had the obligatory stupid bunt to move him to second and then Nonaka singled to centre. Nakamura didn't attempt home and Buffaloes had runners on first and third. Ohbiki hit back to Iwata who locked Nakamura on third before throwing to first for the out - in the meantime Ohbiki took second. Baldris walked to load the bases and then Iwata winkled out Lee to end the innings. A dangerous situation had been avoided.

Tigers fourth and Nakayama was by now living on borrowed time. He walked Sekimoto and Fujii laid down the obligatory stupid bunt to take him to second. Fujii may be no batter but I would much rather see him try to hit. Ryota Arai flew out but Hirano also walked. This was the end of Nakayama who was replaced by MacLane - a big mistake. Nakayama hadn't been that good with Saitoh but MacLane was worse walking Yamato to load the bases. He then managed to dead ball Toritani - oshidashi 3-0 Tigers, bases loaded. Once again we had another opportunity for Kanemoto who flew out to short. He can't be expected to get every opportunity but none? Iwata had been lucky up until now but things went wrong in Buffaloes fourth. With two out Kawabata hit a two base to left. Next was Nakamura who swung to left and hit the ball over the wall for a two run home run 3-2 Tigers, once again a terrible call by Fujii. Given that this was only Nakamura's second home run of his career it was all a bit embarrassing. Still Tigers retained the lead as Saitoh struck out looking. Tsukahara pitched Tigers fifth and with two out walked Sekimoto yet again. This time Fujii hit right and set up runners on first and second. Ryota Arai flew out to centre and ended the chance. Iwata walked Ohbiki in Buffaloes fifth but nothing came of this and the runner remained on first. Here Okada switched his catcher and brought Suzuki on - it seemed to work at first. Yoshino pitched the innings and retired the batters in order. Iwata started the Buffaloes sixth and got Gotoh to fly out. Here he was replaced having thrown 102 pitches - a Shimoyanagi like performance and indicative of the poor quality of catching (though his pitching wasn't wonderful either). Fukuhara took over and had to work hard to get the next two batters out but succeeded.

Tigers seventh saw Kanemoto spring to life and hit a two base to left centre. The first sign of life from him for ages. This brought the end of Yoshino and some quite appalling pitching from the following Buffaloes pitchers. Katsuki took over and got Arai to ground out which moved Kanemoto round to third. Then Murton singled to centre bringing in Kanemoto 4-2 Tigers, runner on first. Sekimoto walked again but Fujii flew out. Hsu took over and dead balled Hiyama (pinch hitter) to load the bases. Then in a repeat of the fourth Hsu walked Hirano - another oshidashi 5-2 Tigers, bases loaded. Yamato grounded out to short to end the innings. Tigers were now in control and Tsutsui pitched Buffaloes seventh. He retired the batters in order but needed 20 pitches to do it - they didn't quiet give up. Toritani grounded out to start Tigers eighth but Kanemoto walked and was pinch run for by Tagami (why one asks?). Takahiro Arai hit a two base to right to set up runners on second and third. Once again why use a pinch runner if he's not going to go for home? Murton singled centre again bringing in a run 6-2 Tigers, runners on first and third. Then Sekimoto also singled 7-2 Tigers, runners on first and second. Next came Asai (replacement left) who singled and brought in another run 8-2 Tigers. The Buffaloes then messed up their throw into home and the runners took second and third. Yet again Asai had driven in a run - Wada shouldn't be messing around with Shibata and the others. Asai is driving in runs, Asai should start. Hirano grounded out to end the innings. Buffaloes eighth was pitched by Enokida who has developed a fine line in ignoring Fujii and is better for it. He did give up a single to Baldris but this didn't produce any result and the innings was scoreless. Kishida took over for Tigers ninth with yet another catcher Hidaka who retired the batters in order. Finally for Buffaloes ninth, Wada employed Fujikawa - a bit of overkill and not really a situation for your ace closer but Wada was desperate and cannot judge a games status with any degree of accuracy. Fujikawa retired the batters in order to ned the game. Tigers victory.

The losing streak had been broken at five games. Buffaloes had been quite pathetic - walking and dead balling 12 batters coupled with 11 hits. Two of the runs had been from walk ins which indicates the quality of the pitching. One can't count on this happening every time and Tigers still have work to do. Kanemoto does need to be dropped down the order. Even though his position was irrelevant this game we have seen that his inability to drive in runs is a serious hindrance in other games. Once again Fujii had been profligate with pitches and he is really disliked by Tigers fans who don't value him at all. The next series is against the Hawks - expect Kokubo to get his 2000th hit off Tigers pitching.