June 17th Nohmi v Naruse - Marines are useless

Why useless? Well Marines managed to blow a three run lead and were unable to work a victory after holding said lead for most of the game. In fact they just managed to work a tie. Of course we had a typical bit of Wada incompetence which cost Tigers the victory. In the ninth, once again he switched Imanari for Okazaki who was abysmal. Nohmi wasn't particularly good and there is suspicion that he actually deliberately gave up a run to Marines in the fifth. His pitching seemed to have a petulant spoilt character to it this game which wasn't helpful. Still the Inter league bore is over for another year and Tigers have a rest to regroup and reorganise. The worrying thing is that means that Fujii will be back but he is a least preferable to Okazaki. Scores

         1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R  H E
Tigers   0 0 0 0 0 1 2 3 0 6 17 0
Marines  0 0 1 0 1 2 1 0 1 6 16 0

Starting lineups

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

Starting pitcher: Nohmi

Marines
1. Ogino (Centre)
2. Nemoto (Short)
3. Iguchi (Second)
4. Saburo (DH)
5. Kakunaka (Left)
6. Imae (Third)
7. Ohmatsu (First)
8. Satozaki (Catcher)
9. Kiyota (Right)

Starting pitcher: Naruse

It was nice to see Asai back in the lineup and once again he was making things happen. Rather than mess around with no hopers Wada should give Asai a long run if his knock proves as innocuous as it seems. Rather a pointless change one thought. Tigers first saw a one out single by Hirano who put his first pitch right. Neither Toritani nor Kanemoto moved him off first though and no score resulted. Marines first was just quiet and reasonably economical. Tigers second saw Arai lead off with a walk. Brazell flew out but Arai was able to steal second - this was an embarrassment for Satozaki. Ryota Arai's ground out took his brother to third but Yamato grounded out to short and the innings was over. Marines began to get runners on base in their second. With one out Kakunaka singled left. Imae hit a two base to set up runners on second and third. Here with the help of Komiyama, Nohmi was able to escape without damage striking out both Ohmatsu and Satozaki to end the innings. Komiyama led off Tigers third with a single and was stupid bunted to second by Asai. What a waste. Hirano lined out to second and Komiyama wasn't able to get home safely and was out. Then Nohmi managed to mess things up. He retired the first two batters in the Marines third but then faced Nemoto. For the first pitch he sent down a straight ball in the middle of the zone - a very stupid pitch and Nemoto hit it over the left fence for a solo home run 1-0 Marines. Iguchi was next but he grounded out to end the innings.

Tigers fourth saw the clean up fail to make any impression on Naruse who was showing some nice stuff. Toritani, Kanemoto and Takahiro Arai all failed to get on base. Nohmi was much better in Marines fourth and also retired the batters in order. He wasn't pitching well and seemed to be sulking about something. With two out in Tigers fifth Yamato burst into life and hit a two base into the left corner. Next was Komiyama who lifted the ball a bit too high and flew out to left. Nohmi started Marines fifth well striking out Ohmatsu. Then Satozaki singled left. Kiyota flew out and things looked safe but Nohmi was wasting pitches and seemed very spoilt. Ogino singled left and then Nemoto hit to left to load the bases. Still there were two outs and only one more to get. Iguchi was next and Nohmi couldn't find the zone so with three balls on the count, Komiyama called for a low pitch. Nohmi went high - too high, oshidashi 2-0 Marines, bases loaded. One hesitates to say this as it is difficult to believe that Nohmi would deliberately gift the opposition a run but that is what it looked like. He seemed to ignore the call and go his own way and given that his past three pitches had been poor he would have been better off throwing to the call. Next was Saburo who swung and deflected the ball into foul ground where Komiyama took a fine catch. Asai led off Tigers sixth with a single. Hirano flew out to right but Toritani singled right to set up runners on first and second. Kanemoto struck out swinging. Takahiro Arai was next and he put the ball nicely into left with Asai racing home for the run 2-1 Marines, runners on first and second. Brazell went left but only managed to fly out to end the innings. Tigers had managed to reduce the lead by one run but Nohmi immediately set about widening it again. Kiyota led off the Marines sixth with a single. Imae hit his first pitc to left to set up runners on first and second. Ohmatsu flew out to left but Satozaki singled left to load the bases. Hardly good pitching. Kiyota was next and Nohmi once again sent down another careless straight which was not called by his catcher. Kiyota put the ball over Yamato for a two base timely hit bringing in two runs 4-1 Marines, runners on second and third. This was the end of Nohmi who was replaced by Watanabe. Satozaki was tagged out trying to take home and Ogino flew out to left to end the innings.

