September 7th Fujinami v Sugiuchi - Shining a light

A small light revealed the punishment system operated by Tigers coaches and how it works. Readers may recall that Boyer refused to pitch two innings in a row against Yokohama. For his honesty he was sent down to ni-gun and not for a rest but as a punishment. Boyer would be advised to jump back to MLB (as would Messenger) rather than stick with this bunch of fools. And talking of fools we saw Fujii back behind the plate with Fujinami. Wada's reasoning was that Fujii surely couldn't fail with August's MVP on the mound. Guess what? Fujii failed. It wasn't his worst performance by any means but it was mediocre enough. Scores

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

Starting Lineups

Giants
1. Chono (Right)
2. Matsumoto (Centre)
3. Abe (Catcher)
4. Murata (Third)
5. Bowker (Left)
6. Sakamoto (First)
7. Fujimura (Second)
8. Terauchi (Short)
9. Sugiuchi (Pitcher)

Tigers
1. Uemoto (Second)
2. Shunsuke (Centre)
3. Nishioka (Third)
4. Toritani (Short)
5. Murton (Left)
6. Takahiro Arai (First)
7. Kanoh (Right)
8. Fujii (Catcher)
9. Fujinami (Pitcher)

It started badly as these things often do. With Chono striking out Matsumoto singled left and advanced to second on a wild pitch. This was one which Fujii should have taken but he wasn't paying attention. Abe walked - surprisingly easily but then things turned Tigers way. Murata grounded out to second where Uemoto could only throw to first and the runners advanced to second and third. Then Bowker struck out looking to end the innings. Tigers started with a one out hit to right from Shunsuke. Nishioka flew out to short and then Shunsuke went for the steal. This was poorly executed and he was tagged out to end the innings. Giants second was a big improvment with the batters falling in order and no one getting on base. Tigers second saw Toritani lead off by grounding out to short. Then Murton was in a word; lucky. He took a swing and the ball flew off to right hitting the foul pole for a solo home run 1-0 Tigers. Arai singled right but Kanoh managed to hit into a double play to end the innings. Tigers held the lead. Fujinami did well in holding it as well once again retiring the three batters he faced in the Giants third. Fujii and Fujinami both flew out to left to start Tigers third - Fujinami getting a surprising amount of distance on his hit. Then Uemoto walked. He stole second - a much better attempt than Shunsuke's try. Shunsuke singled right which put runners on first and third the throw from Chono being very good and in this case Yoshitake's decision to stop the runner being a very wise one. Nishioka didn't look comfortable and flew out to Abe to end the innings. Tigers had wasted the chance.

Giants fourth started with Abe taking a dead ball. This one hit his back leg just above the knee and was quite painful. Fujinami formally doffed his cap but even so the game was delayed while Abe had treatment. Next was Murata and despite past experience he was fed his favourite pitch in the middle of the zone - a truely appalling call. Murata turned it neatly to left and watched to make sure it was going to stay fair but Abe had no doubt and started round the bases. The ball was comfortably fair and was a comfortable 2 run home run 2-1 Tigers. Two outs followed and then Fujimura singled. He tried to steal second but the issue with Fujimura stealing second is that his acceleration is slow and his top speed isn't that high either. Furthermore he started late and Fujii had all the time in the world to make the throw with Fujimura being tagged out to end the innings - it was a poor steal attempt. Throughout the game Sugiuchi looked tired and he walked Toritani to lead off Tigers fourth. Murton flew out and then Toritani stole second. Arai hit a nice single to centre and Toritani set off for home. The throw from Matsumoto was very good - pinpoint accuracy but even still it looked like Toritani would make it. He slid and as he did so Abe took the ball and none the worse for his dead ball spun round to apply the tag. Toritani had stretched out to tag base with his left arm and Abe tagged this for the out. If Toritani had delayed stretching his arm out Abe would have missed and the run would have been scored. It had been good work by the Giants catcher. In the meantime Arai had taken second but Kanoh flew out to right to end the innings. Terauchi led off Giants fifth singling left. He stole second - being quicker and starting sooner than Fujimura was always going to beat Fujii's joke arm. Then Sugiuchi went to bunt but failed in his three attempts and was out. Next was Chono who swung and luckily the ball stayed inside the right foul pole for a two run home run 4-1 Giants and the killer blow. The next two batters fell without getting on base but the Giants had a good lead. With Tigers fifth Uemoto walked with two out but this time Shunsuke flew out to left. Giants sixth was quiet and no one got on base. They could afford to cruise. Tigers couldn't and with one out in the sixth Toritani singled. Murton hit to short for the double play and the sense increased that the game was drifting away from Tigers.

Giants seventh was quiet with no one getting on base - well it was the bottom of the order. Tigers seventh was also quiet which was more disappointing as both Arai and Kanoh are good hitters. Kubo took over for Giants eighth. He faced the top of the Giants order and managed quite well allowing no base runners. Mathieson took over for Tigers eighth and also retired the runners in order. This was more significant as it really meant that time had run out. Surprisingly perhaps, Kubota pitched Giants ninth - he retired the three batters he faced and finished with a strike out of Sakamoto which is always satisfying. Nishimura pitched Tigers ninth and started by walking Nishioka. Toritani struck out looking - not very helpful and then Murton produced his second double play of the day to end the game. Giants victory.

Certainly both teams had benefited from lucky hits but the Giants had been sharper and more focused than the day before. The retrograde step of bringing Fujii in to call when he added nothing to Tigers indicated more managerial failure and inability to understand what is important. Tigers rejigged order hadn't really worked but one was left to wonder what might have happened if Toritani had held his arm up longer for a split second more.