July 16th Shimoyanagi v Ishikawa - A frustrating affair

Whilst it is too much to say Tigers should have won this match they could have done better. Admittedly, Ishikawa pitched very well in the latter stages of his session but early on was vulnerable and there were Fujimoto's three errors of which more should have been made. Tigers batters did not take advantage of this at all. Kanemoto returned and whilst one welcomes this and his arm at left his place in the batting order was ill considered. By inserting a returning batter in at sixth (at least he wasn't put in at fourth) Mayumi managed to break up a very well performing 3-4-5-6 combination - all with 50 or more RBIs. Kanemoto needed to go into the lineup at seventh whilst Johjima remained at sixth. Johjima is the performing batter not Kanemoto and thus Johjima is more important to the team. The insertion of Kanemoto at sixth allowed Swallows to focus on the weak spot and disrupted Tigers main batting unit. Not very good management. Shimoyanagi despite pitching well and being unlucky in that respect also needs to work on his bunting which was truely sub-standard. Both his bunts were drastic failures but even so Tigers running round the bases was not inspiring. Giants managed to beat the BayStars which meant a wholly unsatisfactory evening for the Tigers and they do need to lift their game as Swallows offense was very ordinary. Scores

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

Starting lineups

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

Swallows
1. Aoki (Centre)
2. Tanaka (Second)
3. Iihara (Right)
4. Whitesell (First)
5. Hatakeyama (Third)
6. Aikawa (Catcher)
7. Noguchi (Left)
8. Fujimoto (Short)
9. Ishikawa (Pitcher)

The start of the game was all that Tigers could want - Toritani hitting to centre and being bunted to second by Hirano then Murton driving in the run with a timely hit to centre 1-0 Tigers runner on first. This was also Murton's 50th RBI of the season but it has taken him a long time to get there and given that Toritani passed that mark some time ago batting first it would make sense to switch their positions. Arai hit to Fujimoto who in a terrible game for him made the first of his three errors allowing runners on first and second. Things looked good but Brazell managed to hit into a double play to end the innings. Swallows shouldn't really have gotten back into the game but did as Shimoyanagi didn't pitch a good first. Aoki grounded out but Tanaka and Iihara walked and then Whitesell picked up a dead ball to load the bases. Next was Hatakeyama and if you have him batting No. 5 you really are scraping the bottom of the barrel. Whilst D'Antona or Guiel might have made something more of the situation Hatakeyama hit a deep fly to right for the sacrifice 1-1 scores tied, runners on first and third. Aikawa then grounded out to short to end the innings. Kanemoto led off Tigers second in what was to be a strange innings. He hit to Fujimoto who dropped it. Then Johjima hit a ground out to Fujimoto but the throw for a double play went awry. Kanemoto moved round to third but Johjima went beyond first and then was unable to return in time and was out. Very poor field awareness by the Tigers catcher and slow response as well. Asai walked and this showed a complete lack of thought or perception - banging the ball deep would have been a better option. Next came Shimoyanagi who was going to bunt as Tigers were planning a squeeze. Swallows knew this - everyone knew this. Shimoyanagi's first attempt was along the third baseline but went foul. So the Swallows knew where the ball would be and in fact it was to their strongest quarter. A bunt along the first baseline would have been much better as it would have involved Whitesell who is slower than Hatakeyama. The bunt when it came was abysmal - perfectly placed for Ishikawa to pick up and toss to a perfectly positioned Aikawa. He blocked the plate very well and the tag was a formality. Kanemoto himself was far too slow off the base and was easily blocked and tagged out. Tigers had been inept and Swallows had gotten themselves out of the problem very well. However, Tigers still had runners on first and second with one batter to go. This was Toritani who managed to ground out to second to end the innings. Swallows second was quiet with no one reaching base and it was after this innings that Fujimoto was told that his game was over. He was rather cut up about it but clearly hadn't been anywhere near the standard needed. He was replaced by Onizaki who brought a much needed boost to the position. We saw this immediately in the Tigers third. Hirano hit a short ground out which was executed and then Onizaki took a smart catch to dismiss Murton off his first pitch. Arai though hit to right and Brazell hit to left and Tigers had runners on first and third. Another threatening situation. Kanemoto was next and one feature of his batting is his mid season slump. There is no guarantee that Johjima would have done better but certainly there was more chance of him hitting. Instead Kanemoto snatched at his second pitch and flew out to Aikawa to end the innings and waste another chance. Once again Swallows third was quiet as Shimoyanagi dominated the batters with ease.

