June 22nd Shimoyanagi v Ohtake - Taking baseball to the bumpkins

Lots of rural cities in Japan have their own high quality stadium and often an airport. This is normal pork barrel politics - build a white elephant to show the importance of the city. This is the case of Yonago Stadium which is located in Tottori prefecture on the coast of the sea of Japan. It doesn't have the catchment area necessary to support a team and so the stadium is underused. However, in a drive to bring baseball to areas which normally wouldn't get live games each NPB team is required to play a few games a year in one of these out of the way places. This is why Carp and Tigers journeyed to the city of Yonago for a rather wild game.
Totally unrelated, it seems that Tigers are still interested in exploring options with Matsui. Two club officials are travelling to America to talk with him about his plans for the future. It is unlikely that he will want to leave the US but the view is that there is no harm in trying. This kind of attention did work with Johjima. Scores

        1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11  R  H E
Tigers  1 0 1 1 2 0 0 2 0  0  6 13 17 1
Carp    0 0 2 2 0 3 0 0 0  0  0  7 11 1

Starting lineups

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

Carp
1. Higashide (Second)
2. Soyogi (Short)
3. Shima (Left)
4. Huber (First)
5. Hirose (Right)
6. Akamatsu (Centre)
7. Kokubo (Third)
8. Ishihara (Catcher)
9. Ohtake (Pitcher)

Tigers got off to another good start in this game but would almost waste it with poor pitching. With Toritani out to a grounder in Tigers first, Hirano hit to right. Murton walked which pushed Hirano round to second - an ideal situation for Arai. He drove his second pitch into centre 1-0 Tigers, runners on first and third. To be honest, Carp's pitcher Ohtake wasn't very good and if it isn't Maeda they have no-one. Brazell struck out and then Johjima grounded out to short. Shimoyanagi started with a lead off hit to Higashide. Now with what was to happen later one would not have thought that Soyogi would be asked to bunt but this is exactly what happened. HIgashide moved round to second and then to third on Shima's ground out. Huber, deputising for Kurihara, struck out to end the innings. Tigers second saw Sakurai hit and he was bunted to second by Shimoyanagi which is the proper use of the bunt. Toritani took a dead ball but then Hirano struck out looking and the chance was missed. In Carp's second Kokubo hit to right but with two out was not going to get far and the innings ended with Ishihara's fly out. Tigers were already on their second rotation by now and Ohtake faced Brazell for the second time. This time the Tigers first crushed the ball into the right stand - rather on power than a well timed hit for a solo home run 2-0 Tigers. Brazell has now hit home runs in five straight games and joins a rather exclusive group of Tigers players (the last one to accomplish this feat was Mayumi himself in 1986). Johjima hit to right - a single but Lin flew out and the innings was over. Shimoyanagi must have been wool gathering as his third innings was very poor. He started with a lead off walk to Ohtake - not the sort of thing you should do. HIgashide flew out but then Soyogi hit a two run home run off a rather inviting pitch 2-2 scores tied. Shima hit a two base and reached third on a wild pitch with just one out. Carp hadn't created the chances, rather Tigers had handed them to the opposiiton. Huber flew out in foul ground and then Hirose flew out to centre to end the innings.

Tigers were back on top in the fourth though as Ohtake continued to pitch poorly. Sakurai walked and was bunted to second by Shimoyanagi. Toritani hit a two base sweetly to right and the runner was home 3-2 Tigers, runner on second. Hirano grounded out but did take Toritani round to third but then Murton also grounded out to end the innings. Shimoyanagi continued to pitch poorly but wasn't helped by Arai fumbling a ground out from Akamatsu who was safe on first. He stole second and then Kokubo hit a two base to put runners on second and third with no outs. Ishihara grounded out to short which prevented a score but then Ohtake attempted a squeeze play. This worked better than expected - Johjima went after the bunt forgetting that there was no one covering the home plate. Both runners scored 4-3 Carp. Here Shimoyanagi should have come in for the ball and Johjima stayed where he was. Higashide hit to right and then tried to steal second but was thrown out to end the innings. Poor play by Tigers had cost them the lead. Once again Tigers were able to hit back in their fifth. With one out Brazell hit and then Johjima banged a two run home run to left to make up for his mess of the last innings 5-4 Tigers. The innings ended with Sakurai striking out but this should have been the killer blow. In fact it looked that way as Shimoyanagi, who seemed to have woken up, retired the batters in order. Carp switched pitchers for the sixth Ohshima taking the mound. He retired his three batters in order including Takahashi (pinch hitting for Shimoyanagi). Mayumi wasn't going to try and pitch Shimoyanagi another innings - a sensible move. His choice of replacement was also appropriate - Watanabe. Watanabe was terrible, he started with a hit to Hirose and then a hit to Akamatsu. Kokubo walked to load the bases with no outs and then Watanabe walked Ishihara - oshidashi 5-5 scores tied, bases loaded. Watanabe was quickly pulled and Nishimura put in his place. He seemed to have the situation under control getting Maeda (pinch hitter) to ground into a double play locking the runners on second and third. However, he then let loose a very poor pitch to Higashide which brought home both runners 7-5 Carp, runner on second. Nishimura, once he had worked the double play should not have given up those two runs and had handed the initiative to the Carp. All Mayumi's good work had been undone. Nishimura still needed to get the final out and was able to persuade Soyogi to fly out to second to end the innings.

