July 20th Tsuru v Saitoh - Tigers triumphant

Carp's only good pitcher, Maeda, was supposed to start this game but it was decided to give him a rest and that Saitoh would start instead. He was pulled in the fourth after giving up two runs but Carp were surprisingly effective in restricting Tigers batters. In fact they looked to have won the game in the tenth but it all unraveled for them in the bottom. Fujihara picked up his first win in Tigers colours when he replaced the ineffective Andoh. It was a bit of a gamble to use Andoh in that situation but Tigers management were hoping that they could start him on the 21st in place of Uezono whom they would rather not start at all. Andoh though needs more time to get over his problems with his pitching and rather blew that idea out of the water. Uezono will get his start. Scores

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

Starting lineups

Carp
1. Higashide (Second)
2. Soyogi (Short)
3. Akamatsu (Centre)
4. Shima (Left)
5. Hirose (Right)
6. Iwamoto (First)
7. Ishii (Third)
8. Kura (Catcher)
9. Saitoh (Pitcher)

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. Tsuru (Pitcher)

Tsuru was impressive in Carp's first retiring the three batters he faced. Saitoh also started well and did the same. In Carp's second Tsuru walked Hirose with one out but Hirose didn't advance beyond first base and no threat materialised. Things were a bit more dangerous for Carp in Tigers second. Arai led off the innings with a two base hit. Tigers should have made more of the situation but Brazell popped up to first, Kanemoto struck out and then Johjima flew out to right to end the innings. Johjima did not have a good game this evening. Still Carp had weathered the challenge without damage. Kura led off Carp's third and hit to left. This produced a superb catch from Kanemoto who took the ball sliding just before it touched the ground. Saitoh, surprisingly, hit to centre which was Carp's first hit of the game. Both Higashide and Soyogi flew out to right and that ended the innings. Tigers third was quiet with Tsuru and Toritani striking out. Saitoh didn't look to be in much trouble at all.

Carp's fourth saw Hirose manage a two out hit to centre - his second time on base. Once again nothing came of this and so far Carp had not managed to reach second. Tigers fourth was different. Hirano led off with a hit to right but then Murton flew out. Arai had his second hit of the night putting the ball into centre - Tigers had runers on first and second. Next was Brazell who battled Saitoh for a while before directing the ball nicely between third and short for a left timely hit. Hirano was round the bases nicely 1-0 Tigers, runners on first and second. With Kanemoto at the plate Tigers then managed a double steal the Carp having some confusion about who they should throw out. It is very rare for Brazell to be involved in a steal and even rarer for him to be involved in a successful steal. In fact I believe that this was his first attempt this season. Now Saitoh faced Kanemoto with runners on second and third and he hit the ball nicely into right for another run 2-0 Tigers, runners on first and third with one out. Tigers were building momentum and needed something from Johjima - even a sacrifice fly would have been welcome. Unfortunately,, Johjima hit into a 5-6-3 double play and the innings was over. Tsuru started Carp's fifth by getting Ishii to ground out. Kura hit to centre - a straightforward take which bounced in front of Asai and reached about chest height. For some reason Asai is not confident with these balls and made a similar error when he rejoined the team earlier this year. Basically he missed the ball and allowed it to roll to the running track by the fence. Kura took advantage of this to reach third. With Amaya (pinch hitting for Saitoh) at the plate Tsuru let fly a low pitch which went between Johjima's legs and was ruled a wild pitch. Kura motored home from third 2-1 Tigers and a comedy of errors. Whilst Johjima can't stop a lot of the wild pitches he gets a pitcher of his quality should not allow a pitch between his legs. This was poor catching. Amaya then managed to fly out to centre and normal service was returned with the final out being Higashide who grounded out to Toritani. With Saitoh out of the scene Carp went with Hayashi who pitched well kept Carp's chances alive. He retired Tigers batters in order in the fifth at a time when they could be reasonably expected to accelerate and put the game beyond reach. Tsuru walked Shima in Carp's sixth but Hirose struck out to end the innings. In Tigers sixth Arai hit again but he was stranded by Brazell striking out.

