July 28th Messenger v Shimizu - Lucky seventh

Tigers have lost their last three outings against Shimizu and in fact he has dominated them. Whilst he isn't a bad pitcher one does feel that a batting lineup of Tigers quality should not be losing so regularly to him. Poor shot selection and an inability to make him work seem to have contributed to the results and for the first six innings it looked like it was the same as ever. Tigers batters had done nothing and even though Messenger had pitched well Yokohama had a useful two run lead. But then Shimizu suddenly fell apart and Tigers batters took full advantage of this to pull off a nice come from behind victory. Scores

          1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R  H E
BayStars  0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 3  7 1
Tigers    0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 X 6 11 0

Starting lineups

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

Messenger made another impressive start to the game and is looking more assured. BayStars first saw the batters do nothing with no runner getting on base. Shimizu though continued his domination of Tigers batting lineup. Toritani once again failed, going for his first pitch when he could have waited. Hirano grounded out and Murton continued his hitless streak. All in all a straightforward innings for the BayStars pitcher. BayStars didn't benefit from this - their clean up also succumbed to Messenger and no score resulted. Shimizu gave up a lead off hit to Arai who put his second pitch into left field. Kanemoto worked a walk and Tigers had runners on first and second. Shimizu though had the answer and struck out both Johjima and Asai to end the innings. Yoshimura responded to Arai's hit with a hit of his own to start the BayStars third. Takeyama then hit into a double play which left Messenger only Shimizu to deal with. This was accomplished by striking him out. Messenger then had the honour of leading off Tigers third. He hit to second and was able to beat the throw but then Toritani supplied the double play and HIrano grounded out to short. This was to be one of Hirano's rare hitless games. For the first three innings the pitchers had been dominant and whilst it was frustrating to see Tigers batters falling so easily to Shimizu, Messenger had matched him pitch for pitch.

The fourth changed this. Uchikawa led off with a hit to right. Ishikawa hit to first which was fielded by Brazell but he was unable to get the out - runners on first and second. This brought up Harper who hit powerfully into left centre for a two base hit (Harper being none too fast). Both runners were home 2-0 BayStars, runner on second with no outs. Murata walked and Messenger needed to do something quickly to avoid the innings running away from him. He struck out Sledge looking which gave a bit of breathing space and then got Castillo to snatch at his second pitch and fly out to second. Yoshimura then grounded out and the innings was over. Given Shimizu's pitching record against Tigers a two run lead would be difficult to overturn and BayStars had every reason to be happy. They could be even happier after Tigers fourth as Shimizu retired Tigers clean up in order. BayStars fifth was quiet with Messenger having no problems with the bottom of the order but worryingly for Tigers their next batch of batters also fell 1-2-3 in the fifth. The BayStars lead was looking more and more secure. With two out in BayStars sixth Murata hit to left and then Sledge walked to set up runners on first and second. Messenger was tiring but still had enough left to get Castillo to ground out and end the innings. Tugers sixth saw two strike outs and a ground out and no runners.

Messenger retired at the end of the sixth and had been pinch hit for by Lin (one of the strike outs). He had pitched rather well and had kept the BayStars from getting too many runs. His problem was his opponent had also pitched well and he wouldn't figure in the victory. Tigers pitcher for the BayStars seventh was Nishimura. He sailed through the BayStars lower order striking all three batters out. Tigers fans let off their jettos and prayed for a lucky seventh. They would get their wish. Shimizu was the pitcher - he had thrown 77 pitches with two hits and a walk. There was no indication that he would have any trouble but suddenly his placement was a little bit off and he would be punished. Murton led the innings off with a hit to centre. Arai followed with a centre hit and Tigers had runners on first and third. They needed to do something with this situation and with Brazell at bat Arai stole second in a bold move. Now Tigers were in with a big chance. Brazell swung and put the ball past second into right for a single - both runners were home 2-2 scores tied, runner on first with no outs. Uemoto pinch ran for Brazell as Kanemoto punched the ball through the infield for a single to right - runners on first and third again. Johjima hit to right and Uemoto was home - Tigers had the lead 3-2 runners on first and second and amazingly Shimizu hadn't recorded a single out. The first came out actually came with the next out Asai who bunted the runners to second and third. Sekimoto pinch hit for Nishimura and drove his second pitch into centre for a timely hit to bring home both runners 5-2 Tigers. To add insult to injury a throwing error allowed him to make second. It was the end of Shimizu. If Asai hadn't bunted it would have been unlikely that he would have recorded a single out. His pitching was totally ineffective and Tigers batters were all over him. Shinohara took the mound and gave up a hit to Toritani who drove nicely to right bringing home Sekimoto 6-2 Tigers, runner on first. Here we had a strange decision - Hirano was asked to bunt - you are 6-2 up and you call for a bunt? This is really a waste of an out. The bunt was successful and Toritani moved round to second. We then had more musical pitchers and Shinohara was replaced by Hata. Murton came up again and hit to second who fielded but couldn't get the throw away in time. Once again runners on first and third but with two outs. The third out proved to be Arai who flew out to right in foul ground to end the innings. Shimizu had been taken apart and BayStars knocked out of the game in no uncertain fashion. Mayumi though wasn't going to take any chances on them getting back into the game and put Kubota in. Uchikawa led off BayStars eighth with a hit and then everything stalled as Kubota struck out the next three batters in a row. Not as fast as the night before his pitches did not top 150 kph but the batters had no answers. Any chance of a recovery had gone. Tigers eighth was pitched by Kosugi who gave up a two out left two base hit to Johjima. This was not converted and Johjima was stranded on second but it didn't really matter. Unlike the night before Mayumi did not use Kyuji Fujikawa deciding to rest him. However, his handling of the ninth was a bit farcical. Fujihara started the innings and got Sledge to ground out to first with his first pitch. After this one pitch Fujihara was replaced by Watanabe. Watanabe's first pitch was loose and Castillo banged it hard into the right stand for a solo home run 6-3 Tigers. One sometimes wonders - the run was another minor embarrassment but really the whole pointlessness of the change of pitcher takes ones breath away. If he had intended to use Watanabe anyway why use Fujihara for the single out? Watanabe then struck out Yoshimura and Shimozono (pinch hitter) to end the game. Tigers victory.

A good victory in which Tigers had taken advantage of Shimizu's sudden meltdown. It was also a necessary victory as the Giants recorded a sayonara victory over the Dragons (the disgusting Sakamoto being the culprit) and preserved the 0.5 game lead. Tigers had played effective small ball in the seventh and shown great ability and perseverence. They also reached 50 victories. Johjima became the third Tigers batter to reach the sixty RBI mark and one has to say that his presence is making an enormous difference to the side.