May 25th Standridge v Ohtonari - Standridge has a good day

Things went very well for Tigers this game - the pitching worked and Tigers added runs though mostly towards the end of the game. But even with a successful lineup shuffle Wada manages to show his ineptness. Kanemoto is still batting four and he has Fujii batting eighth. This is because the catcher bats eighth if he is no good in the Central League. The fact that the Pacific League allows a DH escapes Wada who should in this situation push Fujii down to ninth. Ryota Arai batted ninth in this game like the last one - a decision that also exposes Wada's incompetence. Asai is hot at the moment. Given that Tigers are not exactly racking up the runs one would have thought that anyone who is driving in runs would be welcome. But this is not the case and Asai has been consigned to the bench for the makeweights to have a go. A player who drives in runs and perfroms should start right? He shouldn't be benched for someone who has trouble even getting on base. Murton at least is hot now and he was really the catalyst of Tigers victory. Moving him to sixth has worked very nicely. We didn't get to see Kokubo either. He is out of action with a slipped disk. Scores

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

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: Standridge

Hawks
1. Akashi (Short)
2. Honda (Second)
3. Uchikawa (Centre)
4. Pena (DH)
5. Matsuda (Third)
6. Matsunaka (Left)
7. Tamura (Right)
8. Fukuda (First)
9. Yamazaki (Catcher)

Starting pitcher: Ohtonari

The shuffled lineup worked again though why Wada sees the need to constantly switch the players round escapes me. Ohtonari started well and after striking out Hirano was able to get Yamato easily though Toritani put up a struggle. Standridge also started well and with two strike outs in the innings established a slight advantage. Tigers second saw the first hit with Murton singling to centre with two outs. Sekimoto struck out swinging to end the innings. Hawks first hit also came in the second - in fact most of their hits came in the second. With one out Matsuda singled. He tried to steal second and was thrown out - a rare Fujii good throw but indicative of how smoothly things were running for the Tigers. Immediately after Matsunaka singled and then Tamura reached first on a basic error at first. However, the final batter was Fukuda who grounded out to short. Ryota Arai made his only contribution of the game in offence in Tigers third. He walked but no one could move him off first. Hawks third was quiet and the batters went down in order.

All well and good but Tigers needed more and Kanemoto managed to start things off hitting a two base to right centre. He has slowed down considerably and struggles to get round the bases but this was fairly easy. Arai grounded out to second which kept Kanemoto on second but Murton singled nicely to centre and Kanemoto was able to make home 1-0 Tigers, runner on first. Sekimoto lined out to end the innings. Hawks couldn't respond and Standridge finished the innings with a strike out of Matsuda. Tigers fifth saw the bottom of the order try to move things on but Ohtonari was up to the challenged and no one reached base. Matsunaka managed to pick up a walk to lead off Hawks fifth. Tamura though hit into a double play and ended that chance as quickly as it had started. Fukuda then swung too soon and flew out to Toritani. Nothing happened in the Tigers sixth but we did see the Hawks final hit in the bottom. Akashi had a one out two base. He made third when Honda grounded out to first but then Uchikawa could only ground out to second. Tigers were still in the lead.

Tigers seventh brought up Arai who flew out to centre. Next was Murton and he also hit to centre with a bit better contact and timing for a solo home run 2-0 Tigers. Sekimoto and Fujii could do nothing but Tigers had doubled the margin. Things got even better as in his final innings Standridge retired the Hawks in order. A fine pitching display with the Tigers nicely poised. Hawks collapsed. Yoshikawa took over from Ohtonari and gave up a lead off single to Shibata (pinch hitter). Hirano laid down the usual stupid bunt but then Hiyama (pinch hitter - bit of a strange decision here, why?) walked. With runners on first and second Toritani worked the count full and then slammed the ball left for a two base timely. Hiyama was being pinch run for by Asai who made sure that he also got home and Toritani had driven in two runs 4-0 Tigers. Yoshikawa was replaced by Kanazawa on the mound. Kanemoto swung and fouled a pitch off his leg and had to be replaced. Imanari took over but grounded out to first. Finally, Takahiro Arai struck out swinging. Enokida pitched Hawks eighth and with one out walked Egawa - Fujii will always make a mistake somehow. Still his direction was good for the next two batters who struck out. Castro took over for Hawks ninth and didn't have a good innings. With one out in Tigers ninth Sekimoto hit to short who messed up and missed with the throw allowing Sekimoto to reach second. Fujii flew out but a pass ball took Sekimoto to third. Then Shibata hit to centre to bring in another run 5-0 Tigers, runner on first. Tigers were home and dry. Shibata then tried to steal second but was thrown out to end the innings. To finish off the game Wada used Tsutsui - this proved to be a fairly easy innings and with the final batter flying out to short the innings ended. Tigers victory.

A well worked and competent victory. Tigers had taken the lead and held it well. Some nice pitching by Standridge and a rare good game from Fujii had kept the Hawks off balance and unable to respond. The win went to Standridge of course who was pitching in front of his parents and against his old team. Hawks looked to lack firepower when they needed it and had seemed a shadow of their former selves.