May 11th Iwata v Ogawa - Stewed Swallows

The bad news is that Fujinami is experiencing stiffness of his lower back and will miss the start today. He will be replaced by Nohmi. Once again the Iwata/Hidaka team didn't really click, like the Iwata/Fujii team. Still we are playing the Swallows so at the moment are pretty much guaranteed a series if not a sweep. Swallows weak relief couldn't hold things and Tigers racked up tons of runs again. All in all a nice evening with a better crowd. The only issue for Tigers this game was maybe the amount of runs given up. Scores

          1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9  R  H E
Tigers    1 0 4 0 2 3 0 1 0 11 16 0
Swallows  0 3 0 2 0 0 0 2 0  7 13 0

Starting Lineups

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

Swallows
1. Hiyane (Centre)
2. Tanaka (Second)
3. Milledge (Left)
4. Balentien (Right)
5. Hatakeyama (First)
6. Miyamoto (Third)
7. Nakamura (Catcher)
8. Kawashima (Short)
9. Ogawa (Pitcher)

Once again with very little justification Hidaka batted seventh ahead of Itoh. One rather thinks that the Tigers management has decided that catchers bat seventh no matter what their quality. With Fujii (despite his poor calling) seventh is a justified position but not with Hidaka and it just makes one shake one's head in amazement at the rigid stupidity that passes for sense in Tigers land. Tigers started nicely with Nishioka hitting to left to lead the game off. He was bunted to second and surprise, surprise, the damn thing worked. Toritani blasted a double into centre to bring in Nishioka 1-0 Tigers, runner on second. There he stayed though as Murton and Ryota failed to do anything. Swallows first was quiet - the batters fell in order with Milledge finishing off by striking out swinging. Tigers second was unfortunately the same way and no one reached base. Swallows then bounced back in their second. Balentien doubled to right centre to lead the innings off. Iwata got Hatakeyama to pop up to Nishioka and then Miyamoto to line out; also to Nishioka. It all looked good for the third out but this didn't come off. Nakamura worked a walk and then Kawashima singled to left bringing in a run 1-1 scores tied, runners on first and second. Like Fujii there is a reason that Hidaka was catcher for a B class team and it was fully manifest as Ogawa hit a very nice double to right centre of his first pitch. This cleared the bases 3-1 Swallows, runner on second. Hiyane was next and he grounded out to end the innings. Luckily Swallows were their usual lesser quality than Tigers and even though Iwata was rapidly out Nishioka singled. Yamato grounded out to second but by dint of some superb base running Nishioka ended up on third. Very unsettling for the Swallows. Toritani and Murton then both walked to load the bases. Next Ryota swung and managed to drop the ball in front of Balentien for a timely double 3-3 scores tied, runners on second and third. If there had been a little luck there was no luck in Arai's drive, hit fiercely into left for another timely double 5-3 Tigers, runner on second. Hidaka then grounded out to second. Swallows third saw two outs with Milledge striking out looking but Balentien who was having a good day singled. Hatakeyama though went the same way as Milledge and struck out looking to end the innings.

