October 16th Climax Series Game 1 - Nohmi v Tohno

Mayumi decided to go with the setting of Toritani as lead off batter and Murton at three. This didn't work and in fact the Tigers batting was anemic made even more galling by the fact that Tohno wasn't very good. Chances were wasted and some fine (and sometimes lucky) fielding enabled Giants to hold on for the victory. Kanemoto was not included in the side - a very wise decision but we saw Saka at second even though he added nothing to the offense. Scores

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

Starting lineups

Giants
1. Sakamoto (Short)
2. Kamei (First)
3. Ogasawara (Third)
4. Ramirez (Left)
5. Abe (Catcher)
6. Takahashi (Right)
7. Chono (Centre)
8. Furuki (Second)
9. Tohno (Pitcher)

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

On the face of it Tigers put out a strong lineup but like the Giants there were weaknesses. Giants omitted Matsumoto and Tigers really should have played Hirano at second with Murton at centre and Sakurai at right. Lin would have taken left field. Murton should also have been lead off batter and Toritani third. We saw Nohmi start nervously and insecurely. He walked Sakamoto who was bunted to second and then walked Ogasawara. Both these players would play a highly significant part in the Giants victory. Ramirez hit into a double play and the Giants didn't exploit that chance. Tohno by contrast started the game well and retired the Tigers batters in order. In Giants second Takahashi hit and one is surprised to see him starting but his record against Tigers is rumoured to be good. Chono walked and the only thing that could be said about Nohmi's start is that it was nervous. However, another double play, this time Furuki enabled the Tigers to escape without damage. With Arai striking out in Tigers second Brazell launched into his first pitch putting over the fence for a solo home run 1-0 Tigers. Johjima picked up a dead ball to get him out of the way (there was nothing accidental about this). The next two outs followed and Tigers had worked a slender lead. They needed to hold this but one of Giants key players would rapidly extinguish the hope. Tohno lead the innings off by strking out. Then Sakamoto came to the plate and taking a swing at a ball (which would have been a walk had he left it) put it over the fence for the tying run 1-1 scores tied. Kamei hit to left as Nohmi panicked and took second on a wild pitch. This brought up the Giants other key man, Ogasawara who hit to left to drive in the runner 2-1 Giants, runner on first. Ramirez hit to centre to set up runners and tried to make second out of it but was out. With a runner on third the batter was Abe and he managed to fly out to second. Nohmi had done nothing to retain the lead. Nohmi then led off Tigers third with a walk which Tigers batters proceeded to waste. Hirano did hit to set up runners on first and second but neither Murton nor Arai did anything and a potential counter attack was wasted.

The fourth was quiet as both teams gathered their breath. No runner made base for either side. Once again in Giants fifth the Sakamoto/Ogasawara pairing produced results. Sakamoto hit a two base and made third on the throwing error. With one out the sacrifice fly was on but Kamei grounded out to second and Sakamoto remained on third. Ogasawara was next and he hit over the defence to right bringing the runner home 3-1 Giants, runner on first. Ramirez was the final batter and he struck out to end the innings. Tigers fifth saw the batters fall in order as Tohno was able to hold the lead. Nohmi was pulled and replaced by Watanabe for Giants sixth. Watanabe was secure retiring the three batters in order. Tigers sixth was also secure - the pitcher being Gonzalez who did well to hold the Tigers batters back.

Giants seventh was quiet as Watanabe remained in control and didn't allow any runners. In Tigers seventh Lin hit but nothing came of this. Kubota took over for Giants eighth and gave up a hit to Ogasawara but once again nothing came of this. Tigers eighth was where Giant's escape came. With two out Hirano hit. Then Gonzalez walked Murton. Hara reacted by replacing Gonzalez with Kubo who promptly walked Arai to load the bases. Pitchers changed once again and Yamaguchi took the mound. Next was Brazell. He swung at his first pitch and broke his bat but propelled the ball over short where Sakamoto was just able to snag and hold onto the ball for the out. This was a vital catch as it was an inadvertant scoring shot. Sakamoto normally would have probably missed that but produced the supreme effort to hold it. Kubota struck out the first two batters in Giants ninth but then Furuki hit to right and Matsumoto (replacement centre) hit to left - runners on first and third. Sakamoto grounded out to end the innings. Tigers ninth saw Shunsuke Fujikawa hit to right only to see Sakurai hit into a double play to end the game. Giants victory.

Giants had demonstrated more experience with post season play than the Tigers and once again had understood the importance of the game more. Tigers batting had been poor and hadn't really tried against a shakey pitcher. This also is symptomatic of Mayumi's incompetence. If he wants to win pennants and trophies his team needs to be tighter. So far it lacks that killer instinct which other teams possess. This is not encouraging at all for future developments and the evidence is we are likely to have Mayumi for another two or three years. Mediocrity preferred to excellence.