August 17th Iwata v Akagawa - Iwata wins

Murton has long been known to be unhappy with the current set up in Tigers and an unsavoury incident after Friday's game brought this into sharp relief. Murton had started the game fielding left - a relatively unfamilar position for him and committed two errors in succession allowing 3 runs to score. He was replaced by Shunsuke for the duration of the game. After the game there was a post mortem in which Sekikawa the coach conducting it made 'reference' to Murton's errors. Murton was aggreived and the two were on the way to discussing the matter in a more physical way when others intervened. The incident petered out though Murton and Sekikawa stayed behind to discuss the issue for another hour. Shades of the Tuffy Rhodes incident with the Giants. If this continues we cannot expect Murton to be invited back next year though it is questionable whether he would actually want another year with the Tigers. The incident has to be said to be symptomatic of the general dissatisfaction with Wada and his team and change cannot come soon enough.
It was good to see Komiyama start the game in place of Fujii. The reasoning on this was that as Iwata doesn't get on with Fujii and did get on with Komiyama it was worth a try. It worked out as well but the Murton errors did unsettle Iwata and Komiyama also had to deal with the other problem child Tsutsui. He handled the game remarkably well and coupled with a good hitting performance particularly from Takahiro Arai Tigers worked a good victory. Scores

          1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R  H E
Tigers    0 3 2 0 2 0 2 0 0 9  7 1
Swallows  0 0 5 0 1 0 0 1 0 7 11 1

Starting lineups

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

Swallows
1. Tanaka (Second)
2. Ueda (Centre)
3. Milledge (Left)
4. Hatakeyama (First)
5. Kawabata (Third)
6. Iihara (Right)
7. Morioka (Short)
8. Aikawa (Catcher)
9. Akagawa (Pitcher)

Akagawa started as he meant to continue - poorly. He did strike out Uemoto and then got Yamato to fly out but walked Toritani. Toritani then stole second and a throwing error from Aikawa allowed him to reach third. Ryota Arai was next and he walked on a full count. Murton took a swing at his first pitch and flew out to Hatakeyama in foul ground - a kind of Kanemoto shot. Iwata and Komiyama started very well with Iwata retiring the batters in order striking out Ueda and Milledge. Takahiro Arai led off Tigers second grounding out to third. Hirano singled left and Komiyama no doubt aware of his batting average worked a walk to set up runners on first and second. Iwata successfully bunted the runners to second and third and then Uemoto hit a nice double to left bringing in both runners 2-0 Tigers, runner on second. Yamato was next and he hit left for another run 3-0 Tigers, runner on second. Toritani managed to pop one up to third but Tigers were in the lead. Hatakeyama led Swallows second off with a single but was immediately forced out when Kawabata hit into a double play. A nice piece of fortune for Tigers. Iihara then grounded out to end the innings. So far Iwata was doing a good job. Things got even better for Tigers in their third. Ryota Arai walked and Murton popped out to second. Once again he swung at his first pitch - he really wasn't interested. Next was Takahiro Arai who was interested and he hit his third pitch smoothly into the left centre stand for a two run home run 5-0 Tigers. An unsettled Akagawa walked Hirano but Komiyama this time hit into a double play to end the innings - Tigers had a comfortable lead. What happened next was almost beyond belief. Iwata became nervous and gave up a lead off single to Morioka. Then Aikawa hit a two base to right - runners on second and third with no outs. Next up was Kawamoto (pinch hitter). He hit a fly to left and Murton went back and away from the line of the ball before trying to catch it. He should have gone in the opposite direction and come in. The upshot was he missed the take and this was ruled a hit not the error it clearly was. Both runners were home 5-2 Tigers, runner on second. If this wasn't caculated to upset Iwata the next incident would have done. The batter was Yamada (pinch hitting for Tanaka) who skied one into left. Toritani did go back but broke off when he saw Murton coming in. Murton mistimed his slide the ball bouncing off his leg and rolling away to right. where it was fielded by Toritani. This put runners on second and third - Kawamoto being held up by the Swallows third base coach. Once again this was somehow classified as a hit, not the error it was. This was the end of Murton - he was replaced by Shunsuke. Murton had been a bit slow around the field; the contrast with his cheerful happy form was quite noticeable. When Murton is content he charges round the field and gets in everyone's way with eagerness. Ueda flew out to Shunsuke and no run resulted but Iwata was now beyond help. He drifited and Milledge hit nicely into left centre bringing in the runners 5-4 Tigers, runner on second. Hatakeyama singled to set up runners on first and third. Then Kawabata hit a sacrifice fly to centre scoring Milledge 5-5 scores tied, runner on first. Iihara grounded out to short and Tigers had blown a five run lead.

