May 8th Standridge v Imai - Don't trust the pitchers

Carp remain second class - despite this victory. Tigers though have serious problems. Standridge so far is a waste of money and Mayumi still doesn't have a clue. His handling of the pitching in today's game was little short of retarded. Pitchers were left in when they should be changed and the wrong pitchers were chosen. Tsutsui went a long way to justifying his future place in the second team - he is not the pitcher he was. The problem for Tigers will be where to find starters. As the replacements fail to meet the required standards Tigers need to rely on young inexperienced pitchers and hope they come good. Scores

        1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9  R  H E
Carp    2 1 1 3 0 0 2 2 0 11 17 1
Tigers  1 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 3  8 13 1

Starting lineups

Carp
1. Higashide (Second)
2. Soyogi (Short)
3. Amaya (Centre)
4. Kurihara (First)
5. Fiorentino (Left)
6. Kokubo (Third)
7. Akamatsu (Right)
8. Kura (Catcher)
9. Imai (Pitcher)

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

Standridge started poorly and continued in the same vein. He had no location and very little control and quite simply was a disgrace. Even the Carp could score off him. Higashide walked and then Soyogi hit. With the Carp as so often this meant runners on first and third with no outs. The ineffective Amaya grounded out but this brought home the runner 1-0 Carp, runner on second. One out later Fiorentino hit to centre - a two base and it was 2-0 Carp, runner on second. Kokubo flew out to end the innings. Carp's starter Imai was just as worthless as Standridge and started by giving up a two base lead off hit to Murton. Hirano bunted him to third and then Toritani supplied the sacrifice fly 2-1 Carp. Arai flew out to centre to end the innings. In Carp's second Akamatsu led off with a hit and stole second. Higashide then hit a two base to left centre - the ability of the Tigers pitchers to give up extra base hits was quite incredible 3-1 Carp runner on second. The final batter was Soyogi who flew out to end the innings. Johjima led off Tigers second with a hit. Brazell grounded out and at the moment he is in a bit of a slump. Kanoh drew a walk but the last batter was Standridge and so the Carp escaped. With two out in Carp's third Standridge walked Fiorentino and then went to pieces. Kokubo hit to set up runners on first and second and then Akamatsu hit his first pitch to centre 4-1 Carp runners on first and second. Kura grounded out to third to end the innings. The Carp batters were frequently able to hit their first pitches as the Tigers pitchers were lazy and careless. However, Imai was still pitching and Tigers were still in with a chance. Murton hit to short who screwed up (as usual the Carp fielding was poor) and Murton was safe. Hirano hit a two base past the slow moving Kurihara to set up runners on second and third. Toritani walked but Arai in a desperate attempt to make a mess of things hit into a double play. One runner home, one on third and score 4-2. Imai then dead balled Johjima which was stupid and walked Brazell to load the bases again. Next batter Sakurai who hit a bases clearing double to bring the runners home 5-4 Tigers runner on second. Kanoh hit to right and flew out but the Tigers had turned the game around.

