August 10th Iwata v Ohtake - Well this is interesting

Tigers have now lost all chance of reaching the Climax series with this defeat and as such are also doomed to finish B class. The big question is will they race BayStars to the bottom? Tigers front office remains supine and unable to take the difficult decisions. The truth is they are pretty gutless anyway - when it came time to dismiss Mayumi they couldn't do it but conceived a policy whereby Mayumi would fail and be dismissed. The policy would have dismissed Mayumi not the front office. Fair enough, one might say but this inability to take a decision impacts the bottom line. Tigers income from merchandising and season ticket sales is down precisely because of this ineffective management. A winning side brings in revenue but a loosing side is a liability. Allowing drift worsens the situation as fans give up on the side. The vibrant organisation of yesteryear falls into disuse and it becomes very difficult to revive fortunes. It is still possible though the B class finish is certain but it needs the dismissal of Wada and his worthless coaching team and also the removal of Sakai-owner and his team. Scores

        1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R  H E
Carp    1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 10 0
Tigers  0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  8 1

Starting lineups

Carp
1. Akamatsu (Centre)
2. Kikuchi (Second)
3. Soyogi (Short)
4. Eldred (First)
5. Dobayashi (Third)
6. Amaya (Left)
7. Mukae (Right)
8. Ishihara (Catcher)
9. Ohtake (Pitcher)

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

The moving of Hirano cannot be said to have made any difference. Tigers still stunk. Things started poorly with a confident Akamatsu singling left. Kikuchi instead of bunting (a welcome relief) drove very nicely into left for a double setting up runners on second and third. A run seemed unavoidable but how it came was perhaps not expected and pointed to deficiencies in the Tigers not the superiority of the Carp. Soyogi grounded out to second and the runners didn't move. Then Eldred drew a walk to load the bases. With Dobayashi at the plate Iwata let fly a pass ball. This brought home the runnner 1-0 Carp, runners on first and second. Dobayashi struck out and Amaya hit his first pitch to short for the ground out. Carp hadn't really made the best of this opportunity but had managed the lead. Tigers first saw two outs and then Toritani hit to centre. Ryota Arai walked on a full count to set up runners on first and second but Murton, Murton struck out to end the innings. Mukae and Ishihara went down rapidly in Carp's second then Ohtake singled to short and was able to beat Toritani. Akamatsu failed to take advantage of this gift and flew out to right. Tigers second was led off by Takahiro Arai and was quiet - no one being able to reach first. Kikuchi freed from the need to bunt led off Carp's third with a single. Soyogi supplied the wasted out bunting him to second which brought up Eldred. He blasted one to right for a two run home run 3-0 Carp. Three of Eldred's home runs have come off Tigers. Dobayashi flew out but Amaya singled and then stole second. A throwing error put him on third (isn't life wonderful?). Finally, Mukae struck out to end the innings. Iwata led off Tigers third with a single. This piece of good fortune would be wasted. Uemoto struck out but then Iwata was forced out by Shunsuke. Toritani's single set up runners on first and third but Ryota Arai went and spoilt it all by flying out to centre. Certainly, Jim Allen did predict that Ryota Arai was a potential number four batter but one feels that maybe this is a bit premature.

Carp's fourth was quiet - Ohtake failed to repeat his feat of the second and the batters fell in order. Ohtake is another of those pitchers who wasn't pitching well but didn't have to. In Tigers fourth he walked Takahiro Arai with one out. Hirano then struck out swinging and Fujii grounded out - no score there. Carp's fifth was a quiet affair with the batters falling in order. With a better catcher one thinks that Carp would have been scoreless now but Tigers have really screwed this part of the game up. Anyway Wada had had enough of Fujii and for that matter Iwata so Imanari pinch hit for Iwata. He is barely as good as Fujii but does have a better bat and he led off Tigers fifth with a single. Uemoto then hit hard and well - a double which put runners on second and third. With no outs Tigers were in with a chance. They really did blow it. Shunsuke struck out swinging and then Toritani popped one up to short. The chance of a sacrifice had been casually thrown away. Ryota Arai hit into centre but Akamatsu was under it for the final out. One thinks that as his brother was failing Wada seized on Ryota as the only other possible option for No. 4. Actually Tigers do have Brazell but it has basically been determined that he will leave at the end of the season he is not going to be used in this position. Tigers new pitcher was Watanabe who qualified as wobbly in Carp's sixth. Dobayashi struck out swinging and Amaya hit. Amaya went for second and whilst we can expect an out with Komiyama with Imanari it's a rarity - runner on second. Mukae walked and Ishihara grounded out to the pitcher which took the runners to second and third. Ohtake flew out to left which ended the threat. Maybe Carp should have used a pinch hitter here but to be honest, the way Tigers were playing they really didn't need to bother. Tigers sixth proved the point. With Murton and Takahiro Arai gone, Hirano singled. The final batter Asai (replacement right) struck out swinging to end the innings.

Akamatsu led off Carp's seventh with a single. He stole second. Whatever Imanari's virtues with the bat (though he doesn't drive in that many runners) he is not good in stopping steals. Kikuchi bunted him to third which also counts as a wasted out. Soyogi hit a grounder to short, Akamatsu went for home and was tagged out by Imanari - that part was good. With a runner on first Eldred could not manage another home run but walked. Dobayashi once again struck out. Nakata pitched Tigers seventh and gave up a lead off hit to Imanari. Uemoto struck out looking and Sekimoto (pinch hitter) hit to short forcing out Imanari. This brought a pitching change and Kawauchi took over getting Toritani to fly out to Ishihara in foul ground with his second pitch. Katoh pitched Carp's eighth and retired the batters in order striking out two of the three he faced. Tigers eighth was pitched Imamura though it really made no difference. A monkey could have gotten through that innings without damage. Murton did single with one out but Takahiro Arai managed to hit into an innings ending double play. Zarate took over for Carp's ninth and on the strength of things, once again demonstrated an unsuitability for the top team. Hirose (pinch hitter) led off with a single. Akamatsu hit to short and was able to make first - runners on first and second. Kikuchi and Soyogi both flew out but then a balk took the runners to second and third. Eldred struck out swinging to end the innings. Zarate needs to be dropped back down to ni-gun where he belongs. For Tigers ninth Mickolio closed things out. He retired the batters in order to end the game. Carp victory.

There you have it - how to have eight hits and two walks and not score a run. Carp don't even have to try that hard to pick up a win and have now won six in a row against Tigers. Tigers have one victory for August - that of the first. Veteran Tigers fans are already talking of the barren years between 1985 and 2003. This is what you get for insisting on talentless old boys.