Akagawa had been pinch hit for but his replacement didn't fill you with confidence. Swallows pitching really is imploding dramatically. Matsui took over and with Iwata out walked Uemoto. Uemoto stole second and then made third on Yamato's ground out to second. Toritani walked but Ryota Arai struck out looking to end the innings. Still the game was there for the taking as long as Tigers held their nerve. Despite the Swallows fightback Tigers held the whip hand. Iwata then returned to his best from - true it was the bottom of Swallows order but they had given him trouble the innings before. Morioka grounded out to short. Aikawa grounded out to second and Yuichi (pinch hitter) grounded out to first - good work. Hirai pitched Tigers fifth and Shusuke hit to left. Next was Takahiro Arai who once again hit the ball into the left centre stand for another two run home run 7-5 Tigers. Hirano struck out but Komiyama worked another walk. Iwata tried to bunt but ended up forcing Komiyama out - runner on first. Then Uemoto walked to set up runners on first and second. This time Yamato hit his first pitch into the glove of left to end the innings. Iwata was pitching for the victory so a risky fifth innings was attempted. Yamada singled and was bunted to second. Ordinarily this would be a sign of relief - the innings would be scoreless. Milledge struck out looking and then Iwata let fly the wild pitch to end all wild pitches. Komiyama had absolutely no chance. It was so bat that Yamada scrambled round the bases to make home 7-6 Tigers and Swallows were a bit closer. Hatakeyama tried to hit to centre but grounded out to Iwata to end the innings. Tigers still held the lead and Iwata was still on course for his first win in six starts. Hirai managed quite well in Tigers sixth. The clean up was strangely ineffective and no one got on base. For Swallows sixth Komiyama got Katoh who has been quite effective this year. Certainly effective enough for me to revise my opinion of him as useless to useful. He was in effective mode and in a very useful innigs got Kawabata and Iihara to fly out and Morioka to strike out. All with no base runners.

Tigers seventh was pitched by Oshimoto. He struck out Takahiro Arai, got Hirano to fly out and then walked Komiyama who once again was in careful mode. This was useful as Wada sent Brazell (pinch hitter) to the plate. Brazell got hold of a nice fat pitch and banged it into the Tigers oendan for a two run home run 9-6 Tigers. His first pinch hit home run of his Japanese career. Uemoto picked up a dead ball and then tried to steal second but this time was thrown out ending the innings. Cheng started Swallows seventh and gave up a lead off hit to Yamada. He was bunted to second by Ueda and it seemed that Swallows were not looking for the win but just aiming to snatch the game. Cheng struck out Milledge looking and then Wada blundered. He brought on Tsutsui for the final out. Tsutsui is not pitching well and the need to change was not immediately clear. Panic most likely. Tsutsui immediately gave up a hit to Ueda and then walked Milledge to load the bases. Hatakeyama swung too soon and flew out to second. On balance leaving Cheng in for the final out would have been the more intelligent move. Tsutsui had nearly blown the lead. Hidaka took over for Tigers eighth. He also found it difficult to keep the runners off base. Yamato struck out but Toritani walked. Ryota Arai flew out and then Shusuke walked. Next was Takahiro Arai but he was out of home runs and flew out to first and ended the innings. Fukuhara took the Swallows eighth and was not on his best form - sometimes he does well with Komiyama, sometimes not and this is the case with Fujii as well though he mostly gets on very well with Fujii. He gave up a lead off hit to Kawabata. The next two batters flew out and then Fukuhara missed the plate by a long way a pass ball in fact. This took Kawabata to second and put a run in scoring postion, something the Swallows batters had been trying to do and failing spectacularly at. Aikawa worked the count full and then singled but it was enough for Kawabata to make home 9-7 Tigers, runner on first. Finally Fukuhara did what he should have done earlier and induced the fly out to end the innings, the batter being Fujimoto (pinch hitter). Tigers ninth saw another Tigers reject, Abe. He got Hirano to ground out to short and then walked Komiyama (who picked up three walks this game). Kanemoto (pinch hitter) flew out to third in familiar style and finally Uemoto struck out looking. Kyuji Fujikawa pitched Swallows ninth. Tigers were looking at a rather good victory now. He started in familiar style walking the lead off batter, this time Yamada. Ueda popped up to short and Milledge struck out looking. Then Kyuji let fly a wild pitch which took Yamada to second. This was academic rather like the steals which often happen when he's pitching the ninth. Hatakeyama worked the count full and then let fly but the ball skiied up and Uemoto ran round from second to take the ball in foul ground and end the game. Tigers victory.

This was a good win for Tigers - Komiyama had done what Fujii couldn't and delivered a win for Iwata. He had called well in what had been a wild game. Takahiro Arai seems to have rediscovered his mojo and his hitting well.
The save was Kyuji's 17th and pretty comfortable. Swallows really do need to do something about their pitching; they are really floundering. Tigers need to do something about their inept management; we saw the talent in the side this game but it is being stifled by foolish coaches. As for Murton, he has earned a trip to ni-gun and no doubt will have to work on his attitude before being allowed back into the top team. In the extreme we may not see him back at all.