April 12th Messenger v Takasaki - Messenger supreme

Sometimes all a catcher needs to do is squat back and just make sure he doesn't drop the ball. This was Fujii's role on Friday night. He did make up for his inaction by driving in the winning run though. What was worrying from Tigers point of view was the crowd - under 33,000. Tigers are not filling Koshien which tells you what fans think of Wada and the fools who appointed him. Scores

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

Starting lineups

BayStars
1. Ishikawa (Short)
2. Uchimura (Second)
3. Nakamura (Third)
4. Blanco (First)
5. Ramirez (Left)
6. Kinjoh (Right)
7. Aranami (Centre)
8. Tsuruoka (Catcher)
9. Takasaki (Pitcher)

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

Messenger had a lot to prove after his poor start the game before. BayStars started poorly with all three batters falling in order as Messenger started well. Tigers saw two outs fall but then Toritani singled to centre. Murton could not respond and struck out swinging to end the innings. BayStars first hit followed in their second with Kinjoh hitting right. Aranami managed to drive the ball right back at Messenger who took the catch to end the innings. BayStars were suddenly in a mess in Tigers second. Fukudome worked a walk. Arai singled to set up runners on first and third. Conrad struck out but then Fujii managed to get enough bat on a 2-1 pitch to drive it into the left field. Fukudome raced home 1-0 Tigers, runners on first and second. Messenger bunted the runners to second and third and then Nishioka singled to centre bringing home Arai 2-0 Tigers runners on first and third. Finally Yamato was caught looking and struck out. Two BayStars fell before Ishikawa drew a walk but Uchimura grounded out to third to end the BayStars challenge. Tigers third could have been better. First Toritani then Murton singled to set up runners on first and third. Tigers blew it with Fukudome and Arai striking out and then Conrad flying out to left.

BayStars fourth saw Blanco single with one out but Ramirez hit into a double play to end that innings. Tigers fourth was quiet. BayStars fifth followed the same pattern - they were not dealing with Messenger well. Unfortunately, neither were Tigers dealing with Takasaki who was pitching quite assuredly after his shaky early start. The Tigers fifth saw the batters fall in order. BayStars sixth was quiet with Messenger dominant. Fukudome struck out looking to start Tigers sxith and then with another out Conrad worked a walk. However, Fujii struck out looking to end the chance. Still Tigers were comfortable with a two run lead.

BayStars lucky seventh and Nakamura singled to right to lead off the innings. That was all the luck they had and Blanco flew out to first in foul ground. Ramirez flew out to short and finally Kinjoh grounded out. Tigers lucky seventh saw a one out walk to Nishioka. Wada being Wada and quite brain dead had Yamato bunt him to second. It was Toritani's turn to strike out looking. Messenger mowed down the BayStars in their eighth looking cool and collected. Takasaki was replaced by Yoshikawa for Tigers eighth. He had a torrid time of it. With one out Fukudome singled. Then after another Arai failure Conrad also singled. With runners on first and third it was up to Fujii but he couldn't repeat the feat of the second innings and grounded out to end the innings. The question was would Messenger get his complete game shutout. The answer was yes - the top of the BayStars order were out in order and the Tigers had won 2-0.

This had been another very fast game with Messenger being totally dominant and throwing only 105 pitches over the nine innings. Tigers have now shut out opponents over 41 consecutive innings which shows how good their pitching is. They will not continue this (the game report of the second match this series will follow and detail how Fujii and Iwata still cannot get on.