They did need to hold the lead and Mayumi made sure that this wouldn't happen by bringing back Standridge for the Carp's fourth. This was really brainless management as one had to wonder how a pitcher who hadn't been able to get through an innings without giving up a run was going to do so. Ishihara (pinch hitter) grounded out but then Higashide hit a two base to right centre. Basically they swung connected and the ball went where they wanted - the pitching was that poor. Soyogi flew out which took Higashide round to third and then Mayumi decided he had better change pitchers. He decided a leftie would be a good idea and brought on Kawasaki. Not the right pitcher for the moment when Watanabe would have been better. Kawasaki was abysmal (he has pitched a lot better) he gave up a hit to the ineffective Amaya - he was that bad and this brought the runner home 5-5 scores tied. Then Kurihara (Carp's only batter) hit a two base to set up runners on second and third. Here fate took a hand. Fiorentino was next and he popped one up not far into centre field. Toritani was under it and dropped the ball - a major error. Murton had come in and slid behind Toritani in a truely incomprehensible move. Toritani fell over Murton and one just wondered. Both runners made home 7-5 Carp and Tigers overall incompetence had handed the Carp a lead. Finally, Mayumi brought on Watanabe who got the final out. It is shown in the score as a hit to Fiorentino but it was an error and one wonders what the scorers were smoking. Toritani would then make even more of a mess in the Tigers fourth. Nomura had wisely decided that three innings of Imai was enough and replaced his pitcher with Shinoda. He was, though, just as ineffective as Imai and with one out gave up consecutive hits to Murton and Hirano. A wild pitch took the runners to third and second and it begun to look like Tigers had a great chance. However, Toritani made sure that this wouldn't happen. He hit a line dive which the normally poor Kokubo took and as the third fell he was able to tag the base catching Murton off base for an unlikely double play. Toritani had clearly planned to put his shot in that space which wasn't the wisest option. This knocked the stuffing out of the Tigers and boosted the Carp. Watanabe returned for Carp's fifth and gave up a hit to Ishihara. He tried to steal second but was well out. In Tigers fifth Johjima walked but then Brazell hit into a double play. Nishimura pitched Carp's sixth and was very competent - about the only pitcher who really was. No runners reached base. Shinoda returned for Tigers sixth and managed a hit to Shunsuke Fujikawa (replacement left) but nothing came of this.

Mayumi then brought on Tsutsui for Carp's seventh and he was poor making the fifth and sixth a distant memory. Why Mayumi didn't have Watanabe pitch two innings is difficult to fathom (Watanabe would have had to bat but that is OK once in a while). Kurihara led off with a lucky home run which just cleared the fence 8-5 Carp and the game was drifiting away from the Tigers. Fiorentino hit and then Kokubo bunted him to second. Akamatsu flew out to right and Fiorentino moved up to third as is the Carp's tactic. Hirose (pinch hitter) was next and he shouldn't have presented a problem as he is not hitting well. Instead he drove a too high pitch into right for another run 9-5 Carp. This was embarrassing. Finally, Ishihara grounded out to end the innings. Bale pitched Tigers seventh and Hirano led off with a hit to short. This was an umpire's mistake as the replays clearly showed that the throw beat him to first. However, he didn't enjoy his luck for long as Toritani hit into a double play and there was no mistake this time. Arai then grounded out to Kokubo which even he could take and the innings was over. Amazingly Tsutsui returned for Carp's eighth and you had to wonder what on earth was going on inside Mayumi's tiny mind. A pitcher who has shown that he isn't effective in the conditions is brought back for another try - its the same as Standridge pitching the fourth. One out followed and then Tsutsui showed an alarming lack of control which Carp took full advantage of. Soyogi hit a two base to right centre. Then Amaya banged one into the same place 10-5 Carp, runner on second. Kurihara followed with a hit to centre 11-5 Carp, runner on first. Somehow Tsutsui managed to strike out Shima (pinch hitter) and Kokubo to end the innings but he never should have pitched it. For Tigers eighth we had Umutsu who was one of the more effective pitchers retiring the batters in order. Carp's ninth saw Johjima's dream of catching every innings disappear as Mayumi decided to give him a rest. As he had already used Yano as a pinch hitter (he struck out) and Kanoh as a left field he brought in Komiyama. The pitcher was Ishikawa who was also effective retiring the batters in order. For Tigers ninth Carp sent Schultz to the mound. He started with a hit to Katsuragi (pinch hitter). Kanemoto (pinch hitter) flew out but Murton hit to right. Then Hirano hit to load the bases. Toritani hit to short and brought home a runner 11-6 Carp, bases loaded. Arai struck out but Komiyama hit a two base to right bringing home two more runs 11-8 Carp, runners on second and third. It really needed Brazell to do something here but he flew out to centre to end the game. Carp victory.

Mayumi's handling of the game had been really inept. He had failed with his pitchers leaving struggling pitchers in for too long. Neither Standridge or Tsutsui should have had their final innings. It is questionable whether Kawasaki should have been used either. Tigers do need to sort their rotation out with the inter league games coming up soon. Toritani had a poor game in almost every respect - that drop of a straightforward catch was very costly. As for Carp - despite the 11 runs and 17 hits they are still an ordinary side and don't really have the ability or power to finish anything but B class.