May Day Enokida v Kenta Maeda - Doom and Gloom

Well the crowd at Koshien was bigger but not by much (34K instead of 30K) and the assembled fans didn't really have a good time. At least the Tigers fans didn't (the Carp fans did) but they did get to see a very fine pitching performance by Maeda. One can say that Tigers really blew this series with their incompetent fielding on Sunday. They had Carp on the ropes but then let things dribble away. Carp despite Maeda are still bottom feeders - some things never change. We saw a return of Enokida's nerves and a perfectly innocuous situation in the third was allowed to develop into something worse. We also saw the return of Imanari behind the plate - here you just don't understand what Wada was thinking, if indeed that was what the latter was doing. Imanari is a poor catcher (not even Fujii level) off-loaded by Nippon Ham in exchange for one of our poorer pitchers - I forget which one. He has been used as a pinch hitter but it is difficult to understand why Wada needs four catchers in the top team when another pitcher might be a good idea. Scores

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

Starting Lineups

Carp
1. Kikuchi (Second)
2. Maru (Centre)
3. Soyogi (Short)
4. Hirose (Right)
5. Mukae (Left)
6. Dobayashi (Third)
7. Kurihara (First)
8. Ishihara (Catcher)
9. Kenta Maeda (Pitcher)

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

Enokida started well striking out Kikuchi and then Maru. His pitches were nicely placed and the batters were bamboozled. Soyogi then grounded out to short to end the Carp's first - an encouraging start. Maeda retired Nishioka and Yamato but Toritani singled nicely. Murton could only ground out to second though and Tigers first was over. Carp were still unable to get runners on in the second - three batters went down in order. Tigers second followed the pattern of the first with two outs. Then Ryota had a rather fortunate double - he ballooned the ball up and whilst it was always going to land short of left coming in it fortunately squirted away from Mukae allowing Ryota to take second. Next was Hidaka who hit straight to Kurihara at first. For some reason Enokida's control suddenly deserted him in Carp's third. He had one out with Ishihara next. Ishihara walked and was bunted to second by Maeda. Two outs with Kikuchi next shouldn't have been an issue but it was. Kikuchi hit weakly to centre which put runners on the corners. Still no reason to panic but Enokida did just that. One thinks that perhaps he needs more support as he gets worried far too easily. Enokida walked Maru to load the bases but still there was only one out to get. However, he then walked Soyogi - oshidashi 1-0 Carp, bases loaded. His pitching was really terrible and why he thought a straight as low as he threw would work is a mystery. Hirose was next and Enokida kept his second pitch up this time but it was in the lower middle of the zone. Hirose drove into right centre between Yamato and Fukudome for a bases clearing double 4-0 Carp,runner on second. On reaching base Hirose stood at attention and saluted as he does when he scores. Tigers would have a struggle to recover from this disaster. Mukae hit to centre and flew out to end the innings. With a four run cushion Maeda could relax a bit and enjoy himself and this is exactly what he did in Tigers third. The batters fell in order and it began to look ominously like Tigers would be shut out.

Carp's fourth was quiet with Enokida pitching much better and finishing the innings by striking out Ishihara. One wonders why he didn't do that the previous innings. He wasn't in any trouble at that time. Tigers fourth saw Murton single to centre with one out but Fukudome swung wildly at an outside pitch he really should have left and then Arai hit a weak grounder to Maeda for the final out. Maeda was the first out of the Carp's fifth which brought up Kikuchi. He decided to bunt and laid down a shot to the right infield. There was a slight hesitation but Arai came in from first to take and throw to base for the out. However, Nishioka hadn't run over to cover first and Arai had to abort his throw with the runner safe. Nishioka really isn't very good in the second spot. Frequently poor throwing and poor positioning cause a lot of issues for Tigers. Kikuchi tried to steal second but was thrown out nicely by Hidaka. Then Maru struck out - after some nice work the Carp had rather incompetently thrown things away. Tigers fifth saw no base runners at all - Itoh pinch hit for Enokida who was replaced as Wada had had enough. He was lured into striking out swinging at a high pitch by Maeda to end the innings. Tsuru took over for Carp's sixth. He started by giving up a line drive to Soyogi - it wasn't an impressive call from Hidaka. However, in an act of the grossest stupidity Hirose tried to bunt his first pitch. The ball popped up for a little foul fly into the glove of Hidaka. One doesn't know if he was under instruction but with a 4-0 lead and your No. 4 batter you should not be bunting. Then Mukae singled to left to put runners on first and second. Dobayashi flew out deep to centre and Soyogi tagged up and took third with Mukae remaining on first. Kurihara was next and he was lured into popping up to Hidaka for the final out. Tigers had survived but Carp had messed up another chance. Tigers sixth was rapidly over though - the top of the order could do nothing against Maeda and Tigers already looked beaten.

Perhaps surprisingly given his shaky start Tsuru also pitched Carp's seventh. Here he was much better and even though it was the bottom of the Carp's order he was able to retire the three batters he faced. Tigers came out in their seventh ready to take on Maeda. It didn't quite work out. Murton flew out deep in left field - it was always going to be an out. Then Fukudome swung too soon and popped up to short. Arai though chose his pitch well and singled into centre. His brother Ryota managed to strike out and end the innings though. With one out in Carp's eighth Soyogi walked. He was pinch run for by Abe who would also take over his duties at short. Hirose didn't bunt this time but hit into centre to set up runners on first and third. Here Carp blew it again. Akamatsu pinch running for Hirose drifted too far off base and Tsuru fired to first to catch him well off base. He did try to go for second but was effectively sandwiched and run down by Nishioka and tagged out. All the time Tigers fielders kept Abe locked on third and didn't take their eyes off him. Finally Mukae grounded out to second to and that innings. Maeda didn't return for Tigers eighth and Imamura took the mound. Tigers batters didn't seem to have any answer to him either. Hidaka flew out, Imanari (pinch hitter and replacement catcher) struck out swinging in a poor piece of batting and finally Nishioka grounded out. For Carp's ninth Tigers brought on Tamaki. He started nervously but managed to get Dobayashi to ground out. He then struck out Kurihara very neatly. Ishihara was next and for the second pitch Imanari called for an outside pitch which Tamaki delivered. Ishihara took a swing and connected sending the ball flying off to the right where it connected with the foul pole - a solo home run 5-0 Carp. Lewis (pinch hitter) grounded out to end the innings. Mickolio who looks like something the cat dragged in took over to close out Tigers ninth. Yamato managed to ground out to Mickolio but then Toritani hit to centre. However, Murton hit straight into a 6-4-3 double play to end the game. Carp victory.

Tigers were always going to have to work hard against an on form Kenta Maeda but didn't really put in the effort needed. Too many loose swings at balls which could have been left suggested a strategy at odds with the conditions. Of course some of these were due to Maeda's skills but several were due to an unthinking approach to batting. Tigers are still second and Carp will fade and drift down to the bottom but the former do still need to work harder. This series was characterised by slackness on both sides and Tigers didn't really take advantage of the Carp's slackness. The use of Imanari was strange as well - if Wada really needed to replace Hidaka as catcher he had two superior options Fujii (who is easily superior to Imanari) and Komiyama. If he just wanted to take a look at Imanari, the previous nights game would have been a better time to do so not a game where Tigers were still in with a chance of taking.