Ogawa, even though, he had given up five runs was still hanging in there and pitched the Tigers fourth. Two outs and then Nishioka hit left again - one thinks that the pitching instructions to Nishioka were none too good. He hit left in four out of five of his hits. Yamato though grounded out to end the innings. Iwata being Iwata ran into trouble in the Swallows fourth. Miyamoto singled to lead off the innings. Nakamura flew out and Miyamoto stayed on first. Then Kawashima doubled to put runners on second and third, Miyamoto not exactly being the most speedy runner. Iwata was in trouble and Swallows knew it. Nitta pinch hit for Ogawa and hit a grounder to Nishioka. Nishioka fielded and threw to home but Miyamoto in a nice piece of play slid under the tag to reach home safely 5-4 Tigers, runners on first and third. Swallows then showed even more creativity with a squeeze bunt along the first baseline. Kawashima slid home 5-5 scores tied and to add insult to injury Hiyane was safe on first with Nitta on third. This brought a pitching changed and Tsuru took over from Iwata. He got Tanaka to ground out into a double play 4-6-3 this time to end the innings. Oshimoto took over from Ogawa for Tigers fifth and got Toritani to ground out. Murton doubled and Swallows were in trouble again. Ryota hit a line drive to set up runners on first and third. Arai hit deep to right for the sacrifice fly 6-5 Tigers, runner on second. There was a pitching change with Shoda taking over. Then Fujii (replacement catcher) drove to right. Ryota raced for home which is surprising for him and as he slid in bulldozed Nakamura out of the way. Ryota was able to tag home safely for the run 7-5 Tigers, runner on second. Nakamura never had the ball in his hand and so shouldn't have been blocking the plate. He recovered enough to continue the game though. Itoh grounded out to end the innings. Milledge led off Swallows fifth with a double. The change of catcher hadn't brought any improvement in the calling. With one out Hatakeyama's ground out took Milledge to third but Miyamoto couldn't convert and grounded out to Nishioka. Nishioka singled left with one out in Tigers sixth which was pitched by Emura. Yamato swung and broke his bat but still managed to single to centre to set up runners on first and second. Next was Toritani and he hit hard and deep into the right stand for a three run home run 10-5 Tigers. Swallows weren't going to recover from that. Murton singled left but Ryota and Arai struck out swinging trying to move Murton round to end the innings. Katoh pitched Swallows sixth and if we have one pitcher with true aggression this is the guy. He got Nakamura to fly out to centre and then Kawashima to fly out to right. Mizuta (pinch hitter) then struck out and the Swallows sixth was finished.

Shichijoh pitched Tigers seventh and started by getting Fujii to fly out. Itoh grounded out and then Tagami (pinch hitter and replacement right) grounded out to second to end the innings. The pitcher chosen for Swallows seventh was Tsutsui. He retired the batters 1-2-3 for a very satisfactory innings. Tigers had the game won and it was now in the endgame phase. There was still another act to come though. Nishioka led off Tigers eighth with a single to right. Amazingly he was bunted to second - you have a five run lead and you bunt? It is almost unbelievable. Anyway the bunt took Nishioka to second and then Toritani hit to centre to bring home Nishioka 11-5 Tigers. Toritani was able to make second - Tigers base running was all one could wish for. Murton singled to set up runners on first and third but that was the end of the good news with Ryota and Arai striking out swinging again. Still Tigers were well in control. Tsutsui returned for Swallows eighth and was immediately in trouble. Balentien got hold of one and hit into right stand for a solo home run 11-6 Tigers. Then Hatakeyama singled but Miyamoto grounded out forcing out Hatakeyama. Miwa pinch ran for Miyamoto as Nakamura singled to set up runners on first and second. Kawashima hit right which brough in another run 11-7 Tigers, runners on first and second. Masahiko Tanaka (pinch hitter) struck out looking and Wada decided to change pitchers. Andoh took over and got Takeuchi (replacement centre) to ground out and end the innings. Matsuoka pitched Tigers ninth and retired the batters in order. For Swallows ninth Fukuhara took over and really one has to think whether he should be pitching to Fujii. Tanaka singled to lead off the innings. Then Milledge singled to set up runners on first and second. Balentien walked to load the bases with no outs. Hardly promising but thankfully Swallows blew it. Hatakeyama swung took quickly and popped up to second. Then Miwa struck out swinging. Finally Nakamura grounded out to end the game. Tigers victory.

Tigers had held on and won despite some very mediocre catching and indifferent pitching. Nishioka was basically the catalyst for the victory and it wouldn't be too much of an exaggertion to say he was involved in everything. Tigers kept on scoring run after run against a weak Swallows side but one has to say that the way they bled runs they needed those scoring hits. Tigers have now won five in a row and go for their second sweep in succession today.