April 25th Andoh v Yamauchi - Dragons consolation

Coming back to Japan and expecting great things from the changed batting lineup but getting the same cack-handed management from Mayumi is not welcome. What was Yano doing replacing Johjima as catcher? He was just as past it as last season and the whole situation seemed to reflect Mayumi's inability to manage. Of the new pitchers, I was impressed by Kawasaki but less so by Standridge. Both sides made too many errors and need to play better. Scores

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

Starting lineups

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

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

Andoh was poor and would get worse. With one out in Dragons first, Ibata hit straight to Arai. The throw from Arai was poor and Brazell had no chance to take it - Ibata was safe. Morino hit nicely to right and as Ibata went for third, Sakurai decided to try and pick him off. The throw was not hard enough and when Arai took it Ibata was safe. Arai threw to Toritani to try and prevent Morino getting to second but his throw was too high and Toritani did well to take it. Runners on second and third with Blanco the next batter. The first pitch was too high and Blanco hit it off the end of the bat into the left stand for a three run home run 3-0 Dragons. Wada hit to short and made base and then with two out Ohshima hit as well. Tanishige walked and the bases were loaded. However, the final batter was Yamauchi who duly supplied the final out of the innings. It would be nice to say the Tigers responded immediately but they didn't. Toritani did hit but then nothing else happened as Yamauchi kept the batters under control. Andoh continued to pitch abysmally in the second innings, Araki led off with a hit and Ibata bunted him to second. Then Morino hit again this time driving in the runner 4-0 Dragons. Mayumi had seen enough and replaced Andoh with Tsutsui before the former could do more damage. Andoh had demonstrated no control or ability to influence the game at all. Tsutsui retired the next two batters to get out of the innings. Tigers second was also quiet with the batters doing nothing. Yamauchi was pitching quite well. Tsutsui returned for the Dragons third and whilst he seems to do reasonably well in one innings relief he doesn't entirely generated confidence for deep relief. He walked Nomoto and the inevitable bunt followed. Tsutsui and Arai both went for it but even though Tsutsui picked up he had to delay the throw slightly and Ohshima was safe on first with Nomoto on second. Tanishige bunted the runners to second and third and then Tsutsui allowed Yamauchi to hit the sacrifice fly 5-0 Dragons, runner on second. Dragons were playing with a lot of confidence. Araki flew out but Tigers were falling further and further behind. Tigers third saw their first real challenge. With two out, Murton hit to first - what actually happened was that Blanco fumbled the ball and was unable to throw to Yamauchi but this was ruled a hit. Hirano hit nicely to left and Toritani walked to load the bases. Here the situation looked good but was thrown away by some incredibly inept batting by Arai. He swung at some dreadful pitches - his second strike was a perfect example. It was so far outside the zone that he couldn't have hit it even if he had stretched. This was abysmal batting of the highest order and Arai struck out swinging to end the innings.

The Dragons fourth saw Standridge and he started well with the first out. Then he deadballed Morino (it hit him on the foot). Blanco put his second pitch over Hirano into right and the Dragons had runners on first and third. Wada hit to left which brought home a run 6-0 Dragons, runners on first and second with one out. Nomoto grounded out but the runners were able to move to second and third. Ohshima was next and his hit went along the first baseline beating the dive of Brazell for a three base hit 8-0 Dragons, runner on third. Tanishige struck out to end the innings. Toritani then led off Tigers fourth with a tame ground out to third but Morino dropped it and he was safe on first. Sakurai followed with a nice two base which brought up Kanemoto who grounded out to third. This brought home a runner 8-1 Dragons, runner on third. This was nice enough but more was needed than a sacrifice hit. Kanoh (replacement left) also grounded out and the innings was over. Dragons fifth was pitched by Watanabe who finally brought some order to things and produced the first scoreless innings for the visitors. Unfortunately Tigers fifth was also scoreless. Dragons sixth saw Wada walk but nothing came of this. Yamauchi was still in control during the Tigers sixth and the batters fell in order.

In Dragons seventh Watanabe managed to walk Yamauchi with two out but Araki grounded out to short and the innings was scoreless. Still Watanabe had done quite well with his three innings. Yamauchi walked Sakurai and at this point Ochiai decided to replace him. Takahashi took the mound and got the first two outs easily enough. Then Murton hit to short. Araki messed up the pick up and transfer and Tigers had runners on first and second. Sekimoto (replacement second) walked on a full count to load the bases which unnerved Takahashi who sent two consecutive straightballs to Toritani. He got hold of his second one and deposited it in the left stand for a grand slam 8-5 Dragons. Arai hit to left but Johjima grounded out to third. All this time Yano had been warming up in catching gear and it looked like he would be taking over the catching duties. This proved to be the case in one of the most pointless moves of the match. He added nothing at all to the lineup and his calling was no improvement at all. Dragons eighth was pitched by Kawasaki who looked quite good. He did give up a hit to Blanco but nothing resulted. As the difference between the teams was now only three runs Ochiai went to his top level relief and Tigers eighth was pitched by the (currently) untouchable Asao. He retired the batters in order - Brazell's liner knocking Arai off his feet. The latter held the catch though. Dragons ninth was pitched by Kubota in what was another strange call. Kubota is too good a pitcher to use in this sort of situation and one has to ask what was going on in Mayumi's mind. Tanishige hit but nothing came of this and the innings was scoreless. So to the bottom of the ninth and Iwase. He started with a centre hit to Kanoh. Kanoh made second on a ground out and the crowd started to sing the KO chance march. However, Sekimoto grounded out and then Iwase struck Toritani out looking with a sublime pitch that had him completely fooled. End of game and Dragons victory.

This victory was inevitable after the Dragons had built up an eight run lead. Tigers scores were really about saving face than mounting a serious challenge. The batting and fielding had been poor and the management of the match beyond comprehension. The introduction of Yano added nothing and was totally unnecessary. Sometimes it is just impossible to figure out what Mayumi is thinking. Still Tigers had taken the series but something needs to be done about Andoh who is not having a good season so far.