August 9th Standridge v Sugiuchi - A comedy of errors

A difficult title to choose - 'Squeeze me baby - Part II' was tempting as was one I have used before 'Shuffling the deckchairs on the Titanic' as well but the sheer number of mistakes and screw ups by both managers dictated that the Shakespeare title was the winner. Both Hara and Wada were not at their best and Tigers should have made more of the poor Sugiuchi and the mess the Giants made in the fifth and seventh. The reshuffled Tigers lineup had the virtue of being interesting but that is all. And why was the No. 4 batter used for a squeeze play? Standridge was over pitched unnecessarily and Tigers suffered for it.Scores

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

Starting lineups

Tigers
1. Uemoto (Second)
2. Shunsuke (Centre)
3. Toritani (Short)
4. Ryota Arai (Left)
5. Murton (Right)
6. Takahiro Arai (First)
7. Sekimoto (Third)
8. Fujii (Catcher)
9. Standridge (Pitcher)

Giants
1. Chono (Right)
2. Matsumoto (Centre)
3. Sakamoto (Short)
4. Abe (First)
5. Murata (Third)
6. Takahashi (Left)
7. Furuk (Second)
8. Sanematsu (Catcher)
9. Sugiuchi (Pitcher)

Sugiuchi started dreadfully and was poor throughout the game. It is a measure of the Tigers weakness that they were totally unable to exploit this apart from the first innings and then only through Giants mistakes. Uemoto led the game off by walking. He stole second and then a poor throw took him to third. Next was Shunsuke who hit to right for the sacrifice fly 1-0 Tigers. Toritani then struck out but Ryota Arai hit his first pitch to right for a double. Against Sugiuchi on this form it looked promising. Murton was next but he just hit back to the pitcher for the out. Standridge started well by striking out Chono. Then Matsumoto hit a two base to right centre. Standridge responded superbly striking out Sakamoto and getting Abe to fly out. Now the game deteriorated. Tigers would waste chance after chance after chance against a struggling pitcher and a rather tired looking Giants. Takahiro Arai led off the second with a single. Sekimoto hit a grounder to third but the throw was poor allowing the batters to reach second and third with no outs. One would have thought that Tigers could have made something of this but no. Fujii hit to short and Sakamoto fired the ball to home for the tag out. Fujii was safe on first with Sekimoto on third. Next was Standridge who tried to bunt but was out with three failures. Finally, Uemoto struck out looking to end the innings. Somehow Sugiuchi had contrived to escape without damage. Standridge didn't let this faze him and struck out both Murata and Furuki looking in Giants second with some great pitching. Sunsuke then led off Tigers third with a single. A wild pitch took him to second but Toritani could only fly out to left. Ryota Arai struck out looking for the second out but then a second wild pitch took Shusuke to third. Really, Sugiuchi couldn't have made things easier. Murton walked and then Takahiro Arai hit the first pitch he received to centre for the final out. The expression on his face seemed to say it all - he didn't seem to care at all what happened. Giants third started with a strike out - Sanematsu swinging and then a couple of ground outs. Even though they weren't scoring Tigers still had a lead and were holding it.

Tigers fourth saw the bottom of the order fall 1-2-3 though Sugiuchi was still taking a lot of pitches. His pitch count at the end of his session would be horrific. Standridge meanwhile was just motoring along comfortably. In the Giants fourth Sakamoto managed a one out single to centre. He tried to steal second but a precise, though weak, throw from Fujii soon put a stop to that and he was the second out. Abe was completely fooled at the same time and struck out looking. Once again in the fifth Tigers wasted a chance. Sugiuchi walked Uemoto to lead off the innings. A pointless bunt from Shunsuke followed taking Uemoto to second. Toritani hit left and set up runners on first and third. He then stole second but once again Sugiuchi was able to respond. Both Ryota Arai and Murton struck out looking to end the innings scoreless. Giants fifth saw the first real challenge to Standridge. Murata grounded out but Takahashi singled. Then Furuki also singled left setting up runners on first and second. Sanematsu flew out to centre. It was a shallow fly but Shunsuke was slow to get the throw away and Takahashi should have gone for home. Instead he was held up on third and the chance was missed. Hara then sent Sugiuchi in as the next batter. His pitching performance should have been an indicator that he shouldn't have been asked to do another innings and his pitch count was really high as well. Of course, Sugiuchi was out rapidly, grounding out to second. It could be argued that Hara was playing a long game but the truth is he wanted to avoid taking a decision until he was forced to. Tigers sixth saw a two out single to Fujii. By now Sugiuchi was really floundering but Wada also disdained the use of a pinch hitter here and this was a sound decision. Tigers had the lead and a 1-0 win would be enough. Giants sixth fully justified this decision. Standridge was dominant picking up another strike out - that of Matsumoto looking in his retiring of the three batters he faced.

