April 2nd Shimoyanagi v Miyazaki - The steady application of pressure

Kanemoto has only 5 hits to go to his 2000 hit milestone. An interesting game last night saw him get two deliberate walks. There were also 5 double plays in the game which is unusually high. No real spectacular batting just steady efforts. Line scores

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

Starting 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. Shimoyanagi (Pitcher)

Carp
1. Ogata (Left)
2. Ishihara (Catcher)
3. Alex (Centre)
4. Kurihara (First)
5. Seabol (Third)
6. Shima (Right)
7. Soyogi (Short)
8. Higashide (Second)
9. Miyazaki (Pitcher)

Miyazaki started the first by giving up a lead off hit to Akahoshi who stole second. However, no one else hit and so the innings ended scoreless. In the bottom of the same innings Shimoyanagi gave up a hit to Ogata. He was bunted to second by Ishihara and then made third on an Alex hit. Finally it was a Seabol hit which drove him home 1-0 Carp. Tigers hit back immediately in the second. Imaoka hit and then Toritani got hold of a 1-1 ball and it went right landing inside the foul pole 2-1 Tigers and Toritani's first home run of the season. In the third Arai was dead balled and Kanemoto hit to right leaving runners on first and third with two outs. However, an Imaoka ground out finished the chance. In the Carp's third Ishihara hit and then Alex grounded into the first double play of the evening. Kurihara was walked but was thrown out trying to steal second and the innings finished.

At the start of the fourth, Toritani had another hit. Ford was up next and he also hit driving Toritani to third. Yano was up next and hit into a double play (his first of two). Luckily with no outs Toritani was able to make home and the score was 3-1 Tigers. In the fifth Kanemoto received his first deliberate walk which was in response to Akahoshi reaching second. Once again Imaoka didn't produce this time with runners on first and second. In the sixth it was Ford's turn to hit - a three base and his second hit of the game. This time Yano hit a sacrifice fly and Ford was home 4-1 Tigers. In bottom of the innings a quite wonderful throw by Ford threw Alex out after he decided to chance Ford's arm.

Tigers once again had a runner on third in the seventh (Akahoshi after a walk and bunt) when Kanemoto came up to bat. He was walked once more and Imaoka grounded out to end the innings. Shimoyanagi was pitching well (only 84 pitches) so Okada decided to keep him on into the seventh. He got Seabol to fly out but Shima hit a double and then Soyogi hit. Runners on second and third and one out. The next batter Maeda (pinch hitting for Higashide) hit a first ground out and Shima was home 4-2 Tigers. The final batter, Amaya grounded out to end the innings and Shimoyanagi had finished. He had pitched well seven innings (he normally pitches 5 or 6), 94 pitches 27 batters faced with 8 hits and 1 walk. He had managed four strike outs.

In the eighth it was Ford's turn to ground into a double play but he had done well. Kubota was summoned for the eighth and pitched a lot better than he had done in his previous games. He gave up a lead off hit but Alex grounded into his second double play of the night to end the innings. So to the final innings, Akahoshi hit again and stole his second base of the eveing then Hirano hit and we had runners on first and third with one out (Hiyama pinch hitting for Kubota). However, this time Arai hit into a double play - end of innings. Come the bottom of the ninth and it was, of course, Fujikawa. He retired Kurihara, Seabol and Shima in order and that was that. The Tigers had won their fifth victory in a row and their second series.

A fine performance by the Tigers team. Yano still isn't hitting but his throwing was much better and when he did get out he also drove in runs. Ford had an excellent game and is beginning to hit well. Both Akahoshi and Toritani had three hit games. Next is Sugiyama against Lewis