Naurse returned for the Tigers seventh which proved to be an innings too far. He faced Ryota Arai who hit a fine solo home run to left centre 4-2 Marines. This brought a pitching change with Masuda taking over. He got Yamato to fly out and Imanari (pinch hitter) to ground out. Imanari was a bit of a question mark, in catching he was a retrograde step but his batting would prove very useful later on. Asai though singled left. Hirano also guided the ball left and Tigers had runners on first and second. Toritani hit nicely into centre and Asai raced home again 4-3 Marines, runners on first and second. Things were tight again. Kanemoto hit deep into centre but was well taken by Ogino to end the innings. Just how dicey using Imanari was became clear in Marines seventh. Nemoto led the innings off with a single. Iguchi flew out but then Saburowalked. This brought a change of pitcher from Watanabe to Tsutsui who promptly walked the first batter he faced, Kakunaka to load the bases. Imae hit left bringing in a runner 5-3 Marines, bases loaded. Tanaka (pinch hitter) struck out swinging and finally Satozaki grounded out to short to end the innings. Amazingly, Masuda continued for Tigers eighth, it was almost like the Marines had a death wish. Brazell singled to second with one out and then Ryota Arai also singled. Hiyama (pinch hitter) hit right to load the bases and this brought the long delayed pitching change with Uchi taking over. He faced Imanari who hit into right bringing in two runs 5-5 scores tied, runners on first and second. Marines had blown a lead. It got worse with Asai hitting left to set up runners on first and third. The runner going for home Shibata was tagged out at the plate but then Hirano also singled and Imanari was home 6-5 Tigers, runners on first and third. Toritani hit into centre but flew out but Tigers had seized the lead. Enokida pitched Marines eighth and ran into problems with Imanari which no doubt influenced Wada's later decision to use Okazaki. Kiyota struck out and then Ogino grounded out to short. Here Enokida came up against his usual problem the third out. He gave up a single to Nemoto and then a two base hit to Iguchi setting up runners on second and third. Saburo went for the big hit and missed striking out swinging and Tigers still held the lead. Yabuta pitched Tigers ninth. He got Kanemoto to fly out to centre. Takahiro Arai singled but then Brazell lined out to Yabuta who was able to throw to first and catch Arai off base to end the innings. The Marines ninth and here Wada made his big mistake bringing on Okazaki for Imanari. Wada should have stuck with the younger catcher as Okazaki has a proven record of mediocrity and should not be in the top team at all. The reason he is retained is because he is 'experienced' but this doesn't count for much. Of course the pitcher was Fujikawa. It started badly with a single to Kakunaka. He was bunted to second by Imae and then Fukuura (pinch hitter) flew out to second. Here Hirano went back to take the catch with Asai coming in from right also looking to take the fly. Asai called for the ball but Hirano didn't take any notice and took the catch colliding with Asai but getting up and throwing to second. He was unaffected by the collision but Asai wasn't and he had to be stretchered off the field. He was later judged OK. Maybe the curse of Okazaki would not operate this time. No such luck. Satozaki hit his second pitch a fork into left centre bringing in the runner 6-6 scores tied, runner on second. Kanazawa (pinch hitter) struck out swinging to end the game. Tied game. As the game had already gone over the three and a half hours there would not be a 10th innings.

Marines had blown a comfortable victory and just scraped a tie by the skin of their teeth. They had certainly hit but had not defended well and Tigers had taken the series 2-0. Wada's big mistake had been to switch Imanari for Okazaki and the continued use of the latter has to be questionable given his sheer ineffectiveness. Tigers could be satisfied with their performance. They hadn't won but had come near and in the end they weren't the ones fighting to save face.

[Edited by: Christopher on Jun 18, 2012 8:20 AM] Includes the Asai incident courtesy of the video on Yakyu Baka. Thanks Gen.