May 18th Kojima v Settsu - Still shaky

Tigers needed something nice to bounce back from their 3 game losing streak and they got it courtesy of Ryota Arai's first career grand slam. Kojima was the starter this game and pitched to Fujii; Wada disdaining to bring Komiyama up for the game. This wasn't quite the disaster it could have been because Kojima was yanked before things could get really bad. It kind of shows that even Wada can learn from experience. Kojima is taking a long time to develop and despite his obvious qualities he goes to pieces at the slightest pressure. It remains to be seen whether he can ever be developed into a reliable starter and even his first game pitching to Komiyama where he did well had an element of luck in it. Scores

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

Starting Lineups

Hawks
1. Hasegawa (Centre)
2. Lee (Second)
3. Uchikawa (Left)
4. LaHair (First)
5. Matsuda (Third)
6. Yoshimura (Right)
7. Imamiya (Short)
8. Hosokawa (Catcher)
9. Settsu (Pitcher)

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

Kojima started poorly and the change of catcher made no difference to him. With one out Lee singled and then Uchikawa also singled. Hawks had rapidly put runners on first and second. LaHair came to the rescue hititng into a double play which ended the innings. Settsu was having an off day and Tigers would take full advantage of it. It started with his second pitch which was hit into the left stand by Nishioka 1-0 Tigers. Yamato hit to right. Next Toritani drove weakly back to Settsu who messed up his throw and allowed runners on first and second - with no outs. Murton struck out swinging and as he did so Tigers went for the double steal - this worked and the runners moved round to second and third. Next was Arai who worked a walk to load the bases. Then Ryota stepped up to the plate. He fouled off his fifth pitch high in the zone and Settsu for some reason put a straight in the same place. This Ryota got hold of blasting the ball into the left stand for a grand slam 5-0 Tigers and a perfect start. Itoh grounded out to short but Fujii singled left. However, Kojima grounded out to end the first. Perhaps because of the confidence boost of having a five run lead Kojima pitched securely in Hawks second. Batters fell in order with no one reaching base. Tigers though were in no mood to spare Settsu and with one out in the second Yamato singled - left this time. Yamato stole second and then reached home when Toritani doubled 6-0 Tigers, runner on second. Murton struck out swinging again and then Arai did the same. So far Kojima had done relatively well but he couldn't escape his demons. Hosokawa and Settsu went down but Hasegawa worked a walk. This shouldn't have been a major concern with two outs a more confident pitcher would have focused on the job in hand and gotten the third out. It was Tigers old nemisis that struck here - a straight ball down the middle to Lee for his second pitch. It wasn't fast enough and one wonders why our pitchers throw so many of these when they lack the speed. Lee hammered it into the stand for a two run hom run 6-2 Tigers. Next was Uchikawa and once again the second pitch was straight down the middle of the zone and if anything even more of a sitter than the first. Uchikawa hammered this one into the middle of the stand for a solo home run 6-3 Tigers and things looked a bit more serious. LaHair who does not seem to have figured out Tigers was the final out - grounding out to Toritani to thankfully end the innings. Ryota singled to lead off Tigers third and then Itoh struck out swinging. Fujii singled to right - he seems to be more comfortable at eighth than seventh - runners on first and second. Kojima grounded out and then Nishioka struck out swinging to end the innings.

It had been more luck than anything else that Kojima had gotten out of the third. His game was now gone and the first pitch he threw in Hawk's fourth was despatched into the stand by Matsuda for a solo home run 6-4. It Kojima continued to pitch he would blow the lead but this is exactly what happened. Yoshimura struck out but Imamiya singled to centre. This finally prompted Wada to act and Tsuru took over the mound duties. Hawks also came to the rescue with Hosokawa bunting Imamiya to second. Of course they used a pinch hitter for the next batter as Settsu was also replaced. Nakamura though grounded out to second to end the innings. Hawks new pitcher was Kawahara. He made an immediate difference retiring the Tigers batters in order in the bottom of the fourth. Tsuru was a great improvement on Kojima and stopped the rot in the Hawks fifth. Batters went down in order with Lee popping up to Nishioka and Uchikawa doing the same to Fujii to end the innings. Kawahara though did not enjoy quite that level of success in Tigers fifth. The innings started with a lead off walk for Arai. Ryota flew out to left with Arai still on first. With Itoh the next batter Arai stole second. The strike out ball bounced in front off Itoh who swung but Hosokawa failed to stop the ball which rolled away. Arai seized the chance and made home safely - very nice running 7-4 Tigers. Finally, Fujii grounded out to end the innings with Tigers comfortably in control. LaHair led off Hawks sixth with a single to centre. Matsuda grounded out to third forcing out LaHair but making base safely himself. Then Yoshimura did the same but this time the end result was a double play and the innings was over. Tigers sixth saw two outs before Yamato walked. Toritani latched onto a high straight and that one went over the fence for a two run home run 9-4 Tigers. Murton then flew out to centre for the final out.

Katoh pitched Hawks seventh. Imamiya struck out looking and then Yamazaki (pinch hitter and replacement catcher) followed with a line drive to right. This time the double play came from the bat of Kaneko (pinch hitter). Hawks pitcher was Yanase. Both Arai brothers struck out but Itoh walked. However, Fujii could only ground out to the catcher which ended the seventh. For Hawks eighth Katoh continued and struck out the lead off batter Hasegawa. He was then replaced by Andoh who got Fukumoto (replacement second) to ground out. Next was Uchikawa who hammered his first pitch into the back screen for a solo home run 9-5 Tigers. A consolation run - it didn't affect the progress of the game as LaHair struck out swinging to end the innings. Morifuku pitched Tigers eighth and gave up a lead off single to Shunsuke (replacement left). Shunsuke stole second - Tigers stole five bases this game showing that there are catchers with worse arms than Fujii. He took third on Nishioka's ground out but when Yamato flew out to right didn't go for home. Toritani tried to hit deep but only succeeded in flying out to centre. Kubo pitched Hawks ninth and started by getting Matsuda to pop up in foul ground. Yoshimura flew out to centre and then Yanagita (pinch hitter) struck out swinging to end the game.

A very nice win - Tigers bats had shown some spark and taking apart Softbank's star pitcher was very satisfactory. The win went to Tsuru who had shown considerable coolness in restoring the situation which Kojima had so nearly managed to wreck. Sad to say Kojima is not yet ready for first team life and even with Komiyama is not a reliable pitcher. It was nice to see the recently quiet Tigers batters, Ryota and Toritani come to life and also Tigers enterprise round the bases. Tigers play Seibu next and should be able to take both games.