Johjima whose batting would look out of sorts all evening struck out to start Tigers fourth. Then Asai hit nicely to right. Shimoyanagi of course would bunt but this was also another abortion and he bunted straight to Ishikawa who was able to throw to second for the double play. But it didn't seem to matter as Shimoyanagi was making the Swallows batting look very feeble. Once again they fell in order in the fourth. However, by now Ishikawa was growing in confidence - Tigers fifth could be said to mark the change as for the first time he got through an innings without a runner on base. The three batters fell comfortably in order. The Swallows first hit came in the fifth - amazingly until then they had not been able to hit Shimoyanagi but were nicely in contention. This was Ishikawa who hit to left with two out and it was a fluke. His swing connected with the ball at the right moment. Aoki though flew out to Hirano and the hit was only a statistic. Tigers sixth was quiet but Swallows finally got it together in their sixth but this was a weird innings. Tanaka somehow managed a two base but with the paucity of imagination that lurks in the Swallows managements collective minds Iihara (the No. 3) was instructed to bunt. This went straight to Shimoyanagi who threw fiercly to third where Arai tagged out Tanaka easily. Iihara was safe on first but it was a bit of a mess. Whitesell hit to right but then Hatakeyama flew out to right and Swallows runners remained on first and second. Here though luck interviened. Aikawa was at the plate and to be honest was totally out of his depth. However, he swung wildly at a low outside pitch and luckily got enough of his bat on it to send it ballooning parabolically to right where it beat Murton's slide for a hit. Both Iihara and Whitesell were able to make home 3-1 Swallows, runner on third. This was probably one of the biggest flukes of the season. The ball could have easily landed foul but just happened to land fair. Aikawa had no clue what he was doing but still it worked out alright. A rattled Shimoyanagi walked Noguchi but then Onizaki flew out to centre to end the innings. This was Swallows last hit but what a hit.

Ishikawa returned for Tigers seventh and once again found it easy to deal with a detached Johjima and the other batters. For Swallows seventh Mayumi decided to use Fujihara. He retired the two batters he faced but then Mayumi decided to switch to Nishiura for the final out. This wasn't exactly bright - why not give Fujihara a full innings? The more experience he gets, the better he gets. Nishimura then walked Tanaka but managed to strike out Iihara to end the innings. However, it wasn't distinguished pitching by the latter by any means. Matsuoka replaced Ishikawa for Tigers eighth and was excellent retiring the three batters in order. This was really Tigers last chance as the ninth would be pitched by Lim. Whilst the Giants can knock the Swallows closer around Tigers can't and they had needed to get back on even terms before he made his appearance. For Swallows eighth Andoh made his first appearance in the bullpen and showed what a wonderful pitcher he is and what a mess he makes of things in equal degrees. Some of his pitches were sublime, some were pure rubbish. He started by getting ahead on the count with Whitesell but then clammed up and couldn't get the final strike finally walking the Swallows first. Hatakeyama bunted Fukuchi (pinch running for Whtesell) to second and then a wild pitch (and it was a wild pitch) took him to third. Aikawa grounded out to Andoh and then Takeuchi (pinch hitter) walked. Finally, Onizaki grounded out to short to end the innings. Swallows through no ability of their own had been in a good position but had failed miserably to take advantage of it. Still they had a two run lead and so didn't really need to worry so much. Tigers ninth saw Lim who will probably move to MLB next season unless Swallows can offer him something special. He faced Arai who actually batted very well and was undone by poor umpiring. Arai checked his swing on the third strike but was judged to have swung too far and given out by the first base umpire. The Jingu umpires were unnecessarily harsh on both sides over the matter of swinging and it was quite clear that Arai wasn't out. Brazell hit a deep fly to right which looked promising but died. Finally Kanemoto to cap a useless night with the bat flew out to left to end the game. Swallows victory.

The hero interview went to Ishikawa and Aikawa and the inclusion of the latter in the interview was really galling. His hit had been a real piece of luck and he shouldn't have been allowed to take part in the interview at all. Kanemoto needs to be shifted to seventh rather than Johjima - his presence in the team disrupted the mood quite significantly and what had been a happy team was a rather disturbed team. Mayumi still needs to learn about management of a baseball team - Swallows had been lucky this night but Tigers do have to work to ensure that they are not lucky again.