July 23rd Vogelsong v Greisinger - Mix ups and mess ups

Tigers Magic Number is now 45 (Classic Magic is 43). In a tired and slack performance Tigers were shut out by the Giants. This is the seventh time this season but worryingly it is the fourth time this month. Tigers need to step up a bit. Now a note to the Daily Yomiuri - get your basic facts right! The game last night wasn't the second straight night the Giants had beaten the Tigers - the Giants won the first game, then the Tigers won (source Daily Yomiuri 23rd July). You should read your own reports. Secondly, the Giants are ten and a half games behind the Tigers not eleven and a half (source Daily Yomiuri score table 24th July). These are basic facts which reading your own newspaper will appraise you of. Line scores

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

Starting lineups

1. Akahoshi (Centre)
2. Hirano (Right)
3. Toritani (Short)
4. Kanemoto (Left)
5. Sekimoto (Second)
6. Katsuragi (First)
7. Yano (Catcher)
8. Baldris (Third)
9. Vogelsong (Pitcher)

Giants
1. Suzuki (Centre)
2. Furuki (Second)
3. Ogasawara (First)
4. Ramirez (Left)
5. Tani (Right)
6. Abe (Catcher)
7. Nioka (Third)
8. Sakamoto (Short)
9. Greisinger (Pitcher)

This game started as a pitching duel in which Vogelsong blinked first. His opponenet, Greisinger thought he had pitched very well and had been unlucky in the sixth innings. Greisinger despite his victory didn't look very happy but gave a very modest and humble speech in his hero interview. The game started with a Suzuki hit. He was bunted to second and then Vogelsong struck out the next two batters and the innings was scoreless. In Tigers first Greisinger walked Hirano but Toritani grounded into a double play and the innings went nowhere. The Giants second was also quiet with the batters out in order. In Tigers second Katsuragi hit but nothing came of this. Giants third was once again routine for Vogelsong - he was pitching very well and you would have said he was pitching better than Greisinger at this stage. In Tigers third Baldris walked and then Vogelsong tried to bunt. Greisinger was up to the challenge and Vogelsong was out on three failed bunts. Next Akahoshi tried to bunt and fell to a fine catch by Abe. Why he was still thinking of the bunt is unfathomable - two out and the final batter, Hirano, flew out. After the excitement of the third the fourth was quiet, both pitchers retiring the batters in order. Giants fifth was the same - batters retired in order - up to this point each side had generated one hit only though Greisinger had walked two batters as well.

It all went wrong for Vogelsong in the sixth. He gave up a lead off hit to Sakamoto. Greisinger tried to bunt but also failed after three attempts. One out and one thought that this innings would follow the same pattern as the others. Not so - Suzuki hit and Giants had runners on first and second with one out. Furuki was the next batter and with the count at two and one Yano mistakenly called for a high pitch. Vogelsong's control was not good and he dead balled Furuki - bases loaded. A mound conference followed in which Yano admitted his mistake and the action moved onto Ogasawara. He got a lucky impact which skidded along the first baseline and beat Katsuragi's dive for a two base hit 2-0 Giants. Ramirez was next and he had no problem putting the ball between centre and right and another two runners were home 4-0 Giants. Vogelsong then got the next two batters to fly out but the damage had been done. Tigers sixth started with what looked like a fightback. Shoda (pinch hitter) hit. Then Akahoshi hit - runners on first and second with no outs. Next batter Hirano - he hit and Greisinger partially deflected the ball which went to third and allowed Nioka to out Shoda. The ball flew to second for the double play but Sakamoto took his foot off the bag and Akahoshi was safe. Hirano was safe on first as well but the vital runner on third was avoided by the Giants. Toritani was into his shot too quickly and flew out to Abe and then Kanemoto grounded out to first to end the innings without score.

Watanabe pitched the Giants seventh and retired the side in order. Greisinger pitched the Tigers seventh and got Sekimoto to fly out. Then he dead balled Katsuragi - a sign that he was tired. Next batter Yano hit and Tigers had runners on first and second. Here he was replaced by Yamaguchi. He had thrown 98 pitches and given up no runs on 4 hits - very good pitching. Hiyama was the next batter and he hit a high fly ball which Sakamoto failed to take. The ball bounced kindly for him and he was able to throw to third and get Katsuragi (a case for the infield fly rule perhaps?). Yamaguchi was replaced by Uehara who struck out Takahashi (pinch hitter) to end the innings. Giants eighth started with a Suzuki hit off Egusabetween short and third. Kanemoto just ambled along as the ball rolled past him and calmly waited for it to bounce of the wall with no sense of urgency. In the meantime Suzuki had streaked round to third. Someone needs to have a word with Kanemoto and remind him that that kind of fielding is not acceptable - his batting performance hasn't been great recently and he needs a boost on that as well.

Next batter was Ohmichi who is fat and whose only reason for being in the Giants side seems to be that he can hit the ball far for sacrifice flies. This he duly did and the score was 5-0 Giants. The final two batters fell quietly and the innings ended. Tigers eighth saw Akahoshi lead off with a two base hit but no one did anything as Uehara remained in control. Tigers final pitcher was Ishikawa - he got the first two batters then faced Nioka. Nioka hit a high fly ball along the third base line. Sekimoto went back to take it but Toritani called for it and Sekimoto left it to him. Toritani misjudged the catch and dropped the ball which landed just inside the baseline for what was ruled a hit. If you call for something - make sure you take it. How it was not called an error escapes me because that is what it was. Ishikawa remained calm and struck out Sakamoto to end the innings. This innings was also the first appearance of Kanoh this season. Toyoda pitched the final Tigers innings. He got the three Tigers batters easily, the last one being Kanoh who grounded out to short to end the game. Giants victory.

A disappointing performance by the Tigers. They were tired having played 9 games in a row due to the stupidity of the schedulers but they did know about this before the start of the season and should have prepared better. Apart from Greisinger, Giants hadn't looked particularly impressive and the Tigers should have done more. One hopes that Okada takes the side in hand and gets them to tighten up.