March 30 Fukuhara v Takasaki - Fukuhara destroys the BayStars

A note about Iwata, yesterday's pitcher. It turns out he was born a diabetic and has to take insulin 4 times a day. He dedicated his first win to his wife Yumiko. A very good start by Fukuhara allowed Tigers to sweep the BayStars. He pitched a complete game shut out and the Tigers batting gave him the support he needed.

         1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R  H E
BayStars 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  7 0
Tigers   2 0 1 2 0 2 0 0 X 7 11 1

Line ups
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. Fukuhara (Pitcher)

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

For the BayStars things started nicely Ishi reached first on a Hirano error and was bunted to second. However, the next two batters trying to put the ball past second failed miserably and nothing was scored. Tigers first was a little different Akahoshi hit, Hirano hit and this brought up Arai. He also hit driving in Akahoshi 1-0 Tigers. Tigers tried a double steal but Hirano was out. Kanemoto struck out but Imaoka hit 2-0 Tigers. Toritani flew out to end the innings but Tigers were on their way.

BayStars tried to hit back immediately. Saeki hit and then Ozeki - runners on first and third with one out. But as so often happens with Fukuhara the next batter - this time Tsuruoka, the BayStars catcher - grounded into a double play and the threat went nowhere. Everything was quiet until Tigers third. Akahoshi hit again - a two base this time. Hirano bunted him to third and Arai was walked bringing up Kanemoto. He hit a sacrifice fly to left and it was 3-0 Tigers. Fukuhara ran into trouble in the fourth - a hit and two walks left him in with two outs and bases loaded. However the BayStars pinch hitter Suzuki struck out looking to end the innings.

Tigers made no such mistake in the bottom of the fourth. The BayStars pitcher was Iriki again. He got the first two outs then dead balled Akahoshi. Hirano walked and then they tried a double steal. This time it worked and Iriki was faced with runners on second and third, two outs and Arai next up. Arai hit to left 5-0 Tigers. Kanemoto grounded out to end the innings. The game calmed down until the sixth when Fukuhara walked Kinjoh. But once again BayStars couldn't turn runners into runs. They had first and second with one out but another double play finished the chance and they remained scoreless.

Tigers meanwhile rolled on. Yano hit and was bunted to second by Fukuhara. This was enough for Ohya who replaced Iriki with Yamakita. It didn't help - it got Akahoshi but Hirano hit to short. Up came Arai with runners on first and third. He hit a two base driving in both runners 7-0 Tigers. From the seventh BayStars would generate three more hits but Fukuhara was in control and made sure that no one was going anywhere. Tigers didn't score anymore runs and only had a walk and hit (from Toritani) but then they didn't need to.

So a very satisfactory series. Tigers had swept the BayStars. Arai had five RBIs in the third game and three hits out of three making a total of six RBIs for the series. Kanemoto had a total of five RBIs for the series and Imaoka two. Hirano, Imaoka and Akahoshi also had two hit games today but significantly hits were turned into runs. Fukuhara pitched 107 balls and faced 34 batters. He gave up seven hits and three walks and struck out five. A fine controlled performance which bodes well for the future.