Tigers seventh amazingly saw Sugiuchi return and one wondered what Hara was thinking. This was the first mistake of a mistake ridden innings. Sugiuchi was all over the place and gave up a lead off single to Uemoto. The next piece of folly was Wada having Shunsuke bunt Uemoto to second. The out would be vital later on in the innings. Toritani walked to demonstrate the futility of the bunt - reallly why didn't Wada pay any attention to Sugiuchi's condition? A wild pitch took the runners to second and third. Then Wada decided to have Ryota Arai squeeze bunt halfway through the at bat. As decisions go this has to be described as creatively insane. Ryota Arai already had one strike against him and his first bunt attempt flew behind. The second he stretched for and bunted along the first baseline where it landed foul. This meant he was out with three failed bunts and Tigers were down to one out. Sugiuchi wasn't prepared to give up yet and walked Murton on a full count to load the bases. Next was Takahiro Arai and if he had waited and batted sensibly he probably would have driven in at least one run. Instead he once again banged the first pitch he saw into centre where Matsumoto took the catch for the final out. Without the bunt earlier it would have been a sacrifice fly. One wonders what Takahiro Arai was thinking but the suspicion remains that he deliberately avoided the chance to score out of pique. This may be unfair but he had done the same thing in the third. It would also be the end of Sugiuchi who had thrown an incredible 139 pitches in the seven innings session. It was only the Tigers poor batting that actually kept him in the game as he had been dreadful. Standridge returned for Giants seventh and started well. Abe grounded out to short and Murata flew out to centre - a nice catch by Shunsuke. Here Standridge started to tire and walked Takahashi on a full count. Still he had enough for one final effort to get Furuki to ground out. He had pitched superbly and had held a 1-0 lead through the seven innings. Hara bowed to the inevitable and brought on a reliever for the eighth, this being Tahara. He faced the bottom of the order and retired the first two batters. Now one would expect a pinch hitter here but instead we saw Standridge again. A feeling of foreboding began to form and one was certain that this was another piece of Wada idiocy. So it proved - Standridge started the Giants eighth by walking Fujimura (pinch hitter). Ishii (pinch hitter) grounded out to second and then Standridge's pitching really went - he just couldn't get the outs. Chono walked in four and Wada still ignored the signs. Then Matsumoto hit a shallow drive to centre to load the bases. Next was Sakamoto who just banged his first pitch to right where it was taken by Asai (replacement right). Asai's throw was quite good but Fujimura still had time to tag up and slide in home 1-1 scores tied, runners on first and third. This finally brought the change and from a tight victory Tigers had gone to a tie situation - it would have been acceptable. Tsutsui took over and faced Abe. His first pitch was terrible - far too high and Abe accepted the gift with joy and hit it into the right stand for a 3 run home run 4-1 Giants. Murata struck out swinging but the innings was the killer for Tigers ambitions. Nishimura took over for Tigers ninth and gave up a lead off single to Uemoto. Shunsuke flew out to left but Toritani hit past short. Terauchi (replacement short) though made a great stop and was able to throw to second for the force out. The last batter was Ryota Arai who struck out swinging to end the game. Giants victory.

Tigers had managed to cancel out the Giants mistake. Standridge should have been pulled after the seventh and Wada should have gone for the relief. That is what the relief is for especially in a tight game like that. A fresh pitcher was a no brainer but somehow Wada hadn't comprehended that. Tigers batting had wasted chance after chance and one can't help feeling that there is a huge gulf between the coaching team and the players at the moment. They are not talking and not working together and the apathy and disinterest of most of the players is evident. A change of management has now become an essential and if possible before the end of the season. However, don't expect the Tigers front office to do the obvious - that is not the way things work here.