August 11th Andoh v Chen - Shi no rodo, the home version

Chen wasn't as dominating as his last outing and in fact was sometimes a bit ordinary. He still had enough pitching and batting to ensure victory and the impression you received was of Tigers being outclassed. Of course Hirano's error was significant but Tigers were unable to convert their many chances and Kanemoto once again was useless eventually chickening out of a scoring chance and taking a walk. He really is lacking confidence at the moment. Once again we saw the Yano/Andoh combination and once again it was mediocre with Yano still not being first team standard. Scores

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

Starting lineups

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

Tigers
1. Hirano (Centre)
2. Yamato (Second)
3. Toritani (Short)
4. Kanemoto (Left)
5. Arai (Third)
6. Brazell (First)
7. Sakurai (Right)
8. Yano (Catcher)
9. Andoh (PItcher)

Andoh started with a couple of easy groundouts but then walked Morino. However, Blanco flew out easily to second. Tigers first saw Chen in trouble - Hirano hit to Morino who's throw was poor and Tigers had a runner on first. Yamato who seems to have taken over the bunting role bunted him to second and this brought up Toritani. Chen was having trouble focusing because of the noise of the Tigers fans and ended up walking Toritani to set up runners on first and second. So far everything was looking bright for the Tigers. Kanemoto was next but he hit straight into a double play and the innings was over. In Dragons second Lee walked with one out and took second on a wild pitch. However, the next two batters did nothing and that chance went begging. Tigers second saw Brazell hit a nice two base but he stayed on second as both Sakurai and Yano failed to convert him. So far everything was going reasonably well but all this would change in the third. Chen struck out but then Ibata hit a two base to left. The next batter was Araki who hit to centre. This should have been a fairly straightforward take for Hirano and in fact he got his glove on the ball but failed to take. Luckily for him it was ruled a hit not an error which it was but it was a two base 1-0 Dragons runner on second. Morino was next and he hit to left driving in another run 2-0 Dragons runner on first. Morino made second on Blanco's ground out but Wada struck out to end the innings. Tigers bounced back with an Andoh walk as Chen had difficulty with his control. Hirano hit to left and Yamato bunted the runners to second and third. This looked promising. Here things went wrong - Toritani snatched at his first pitch and flew out in foul ground. Kanemoto rather than try for a run walked to load the bases and then Arai also snatched at his first pitch and flew out to Tanishige. What had been a promising position had been wasted.

Dragons fourth saw Lee lead off with a two base hit. He made third on Fujii's second ground out which brought up Chen. He bounced one to Arai who had to wait for it to come down and beat out the throw to first driving in the run 3-0 Dragons, runner on first and a lucky score but all the same useful. Brazell hit to start off Tigers fourth and then made second on a wild pitch. Yano's ground out took him to third but the next batter was Andoh. Surely, a pinch hitter would have been used here? Mayumi decided to stick with Andoh who grounded out to short ending the scoring chance. Dragons fifth was quiet as Andoh retired the batters in order. Tigers fifth saw Yamato generate a two base hit. Toritani grounded out which brought up Kanemoto. Once again he walked setting up runners on first and third. Arai hit to right - a nice hit which didn't have the legs on it and died gently and comfortably into right's glove. Wada led off Dragons sixth with a walk but Lee's double play extinguished both batters. The final out was a ground out. Tigers sixth was quiet as Chen retired the batters in order.

Andoh returned for the Dragons seventh and did well also retiring the batters in order. Tigers seventh finally saw the replacement of Andoh with Asai. He swung nicely at his second pitch and put the ball just over Wada's glove for a three base hit. Hirano was next and he also hit to left flying out to Wada but giving Asai enough time to get home 3-1 Dragons. The next two batters failed to build on this and both flew out. Andoh's replacement for the Dragons eighth was Egusa who did well and looked very confident. He retired all three batters he faced without trouble. Asao was next and in a very fine piece of pitching retired Tigers 4-5-6 in order preventing them from reducing the Dragons lead further. For Dragons ninth Watanabe started with a hit to Wada. He was caught off base by Lee's first liner Brazell just having to step on the base to get the second out. Fujii flew out to centre to end the innings. Of course, the pitcher for Tigers ninth was Iwase. He struck out his first two batters but then gave up a hit to Asai. Takahashi (pinch hitter) though grounded out straight back to Iwase to end the innings. Dragons victory.

A confident victory for the Dragons. Tigers had suffered from their mistake but also from their inability to convert runners. Kanemoto cannot and does not want to hit and one has to question the employment of him and Yano. If neither of them are going to contribute why should they be in the team? Too many runners were stranded or not driven in and if Kanemoto is to continue someone needs to do something about his hitting or rather the lack of it.