September 2nd Saiuchi v Kenta Maeda - A new pitcher for Tigers

Tigers brought up Saiuchi for his first professional start of his career. He was wobbly and it was just as well that they had Komiyama behind the plate. Even so the catcher had a torrid time of it but Saiuchi managed to survive with just one run given up. The game moved along at a fantastic pace and both sides struggle to score with Tigers coming up with the sayonara hit in the eleventh. In fact the game had been so quick that it finished just after 9:30pm. Saiuchi showed some nice pitching but still had a lot of rough edges to rub off. He was also pretty wild even when he had settled down. Scores

        1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 R H E
Carp    0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  0  0 1 7 0
Tigers  0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0  0 2x 3 6 0

Starting lineups

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

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

Saiuchi started the game nervously and gave up a single to centre off his first pitch to Higashide. He struck Kikuchi out; for some welcome reason Nomura eschewed the bunt this innings. Then Saiuchi started to lose the zone in a big way. He walked Amaya on a full count, not being able to place his pitches. A wild pitch took the two runners to second and third and next Saiuchi walked Eldred to load the bases. He was in trouble and it is to his credit that he got out of it. Maru was induced to swing at a higher pitch (nice calling by Komiyama) and flew out to third. Then Dobayashi hit to short for the force out and the end of the innings. Maeda on the other hand started smoothly and retired the batters in order. Both Uemoto and Yamato tried to hit to centre on pitches that weren't there to be hit. Ryota Arai has good points and bad points and like a lot of games both were on display. Here he was standing too far off his base and wouldn't be able to cover the base line and so when Akamatsu hit along the baseline he had no chance. This was a double and rather worrying with Saiuchi at the mound. Still he did well getting Ishihara to ground out to short locking the runner on second but Maeda's ground out to second moved Akamatsu to third. Next was Higashide and in the previous innings he had hit straight back at the pitcher. This time he also did the same but the ball was much closer to Saiuchi. He dropped his glove to take the ball but failed to watch the ball and just put his glove on the ground. The ball bobbled and bounced off his wrist away to second. Uemoto fielded but had no chance of the out and Higashide was safe on first. Worryingly Akamatsu was able to make home 1-0 Carp. Tigers second just showed batters at sea and unable to deal with Maeda. He was purring through his innings at a fantastic rate. Saiuchi settled down for Carp's third and retired the clean up in order. One could see why Tigers management were giving him a chance as he had a lot of good stuff. Tigers third and the bottom of the order couldn't make any impression though one wouldn't have expected them to. Hirano though did make Maeda work hard for his strike out and Tigers really should have done more of this though -.not one Tigers batter had reached base.

Carp's fourth was almost a farce. Saiuchi was really wild and with the count at 1-2 Dobayashi got a really wild pitch. He swung at it anyway and Komiyama was able to block but not to pick up and throw. Dobayashi was safe on first and Akamatsu was instructed to bunt. He did so, the ball rolling a little way to third. Komiyama chased it down and went to throw to first but Ryota Arai had come charging in and collided with Komiyama preventing the throw. Carp now had runners on first and second. This was another mistake by Ryota Arai who should have stayed on his base. Ishihara bunted the runners to second and third which brought up Maeda. He didn't try anything subtle but just swung at his first pitch which ballooned off his bat into foul ground right. Hirano ran round and took the catch at which point Dobayashi set off for home. Hirano fired the ball in and Uemoto relayed it to Komiyama who blocked the plate superbly to prevent Dobayashi sliding across it. All Komiyama had to do was tap Dobayashi with the ball for the final out - a superb piece of fielding by all involved. This seemed to energise Tigers who finally got going in the bottom of the fourth. With Uemoto gone, Yamato hit along the line and over third for a double. Toritani hit to third but Dobayashi was unable to do anything except dive and push the ball into foul ground. Tigers had runners on first and third. Carp then walked Ryota Arai in four to load the bases. They needed a double play from Maeda to rescue the situation. The batter was Brazell and he hit towards Higashide who went wrong way but managed to block the ball with his shoulder. The ball bounced off his shoulder landing conveniently for the innings ending double play. Carp's fifth was much quieter - the top of the order was well contained by Saiuchi and all grounded out. Maeda started Tigers fifth by striking out Saka who throughout the game looked out of his depth. Hirano got a nice hittable pitch and stroked it into centre where it evaded Akamatsu's dive and rolled away for a two base hit. Komiyama grounded out to second but moved Hirano to third. Here Wada decided on a pinch hitter and his choice was a surprise - Kanemoto. Kanemoto has been used as a pinch hitter before but without success. This time was different. He was able to pick his shot and drive it into right bringing in the tying run 1-1 scores tied, runner on first. Finally, Uemoto flew out to left but now the game was level. Tsuru took over for Carp's sixth. He was good with Komiyama getting Eldred first pitch. Maru singled right and made second as Dobayashi grounded out to Toritani. Akamatsu hit into Hirano's glove for the second out. Two outs with Akamatsu next. He hit to Uemoto who juggled but made the throw in time to end the innings. Maeda having lost the lead seemed to have recovered his composure and struck out both Toritani and Ryota Arai.

