August 31st Andoh v Utsumi - Williams doesn't make the grade

Okada has been asked to manage the Tigers again next year and of course has accepted. Tigers record was 9-11 in August, their first losing month of the season so they need to pick up the pace in September. That being said they are six games ahead of the Giants and on course for the pennant. The Magic Number is still 25 but the CM is now 17. Williams could offer no explanation for his latest meltdown but he does need to lift his level. He hasn't really been pitching well recently and his outings as closer have been variable. Line scores

       1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R  H E
Giants 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 4 1 6 12 0
Tigers 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1  7 0

Starting lineups

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

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

Andoh started with a lead off hit to Suzuki and one began to think that this was going to be one of his poor outings. Furuki bunted Suzuki to second and the impression was further reinforced when Andoh dead balled Ramirez. Tigers pitchers do give away too many dead balls and need to be more careful here. With runners on first and second and two outs, Andoh then faced Lee but struck him out to end the innings. Utsumi's start was also unconvincing. He gave up a hit to Hirano and then walked Toritani to set up runners on first and second with one out. Kanemoto was next and he lined out. Lin flew out and the innings was over. The Giants second saw Abe hit a one out two base but nothing came of the effort. Tigers second was quiet with the batters being retired in order. The scoring opened in the Giants third - Suzuki hit again. He was bunted to second by Furuki and then advanced to third on Ogasawara's fly out. Next batter Ramirez who hit to drive the runner in 1-0 Giants. Lee also hit but Kamei flew out and the innings was over. Tigers third was quiet as Utsumi kept the batters under control. In Giants fourth Abe had another two base hit but once again to no avail though he did reach third on Utsumi's ground out. Tigers fourth saw things happen. It all started with a Kanemoto walk. This seemed to unsettle Utsumi who gave up two hits in succession and the bases were loade. Yano struck out (and here he should have done more) but Baldris walked 1-1 scores level, bases loaded. The final batter was Andoh who did try but flew out in foul ground, end of innings.

Giants fifth had a Ogasawara hit but this was all. Akahoshi led off the Tigers fifth with a hit. He was bunted to second by Hirano and was joined on base by Kanemoto who walked. Lin, though, grounded out to first and that was the end of the chance. Andoh's sixth was his best innings - he struck out Kamei and Abe looking and then got Sakamoto to ground out. Yano hit in Tigers sixth and was bunted to second by Baldris. Okada decided to go with a pinch hitter and Sakurai was summoned he hit to right which set up runners on first and third with two outs. Yano should have tried for home - he is speedy and you have to take your chances. Otherwise there was no reason for Baldris to bunt. Anyway with Yano on third and Sakurai on first Akahoshi struck out and the chance went begging. Andoh had pitched well - he had thrown 93 pitches and walked only one batter (plus a dead ball) with six hits and a run. Utsumi had also pitched well but had given up more walks - at that stage both sides had scored one run on six hits each, a very close game. Atchison pitched the Giants seventh and once again was superb. He struck Kimura (pinch hitter) out swinging, then Suzuki struck out looking and finally Furuki swung at one for the third strike out. Giants replacement pitcher was Yamaguchi who retired the Tigers batters in order.

The Giants eighth was Williams and unfortunately he made a complete pigs ear of the innings. He started with a lead off hit to Ogasawara. Ramirez also hit and Giants had runners on first and second with no outs. This became runners on second and third with one out on Lee's ground out. Then Williams walked Tani (pinch hitter) and Abe in succession - walk in run 2-1 Giants, bases loaded. Sakamoto struck out and it began to look like Williams would get out of innings with minimal damage. Not so - he faced Ohmichi (pinch hitter) normally an easy out. Williams put his first pitch in the right channel just were Ohmichi hits and the Giants batter put the ball just past Hirano's dive for a two base bases clearing hit 5-1 Giants. Williams had messed up. His next pitch was hit to centre by Suzuki to put runners on first and third (Ohmichi being non too fast) before he finally got Furuki to ground out. This innings effectively ended the Tigers chances of victory - the meltdown knocked the stuffing out of them. Toyoda took the Tigers eighth and gave up a one out hit to Sekimoto. This was extinguished by a Yano double play though and the innings was over. Okada decided he might as well give Hashimoto a try. It wasn't quite as bad as Williams but certainly not impressive. Hashimoto gave up a lead off hit to Tarauchi (replacement second) and he then stole second. Ramirez grounded out to advance him to third and then Lee hit to drive him home 6-1 Giants. Finally Hashimoto woke up and struck out the next two batters. There was a faint glimmer of hope in the Tigers ninth when Baldris led off with a walk. This was rapidly extinguished by Ochi (the Giants pitcher for the ninth) striking out the next two batters and getting Hirano to fly out to end the game. Giants victory.

The loss was totally due to Williams failure in the eighth innings. He has been ineffective this series and in fact his ERA against the Giants has swelled to 12.60. Tigers still maintain a six game lead and are still on course to win the pennant but this is the second straight series they have lost at Koshien to the Giants. They do need to work harder to make sure they win most of the remaining games. Williams needs to take a very hard look at his pitching particularly his first pitch which is proving to be easy to hit for a lot of batters. At the moment Giants still need to win all their games to have a chance of the pennant but if Tigers lose too many this will change.