April 15th Fossum v Utsumi - Mayumi's seventh innings mess

The most interesting part of this game was Casey Fossum's debut for Tigers. During the open-sen the coaches thought his fastball lacked velocity and kept him in ni-gun at the start of the season. Finally, he was brought up and was excellent pitching 6 innings with three hits and three walks and no runs given up. He didn't figure in the decision though as he left the game before the relief blew it. It looks like he will adjust quickly which is more than can be said for Messenger who is still struggling. Tigers really should have won this one as well but Mayumi's mishandling of the pitching handed the victory to the Giants. Scores

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

Starting lineups

Tigers
1. Murton (Centre)
2. Sekimoto (Second)
3. Toritani (Short)
4. Kanemoto (Left)
5. Arai (Third)
6. Johjima (Catcher)
7. Brazell (First)
8. Sakurai (Right)
9. Fossum (Pitcher)

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

Utsumi would struggle throughout the match and ended up throwing 121 pitches in his seven innings. Still he escaped with just one earned run and showed great strength of character and a general ability to get out of trouble. He started the first badly though with a lead off home run to Murton 1-0 Tigers. With Sekimoto out, Toritani grounded out to short but Sakamoto messed this one up and Toritani was safe. Arai hit but Johjima lined out to third off his first pitch to end the innings. Fossum walked Matsumoto in Giants first and the latter continued his battle with Johjima trying to steal second. This time the advantage went to Johjima who threw the Giants centre out. Ogasawara flew out and Fossum's first innings had been a success. In Tigers second, Sakurai hit and was bunted to second by Fossum but Murton couldn't convert and the innings was scoreless. Giants second saw Abe walk and he made second on a ground out but then went no further. Toritani walked in Tigers third but this single thing was all that Tigers were able to do. With two out Sakamoto hit in Giants third. He then tried to steal second and Toritani missed the take again with Sakamoto ending up on third. Fossum remained focused and struck Matsumoto out looking on a full count to end the innings.

Utsumi by now had established a good rhythm and retired the Tigers in order in the fourth. The same happened to the Giants in the bottom and the Tigers fifth. Utsumi was throwing a lot of pitches but he was keeping the score to that one run and doing his job well. Kamei managed a hit in Giants fifth with one out but an Edgar double play ended the innings. Tigers sixth started with Sekimoto grounding out. Toritani walked and then Kanemoto hit to Utsumi. He made a complete mess of the take and throw and Kanemoto was safe. This was surprisingly ruled a hit rather than an error. So with runners on first and second and Johjima and Brazell to come Tigers were in with a good chance. Johjima grounded out which took Toritani to third and then Brazell struck out to end the innings. One can't help feeling Tigers had wasted the chance. In Giants sixth Sakamoto hit. Matsumoto's ground out eliminated him but Matsumoto was safe on first. Ogasawara walked but then Fossum lured Ramirez into a flyout to end the innings.

Utsumi returned for Tigers seventh in what would be his last innings. He gave up a two out hit to Murton who then stole second but Sekimoto struck out looking to end the innings. Here things started to get strange. Utsumi had thrown 121 pitches in his seven innings and Fossum only 78 in six. One would have thought that Fossum would have another innings in him. Only one Giants runner had reached third so far and that was on an error. Maybe Mayumi didn't want to overtire Fossum on his first outing but it does seem he could have pitched the seventh. Anyway Nishimura was summoned to the mound and promptly gave up a two base hit to Abe. Chono grounded out to first and the throw took out Abe but Chono was on first with one out. This was a much improved position but Mayumi unaccountably decided to switch to Tsutsui. This decision was incomprehensible unless he was worried that Nishimura would face another left handed batter. After the event it rather resembles a panic attack. Tsutsui walked Kamei to set up runners on first and second which caused Mayumi to replace Tsutsui with Messenger. This wasn't good handling of the relief pitching and all the time was increasing the Giants confidence whilst deflating the Tigers. There was no need to replace Nishimura or for that matter Fossum either and Mayumi as he admitted later made a complete mess of things. Anyway there was more to come. Messenger got Takahashi (pinch hitter) to ground out but the runners were able to move round to second and third. Still only one out to get. Messenger then walked Wakiya (pinch hitter) to load the bases. Now might have been a good time to replace pitchers but Mayumi didn't and Messengers first pitch to Sakamoto was a 136 kmh straight going away from the right hander. Sakamoto took a swing, got a contact low on the bat and the ball flew over the centre field wall for a grand slam 4-1 Giants. Matsumoto flew out but the Mayumi had blown a tight game and even though it was possible for the Tigers to come back one felt that this would not happen. Tigers did respond in the eighth. Utsumi had been replaced by Yamaguchi who is currently having problems with Tigers batters. Toritani started the innings with a two base and made second on Kanemoto's ground out. Arai grounded out to short which allowed Toritani to make home 4-2 Giants but two outs. Johjima flew out to end the innings. For Giants ninth we surprisingly saw Kojima in an unfamiliar role for him. He gave up a solo home run to Ramirez 5-2 Giants and then a two out hit to Chono. Finally, Kamei flew out but it is clear that Kojima needs more work to be an effective relief pitcher. Ochi took the mound for the Tigers ninth. He struck out his first two batters but then Katsuragi (pinch hitter) hit a fly to left which Kamei (moved to left) dropped. Katsuragi took advantage of this error to reach second but Murton grounded out to end the game. Giants victory.

To some extent it was expected that the series would go 2-1 but with the Tigers in contention for six innings it turned out to be a bitter blow. Mayumi's mishandling of the seventh had cost the Tigers victory when things looked secure. One can expect the odd managerial decision to go wrong - no manager gets things right all the time but surely a second year manager shouldn't be panicking so much? Tigers winning streak stopped at four but the jewel of a start from Fossum is at least something Tigers fans can be very happy with. Lets hope he gets even better and with Standridge ready that the rotation begins to match the offense.