May 26th Iwata v Naruse - The Murton incident

Murton's mistake was certainly strange but why Tigers GM Numasawa felt it necessary to have a chat with Murton about the mistake escapes me. It was just one of those things that happens to a poorly managed side. The general level of incompetence affects everyone and competent players start to make errors. If the front office really want to do something about the issue they should think about what to do with the coaching team and the incompetent manager. Incidentally calls are growing for Mayumi to go but so far are being resisted by Sakai-owner. Johjima was rested for this game ostensibly because of back issues and we saw the useless Fujii again. He effectively blew the game in the first innings with his calling. Marines played Imaoka at first base which was rather interesting but the ex-Tiger had a quiet game. Scores

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

Marines
1. Okada (Centre)
2. Takahama (Short)
3. Iguchi (Second)
4. Satozaki (Catcher)
5. Imae (Third)
6. Kiyota (Right)
7, Imaoka (First)
8. Ishimine (Left)
9. Naruse (Pitcher)

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

Marines first was farcical. Sekimoto messed up Okada's ground out. Takahama was next and he hit straight to Iwata who also messed it up - Marines had runners on first and second. Next was Iguchi who slammed the ball into the left stand for a home run 3-0 Marines. Satozaki and Imae also went after Iwata trying to hit right but both fell victim to the Koshien wind and were out. Finally Kiyota tried to hit left but flew out to end the innings. If Tigers were bad Marines were good and Tigers first made sure of the victory. Yes Murton did hit but with two out and Arai flying out nothing came of this. After the mess of the Marines first things could only get better and they did with the Marines batters falling in order. Tigers second at least saw them trying but it was a vain hope. With Kanemoto out, Sekimoto hit to left. Fujii flew out - the only reason he is batting seven is because Mayumi thinks that catchers should bat seven (honestly). Fujii is a No. 8 batter. Shunsuke hit to centre and Tigers had runners on first and second but the final batter was Iwata who struck out. Once again Marines third was quiet - whatever one may think about the first innings Iwata was pitching well. Tigers third saw Uemoto swing away at a pass ball and then make first safely. However, both Murton and Arai grounded out to end the innings.

Problems returned for Tigers in Marines fourth. with one out Imae hit to right. Kiyota flew out but Imaoka walked. Fortunately Ishimine grounded out to end the innings. Kanemoto led off Tigers fourth with a hit but then fell to a 1-4-3 double play. Fujii flew out to Imae to end the innings. We then saw Naruse reach base on an Iwata wild pitch. Iwata can be a bit wild but one would expect that catcher to take the strike out ball. Okada bunted Naruse to second but Takahama struck out looking. Mindful of the first Fujii then walked Iguchi to set up runners on first and second and Satozaki hit a grounder to short. Tigers fifth was just quiet and no one threatened to reach base. Kiyota led off Marines sixth by grounding out off his first pitch and then Imae hit to centre. Imaoka struck out but then Ishimine walked. Naruse struck out swinging and that chance was also missed. Tigers sixth started with the first walk issued by Naruse - this to Uemoto. Uemoto went for second which brought a poor throw from Satozaki which missed and resulted in Uemoto reaching third with no outs.. Murton hit to right bringing Uemoto home 3-1 Marines, runner on first. Then things stopped - Tigers batters swung too quickly and were all out with Murton still on first.

The seventh was quiet for both sides with no runner making base though we did see Toritani making a pinch hit appearance. He grounded out to third to end the Tigers innings. So to the eighth and the infamous incident. Fukuhara was the pitcher and with one out he gave up a two base hit to Imae. Things seem to happen with Imae around - one recalls the famous incident where a Giants runner failed to step on third. Kiyota was the batter and sent a fly deep into right where Murton took the ball for the second out. Murton confused the number of outs in his mind and thought he had caught the third out so he threw the ball into the crowd where it was caught by an eight year boy. Imae was counting and set off for home knowing that the ball wasn't dead yet 4-1 Marines. Rather symptomatic of the whole evening. After the hiatus died down Kobe (pinch hitter) struck out to end the innings. In Tigers eighth Naruse issued his second walk - that of Murton with two outs but nothing came of this. Kojima was the pitcher for the Marines ninth and did well retiring the batters in order and striking out two. Marines once again used Yabuta and here Tigers wasted their chances again. Kanemoto led off the innings with a hit to centre. He was extinguished on a Sekimoto double play. Tigers were offered a second bite of the cherry with Lin (pinch hitter) also hitting a single to centre but Hiyama (pinch hitter) struck out looking to end the game. Marines victory.

Inept and poor is the only way to describe this error ridden performance from the Tigers. Iwata has now lost five games and even though he has some good stuff is not producing it consistently. Fujii as a catcher is proving a disaster but so far he has only called two games. Even so on current showing he isn't up to Noguchi level. Quite frankly anyone would be better than Fujii and it demonstrates just how clueless Mayumi is. Once again Marines were worth their victory - they played with more intelligence than the Tigers but with the lack of intelligence at the top of Tigers this is not a big achievement.