May 25th Nohmi v Tanimoto - Who dares wins

Nippon Ham were leading this game up until the ninth based on one run which came as the result of two bunts. Of course they deserved to lose and it was most gratifying that they did. Of interest was the appearance of Shimizu as a pinch runner. What has happened is that Hidaka picked up an injury and so Tigers need another catcher (Imanari despite being registered as a catcher doesn't count except as a waste of space). The obvious choice would have been Komiyama but he is better than Fujii and it would embarrass Tigers current 'No 1' catcher to have someone clearly better than him available. So Shimizu who is not seen as being as good as Fujii is brought up rather than Komiyama. Remember how Kanoh was frozen out because he was better than his seniors? Tigers are also planning to sign Blaine Boyer as a middle relief. His strength seems to be that he is available and throws fast - one cannot see a stellar MLB career behing him but Tigers have had a very good record with relief pitchers from America. This isn't because they don't have any talent - it is because the pitching coaches haven't a clue how to develop and use it. Tigers policy of appointing non-entities to positions of responsibility means that they are unable to use or even appreciate the talent they have. It is also the reason for them failing to win championships even though they assemble strong well balanced teams. Scores

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

Starting Lineups

Fighters
1. Yoh (Centre)
2. Nishikawa (Second)
3. Abreu (First)
4. Nakata (Left)
5. Ohbiki (Short)
6. Kaneko (Third)
7. Ohno (Catcher)
8. Sugiya (Right)
9. Tanimoto (Pitcher)

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

The game would start quietly with Fighters batters falling in order. Toritani doubled in Tigers first and then Murton walked as Tanimoto struggled to find the bottom of the zone. He also struggled with Arai and a pass ball took the runners to second and third. So it was with some luck and some relief that he managed to locate a straight in the far bottom corner of the zone for the innings ending strike out. Nippon Ham's batters struggled in their second as well - it would take them a long time to get runners on base. After his problem with the first Tanimoto seemed to settle down and retired the batters in order in the Tigers second. Nippon Ham ended up without a base runner from their first three innings though and Nohmi seemed dominant. Tigers third followed the same pattern with batters not getting on base - they couldn't figure out the pitching.

Finally, in their fourth Fighters got their first base runner, Yoh with a lead off single to centre. He was forced out by Nishikawa's failed bunt - his first pitch was bunted straight to Nohmi who wisely threw to second for the out. Nishikawa was safe on first though and was joined by Abreu who singled left to set up runners on first and second. It didn't last and Nakata managed to hit back to Nohmi who threw to second, this time to initiate an innings ending double play. Tigers fourth saw Toritani and Murton fall but not rapidly, Tanimoto was beginning to struggle and walked Arai and Ryota - runners on first and second. Shibata though grounded out to second and Tigers too had missed the bus. Ohbiki got hold of his first pitch in the fifth and hit into left for a useful double. Kaneko bunted him to third and then Ohno laid down a squeeze bunt. Tigers defence particularly Fujii and Nohmi was very poor here and Ohbiki was safely home 1-0 Fighters. The throw went to first for the second out. To rub salt into the wounds, Sugiya singled left but the final batter was Tanimoto who struck out swinging. Fujii and Nohmi were the first two batters in Tigers fifth and whilst one might expect Nohmi to fail, one hopes for better from Fujii. However, he seems to have gone very much off the boil and was out before Nohmi. Nishioka did single but then Yamato could only ground out to second to end the innings. Having generated a run, Fighters were full of beans in their sixth and Nohmi was struggling. Fujii was his normal useless self and it was more by good fortune that Nippon Ham failed to exploit the good chance they created. Nishikawa bounced one high to second and was able to beat Nishioka. He then stole second - we know what Fujii's arm is like. Abreu walked. Nakata hit a grounder to short which got him out but put the runners on second and third. Then Ohbiki walked to load the bases. Kaneko was in the mood to hit and so Nohmi fed him three high balls, the first of which he swung at and fouled and the second two he swung and missed. After the previous poor pitching it was a joy to see something intelligent for a change. Tigers sixth saw a quiet start but then Takahiro Arai singled. Ryota also singled and Tigers had runners on the corners. Wada had Imanari warming up as pinch hitter when Kuriyama decided to replace Tanimoto with Miyanishi. This brought a change of pinch hitter with Asai rather than Imanari facing the pitcher. He walked on a full count to load the bases but Shibata managed to fly out to centre. Fighters still held that slender lead.

Nohmi struggled through Fighters seventh. Sugiya hit a double to centre with one out and then Nioka (pinch hitter) flew out. For some reason Yoh was deliberately walked - runners on first and second and Nohmi faced Koyano (pinch hitter). He flew out to right and ended the innings. Tigers seventh was pitched by Yanuki and was depressing. No one got on base and it looked possible that Fighters might hold their lead and win the game. Still there were two more innings to go. Fukuhara took over for Fighters eighth and with two out gave up a single to Ohbiki. Kuriyama went with Inaba (pinch hitter and replacement first) but he swung and skied the ball to Ryota for the final out. Masui pitched Tigers eighth with two out Arai doubled - a very important hit but Ryota couldn't convert the runner; grounding out to short. One question here, was it really necessary to replace Arai with Shunsuke? Arai is fast round the bases and really adding Shunsuke to the mix doesn't improve it at all. Tsutsui pitched the Fighters ninth and threw a vital innings retiring the three batters he faced in order. So to Tigers ninth - the pitcher was Takeda with six saves in the seaon. He faced Asai and with his fifth pitch hit the Tigers batters - runner on first with no outs. Kuriyama protested this vehmently - in fact so vehmently he was ejected. Fujii bunted Tagami (pinch running for Asai) to second - a pointless mistake but at least Wada could turn to the best pinch hitter in Japan - Hiyama. Hiyama did what was necessary. He singled right and put runners on first and third. Of course there was a double play on but this became academic when Takeda threw a wild pitch which brought Tagami home 1-1 scores tied. Of course the pressure on Takeda was no intense with a crowd of 46,000 willing him to fail again. Shimizu pinch ran for Hiyama and Takeda deliberately walked Nishioke to get at Yamato and set up the double play. Yamato hit to short and whilst the stop was good the throw could not be made in time and Tigers now had bases loaded. Toritani hit high to left but not far enough and the second out went down. Nippon Ham were hoping for extra innings now but it wasn't to be. Murton hit over the infield to bring home the winning run 2-1 Tigers, sayonara victory.

Tigers had done well and had kept on going. They should have prevented the squeeze but they had kept their cool and taken their chances in the ninth. The victory went to Tsutsui who's innings in the ninth had been vital in making sure that Tigers target was within reach. Good work by Hiyama once again - he is invaluable - had ramped up the pressure on Takeda and it was the Fighters who had blinked first. Tigers do need to do something with their relief though and maybe sacking the pitching coach and bringing in someone who can bring out the talented relief pitchers they have. There is too much one chance and if you fail your out of the picture going on at the moment for the younger players. For the senior players and arselickers there is too much fail as much as you want.