June 26th Standridge v Yoshimi - Kubota is back

Actually Kubota has been in the ichi-gun squad for a few games now but this game was his first on field appearance in almost a year. He topped out at around 150 kph and didn't have any trouble. The puzzling thing about this game was Wada's replacement of Fujii and Standridge after the fifth innings. With Standridge having only thrown 73 pitches it did rather look like over solicitousness on Wada's part and given how long he has other pitchers throw a bit out of character as well. Standrdige was good for another innings at least. It seems that Wada was hoping that bringing on Imanari and using Ryota Arai as a pinch hitter would get things going. It didn't work and the decision seems to have an element of panic about it. Apart from the first innings neither Fujii nor Standridge had been particularly troubled at all. Imanari didn't do too badly behind the plate but Dragons weren't really trying - they had their lead and they were going to sit on it and make the Tigers come to them. Scores

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

Startling lineups

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

Dragons
1. Araki (Second)
2. Ohshima (Centre)
3. Wada (Left)
4. Blanco (First)
5. Takehiro Donue (Right)
6. Ibata (Short)
7. Takahashi (Third)
8. Tanishige (Catcher)
9. Yoshimi (Pitcher)

Tigers abysmal run against Dragons would continue. They seem unable to overcome the psychological hurdle created by the Nagoya team. Murton started the game by grounding out to short. Hirano though hit his first pitch to right but then Toritani managed to hit into a double play to end the innings. Dragons start was deceptively inauspicious with Araki grounding out to short. Then Ohshima singled to centre. Wada also singled centre to put runners on first and second.Blanc0's flyout took Ohshima to third but it looked as if Tigers would get out of the innings safely. However, Standridge left a slider too high and in a reaction shot, Donue turned it nicely into the right stand for a home run 3-0 Dragons. One might be optimistic and hope for Tigers to overturn the margin but realistically at Nagoya Dome there wasn't much hope of that happening. The game was basically over and everything else was just going through the motions. The final batter of the innings was Ibata who grounded out to second. Tigers second was a 1-2-3 affair, Yoshimi is pitching well and unfortunately a class above Tigers. Arai flew out to centre and Kenemoto and Brazell flew out to left - end of innings. Dragons second was similar and there began a long run of batters not getting on base or exploiting the odd examples who were getting on base. Tigers third saw the bottom of the order fail to do anything but when the top of the Dragons order came round in their third, they also failed to do anything. After his poor first Standridge had settled down nicely.

Tigers fourth saw Murton and Hirano down but Torritani singled to right. It didn't help as Arai struck out looking misjudging a low outside straight. Standridge had to work a full count to get Blanco in Dragons fourth but Donue was easier. Then he dead balled Ibata. Takashi flew out to Brazell in foul ground and the innings went no further. Tigers fifth saw everyone ground out ineffectively but Dragons fifth was likewise quiet. Here we got the change. Fujii was pinch hit for by Imanari who led off Tigers sixth by grounding out to second. Then it was Ryota Arai - pinch hitting for Standridge - who grounded out to second. Finally Murton lined out to third. Watanabe took over the pitching duties with Imanari calling. With one out in Dragons sixth Wada singled. Blanco lined out to second but Wada stayed on first. Takahashi struck out swinging to end the innings.

Tigers seventh was a bit more promising. HIrano led off the innings with a walk. Maybe Yoshimi was tiring. Toritani struck out and then Arai hit to short forcing out Hirano but making first safely. Wada argued the point that Hirano was actually safe but the umpire didn't change his mind. Kanemoto singled and Tigers had runners on first and second for the first time in the game and a runner in a scoring position. Brazell hit into centre but flew out to end the innings. Kubota took over for Dragons seventh and struck out Takahashi with a 150 kmh straight though to be honest the ball did bounce in the dirt before it reached the plate. Takahashi swung anyway. No runner reached base and in fact Wada in the sixth was Dragons last base runner. Yoshimi had been giving signs of tiring in Tigers seventh and they were finally able to exploit it in the eighth. Shibata led off with a three base hit tor right left centre. Imanari hit his first pitch to left for the fly out but Shibata didn't try for home. Hiyama (pinch hitter) grounded out to Yoshimi which rather seemed to put a damper on things. However, Murton drovve the ball into right field for a timely single 3-1 Dragons, runner on first. Hirano grounded out to end the innings and really Tigers only chance. Katoh pitched Dragons eighth and looks a changed pitcher (though not one you use every day). He struck out Yamasaki (pinch hitter) and then picked up Araki hitting back to the mound before finally striking out Ohshima to end the innings. Of course, Iwase pitched Tigers ninth and if truth be told Tigers batters were a bit too keen to swing and didn't try to wait. Toritani flew out to left in three. Arai flew out to second in two and Kanemoto went first pitch, grounding out to second to end the game. Dragons victory.

It had all been too straightforward for the Dragons. Their domination of the Tigers in their home stadium continues unabated but this season as well they are dominating Tigers who only have one victory against the Dragons so far. Players who stood out for Tigers were few and far between. It was nice to see Kubota back and hopefully he will pitch well but pitching isn't Tigers issue. This is batting and the inability of the coaching to get a very strong batting lineup going. Tactically Tigers are also naive and this isn't helping. It wasn't that the removal of Fujii and Standridge was wrong per see it was just that it was all so pointless and never looked like it was going to do anything. If there had been a chance of something resulting from the change it would have been a nice appropriate move. However, one gets the feeling that like Wada's bunts it was done for the appearance of doing something not for the expectation of anything happening. Pointless management at its best one might say. Still it was nice that Standridge got a bit of extra rest and wasn't over-pitched this game.