September 9th Iwata v Asakura - Anything your pitcher can do..........

Firstly, the news, Iwata's wife gave birth to a daughter - congratuations to him. Sakurai is expected to return to the first team in time for the series against the Giants next week. Wiliams had his operation but Tigers management are indicating a 'wait and see' approach on whether to offer him a contract. Yuya Nohara (Tigers No. 1 Educational Draft pick in 2009) made his top team debut at right, last night but just missed out on his first at bat. The Colonel has gone on display outside Koshien and is attracting massive attention but no decision has been made on where his permanent home will be. Tigers are now 1.5 games behind the floundering Swallows with Carp a further game back. It looks like a question of who blinks first.

It was the Dragons turn to be beaten by a superb pitching performance. Iwata actually only threw one more pitch than Chen and gave up one more hit but struck out two more batters with the especial satisfaction of getting Dragons No. 4, Blanco, swinging for the last out. Tigers batting though only really functioned in the first innings where Lin made a spectacular return to the first team but then did nothing for the rest of the game. Still his contribution was more than enough and lets hope he gets more playing time. Scores

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

Starting lineups

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

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

Iwata started with strikeouts, both Ibata and Araki fell swinging and then Morino who would have a good game grounded out on a full count to end the Dragons first. Asakura started with a hit to Akahoshi. Hirano bunted him to second and then Toritani hit a two base to left centre 1-0 Tigers, runner on second. Asakura then ran into more trouble, walking both Kanemoto and Arai to load the bases with just one out. Katsuragi who isn't hitting so well at the moment struck out looking and this brought Lin to the plate. He hit into the right centre sweet spot for a bases clearing triple 4-0 Tigers runner on third. Kanoh swung at the first pitch he saw and flew out to Tanishige to end the innings but Tigers were in a commanding position. The question was could they hold it? The response was clearly yes - Iwata dominated the Dragons second, once again striking out two. Tigers second saw Akahoshi's second hit. He stole second but this time Toritani struck out to end the innings. Dragons third was Iwata's most dominant - like Chen he struck out all three batters he faced swinging. Unlike Iwata, Asakura was struggling, Kanemoto drew a lead off walk. Then Arai hit to set up runners on first and second with no outs. Here though Asakura did well making sure the next three batters did not advance the runners or add to the score.

So to the Dragons fourth which turned out to be quite eventful. Ibata led off with a hit. He was the victim of a force out at second as Araki hit to short but beat the throw to escape the double play. Araki then stole second but Morino struck out looking to a superb pitch from Iwata. This brought up Blanco who showed surprising patience and drew a walk to set up a runners on first and second. Wada though grounded out to Arai and that was the end of the innings. Tigers fourth was quiet with the batters falling in order. This was the case for the Dragons fifth as Iwata reasserted his control. In Tigers fifth Kanemoto hit to third and beat the throw to first. However, Arai hit into a double play to end the innings. Dragons sixth was once again quiet. Tigers sixth was piched by Takahashi, Ochiai having decided to replace Asakura. Apart from the first innings the latter had done enough to keep the runners off base. Takahashi gave up a two out hit to Kanoh but then the next batter was Iwata who struck out looking to end the innings.

Morino began to take more of a hand in the game - he was responsible for two of the Dragons hits and his first came in the seventh. Here he led off with a hit to left. Unfortunately, for Dragons he stayed on first as Iwata made sure he didn't receive any support from the following batters. Masato Kobayashi pitched Tigers seventh and gave up a walk to Toritani but as usual Kanemoto did nothing and the innings was over quickly. Dragons eighth saw the usual pattern and finished with a strike out of de la Rosa, the Dragons pinch hitter. Nelson pitched the Tigers eighth and was his usual effective self retiring the batters in order. Iwata then returned for the final innings. He was looking at his second complete game of the season but his first shutout. He got Ibata and Araki to ground out to short, Ato Hitori. Then he faced Morino who hit to left and managed to turn a two base into a three base. Blanco was next with a runner on third with two outs. It took Iwata five pitches to strike him out with a slider to end the innings. Tigers victory.

Tigers had bounced back nicely. Iwata had been as dominant as Chen the night before and had pitched superbly. All his run support came in the first and Tigers had made the most of a shakely Askura. Lin's return to the top team had been very productive but hitting wise the star continues to be Toritani. He is driving in runs nicely at the top of the order and seems to have adjusted to the position of No. 3. Here perseverence has paid off.