August 2nd Nohmi v Gonzalez - And so to Tokyo Dome

You do understand why people go for cable after watching the mess NTV made of the terrestrial coverage of this game. It wasn't that the actual coverage was bad - this was quite good. Behind the catcher cameras giving an umpire's eye view and side on views. Nice zone graphics after each pitch and clear well laid out stats. The commentary though contained a lot of inane drivel about children and each player and celebrity presented was accompanied by a photo of them as a child. This rapidly got tiring and really the director did the idea to death. The game was shown as a sandwich on BS and terrestrial and whilst the adverts were restrained on BS there was no such restraint on the latter. Frequently over-running and intruding on play one wanted to beat the programme director around the head and remind him people are tunning in to watch the baseball NOT the adverts and in fact too many of these adverts will not generate customers for the companies involved. It was almost as stupid and amateur as TV Asahi. The prize mess up was when two consecutive Giants hits were missed because of adverts.
The victory was another workmanlike affair and Nohmi and Mayumi both rode their luck. Giants wasted all manner of chances and it was only a bit of Kobayashi casualness that allowed them to get close. Giants fielding was also pretty poor but Tigers fans weren't complaining. Once again the ground was packed and the atmosphere electric. Scores

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

Starting lineups

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

Giants
1. Sakamoto (Short)
2. Ohmura (Right)
3. Chono (Centre)
4. Ramirez (Left)
5. Takahashi (First)
6. Fields (Third)
7. Abe (Catcher)
8. Terauchi (Second)
9. Gonzalez (Pitcher)

Nohmi would struggle the whole game but in fact would walk away with a win on one of his poorer pitching displays. Tigers started the game with high hopes but soon found that it was to a be a hard slog. The first was quiet - three Tigers batters, three outs. In Giants first Chono singled to centre for the first hit of the game with two out. Ramirez struck out swinging to end the innings though. Tigers second saw Kanemoto hit to centre with two out. I have never been convinced by Sekimoto at five and I don't think that Brazell should have been on the bench for this game. Uemoto was the one who ended the innings grounding out to short. Takahashi led off Giants second with a hit. This wasn't exploited and he remained on first as the next three batters fell. We then came to an innings of strike outs, both Gonzalez and Nohmi striking out two of the three batters they faced. Nohmi came out slightly ahead striking out Gonzalez and Sakamoto whilst Gonzalez could only strike out Fujii and Nohmi (the pitchers cancel each other out but one Fujii does not equal one Sakamoto). The other two outs were ground outs.

Things happened in Tigers fourth. Hirano led off with a hit to left. Mayumi then signalled Toritani to bunt - a typical piece of stupidity. Toritani did so off his first pitch - very badly. The ball bounced high and comfortably into the glove of Abe who threw to second for the force out. However, the throw to first was a bit late and Toritani was safe. The Giants could be happy with the first out though. Another Mayumi mistake. Gonzalez then tried to pick Toritani off at first and Takahashi missed the take, the ball rolling away into foul ground. Toritani made second easily. Arai hit right and put runners on first and third. Next was Sekimoto who bounced the ball over Gonzalez. Sakamoto coming in could only take and throw to first (well at least he didn't drop it this time) for the out but Arai was safe on second and Toritani home 1-0 Tigers. Mayumi was really pleased at this and came out of his shell and said some kind words to Sekimoto. Kanemoto followed and hit into centre where Chono ran in to take the fly. It wasn't a good hit but Chono caught the ball on the bottom of his glove and it bounced off it onto the ground. Chono had dropped the catch. Arai used this error to make home 2-0 Tigers, runner on first and through no fault of their own Tigers had a nice lead. Uemoto walked but Fujii hit straight to Gonzalez for the final out. Giants needed to respond but Chono struck out to lead off. However, Nohmi started to wobble and one began to wonder how long he would last. He walked Ramirez but then gave up a centre hit to Takahashi. Ramirez showed surprising speed to round the bases to third with Hirano not attempting the throw to third. Giants had a great chance but Nohmi managed to strike out fields superbly to eliminate the chance of the sacrifice. He then relapsed and walked Abe to load the bases. Terauchi tried to drive into left but grounded out to third - Arai throwing to second for the force out. Tigers had survived that challenge. Tigers fifth was quiet and both Murton and Hirano struck out, Hirano being a bit wild. Then Nohmi got into trouble again. He faced Gonzalez to lead off Giants fifth. This should have been an easy out but Gonzalez hit to left beating Arai. Then Sakamoto hit and Giants had runners on first and second with no outs. Ohmura went to bunt but did just what Tigers wanted - chased after a high pitch and popped it up to third for the first out. Chono took a swing to Arai who stepped on the sack and then threw to first to complete the double play - a huge innings for Tigers. Toritani lined out to right to start Tigers sixth, Ohmura doing well to hold onto the ball. Then Arai hit to centre. So did Sekimoto and Tigers had runners on first and second. They couldn't convert either. Kanemoto reverted to type and flew out to second. Finally Morita (pinch hitter) struck out swinging. He had hit in his only two at bats and thought he could do it again. It's not so easy. Giants sixth was surprisingly quiet - no one got on base.

Tigers managed to get a runner on base in the seventh - this was Nohmi who had been trying to hit throughout the game. However, he didn't move from first and the innings ended with the score 2-0. Now was the big risk - Nohmi pitching the seventh. With a count of 83 to the end of the sixth it was within his capacity but he hadn't been pitching well. Abe grounded out to first easily and things looked OK but then Terauchi took a swing and hit along the third baseline for a very useful two base hit. Kamei (pinch hitter) skied one which came down nicely in Arai's glove. Then Nohmi was all over the place and walked Sakamoto in four - runners on first and second. Next was Ohmura who swung and skied the ball into left where Toritani ran out to take the catch for the final out. Kaneto took Tigers eighth and did well retiring the batters in order. His strike out of Arai was very impressive. Giants eighth was pitched by Kobayashi who started well. In fact he was superb using the top and bottom of the zone very well before firing off an expected strike out ball. He still pays little attention to Fujii though. With two outs Kobayashi got a bit too confident and threw a fast straight in the middle of the zone to Takahashi for his first pitch. Takahashi accepted the gift and hit it nicely into the Tigers oendan for a solo home run 2-1 Tigers. This really set the cat among the pigeons. The Giants fans sensed a chance and increased their volume. Kobayashi got the jitters and walked Ogasawara (pinch hitter). Abe hit to right and Suzuki (pinch running for Ogasawara) made third. This brought Tani ( pinch hitter) he battled for a while before Kobayashi recovered himself to strike out Tani and end the innings. The lead was still there but Tigers would have to fight even harder. Hara retained Kaneto for Tigers ninth figuring he could handle Shunsuke (replacement left), Shibata (replacement centre) and Fujii. This proved to be the case - those three are hardly fearsome batters. Kyuji pitched the Giants ninth. No strike outs this innings, Kamei (replacement third) grounded out to second. Sakamoto hit straight back at Kyuji who fumbled but grabbed the ball in time to throw to first for the out. Finally, Furuki (pinch hitter) popped one up and once again Toritani went back to take it waving Shunsuke away to end the game. Tigers victory.

As I mentioned a workmanlike but good victory. Giants had made the mistakes and paid for them. Tigers had made fewer mistakes and fielded better. Kyuji picked up his 22nd save and Nohmi the victory. He had thrown 102 pitches and had been wisely pulled at the right time. Giants have some rethinking to do though - they had their chances and blew them. Tigers still have a long road trip ahead of them but it is nice to start with a victory. They do need to stay focused though as the real challenges will come later - the Swallows and another series of games at Tokyo Dome.