The pitcher for Tigers seventh was Ueno who walked Murton but then retired the next three batters. NIshimura pitched Carp's seventh and gave up a left hit to Shima. However, he was able to retire the next three batters as well and so that innings was also scoreless. A better innings from him. For Carp things started to fall apart in the Tigers eighth. Ueno got Lin to fly out but gave up a hit to Sakurai. He was replaced by Hiroike who got Kanemoto (pinch hitting) to fly out but then gave up a hit to Toritani which took Sakurai to third. Hiroike was replaced by Bale who faced Sekimoto (pinch hitter). Sekimoto took a huge swing and banged the ball into centre where it landed safely. Both runners were home and Sekimoto sliding in was safe on third 7-7 scores tied. Murton walked but then Arai flew out to centre trying to repeat Sekimoto's feat. Tigers needed to preserve this situation and so Mayumi sent Kubota in for Carp's eighth. He was at his best retiring the batters in order and increasing Tigers chances. For Tigers ninth Carp used Saitoh and here Tigers were very poor. The innings took all of three pitches. First pitch Brazell hits to right. This was the only good thing. Second pitch Johjima flies out to first, Brazell remains on first. Third pitch Shunsuke Fujikawa (replacement left) hits into a double play to end the innings. Both Johjima and Fujikawa had not batted well at all. Carp's ninth was nearly as bad. Higashide flew out off his first pitch. Soyogi hit to short and was able to beat the throw off his first pitch. Kimura (replacement left) bunted Soyogi to second off his first pitch. Would Kubota have the temperament to get the final out? The answer was yes - he struck Yamamoto (replacement first) out swinging to end the innings. Using one of his elite pitchers in a tie situation had worked for Mayumi.

Carp were now on the back foot and struggling. Tigers upped the pressure. Saitoh gave up a one out hit in the tenth to Yamato (replacement second). Toritani laid down a nice bunt hit and then Asai hit to load the bases. Murton grounded out to short though and the runners remained locked on base. Arai was next and he flew out wasting this chance. Saitoh had escaped. Kyuji Fujikawa took the mound for Carp's tenth striking out his first two batters and then getting Kokubo to ground out and end the innings. Saitoh got Brazell to ground out in Tigers eleventh and was then replaced by Uemutsu. He faced Johjima who hit to Soyogi who fumbled this one allowing Johjma to make first safely. Shunsuke Fujikawa bunted him to second and then Sakurai who often does so in these situations picked up a walk. Mayumi put in Hiyama to pinch hit for Kyuji Fujikawa and he responded magnificently hitting a two base to right centre. Both runners were home 9-7 Tigers, runner on second. Toritani was deliberately walked and then Uemutsu dead balled Saka (pinch hitter) to load the bases. By now Uemutsu's confidence had gone and his second pitch to Murton was dispatched into the right stand for a grand slam (Murton's second of the season) 13-7 Tigers. Finally Arai flew out but it didn't matter as Tigers were out of sight. The final innings was just a formality. Uezono pitched and looked a lot happier - he did walk Amaya (pinch hitter) with one out but then lured the next two batters into trying to hit their first pitches and flying out. The innings was over and Tigers had won.

Mayumi had handled his pinch hitters very well and the offense had been strong and relentless. Carp had crumbled before the attack and even though they had tried to fight back using Tigers poor pitching they hadn't managed to get a big enough lead for them to defend. Tigers batters had done really well and so had Kubota who had kept Carp from pulling ahead again. If Kubota is really back on form it will be a huge boost to the side.