April 28th Iwata v Shinoda - Outplayed again

Tigers really looked abject last night. Iwata in his third start did not look like a first team pitcher at all and this was against a rather weak Carp side. Carp really owed their victory to Shinoda who pitched excellently again and currently is their best pitcher - much more superior to Maeda. He did get into some problems but was able to rescue himself very ably. Carp's batting was to some degree lucky but even without that luck they were the better side. Tigers batting was poor, fielding was amateurish and pitching was very bad. This is not a happy side and with a manager who lacks ability to manage the outlook is not looking good. In fact the whole coaching team is not performing well.
We also saw another piece of unpunished cheating and whilst in the previous example the umpire was unsighted in this case it was fairly obvious. Japanese umpires seem oblivious to the fact that these failures destroy their credibility. Clueless about the rules and unwilling to umpire the game correctly is it any wonder that they are considered jokes. Steps do need to be taken to improve the quality of these clowns who compound their faults by being arrogant as well. Incompetent morons are to some extent tolerable but arrogant incompetent morons are not. On to the scores

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

Starting lineups

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

Carp
1. Soyogi (Short)
2. Higashide (Second)
3. Hirose (Centre)
4. Iwamoto (Left)
5. Kurihara (First)
6. Kokubo (Third)
7. Imamura (Right)
8. Ishihara (Catcher)
9 Shinoda (Pitcher)

Hey for the bat and ho for the ball - Tigers started the first with a walk. Then Mayumi had to go and mess it up by asking Hirano to bunt. Murton made second and then third as Toritani hit. Arai though grounded into a double play and the innings was over. Iwata started with a ground out but then gave up a centre hit to Higashide. He walked Hirose which brought up Iwamoto. Iwamoto hit to centre - rather luckily with the ball blooping off his bat into centre. Higashide was home 1-0 Carp, runners on first and second but you kind of sensed that Tigers had no way back from here and were already beaten. The next two batters were unable to do anything but the lead was established and Carp would never be challenged in it. Brazell led off Tigers second with a huge hit to centre which died and was taken superbly by Hirose running back. Kanemoto did nothing and then Johjima tried to hit to left but only managed to fly out. With one out in Carp's second Ishihara hammered out a two base hit to left where Kanemoto ambled around the field. He really lacks speed now and is a liability in the position. However, the next two batters did nothing - Shinoda being the strangest out. He shaped to bunt but as the pitch came in switched to a swing. He did this three times and one wonders what was the purpose of this. In Tigers third Iwata managed to hit with one out but Tigers failed to take advantage of this unexpected windfall. Iwata even made second on a wild pitch as Shinoda got a bit worried but never mind. Murton flew out weakly but Hirano who was by far the best Tiger on the field walked. Toritani struck out looking but to be fair it was a superb pitch. Iwata then proceeded to mess up the Carp's third very effectively. With Higashide out he walked Hirose. A wild pitch took Hirose to second and then Iwamoto walked as well - runners on first and second. Kurihara grounded out forcing out Iwamoto and Carp had runners on first and third with two outs. Still this was a situation which should have been fairly easy to deal with. However, Kokubo swung nicely at his first pitch a rather pathetic curve which he dispatched nicely into left centre for a two base hit 2-0 Carp runners on second and third. Ioh (replacement right) managed to ground out to Hirano who dropped the ball but was able to retrieve and throw to first for the out.

Tigers fourth was quiet as the batters fell in order. Ishihara led off Carp's fourth with a hit and this time was bunted to second by Shinoda. Second is where he stayed as the next two batters couldn't do anything. Johjima led off Tigers fifth with a hit but was forced out by Shunsuke. Iwata tried to bunt but was brilliantly caught by Shinoda diving off the mound and taking the ball just before it hit the ground. Murton swung too early and the innings was over. Carp's fifth saw Kurihara hit with two out but nothing came of this. Tigers sixth started with a bizarre piece of stupidity from Hirano. He tried a bunt hit which flew perfectly into the glove of Higashide at second - as a Japanese friend I was watching the game with said - This is koko yakyu and so it was. Neither Toritani or Arai could get around Shinoda and the innings was scoreless. Carp's sixth started ominously with a hit to Kokubo. Next was Ishihara who tried to bunt and only succeeded in popping the ball up. He then used his bat to deflect the ball away from Johjima - a clear case of interference and hitting twice and an out. Not to the plate umpire who seemed not to have seen. What is the idiot doing there if he misses such obvious examples as this. Johjima protested and Mayumi came out to argue telling the plate umpire that he should consult the first base umpire. After five or so minutes of argument the umpires decided that it was a foul and that Ishihara wasn't out. This piece of stupidity was announced by the plate umpire who clearly didn't have any clue what an idiot he was. Japanese baseball umpires don't tend to be very knowledgeable about the rules of the game anyway and this was just the latest illustration. To add insult to injury Ishihara hit to right and set up runners on first and second. Shinoda bunted the runners to second and third and then Iwata walked Soyogi to load the bases. Higashide struck out to a fine piece of pitching but Hirose got lucky. He took a swing and managed to bounce the ball over Iwata. Toritani made a fine diving stop but had no chance of getting the throw away and the run was scored 3-0 Carp, bases loaded. Iwamoto struck out swinging to end the innings showing just what a fluke his first innings scoring hit had been.

Tigers seventh and Carp were in control - Brazell and Kanemoto were both quickly dealt with but Johjima hit nicely to left for his first home run of the season 3-1 Carp. Shunsuke hit to centre - a sign that Shinoda was tiring but Sekimoto (pinch hitter) grounded out to end the innings. Mayumi showed he had learned from Nohmi's outing and didn't attempt to pitch Iwata into the seventh. Instead Watanabe took the mound and retired the batters in order. Tigers eighth was pitched by Schultz who has turned into quite an effective reliever against the Tigers. He did have a wobble with Toritani who hit and then stole second but Arai struck out looking and that chance was wasted. Kubota was inserted for Carp's eighth and clearly didn't want to be there. His pitching was lazy and lacked commitment. He started by walking Ishihara and then gave up a two base hit to Amaya (pinch hitter) - Carp had runners on second and third with no outs. Here Carp resorted to type and hit a couple of sacrifice fles. Firstly Soyogi hit to right 4-1 Carp runner on third, Amaya having moved up. Then Higashide hit to right as well 5-1 Carp. Sarfate pitched Tigers ninth and since his wobbles in his first outing against them has seemed to have the edge. The fact that he isn't a particularly good closer seems to have escaped the Tigers batters. With two out Johjima managed a bunt hit but Shunsuke grounded out to short to end the innings. Carp victory.

Carp had had a bit of luck with some of their runs but in truth had outplayed Tigers comprehensively. Tigers performance had been very poor even though they had faced some fine pitching from Shinoda. They need to start playing well very quickly. Iwata should return to ni-gun for more work though - he isn't pitching at the required level. We had seen another piece of cheating which further degraded an already discredited umpiring corps but this hadn't affected the result - Carp had been the better team. Even so Carp still don't have the resourced to win the Central League and Tigers do have the resources to do so. But Tigers batters need to perform not swing lazily like they are doing now.