May 18th Iwata v Figaro - Another one down

Tigers are looking more and more like a B class side. Unable to put together a viable winning streak and losing to poor opposition, their management continues to behave cluelessly. This game was especially frustrating as the Buffaloes pitcher, Figaro was poor and Tigers had their chances. They failed to take them whilst not exactly shining in the field and letting Buffaloes take theirs. Tigers shouldn't have been shut out by opposition like this and this can only be characterised as an embarrassing failure of the team and management. Score

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

Starting lineups

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

Starting pitcher: Iwata

Buffaloes
1. Sakaguchi (Centre)
2. Kajimoto (Second)
3. Taguchi (Right)
4. Okada (Left)
5. Hessman (First)
6. Kitagawa (DH)
7. Baldris (Third)
8. Suzuki (Catcher)
9. Ohbiki (Short)

Figaro got off to a poor start with his first pitch being slammed to right by Hirano for a two base hit. Uemoto drove the second pitch into centre and Hirano set off for home. Suzuki, Buffaloes catcher, blocked the plate and Hirano couldn't dislodge him as he slid in. Here you wished for Sekimoto or Machida to be running in. Sakaguchi's throw was good and Hirano was out. To add insult to injury the latter happened to Hirano who was replaced by Sekimoto just after the move. Uemoto meanwhile used the focus to move to second. Toritani walked in four but then Arai hit to second forcing out Toritani and moving Uemoto to third. Orix's double play hadn't come off but Arai had been stupid enough to hit where they wanted. Murton then grounded out to third and the innings was over. Iwata didn't do much better than Figaro and gave up a one out two base hit to Kajimoto. Taguchi turned a low slider to left bringing home the runner (Kanemoto can't throw) 1-0 Buffaloes, runner on first. Taguchi stole second but Iwata struck out Okada. The problem was he then proceeded to walk Hessman and Kitagawa in succession. Poor pitching and with the bases loaded Tigers were in trouble. Still, this is Orix and Baldris flew out to centre to end the innings. Tiger second saw Figaro still struggling with his pitches. Kanemoto led off with a hit and then Brazell also hit - runners on first and second with no outs. Once again Tigers wasted the chance. Johjima hit his second pitch straight down the throat of centre. He really needed to show a bit of patience especially the way Figaro was pitching. Shunsuke grounded out to first forcing out Brazell but moving Kanemoto round to third. Sekimoto then hit his first pitch straight to centre - once again a bit of patience would have worked wonders. Iwata was still pitching at the Figaro level and gave up a lead off two base hit to Suzuki. This was not intelligent pitching but nothing about the Tigers play in this game was intelligent. The team is desperate and it shows - this is the point for the management to step in but the latter have no ability to do so. Ohbiki bunted Suzuki to third but then Sakaguchi hit straight to Uemoto. Uemoto made a mess of this and instead of throwing to Johjima at home threw to first. Another run scored 2-0 Buffaloes and an elementary mistake from Uemoto. He should know better and Tigers were not pleased about this stupidity. Kajimoto lined out to end the innings. Tigers having wasted chances in the first two innings generated nothing in the third and no one made base. Taguchi hit to right to start Orix's third and made second on Okada's ground out but got no further and that innings was scorless.

The Tigers fourth showed that any chances generated would be casually thrown away. With two out Figaro dead balled Brazell. Johjima showed a little patience and hit to right and then Shunsuke hit to centre but Brazell didn't try for home. That might have been fun if he had. Anyway bases loaded but once again Sekimoto swung at his first pitch and flew out in foul ground. This was very poor batting but Sekimoto has gone downhill significantly since his glory days. In Buffaloes fourth Iwata did what he should have done in the first two innings retired the batters in order. Tigers fifth was also a similar poor show. No batters on base as they rather gave up. Buffaloes fifth quiet. Things picked up a bit in the Tigers sixth. Murton led off with a two base hit. He stayed on second as Tigers wasted the chance with poor shot selection and once again with Johjima grounding out to third off his first pitch. There had been too much swinging at the first pitch. Buffaloes sixth was quiet as well - Buffaloes weren't able to touch Iwata for four innings and Tigers just wasted the opportunity.

Figaro returned for Tigers seventh and with one out gave up a hit to Sekimoto - the first sign of life from the latter. He was forced out by Uemoto's ground out, once again the double play not coming off and Okada decided to change pitchers to Hirano. Hirano got Lin (pinch hitter) to strike out and end the innings. Iwata returned for the Buffaloes seventh and walked Suzuki with one out. Ohbiki bunted him to second and then a surprise, a hit to right from Sakaguchi. Suzuki set off for home but was tagged out by Johjima to end the innings. Hirano then pitched the Tigers eighth and retired the batters in order. Kubota took over from Iwata and had no problems with the Buffaloes batters also retiring them in order. Tigers ninth and Buffaloes closer, Kishida found his job rather easy as Tigers batters fell 1-2-3 to end the innings. Buffaloes victory.

Buffaloes didn't win this so much as Tigers lose it. They had shown general ineptness and a far too casual and irresponsible approach to their batting especially as Figaro was poor. To outhit the opposition 8 to 5 and still lose 2-0 cannot be considered a good performance. Coaching does need to change - Tigers cannot go on failing against pitchers they meet for the first time. The management of the team is flaccid and reactive with no real idea how to get the team performing. They are hoping things will come together but really need to take a more proactive approach. Losing to the worst team in Japan at the moment like this demonstrates that Tigers urgently need to do a lot more work to become competitors for a play off place let alone a Central League pennant.