April 9th Shimoyanagi v Chen - Another series in the bag

One of the good things about this start is the ability of Shimoyanagi to go deeper into the games. Normally a five or six innings pitcher his last two starts have reached seven innings and whats more he has been comfortable. Lets hope this continues. Kanemoto remains stuck on 1999 hits but his 2000th will come. Fujikawa recorded his seventh save and looked far more in control yesterday. This was a tight game as the line scores show but satisfactorily was also a shut out.

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

Starting 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. Shimoyanagi (Pitcher)

Dragons
1. Araki (Second)
2. Ibata (Short)
3. Lee (Right)
4. Woods (First)
5. Wada (Left)
6. Nakamura (Third)
7. Morino (Centre)
8. Tanishige (Catcher)
9. Chen (Pitcher)

Shimoyanagi started well and retired the Dragons in order. Chen didn't have a good game not even having the luck Nakata had the day before. He started well enough striking out both Akahoshi and Hirano before facing Arai. Arai took one ball then smashed a single to right. The next batter was Kanemoto who walked setting up runners on first and second with two out and the next batter Imaoka. He hit a pitch to the open right field and Lee went to catch it diving forward. However, he misjudged the fall and the ball landed inches in front of him - a hit. Arai hustled round the bases and was home 1-0. By the time Lee was up and had made the throw Kanemoto was on third. Runners on first and third with two outs. Unfortunately, Toritani flew out to end the innings. Shimoyanagi continued his progress in the second, once again retiring the Dragons in order. Lee gave up a hit to Yano but nothing came of it. Come the third, Morino was the leadoff batter and he hit a two base hit which landed just over Ford. Shimoyanagi continued as if it hadn't happened and retired the next three batters.

Chen lined up against Hirano for the Tigers third. Hirano grounded out to Nakamura and Chen faced Arai again. This time Arai walked and then stole second. Kanemoto struck out and Imaoka walked. Runners on first and second with two outs. Toritani was next and he placed a pitch nicely over short into left field. Arai flew round the bases again and it was 2-0 Tigers. This was a two base hit so it enabled Imaoka to reach third and Toritani second but Ford flew out to end the innings. The Dragons mounted their last challenge immediately after this in the fourth. Araki hit to Toritani who made a superb diving stop. He was then up but his throw to Arai was too high and drew the first baseman off the bag. Araki was safe. Ibata was next and hammered his second pitch over Hirano. However, the Tigers second baseman was up to the challenge and timing his jump to perfection plucked the ball out of the air for the first out. Lee then grounded out to Hirano and Woods was next. He walked (Shimoyanagi and the Tiger's only walk) and so we had runners on first and second with two outs. However, Wada's hit was well fielded by Arai who was up in time to throw to Shimoyanagi at first and that was the end of the innings.

Chen had no problems in the bottom of the fourth but was replaced for the fifth by Yamai. He had thrown 84 pitches over his four innings and given up 2 runs while striking out 5 and walking 3. Yamai was very polished and secure over his two innings giving away nothing and striking out three. Shimoyanagi continued for three more innings dispatching Dragons batters in order. The only slight worry was the start of the seventh when Woods hit a long fly to centre. This died but as Akahoshi started forward to make the catch he half slipped. He still had time, though, to recover and take the catch safely. Shimoyanagi was replaced after the seventh after a magnificent display of pitching. He had thrown 88 pitches and given up only two hits and a walk with 4 strikouts. The Tigers seventh was a bit more eventful, Facing Takahashi, Yano and Sakurai (pinch hitting for Shimoyanagi) were quickly out but Akahoshi hit. Hirano walked and next up was Arai. He grounded out to short and the innings was over. The Dragon's eighth and ninth meant, of course, Kubota and Fujikawa. Kubota had no problems and all batters fell to ground outs. Tigers did nothing in their eighth and so to Fujikawa. The day before he had struggled but not yesterday. He was confident and calm, striking out Araki, Ibata and Lee in order. Game over and victory to the Tigers.

This was a very assured win built on Shimoyanagi's fine performance. It started to rain in the fifth and by the time Fujikawa took the mound it was quite heavy. Tigers took advantage of their few chances to a better degree than the Dragons did. Arai showed a nice turn of speed which was very encouraging and Hirano once again shone in the field. Today (if it isn't rained off) will be Sugiyama v Kawakami. Both pitchers have not won yet and Kawakami of course has the memory of his spectacular meltdown against the Giants to get over.