September 4th Kubo v Sawamura - Endgame Blues

The big shock wasn't Fujii's thoroughly inept performance behind the plate though this was worse than his usual standards. No the real shock was the huge empty spaces at Koshien. This is Tigers/Giants match and yet it attracted a crowd of only 34,000! The area between the Gaia and third base foul pole was half empty. Normally, tickets for these games are like gold dust and either someone has screwed up badly in ticket allocation or fans are voting with their feet. Either way, the Tigers organisation is in trouble and seems to be heading for half full stadiums again. The news also emerged that Kyuji has hired American agents so it seems that he is adamant about going to MLB. Tigers are, at the moment, thinking of handing the closer role to Nohmi. Now taking your ace out of the rotation might not be thought of as a good move considering that you are not particularly quick at developing pitchers and it took ages to develop Nohmi into a successful starter. One wishes for the return of the satirical cartoon Daily Sports used to run - only it could actually make sense of the developments in the Tigers organisation. Scores

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

Starting lineups

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

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. Fujii (Catcher)
9. Kubo (Pitcher)

After pairing Kubo with Komiyama, Wada went back to the Kubo/Fujii pooring. It can't be said to have worked and Fujii was more than unusually bad this game. One wonders if his health was good as he made all sorts of errors beyond his normally poor calling. Kubo was rapidly in trouble - in fact the first innings was not so good. With Chono gone, Matsumoto hit a high fly ball into foul ground. Ryota Arai chased it and took the catch but as he did so tripped and fell into the photographer's dugout. He came out with an unpleasant looking cut and abrasion which needed treatment. After this took place, Sakamoto singled to centre. Up came Abe, grunted and took a swing at his first pitch. This flew off to left where it landed just inside the foul pole for a two run home run 2-0 Giants. Murata singled left and Tigers looked to be in a lot of trouble. Then Takahashi hit back to Kubo who fielded the ball for the final out. Not a lot of trouble but trouble nonetheless. Sawamura looks tired - he tries hard but he looks like he just can't manage to deliver. Still he kept the Tigers quiet over their first innings retiring the batters in order - no one hitting well. Fujimura grounded out to second to start the Giants second and this brought up Sanematsu who hit hard and high to left for a solo home run. In fact, he landed the ball in the contingent of Giants fans who were of course delighted 3-0 Giants. Things definitely didn't look good. It was almost like Kubo was learning a new catcher - communication wasn't wonderful between the two. Still Sawamura helped by grounding out to first and then Chono hit to Kubo who fielded for the final out. Thankfully for Tigers Sawamura interviened. His first pitch to Ryota Arai was tired and Ryota Arai showing none of the ill effects of his fall hit the ball along the third baseline for a solo home run 3-1 Giants. Murton grounded out but Takahiro Arai walked. Hirano singled to centre - runners on first and second. Next was Fujii who swung and lofted the ball high but luckily it dropped short of Chono who couldn't reach it in time. Everyone waited to see if it was out so Tigers could only manage a bases loaded situation. Kubo was next and Sawamura made heavy weather of striking him out - he really was struggling. Then he faced Uemoto and his third pitch brushed the elbow of the Tigers second - dead ball oshidashi 3-2 Giants, bases loaded. Yamato was next and Sawamura wearily battled Yamato who hit a lot of skiers which no one could reach before finally getting him to ground out to third to end the innings. Tigers had made significant steps in eliminating the deficit. Kubo wasn't exactly pitching well and Matsumoto led off the Giants third with a single to right. Sakamoto hit to centre and flew out which brought up Abe. He swung at his first pitch - much the same shot as he played in the first though this one went foul. However, Fujii allowed his glove to make contact with Abe's bat and the umpire awarded first base to the Giants catcher. An elementary mistake which shouldn't have happened. Murata saved the situation hitting into a double play which given the speeds of the two Giants was a mere formality. Toritani worked a walk off the tired Sawamura to lead off Tigers first. Ryota Arai tried to hit over the field to centre and even though he got some distance Matsumoto took the catch. Murton flew out to left but then Takahiro Arai singled neatly to centre - runners on first and third. The next batter Hirano cracked a ball into right bringing in the runner 3-3 scores tied, runners on first and third. Fujii was next and could only fly out to centre but Tigers had eliminated a three run deficit - yatta dekiru yan ka.

Suddenly Tigers battery communication was working again - Giants fourth saw all three batters go down in order with the final batter Sanematsu striking out swinging. A very satisfactory innings indeed. Tigers then managed to waste their fourth. With Kubo out, Uemoto singled left. Yamato flew out to right but then Uemoto stole second. Sanematsu made a neat throw but in front of the plate and Sakamoto was too late with the tag. Toritani walked - runners on first and second. Ryota Arai tried to go left again but was caught comfortably by Takahashi to end the innings. Giants fifth saw Matsumoto walk with two outs. Sakamoto hit to left and was comfortably taken by Murton. The game had, to some extent, gone off the boil if you can say that about a Tigers/Giants clash. Tigers weren't doing anything either and their middle order wasn't really firing either after Hirano's run. The latter ended the Tigers fifth hitting back to Sawamura for the third out. Giants sixth saw Abe start by lining out to Uemoto. Murata struck out swinging and then Takahashi flew out to right. Tigers sixth and Sawamura was still on the mound. Fujii went easily striking out - well he isn't known for his batting skills and Kubo grounded out. Uemoto singled left and immediately after Yamato singled left as well - runners on first and second. Sawamura tried futilely to pick off both runners but then Wada signaled the double steal with Toritani at the plate. This didn't come off, Sanematsu throwing to second for the tag out of Yamato to end the innings.

