August 26th Shimoyanagi v Stults - Sometimes mediocre is a winner

Against a poor pitcher Tigers batters went to sleep and were rather casual about the whole game. Carp merely looked mediocre even winning by five runs. Mayumi wasn't happy but didn't seem to possess the motivational skills to get his players moving. This is a trait of Tigers teams in recent years, a big massacre of the opposition tends to result in a lazy and uninterested performance the following game (except the BayStars who are just so bad it is unbelievable). It seems that batters feel satiated and need to get hungry again. The 22-8 defeat still lingers over the Carp who didn't go anyway to restore any credibility with their victory - it was that devastating. Of course, by being lazy the team let down the fans and also ceded the lead to the Giants so it wasn't such intelligent play. Shimoyanagi seemed to have made no progress since his trip to ni-gun and one begins to suspect it was just part of his holiday plan. The worrying thing was the resurfacing of the lack of communication between Johjima and Egusa. It was thought that it had been cured but it seems it hadn't. Still - this is just more of the Mayumi style, seem to tackle a problem whilst actually doing nothing substantive. I do feel that if Johjima has a weakness it is his calling to his pitchers with lead off batters at the plate. There seem to be far too many lead off two base hits given up and given the quality of the Tigers pitching this is not a good thing. Perhaps a change here would improve an already spectacular performance.

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

Starting lineups

Carp
1. Soyogi (Short)
2. Kimura (Second)
3. Akamatsu (Centre)
4. Kurihara (Third)
5. Hirose (Right)
6. Huber (First)
7. Iwamoto (Left)
8. Aizawa (Catcher)
9. Stults (Pitcher)

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

Nowadays I never feel comfortable seeing Shimoyanagi on the mound. He is a veteran pitcher, it is true but actually can't really pitch more than half a season before he deteriorates which is happening more often. Age is catching up with him and with it the lessening of his abilities. The indulgence shown to him would not be shown to a younger pitcher and is one of the more distasteful aspects of Kubo and Mayumi's management of the pitching; though not the only one. Still he got through the Carp's first innings without trouble, retiring the batters in order. One can't see Carp's starter, Stults returning next season - he has not made the grade and even though he took the victory he wasn't very good at all but was better than Shimoyanagi. Tigers first was also quiet and no runner reached base. Shimoyanagi retired the first two batters in Carp's fourth but then walked Huber in five - a sign he was already tiring. Iwamoto hit to centre to set up runners on first and third and then Aizawa hit to left driving in the run 1-0 Carp, runners on first and second. Stults was the final batter and he flew out to end the innings. Arai started Tigers second by grounding out to Stults but then Brazell hit to centre. Both Kanemoto and Johjima flew out to centre and the innings was over. Soyogi led off Carp's third with a two base hit to left centre which is what I mean about Johjima's calling given that Aizawa would also do the same in the fifth. He was bunted to second by Kimura and Akamatsu hit a sacrifice fly to centre 2-0 Carp. Kurihara was the one to end that innings, flying out to right. Shunsuke Fujikawa was able to return the compliment leading off Tigers third with a two base hit. Shimoyanagi bunted him to third and then Murton hit to centre 2-1 Carp but the silly ninny tried to make second and was tagged out. This killed the rally off and Hirano grounded out to end the innings.

Carp's fourth was quiet and maybe just maybe Shimoyanagi was going to be OK. Tigers fourth included an element of farce. Toritani struck out swinging to a pitch that he should have left - lazy batting of course. Arai was next and with two strikes to his name he swung at a third losing his grip on his bat in the process. The bat skittered off into the infield and Arai was left looking most offended as Aizawa tagged him out. Brazell grounded out to first to end a rather poor innings for the Tigers. Carp's fifth laid the shibboleth that Shimoyanagi would recover firmly to rest. Aizawa's lead off two base duly took place. Then Shimoyanagi gave up a hit to Stults - that really was the pits, runners on first and third. Soyogi hit to second forcing out Stults but bringing Aizawa home 3-1 Carp. Soyogi then stole second and Kimura bunted him to third to try and unsettle Shimoyanagi. This worked well as Akamatsu was served up a very hittable pitch which he hit into right centre for a two base hit and another run 4-1 Carp, runner on second. Mayumi acted and replaced Shimoyanagi. One can't say that his session had been unlucky just bad. His replacement was worrying - Fukuhara. Fukuhara started by throwing a wild pitch which took Akamatsu to third and then walking Kurihara to set up runners on first and third. This is the Fukuhara we know and love - totally incapable of doing anything right but then he managed to get Hirose to ground out to third and the innings was over. A 4-1 lead wasn't anything to worry about given the Tigers batting strength but they had to start using it. Getting going was their problem - maybe the hangovers were just too big. Anyway the fifth was quiet with all the batters grounding out. Fukuhara after his poor start to the fifth pitched nicely in the sixth and retired the Carp in order very quickly. He even picked up a strike out that of Huber. Tigers sixth was more ground outs and no batter reaching base. You can tell when Tigers batters aren't trying, they don't even bother to fly out.

Egusa pitched Carp's seventh and struck out Stults looking. Soyogi walked and then tried to steal second only to be thrown out. Kimura grounded out to second to end the innings. Stults returned, Nomura being desperate to avoid exposing his demoralized relief to the Tigers batters. Luckily for him, Stults hadn't thrown that many pitches and so had at least another innings in him. The Tigers clean up helped him by trying to swing too soon and the whole seventh taking under 10 pitches. Egusa returned for Carp's eighth and here difficulties resurfaced. Egusa is really only a one innings pitcher and Mayumi was insisting on him going two innings and communication between him and Johjima broke down. Akamatsu hit to centre, Kurihara hit to left and Hirose bunted and beat the throw to reach first. Bases loaded with no outs. Mayumi had given up by now and made no move to change Egusa who proceeded to walk Huber - oshidashi 5-1 Carp, bases loaded. Then Iwamoto hit a sacrifice fly to bring home another runner 6-1 Carp, runners on second and third. Nishimura took the mound and induced a third liner which also produced a tag for the double play and the end of the innings. Johjima hit in Tigers eighth but no one could move him beyond first and the innings was scoreless. Carp's ninth was pitched by Watanabe who gave up a one out hit to Soyogi but then induced a Kimura double play to get out of the innings without damage. Tigers ninth saw Murton lead off with a hit. Then Asai (pinch hitter) also hit and Tigers had runners on first and second. Toritani flew out to short and Nomura decided it was time to switch pitchers. He went with Yokoyama on the grounds that he was probably safe. Both Arai and Brazell went out of their ways to demonstrate this, Arai swinging at his first pitch and grounding out to third though moving Murton to third. Brazell also swung at his first pitch grounding out weakly to Yokoyama to end the game. Carp victory.

A thoroughly lazy performance by the Tigers batters. Faced with a nice opportunity to maintain the lead they just hadn't bothered. One can't even put the victory down to Stults superb pitching because he wasn't. Like their games against Giants, Tigers hadn't tried. Still the 'Black Tigers' can be counted a success with a record of 4-2 and an absolute destruction of Carp. Tigers front office is thinking that maybe they can use these again on other occasions. Sounds like fun.