Opening Day - Andoh v Terahara

The season has started. Games now have an extra edge not seen in Open Sen. Tigers are at Kyocera Dome (Osaka Dome) for the first series against the BayStars. This is not a ground popular with Tigers fans - in fact a lot hate it but with the Spring High School baseball tournament going on it will have to do. Starting pitcher for the Tigers was Andoh - his first opening day start. Andoh is not the pitcher he was - his speed has dropped and he has not seemed the same since coming back from injury last season. Terahara was the BayStars pitcher and he has a tendency to fade towards the end of his stint. Line scores were

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

Lineups
1. Akahoshi (Centre)
2. Hirano (Second)
3. Arai (First)
4. Kanemoto (Left)
5. Imaoka (Third)
6. Toritani (Short)
7. Ford (Right)
8. Yano (Catcher)
9. Andoh (Pitcher)

BayStars were
1. Ishi (Short)
2. Nishi (Second)
3. Kinjoh (Centre)
4. Murata (Third)
5. Saeki (First)
6. Yoshimura (Right)
7. Ozeki (Left)
8. Aikawa (Catcher)
9. Terahara (Pitcher)

Things started quietly though Andoh did take a lot of pitches to dismiss his first three batters. His strike out of Nishi (BayStars no 2 batter) was very nice though. Likewise Terahara had no problems with the Tigers top three. In the second though Andoh ran into trouble - he walked Murata and then one out later allowed a hit to Yoshimura. Runners on first and third with one out. Ozeki was up next and he drove a ball between first and second. Arai, however, made a superb stop and fired the ball to Toritani to get Yoshimura. The ball went back to Hirano who was covering first but too late. Ozeki was safe and Murata was home 1-0 to BayStars. Aikawa flew out and that ended the innings. Tigers next three batters were retired in order and so on to the third.

Andoh allowed hits to Ishi and Nishi (what a combination) but then struck out the next two batters to end the innings. Terahara had no problem disposing of Tigers next three batters and had retired the side in order. No Tiger's batter had reached base. In the fourth Andoh's problems continued. Saeki hit followed by Ozeki (who had a multi hit game) and so there was the same situation as the second - runners on first and third with one out. The next batter Aikawa slammed a ball along the baseline which was ruled just foul. This was disputed by an angry BayStars third base coach and replays were inconclusive but they did show the umpire was in the perfect position to see exactly where the ball landed. However, Aikawa hit again and this time it was in. Saeki was home and it was 2-0 BayStars. A sacrifice bunt by Terahara followed and BayStars had runners on second and third with two outs but a second ground out limited the damage.

As I mentioned Terahara fades and this surprisingly started in the fourth. He walked Akahoshi and Hirano tried to bunt him to second. The bunt wasn't good and Akahoshi was thrown out with Hirano on first. Terahara then walked Arai and Tigers had runners on first and second with one out and no hits. Next up was Kanemoto. He hadn't been convincing in Open Sen but looked a lot better yesterday. He hammered a 3-2 pitch past right field for a three base hit. This put both Hirano and Arai home scores level 2-2. Then came Imaoka and the first ball he received was stroked past Terahara for a centre hit. Kanemoto was home and the score was 3-2 Tigers. Toritani struck out and then Ford was walked. Tigers had men on first and second with two outs but Yano flew out to end the innings.

Andoh returned for the fifth and gave up a hit to Kinjoh which Ford just failed to take sliding in. He also walked Saeki but got the three outs. Terahara didn't make it to the fifth. He was replaced by Iriki who gave up a two base hit to Katsuragi (pinch hitting for Andoh). He was bunted to third by Akahoshi and then Hirano hit a sacrifice foul fly. The throw was good but Katsuragi was able to evade the tag and make the home plate 4-2 Tigers.

This was the final score - Tigers went to their relief team. Watanabe pitched the sixth and mowed down the BayStars batters in seven pitches. Next was Kubota with six pitches and Williams who struck out two and had obviously got over his performance against the Athletics. Toritani had a hit in the sixth but nothing came of it. And so to the ninth which of course was Fujikawa. He allowed a hit to Ozeki and then one to Ishi which left runners on first and third with two outs. However, he kept his cool and the next batter Nishi flew out to Akahoshi at centre.

A nice victory for the Tigers. Andoh had not pitched very well but the relief had been very strong and importantly the victory had been secured. Encouraging signs from Kanemoto and Imaoka - both had hit when needed. Hirano had a great game - he was involved in practically everything. Tigers made excellent use of their hits whilst the BayStars found that they didn't have the batters to drive in runs when they needed. Next will be Iwata against Wood.