Fujimura hit his first pitch back at Kubo who failed to hold it and the Giants runner was safe on first. Not a good start to the Giants seventh. Sanematsu bunted him to second and then Furuki (pinch hitter) grounded out to first which did take Fujimura to third. Hara had finally decided to put Sawamura out of his misery but the Giants pitcher had taken 114 pitches for his six innings without being particularly impressive. Chono was next and swung at a rather wild fork from Kubo. Fujii failed to stop the ball and it rolled away with Chono setting off for first. Luckily for Fujii, the ball didn't roll far and he was able to retrieve it and throw to first for the out - a very fortunate escape for the Tigers. That ended the innings and brought Takagi to the mound for Tigers seventh. This started with Toritani striking out looking. Then Ryota Arai popped up to short and finally, Murton hit to second. His return to the top team hadn't been notable at all. Kubo struck out Matsumoto to start Giants eighth but then Sakamoto singled to centre. Abe flew out and Murata hit a grounder to Kubo for the final out. Fukuda took over for Tigers eighth. When Tigers should have been turning on the pressure they found they hadn't the means. All the batters worked the pitcher but he came out victorious at each encounter. Takahiro Arai flew out in foul ground to a nice catch near the fence by Abe. Hirano flew out to short and Fujii struck out - a failure of an innings. Now we come to the great problem for Fujii at the moment - a tied game and the relief. Kubo had thrown 114 pitches over his eight innings and had done enough. Fujii had to work with the relief which recently he has been singularly unable to do so. He was paired with Enokida for Giants ninth. It would have been better if Wada had brought Komiyama on here which would have at least acknowledged the reality but Fujii remained. Enokida faced Yano (replacement left). Yano took his third in a sequence of cutballs and hammered this into left field. In fact it just missed being a home run hitting the fence just below the line. Murton tried to get it but had no chance and the ball bounced into the outfield where it was picked up by Yamato and thrown to Toritani for the relay. Yano though reached third - a devastating blow. Hara sent Tani (pinch hitter) in to bat and he connected with a low slider driving it along the third baseline just past Ryota Arai who was a bit slow to get down. The ball rolled away into left and Tani took second 4-3 Giants with Terauchi pinch running for Tani. A disastrous start but worse was to follow. Sanematsu bunted Tani to third and then Ohta (pinch hitter) walked - runners on first and third. So far the damage was bad but the game was winnable and Wada acted rightly to replace Enokida with Fukuhara. However, he did not replace his catcher. Ohta stole second with Fujii failing to make the throw - he tried but didn't seem to have the energy. Chono was next and with the count on 3 and 1 he hit a weak shot to second. Uemoto was close in and fielded and threw to Fujii at the plate. Fujii was crouched down low and all he needed to do was swing his arm round and tag the runner coming in. He dropped the ball and so when he tried to tag there was no ball in it and Terauchi was safe 5-3 Giants, runners on first and third. This was judged a throwing error but this was just the ineptness of the Koshien scorer. The throw from Yamato was good - straight into Fujii's glove. It was Fujii's error in dropping the ball as he began to move his arm not the throw. Ishii (pinch hitter and replacement first) was the next one to see if he could induce an error in Tigers. He was successful. He hit to second - Uemoto fielded spun and threw to Toritani for the force out at second. Toritani transferred the ball and went to throw then dropped the ball! This error somehow totally escaped the Koshien scorer who it must be said is not particularly competent. What would have been an innings ending double play became instead 6-3 Giants, runner on first with two outs. Fukuhara could perhaps be forgiven for feeling thoroughly cheesed off by now. As it was he was a bit casual with his pitching to Sakamoto who hit deep to left centre over the head of Murton. The ball bounced off the fence and Murton was poorly positioned to take it. Ishii raced round the bases and slid home 7-4 Giants, runner on second. This was the end of Fukuhara and Tsutsui took over. Abe was the batter who swung to right and it was a deep hit but Hirano was under it and took the catch to end the nightmare. Nishimura took Tigers ninth and got a nice return hit from Imanari (pinch hitter) which brought the first out. Uemoto hit to left for a two base hit. It would have taken a miracle for Tigers to overhaul the Giants but they could at least get some compensation. Yamato was pinch hit for by Kanemoto who hit a grounder to second. This moved Uemoto to third. This left things to Toritani who hit into right but flew out to end the game. Giants victory

An error filled ninth had finished Tigers chances after they had worked hard to get back into the game. Fujii had been dismal but until the eighth survived quite well. He should have been replaced by Komiyama for the ninth, something Wada has done at Tokyo Dome with the result that Tigers held the tie. Fujii and the relief are two antagonistic at the moment. Tigers should have made more of Sawamura's tiredness - they were rather lax in trying to take hold of the game and too prepared to sit back once they had tied the score. Even though the Giants are the better team this was a winnable game but the errors of the ninth were more than significant. So was Fujii's inept performance.