April 23rd Shimoyanagi v Kawai - Arai's first home run of the season

Okada continued with Imaoka as a starting member. This time he hit and drove in a run. However, will this continue or was it a flash in the pan? Interestingly, he was replaced at third by Sekimoto - in tight games Okada obviously wants better defence. Line scores

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

Starting lineups
1. Akahoshi (Centre)
2. Sekimoto (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. Morino (Centre)
7. Nakamura (Third)
8. Tanishige (Catcher)
9. Kawai (Pitcher)

Of the two pitchers, Kawai started the better. He retired the Tigers in order 1-2-3. Shimoyanagi though started slower. He got Araki to ground out but then walked Ibata. Lee was up next and Tigers haven't had too many problems with him this season but this time it was different. He hammered a two base and Ibata flew from first to home 1-0 Dragons - runner on second. Woods and Wada, though, both flew out to end the innings. Kawai continued his progress 4-5-6 but Shimoyanagi did give up a hit to Tanishige in the second. He struck out the other batters he faced so no damage resulted. Next the Tigers third 7-8-9 all struck out and onto the Dragons. They were also retired in order. So at the top of the fourth. Dragons had two hits and one walk in their favour. Kawai had struck out five batters. Tigers hadn't had a runner on base and Shimoyanagi had struck out 4.

The fourth changed things. Kawai could feel reasonably confident as he faced Akahoshi but the Tigers centre hit to short. While Kawai was striking out Sekimoto, Akahoshi stole second and this brought up Arai. He dispatched a two base hit to left and Akahoshi made for home 1-1 scores level. Kanemoto walked and next was Imaoka who struck out looking. One wasn't surprised. Toritani flew out to end the innings. Woods opened the Dragons fourth and also hit a two base. Runner on second with no outs. Shimoyanagi then bottled up the Dragons and Woods remained rooted to the sack. Tigers continued to show that the first three innings were a passing blip. Yano had a two base hit and then made third on a Shimoyanagi ground out. Akahoshi walked and the situation was runners on first and third with two outs. Unfortunately, Sekimoto couldn't do anything, grounding out to Araki. In the Dragons fifth Shimoyanagi walked Araki who promptly stole second but didn't get further as Ibata lined out to Toritani. The sixth opened with Arai striking out which brought up Kanemoto. He hit a huge three base shot and one wondered what Imaoka would do. Amazingly, he hit driving the ball past Nakamura's outstretched hands into left 2-1 Tigers. Imaoka was replaced at this stage by Hirano who stole second. Toritani and Ford stranded him as they both grounded out.

The Dragons sixth started with two ground outs, Lee and Woods before Wada hammered a two base. Shimoyanagi had no problem striking out Morino to end the innings. He really is pitching well at the moment. Both teams seventh innings were quiet and we moved to the eighth. This was taken by Kawakami, Kawai having finished his spell. He had thrown 126 pitches, striking out 10 and walking two and giving up 2 runs. A nice pitching performance. Shimoyanagi also retired at the end of the seventh with only 106 pitches, seven strike outs, 2 walks and one run off 4 hits. Once again an excellent performance. Kawakami got Sekimoto but then Arai got hold of his third strike and launched it into the right stand for his first home run of the season. No one was too worried about the time it took as he had been hitting very nicely but it was good when it came 3-1 Tigers. Next batter, Kanemoto had a two base hit and Toritani walked but Ford grounded out to end the innings. Ford does need to do something about his hitting as he hasn't done much recently.

Of course Okada went to Kubota for the Dragons eighth but he is continuing in his generous mode. The first batter Araki hit, then Ibata walked. Runners on first and second no outs. Lee grounded out but Araki scuttled to third to set up a possible sacrifice fly. Woods duly obliged to centre and Araki was home 3-2 Tigers (a bit too tight for comfort). The next batter Wada also hit and Dragons had runners on first and second. Fortunately, the final batter of the innings, Morino lined out to Toritani and the innings was over. Takahashi was summoned for Tigers ninth (one would have thought Iwase) but he struck out the three batters he faced. The final innings of the match was of course, Fujikawa. A total of 10 pitches was all he needed to subdue the batters and Tigers had won.

Fujikawa recorded his eleventh save from 11 starts. Shimoyanagi got his fourth win out of four starts and Arai hit his first home run with another RBI. He really has proved to be a good buy. Imaoka drove in a run and whilst you are glad for him you really must question how long he can be kept in the top team. Without his hitting - he is a mediocre third base and the fact that Okada replaces him in tight games shows that the kantoku realises this as well. A good win by the Tigers sets up an exciting finale with Fukuhara starting for the Tigers. Dragons starter is listed in Daily Sports as Yamai (but they did this yesterday and it was Kawai).