Iwamoto led off Carp's seventh and he hit a solo home run to left 2-2 scores tied. There was an element of getting enough bat on the ball and it staying in in this strike but Tigers had really only themselves to blame as they had rather sat on their lead. Ishii struck out looking, Kura hit a liner and Hayashi grounded out to end the innings. Tigers still couldn't figure out Hayashi - not a particularly impressive pitcher but he struck out both Johjima and Asai looking in the seventh. Tsuru was replaced after the seventh. He had pitched very well and given up only one earned run. Mayumi though was wise to pull him at 99 pitches thrown. Kubota was next and gave up a lead off hit to HIgashide. With Kubota, whilst he does meltdown one does not feel the same kind of trepidation about this situation as one does with Andoh. Furthermore, Kubota is pitching well at the moment. Soyogi bunted Higashide to second but then Akamatsu flew out to short and Shima hit one into the glove of Asai to end the innings. Ohshima took over from Hayashi and also did well. He did give up a two out hit to HIrano but Murton who was having a rare hitless game flew out to end the innings. Kyuji Fujikawa pitched Carp's ninth and with one out gave up a one out two base hit to Iwamoto. If one doesn't worry about Kubota and runners, one worries even less about Fujikawa and so it was. Ishii's first ground out took Kimura (pinch running for Iwamoto) to third but then T. Maeda flew out to end the innings. Ohshima walked Brazell in Tigers ninth (pinch run for Uemoto) but he didn't advance beyond first. Carp really had frustrated Tigers batters for most of the evening.

As mentioned above Andoh pitched Carp's tenth and he is a pitcher one really needs to pitch with a few leads before trying him in a situation like this. Andoh started with a lead off centre hit to Huber (pinch hitter). He was pinch run for by Matsumoto who was bunted to second by Higashide. Soyogi hit to right but Matsumoto didn't attempt home and Carp had runners on first and third with one out. The double play was on for Tigers but it would need good pitching from Andoh. He didn't have the nerve and his fourth pitch to Akamatsu was nicely placed for the Carp centre to hit the ball perfectly into the left centre Koshien sweet spot. Both runners were home 4-2 Carp, runner on second. Andoh it was clear couldn't continue and Mayumi pulled him for Fujihara, no doubt with the dreams of Andoh starting again soon up in smoke. In fact one would expect Akamatsu's hit to be the winning stroke. Fujihara still had two outs to get to keep the Carp within range. Yamamoto (pinch hitter) grounded out to third and then Hirose also grounded out to end the innings stranding Akamatsu. Still it had been a good inning for Carp and they enjoyed a two run lead - things looked comfortable. Ueno pitched Tigers tenth and faced Lin. He has been hitting well but has needed to do something spectacular. He did slamming a straight solo home run into the backscreen 4-3 Carp. It was his first of the season and couldn't have come at a better time for the Tigers. Sekimoto (pinch hitter) followed and he hit to centre - possibly Tigers were in with a chance of tying the game. Ueno faced Toritani - he had hit a two run home run in extra innings last week against the Giants. Would he do it again? Ueno's third pitch was too high and drifted to left. Toritani directed it high and along the third baseline where it cleared the fence just inside the foul pole - sayonara two run home run 5-4 Tigers and victory.

Tigers had shown great spirit to come back from two runs down and take the game in the tenth. The win went to Fujihara who had handled the pressure of taking over from Andoh well. This was also Toritani's first sayonara home run since 2005. Carp had tried hard but really suffered from a chronic lack of resources. Tigers have five batters who have already hit over 50 RBIs a piece. Carp have none and their one batter is out of action. They will win some games but will struggle most of the time. The difference between Tigers and Giants remains at 0.5 games and Tigers have the chance to sweep the Carp when the two teams meet again for the final game of the series.