August 8th Akiyama v Nakamura - At the eleventh hour

There is a formula that minor teams employ to beat the Tigers which works rather well. First put your ace pitcher (and every team has one good pitcher) or your most effective pitcher against Tigers in the rotation. Then anyone followed by a pitcher whom Tigers have never met. The order can be changed but the elements remain the same. This is what Carp tried this series. The Maeda part worked quite well but more because of Wada's stupidity than anything else. Ohtake was a disaster and so the hope was on Nakamura who was new to Tigers batters. Tigers are very rigid and if they face anyone they don't know struggle as the batters aren't trained to think for themselves. This plan was working well this game but for one fatal flaw - Carp's batting. This has been dismal all series and this game was no exception. Carp were getting runners on but were not able to bring them home and the Nakamura moment slipped away taking things into extra innings where Tigers are actually stronger. Even so the game was tight but Tigers need to win the tight games and this was a good victory. Scores

        1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 R  H E
Tigers  0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  0  1 1  8 0
Carp    0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  0  0 0 10 1

Starting Lineups

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

Carp
1. Maru (Centre)
2. Kikuchi (Second)
3. Matsuyama (Right)
4. Ka'aihue (First)
5. Soyogi (Short)
6. Lewis (Left)
7. Dobayashi (Third)
8. Kura (Catcher)
9. Nakamura (Pitcher)

We are still seeing the worthless Kurose in the top team, his return to ni-gun cannot come soon enough. Apart from that Tigers team was very much what one expected. Tigers started by working a walk - Imanari getting on first. Then Wada had the stupid bunt laid down and that was the end of the scoring chance. Toritani struck out looking and Murton grounded out to second. With two out in Carp's rejigged lineup Matsuyama doubled left. Ka'aihue then flew out to centre to end the innings. Arai led off Tigers second with a single but fell to a Kurose double play. Ryota tried to hit out and struck out swinging. Carp's second was just quiet with no one getting on base. Fujii worked a walk to start Tigers third and was bunted to second by Akiyama. Of course, scoring chances immediately fell but Nakamura did manage to raise the tension for Carp by dead balling Yamato - runners on first and second. This turned out to be academic as Toritani grounded out to first ending the innings. Carp's third was a mess. It started with Kura doubling which with no out was dangerous. However, Nakamura messed up his bunt badly and Fujii went for third with the throw; a throw he can probably do in his sleep. Kura was out with Nakamura on first. This good piece of work was wasted. Maru singled to centre - runners on first and second. Then Kikuchi hit to short where Toritani made a fine stop but couldn't do anything about getting the throw away, bases loaded, only one out. Carp blew it - Matsuyama, hero of the first popped up to second; no run there. Then Ka'aihue flew out to right to end the innings. Tigers had escaped.

Tigers fourth saw no one get on base it was that depressing. With two out in Carp's fourth Dobayashi singled left but Kura flew out to centre ending the innings. Tigers fifth was three batters failing to get on base. Nakamura continued to baffle the batters. With one out in Carp's fifth, Maru singled to centre. Kikuchi struck out swinging and with Ka'aihue at the plate Maru tried to steal second. Second is not Fujii's forte so it is to his credit that he threw the Carp centre out for the final out of the innings. Tigers sixth was once again quiet with no one getting on base. Carp wasted another chance in their sixth. With one out Ka'aihue walked. Soyogi singled left to put runners on first and second. Lewis struck out but Dobayashi walked to load the bases. Nomura pinch hit Iwamoto for Kura but all Iwamoto could do was fly out to centre and end the innings.

Ishihara took over the catching for Carp and managed to work a lead off walk for Murton to start Tigers seventh. Arai singled right to put runners on first and second which also brought a change of pitching with Yokoyama taking over. He walked Kurose which was a shock in itself and the bases were loaded. Wada sent Hiyama (pinch hitter) to the plate but after working the count full Hiyama hit to first. Ka'aihue stepped on the sack and threw to home to get the force out of the runner from third - a neat double play, runners on second and third. Fujii then grounded out to short to end the innings. Matsuda pitched the Carp's seventh and so far he has been spectacular with an ERA of 0.000. He was unhittable and struck out all three Carp batters he faced. Socolovich took over for Tigers eighth and gave up a hit to Saka off the first pitch he had thrown to the Tigers. Imanari then hit into a double play but Yamato singled to short and beat the field to first. He tried to steal second but was thrown out. Tigers steal attempts against Ishihara have all been failures this season. Tsutsui pitched Carp's eighth and gave up a single to centre to Matsuyama to start the innings. Two flyouts followed and then Akamatsu (pinch running for Matsuyama and replacing Maru in centre) tried to steal second on the delayed steal. This worked well Fujii's arm not being up to the task this time but Ka'aihue grounded out, ending the innings. Nagakawa pitched Tigers ninth and kept the runners off base. Carp had a chance to win the game in their ninth. As if in contrition Wada had kept Tsutsui in for the ninth. Dobayashi walked but Iwamoto (replacement left and then first) struck out swinging. Kimura (replacement short) also walked runners on first and second. Maru flew out and then Wada brought Andoh on for the final out. This was almost a disaster as Andoh gave up a single to left to Kikuchi. Dobayashi went for home but a good throw in from Asai (replacement left) saw Dobayashi tagged out at the plate. Tigers had survived by the skin of their teeth and taken the game into extra innings.

Tigers who are stronger in extra innings than the Carp blew the tenth. There is no other way to describe it. Kurose led off the innings doubling to left. He was pinch run for by Tagami but then when a hit would have done Wada had Asai lay down a bunt to take him to third. Fujii walked and then Tigers batters messed up big time. Both Saka (replacement second) and Sekimoto (pinch hitter and replacement third) swung foolishly at their first pitches and both were out with Tagami marooned on third. Kubo took over for Carp's tenth - a worrying development but he did well retiring the batters in order. Tigers eleventh was pitched by Imamura. He started poorly giving up a lead off single to Yamato. Yamato tried to steal second and this time beat the throw. Toritani singled right but Yamato was held up on third when he could have gone for home. Then with Imamura all over the place Shunsuke (replacement right) singled right as well, this time bringing in the run 1-0 Tigers, runners on first and second. Arai hit into a double play which did take Toritani to third though. Finally Shimizu (pinch hitter) struck out swinging to end the innings. Tigers needed to hold the slender lead and Fukuhara took over the pitching duties for Carp's eleventh. Ishihara was bundled up and flew out to Arai in foul ground. Then Dobayashi singled left. Fukuhara though was devastating with the next two batters and Carp's pretensions died an ignominous death. Both Iwamoto and Kimura were struck out successfully and the long game was over. Tigers victory.

Asai's throw from left in the ninth had been vital saving the Tigers from what would have been an ignominious defeat. Giants won unfortunately and now look to be cruising to victory. Still Tigers had taken their second series in a row. The win went to Kubo but what has been interesting this series is the lack of production from Carp's batters - two runs over three games. Tigers haven't produced that well in two of the games but did well in the middle game and successfully held the Carp off.