March 31st Fujinami v Yagi - Fujinami's first game

It was cold and cloudy again in Tokyo making for unpleasant circumstances to pitch your first professional start. I wrote how it would have been good to pair Fujinami with a different catcher for his first pro start but he was paired with Fujii again. Not a disaster and in fact a quality start but like Iwata the day before run support was lacking and both participants disappeared after the sixth. Scores

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

Starting Lineups

Tigers
1. Nishioka (Second)
2. Yamato (Centre)
3. Toritani (Short)
4. Ryota Arai (Third)
5. Fukudome (Right)
6. Murton (Left)
7. Conrad (Third)
8. Fujii (Catcher)
9. Fujinami (Pitcher)

Swallows
1. Tanaka (Second)
2. Ueda (Centre)
3. Milledge (Left)
4. Hatakeyama (First)
5. Iwamura (Third)
6. Aikawa (Catcher)
7. Takai (Right)
8. Kawashima (Short)
9. Yagi (Pitcher)

Even the new look Tigers couldn't escape tradition. An unfamiliar pitcher and they failed to hit with runners on base. Yagi started well and retired the first three Tigers batters in 12 pitches. Fujinami started with a piece of bad luck. Tanaka hit a grounder to Ryota who fumbled and allowed the Swallows lead off to get to first safely. Ueda bunted him to second but outran the field to make first safely as well. Fujinami's first innings wasn't going well. Milledge hit a deep fly which took the runners to second and third. Then Hatakeyama lifted one over the infield where it bounced in front of Yamato for a timely single 1-0 Swallows, runners on first and third. That was the end of the scoring as Iwamura flew out. Yagi also started having trouble after his good first. Ryota Arai singled and then tried to take second but was out. Fukudome walked but Murton flew out. Conrad singled and Tigers had runners on first and second. It was up to Fujii but like all our catchers he is an occasional batter and this was not the occasion - he flew out to end the innings. Fujinami was still struggling with conditions and the calling and walked Takai and Kawashima to set up runners on first and second with no outs. It did not look promising. Luckily the last batter was Yagi who tried to bunt but was neatly dispatched by Fujinami with three failed bunts. Tanaka struck out and then Ueda did the same - a very nice recovery by Fujinami. Nishioka singled with one out in Tigers third but the next two batters couldn't do anything and the innings was scoreless. It would be nice to say that the second innings had given Fujinami some confidence but it was not the case. Milledge led off the bottom with a single. He stole second which was quite a surprise as one didn't think he had the acceleration but Hatakeyama flew out. Another out and Aikawa walked. Fujinami then nicely struck out Takai to get out of the innings.

Tigers fourth was quiet with the batters all trying to hit over the top and all flying out. Finally, in Swallows fourth Fujinami was able to pitch an innings with no runners on retiring the batters in order. Tigers fifth saw another wasted chance. Conrad led the innings off with a double. Both Fujii and Fujinami flew out with Conrad touching up and taking third on Fujinami's flyout. Nishioka though couldn't exploit the chance and popped up to first. Swallows fifth was also quiet - Fujinami had found a grove and retired the batters in order. Yagi started to tire in Tigers sixth but once again the visitors failed to take advantage. Yamato led the innings off with a single. Toritani drew a walk - runners on first and second with no outs. Then it all went wrong. Ryota flew out, Fukudome struck out and Murton also flew out. Another wasted chance. Iwamura started Swallows sixth by flying out and so did Aikawa. Next was Takai and Fujinami put a fork plumb in the middle of the zone for him to hit. It was dispatched easily over the right fence for a solo home run 2-0 Swallows and the death blow. Finally Kawashima grounded out to end the innings.

Tigers still had a chance to fight back but they just didn't seem to have the will. Fujii was pinch hit for by Sekimoto who picked up a one out walk and was pinch run for by Shunsuke. Takahiro Arai (pinch hitting for Fujinami) struck out but Nishioka singled - runners on first and second against a tiring pitcher. It was not to be - Yamato flew out to end that chance. Katoh took over for Swallows seventh pitching to Komiyama. With two out Ueda singled but Katoh got Milledge to fly out and end the danger. Yamamoto pitched Tigers eighth and was much better than the relief in the first game. True he did give up a two out single to Fukudome but then got Murton to fly out to end the innings. Swallows eighth was pitched by Tsuru who also gave up a two out single - this one to Aikawa. Nothing came of it. So to Tigers ninth and Barnette. The Swallows closer was, unfortunately, on form and struck out the three batters he faced. Incidently, Wada saw it necessary to have Komiyama pinch hit for by Hidaka. This was a why? moment. There was absolutely no need to replace one occasional batter with another. Anyway Swallows victory.

Fujinami hadn't done particularly well on his first outing and does need to be paired with a different catcher. However, he hadn't done too badly either. For Tigers the real issue was once again the failure of the batting. This is only the first series but to be shut out in two of the games is hardly encouraging especially as neither opponent pitcher was on top form. Swallows could be happy with their series but Tigers need to start to look at hitting with runners on base.