Tsuru returned for Carp's second and gave up a single to Ishihara. Ishihara had hit past Ryota Arai to where Toritani fielded. Toritani couldn't get the throw away in time. Maeda laid down a bunt to take the runner to second and Higashide hit to right. Kikuchi hit to Toritani for the final out. Tigers fielding was certainly top level this game. It was a pity one could not say that about their batting. Partly it was Maeda partly it was poor shot options. Saka personified this in Tigers seventh. He decided he was going to try a bunt hit. He bunted the ball nicely enough but it was a standard bunt, nothing special. The point about a bunt hit is it takes the opposition by surprise and this one didn't. Maeda picked up and threw to first for the out. A truly stupid piece of wastefulness. The innings ended with Hirano after working the count full flying out to centre. Katoh took over for Carp's eighth. He really has come on and has an ERA of 0.68. He was aggressive and polished working well with Komiyama to retire the batters in order. Tigers eighth was Maeda's last innings. He pitched well this innings and Tigers batters fell 1-2-3. Katoh pitched Carp's ninth as well and got Dobayashi to ground out to him. Then Akamatsu singled to centre for his third hit of the game.. Ishihara whacked his first pitch to right and Hirano came charging in and dived full length to snatch the ball out of the air for the second out. Mukae (pinch hitter) was next and on his first pitch Akamatsu took second, Komiyama not making the throw. He then decided to walk Mukae - this was a deliberate walk. Wada looked rather put out at this strategy but Komiyama knew what he was doing. Carp went for another pinch hitter, this one being Soyogi who Katoh proceeded to strike out to end the innings. It had been very good work by pitcher and catcher. For Tigers ninth the pitcher was Yokoyama. He got Yamato to fly out but then gave up a single to Toritani. Ryota Arai struck out and Toritani stole second at the same time. Imanari (pinch hitter) was next and was deliberately walked. Kawauchi took over for the final out. This proved to be Hiyama (pinch hitter) who flew out to a fine catch by Eldred. The game went into extra innings and given the pace it had been played at was certain to go the full eleven innings allowable.

Enokida started by getting Kikuchi to fly out to right. Then he got Amaya to ground out to short and struck out Eldred. Carp's tenth was over quickly. Imamura pitched Tigers tenth and was just as effective. He had to fight Hirano who ended up lining out to first but then Komiyama struck out looking and Shunsuke (replacement left) flew out to right. Both Mukae and Kimura (replacement third) flew out to centre to start Carp's eleventh. Enokida looked far more confident with Komiyama than with Fujii a few nights before. His pitching was more assured and he wasn't getting runners on base. His final victim was Akamatsu who grounded out to third. Carp couldn't win the game now but they could lose it. Imamura was the pitcher for Tigers eleventh. He got Uemoto to hit to third off his first pitch. Yamato worked a walk as Imamura struggled to cope with the zone. Toritani swung and popped the ball up to second. Two outs and it looked like the game was heading for a tie. Ryota Arai was the next batter and he got a nice hittable pitch for his first pitch. He slammed the ball into the left stand for the first sayonara home run of his career 3-1 Tigers and victory.

Tigers had won their first series since 10-12th July against the Dragons. The victory went to Enokida. They had kept things tight and used some good pitching and fine catching to keep the Carp under control. Ryota Arai had come through when needed. Tigers need to play like this more often. Komiyama is gradually taking over more and more of the catching duties and is delivering in tight games like this one. Saiuchi looked interesting and should have more opportunities this season to pitch in the first team. This time Tigers had made a bold move and it paid off.