May 10th Fukuhara v Kobayashi - A comedy of errors

A massacre is the best description of this match. Kobayashi wasn't very good in his third start against the Tigers but even so they needed the help of a couple of errors in the third to get going. Once they got started the floodgates opened. Kanoh recorded his first home run of the season. Whilst the victory was nice one swallow does not a summer make and there are still many questions to be answered about Mayumi Tigers. This time he used his elite relief to finish the game off - maybe he felt that they needed the practice. This certainly seemed to be the case as both Egusa and Williams gave up runs which inflated their ERAs. Perhaps if Mayumi had used them in the games that mattered Tigers could have won the series. Box scores

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

Starting lineups

Tigers
1. Akahoshi (Centre)
2. Sekimoto (First)
3. Toritani (Short)
4. Kanemoto (Left)
5. Arai (Third)
6. Lin (Right)
7. Fujimoto (Second)
8. Kanoh (Catcher)
9. Fukuhara (Pitcher)

BayStars
1. Ishikawa (Short)
2. Fujita (Second)
3. Uchikawa (Left)
4. Murata (Third)
5. Yoshimura (Right)
6. Johnson (First)
7. Fujie (Centre)
8. Hosoyamada (Catcher)
9. Kobayashi (Pitcher)

Fujie was replaced at centre by Naitoh before the game started

Tigers did have a point to prove after their poor performance in the previous three games. Even so their start wasn't indicative that they would prove the point. Kobayashi started securely retiring the side in order. Fukuhara started poorly. Ishikawa led off with a hit and then tried to steal second. Kanoh threw him out. Fujita flew out but Uchikawa hit and then Murata hit to set up runners on first and second. Yoshimura couldn't convert and struck out to end the innings. With one out in Tigers second Kobayashi began to detiorate. He walked Arai and then Lin hit - a two base to right along the line. Fujimoto walked and the bases were loaded. Tigers failed to exploit this chance and Kanoh and then Fukuhara struck out and the Tigers had wasted a good chance. Fukuhara ran into trouble immediately. He walked Johnson and then faced Naitoh. The BayStars centre put his second pitch into the right stand for a two run home run 2-0 BayStars. This was all the more surprising as he hit Fukuhara's slow curve which is normally unhittable. Anyway it looked like the Tigers were in for another long afternoon. Fortunately (for Tigers fans) it turned out the other way and BayStars had to endure. The turnabout came in the third due to a series of costly errors commited by the BayStars with some incredibly slack play. Kobayashi started by walking Akahoshi and then Sekimoto. Next batter, Toritani, hit the ball back to him but Kobayashi messed up the pick up and throw and the bases were loaded with no outs. Kanemoto followed and hit a grounder to first. Johnson failed to take it and the rolled merrily behind him. By the time it had been retrieved two runners were home 2-2 scores tied and the other runners were on second and third. Facing Arai, Kobayashi balked which meant another run 3-2 Tigers runner on third, no outs. Arai grounded out to first and the run didn't score but then Lin grounded out to short but giving Kanemoto enough time to get home 4-2 Tigers and the game had turned on its head. Fujimoto hit his first pitch to Johnson but this time the fielding was safe and the innings was over. BayStars started their third with a groundout from Fujita but Uchikawa hit. Murata obligingly hit into a double play and the innings finished scoreless. Tigers were now in a comfortable position.

The game became even more comfortable in the Tigers fourth. With two out Akahoshi hit. He then stole second (and his steal record so far this season is 100%). Next batter Sekimoto who hit to right and Akahoshi was home 5-2 Tigers. Sekimoto tried to go too far and was caught off base and was out - end of innings. BayStars fourth saw Naitoh walk but nothing came of this. The fifth was quiet - Kobayashi retired the batters he faced in order and the same went for Fukuhara. Ohya decided that five innings of Kobayashi was enough and replaced him with Nasuno. Kobayashi had not pitched well at all and had struggled throughout the game. Most of the runs scored against him had been due to errors but two of those had been his. However, Nasuno would not raise the standards of pitching in that game. With one out Fujimoto hit. A wild pitch took him to second and then Kanoh walked - runners on first and second. Mayumi decided to go for the runs and Imaoka (pinch hitter) replaced Fukuhara. He struck out swinging - so much for that idea. Akahoshi walked to load the bases which brought up Sekimoto. He hit a bases clearing double and this time didn't go too far. 8-2 Tigers runner on second. Toritani followed and crushed his fourth pitch into the right stand for his fourth home run of the season - a two run 10-2 Tigers. Kanemoto struck out to end the innings but the Tigers were practically home and dry. Egusa replaced Fukuhara and immediately gave up a lead off home run to Uchikawa 10-3 Tigers as BayStars tried to hit their way back into the match. The next three batters were all out easily as Egusa made sure that no one else scored. His ERA has swelled to 1.17.

Nasuno had been overwhelmed and so a new pitcher was needed for the Tigers seventh. This was Ushida who was relatively more successful than his predecessor. Relatively being the operative word. With two out Fujimoto hit again. This brought up Kanoh who swung at his first pitch and to his admitted considerable surprise put it over the wall for a two run home run 12-3 Tigers. Katsuragi (pinch hitter) struck out and the innings ended. Atchison pitched the BayStars seventh and had no trouble retiring his three batters in all of nine pitches with one strike out. Tigers eighth was pitched by Yoshikawa and he was successful in steming the run flow. He did walk Sekimoto but that was all. Watanabe pitched the BayStars eighth and got all three batters he faced to ground out. Tigers ninth saw Fujimoto have a two out hit but this time Kanoh did not convert and the innings was scoreless. For the BayStars ninth Williams was the pitcher and with one out he left his third pitch invitingly placed for Yoshimura who duly dispatched it into the left stand for a solo home run 12-4 Tigers. The next two batters fell easily and the game was over. Tigers victory.

An impressive batting display by the Tigers who had overwhelmed the BayStars pitching and equalled their season high score. One must be careful about this though. If the BayStars hadn't made such a mess in the third they probably could have mounted a real challenge later in the game. Fukuhara picked up the win but hadn't really been wonderful. Still he had the batting support so why can't Kubo and Cheng who have both pitched far better get the same? Mayumi's use of the top relief with an eight run lead was surprising. Either he was afraid Tigers would blow the victory or he wanted to give his pitchers some practice. Still it was a bit strange. The next few days will see whether this is the start of something good or whether it was just a flash in the pan. What was encouraging was that the victory was mostly due to players other than Kanemoto. Arai though is back in slump mode and one hopes he can get out of it in time for the Inter-League series. Fujikawa is recovering well which is a nice sign as Williams isn't looking like he can recover his form of all. Tigers play the Carp and then return to Tokyo for another series with the Swallows.