April 18th Andoh v Miura - The post Kanemoto age begins

The uniform Kanemoto wore in the last game of his streak is to be displayed at the MLB Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Before it goes to the US the uniform will be displayed at the Koshien museum between 1st and 9th May. Andoh's replacement is to be Tsuru who is felt ready enough. It is nice to see Sugiyama and Fukuhara being ignored and younger pitchers being brought into the lineup. For this game Mayumi shuffled his lineup moving everyone from Arai up a position playing Katsuragi at left. Tigers did well and this time were able to overwhelm the BayStars in the final stages. Scores

          1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R  H E
Tigers    0 0 0 2 0 1 0 3 2 8 15 0
BayStars  0 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 4  8 0

Starting lineups

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)

BayStars
1. Ishikawa (Short)
2. Hayakawa (Centre)
3. Uchikawa (First)
4. Murata (Third)
5. Sledge (Left)
6. Castillo (Second)
7. Yoshimura (Right)
8. Hashimoto (Catcher)
9. Miura (Pitcher)

Tigers first started with two straight outs before Toritani hit. Arai's first at bat as Tigers No. 4 saw him strike out on a full count though and the innings was scoreless. Andoh started well retiring the batters in order but in Tigers second Miura gave up a lead off hit to Johjima. Miura wasn't pitching like the 'Tigers killer' of old but Brazell rescued him with a double play. Sakurai flew out to end the innings. In BayStars second Andoh walked Sledge who made second on Castillo's ground out. Yoshimura couldn't convert and that chance disappeared. Once again in Tigers third - a batter hit, this time Andoh but neither Murton or Hirano could take advantage of this unexpected bounty. Things went suddenly wrong for Andoh in the BayStars third innings. Hashimoto hit to left and was bunted to second by Miura. Ishikawa hit to set up runners on first and third and then stole second. Johjima's fabled arm does not seem to be working that well. Hayakawa was next and one would have expected a sacrifice fly but instead he hit a two base to right and both runners were home 2-0 BayStars, runner on second. Uchikawa hit to right and there were runners on first and second with only one out. However, Murata hit into the double play and Tigers escaped the innings. Andoh had proven surprisingly easy to hit presaging his pitching performance on the 25th.

Tigers were able to respond immediately. Miura found himself giving up a hit to Toritani. He stole second and made third on Johjima's centre fly. Brazell hit a two base to left field and Toritani was home 2-1 BayStars, runner on second. Sakurai then blasted the ball over Hayakawa at centre for another two base hit 2-2 scores tied, runner on second. Katsuragi walked so that Miura could get at Andoh who this time struck out - no doubt producing a sigh of relief from the BayStars ace. BayStars were unable to respond in the fourth as Andoh then kept the middle of their order quiet. Tigers fifth was also quiet which brought us to Andoh's fifth, his danger innings. So it proved - Hashimoto had another hit and was once again bunted to second by Miura. Hayakawa who was finding Andoh easy meat hammered a two run home run of his fourth pitch 4-2 BayStars. Uchikawa flew out to right to end the innings but BayStars were back in the lead. Once again Tigers were able to respond as Miura continued poorly. With two out in Tigers sixth, Brazell hit another two base to left. Once again Sakurai hit driving in Brazell 4-3 BayStars, runner on first. This time Johjima flew out and the BayStars were able to preserve a slender lead. Andoh returned for BayStars sixth and started with a hit to Murata. This was enough for Mayumi who pulled Andoh post haste and replaced him with Tsutsui. He got Sledge to ground out but Murata moved to second. Castillo was deliberately walked and then Tsutsui struck Yoshimura out looking. Tsutsui then dead balled Hashimoto (why is it that Tigers pitchers throw so many dead balls?) to load the bases. Next up was Inada (pinch hitter) who hit his first pitch straight to Hirano for a straightforward ground out which ended a very dangerous situation for the Tigers.

Tigers seventh started with a pinch hitter Hiyama. He hit to centre of the BayStars replacement pitcher Ejiri. Murton then hit into a double play to end that chance. Hirano struck out and the innings was over. Nishimura replaced Tsutsui for BayStars seventh and he gave up a one out hit to Hayakawa who was only a three base short of the cycle (one of the players in this game has actually hit the cycle - which one?). It was Uchikawa's turn to hit into the double play and end the innings. For Tigers eighth BayStars sent Kuwahara to the mound. He started by walking Toritani in four. Johjima hit along the left baseline to set up runners on first and third with one out. This brought up Brazell who has fond memories of Yokohama stadium and proceeded to add to them with a three run home run 6-4 Tigers. Sakurai hit which saw the end of Kuwahara. He was replaced by Sanada. Katsuragi bunted Sakurai to second ( a strange move you would have thought) and then Takamiya took the mound to face Kanemoto (pinch hitter) wgi grounded out to end the innings. Still the game was turned around and Tigers were in the driving seat. Kubota took the mound for the BayStars eighth and was his usual reliable self which made a change from the night before. The batters tumbled 1-2-3 in short order. Tigers ninth was different. Murton hit to short and beat the throw. Hirano then bunted and beat the throw to reach first safely, runners on first and second with no outs. Toritani walked to load the bases and that was the end of Takamiya. Kobayashi was asked to rescue the situation. He started poorly giving up a hit to Arai which brought home a runner 7-4 Tigers, bases loaded. One would have thought that Hirano could have also made home as the hit was to right but he was held up on third. Johjima then hit a sacrifice fly to left 8-4 Tigers, runners on first and second. Sakurai grounded out but moved the runners round to second and third but Shunsuke Fujikawa (replacement right) struck out to end the innings. Kyuji Fujikawa pitched the BayStars ninth - he certainly is being used in a lot of non-save situations. He struck out the first two batters he faced, Yoshimura and Hashimoto and then got Fujita (pinch hitter) to fly out to Toritani. Game over and Tigers victory.

Tigers had done very well getting to and destroying BayStars relief. Even so Miura hadn't pitched that well and it was only the fact that Andoh was as equally as bad which prevented the BayStars pitcher from taking the loss. Brazell and Sakurai had both shone and Tigers had managed to overhaul the BayStars to engineer a very good victory. It was also nice that Kubota was also able to bounce back.