June 30th Shimoyanagi v Yamai - A big disappointment

Shimoyanagi has now performed poorly in his past three outings. He gave up five runs against the Lions, lasted just over three innings against Fighters and in this game blew a four run lead. The question has to be asked, is he still able to pitch effectively? I believe it is time to drop him down to the second team and bring up one of the younger pitchers. Putting the old warhorses out to grass would be the best bet for Tigers and making this a rebuilding year. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the strategy for the Tigers. Yano is due back even though his right elbow is still not 100%. As he throws and bats right this is hardly an encouraging piece of information. Tigers need to stick with Kanoh and Shimizu as catchers and bring up Kojima, Uezono and Ishikawa. Say goodbye to Andoh, Shimoyanagi, Fukuhara and Nohmi. Box scores

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

Starting lineups

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

Dragons
1. Ibata (Short)
2. Araki (Second)
3. Morino (Third)
4. Blanco (First)
5. Wada (Left)
6. Fujii (Centre)
7. Hidenori (Right)
8. Tanishige (Catcher)
9. Yamai (Pitcher)

Andoh was replaced at right for the first at bat by Lin

Yamai hasn't been pitching well and this game was a continuation of this trend. In fact, he was pathetic, not even finishing his second innings. Tigers first started with Akahoshi walking. He stole second but had to wait until Kanemoto's at bat to get further. Kanemoto drove nicely into centre and Akahoshi was home 1-0 Tigers runner on first. Brazell hit to left and Tigers had runners on first and second. This brought up Lin (replacing Andoh in what was the by now traditional pointless, let's put a pitcher in to conceal our No.6 ploy) but he grounded out to end the innings. Shimoyanagi would start well. His three batters retired in order with Morino striking out. Yamai really deteriorated in the Tigers second. Toritani hit and reached second on Kanoh's ground out. Shimoyanagi hit to centre and then a wild pitch took the runners to second and third. Akahoshi was next and he drove in both runners with a two base hit 3-0 Tigers runner on second. Sekimoto flew out moving the Tigers centre round to third and then Arai hit driving in the run 4-0 Tigers runner on first. At this point Ochiai had had enough and Yamai was yanked and replaced by Takahashi. It was also at this point that the Tigers bats went to sleep and generated no more hits until the ninth. This was also pretty dismal. Takahashi faced Kanemoto who grounded out to him to end the innings but the Tigers had a nice comfortable lead. Shimoyanagi continued his good pitching and once again the batters fell in order. Takahashi then sailed through the Tigers third untroubled by the Tigers batters whom he brushed off like flies. Shimoyanagi responded and the next three Dragons batters were also out easily. Up until this point it looked like a massacre of the Dragons, they were 4-0 down and hadn't generated a hit or a runner on base. Tigers were completely dominant, however (maybe an appropriate spot for doom laden music) this would change dramatically.

As I said Tigers bats had gone to sleep and whilst they should have been fighting to add more runs they were actually indulging in lazy shots. Nelson had replaced Takahashi and had an easy job retiring the three batters he faced. Shimoyanagi's problems surfaced in the Dragons fourth and from that innings he was just hanging on by his fingernails as his placement went. He gave up a lead off hit to Ibata. He stole second (in this game, Kanoh's throwing was not up to standard but you have to allow for the fact that the Dragons are very speedy) and then Araki hit, runners on first and third with no outs. Morino hit a deep sacrifice fly to right and Ibata was home 4-1 Tigers. Still - nothing to worry about. Araki then stole second and made third on Blanco's ground out but didn't get any further as Wada flew out. Tigers fifth saw Nelson once again retire the batters in order with Kanemoto striking out to end that innings. In Dragons fifth Fujii hit to centre. Hidenori hit moving him round to third and then reached second on a delayed steal. An impressive piece of work. Shimoyanagi then retired the next three batters with runners on second and third but he had been rather lucky. Once again the first two batters had hit back to back. Ochiai switched to Payano for Tigers sixth and he was just as effective as Nelson. He struck out Brazell and Sakurai (pinch hitter and replacement right) and got Toritani to fly out to end the innings. So Shimoyanagi returned for the sixth. He had a three run lead and wasn't under any kind of pressure but the signs had been there. Once again he gave up a leadoff hit, this time to Araki. Morino flew out but Blanco hit runners on first and third with one out. You expected a sacrifice fly or a double play. Shimoyanagi has got out of these binds with a double play so many times that it's practically his signature. Wada worked the count full and then walked, bases loaded. This brought up Fujii who hit Shimoyanagi's slider a little too well for a grand slam 5-4 Dragons and a complete reversal of the game. It was Fujii's first career grand slam but the hit was no fluke - just a nice hit off a poor ball. Shimoyanagi left that mound and Watanabe replaced him. He had faded rather quickly and at the moment is not a suitable pitcher for the first team. Watanabe struck out Hidenori but then walked Tanishige. However, his last batter was Payano who duly grounded out to end the innings.

The score reversal had come at the psychologically perfect moment for the Dragons but even so they only had a one run lead and Tigers were still in with a big chance. However, the fight had gone out of them. Payano even walked Shimzu (pinch hitter) in the Tigers seventh with one out but Akahoshi hit weakly into a double play. Egusa pitched Dragons seventh and retired the batters in order. All the Dragons hits came off Shimoyanagi's fourth, fifth and sixth innings. Outside of these they had to make do with walks, so with the pitchers keeping the Tigers in the game the batters should have made more effort. In Tigers eighth Asao dead balled Sekimoto but then retired the next three batters who contrived to waste the chance. Dragons eighth saw Atchison return the complement by dead balling Blanco. This turned out to be counter productive as Blanco was out to Fujii's ground out and Fujii then stole second. Hidenori struck out and that chance went nowhere. For Tigers ninth Iwase took the mound. He gave up a leadoff hit to Sakurai - the first since the second innings. Toritani bunted his pinch runner, Fujimoto to second and Kanoh's ground out took Fujimoto to third but then the final batter Takahashi (pinch hitter) struck out to end the innings. Dragons victory.

Tigers have blown bigger leads against the Dragons but this was a particularly big shock as they were so dominant. Shimoyanagi must take the blame for the defeat as it was his poor pitching that set it up. Too many hits given up too easily and too early ensured that he was under pressure he couldn't really cope with. Dragons took their chances well and made good use of their hits. They also pitched well but were helped by lazy batting by the Tigers.