August 3rd Standridge v Torres - Tigers leave their brains behind

Neither pitcher could be said to be on form last night - Torres needed a lot of pitches but had the advantage of being new to the Tigers. This rescued him from danger on numerous occasions. Standridge was a bit wayward and didn't always pitch intelligently. There were some other bizarre decisions on what should have been another tight victory. Why did Hirano bunt when the obvious solution was an attempt at a hit or sacrifice fly? Why did Kobayashi throw the same pitch that was clobbered to the same batter? Why did Fujikawa give up a home run to an under-performing batter? This time one can't blame Mayumi - well, maybe for the bunt but from his reaction it is possible he wasn't expecting it. Scores

        1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9  R  H E
Tigers  0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0  2 10 0
Giants  0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1x 3 13 0

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

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

Tigers batters struggled against Torres on the usual grounds that they didn't know him. It was quite a smart move by Hara putting an unknown pitcher in against Tigers best pitcher. In the first Hirano drew a walk as Torres found it difficult to find the zone. Arai was the final out, grounding out to Sakamoto. Standridge started spectacularly striking out Sakamoto and Chono in a quiet Giants first. Brazell struck out to lead off Tigers second but then Sekimoto hit. Kanemoto hit deep to right where Takahashi took the catch and threw in to first. Sekimoto had advanced too far and couldn't make it back in time. To be honest the decision looked a bit dubious but then it was clear that the umpiring team was not of the highest level. Anyway, the innings was over. Giants first hit came in their second - a lead off to Ramirez. Takahashi hit into a double play but then Ogasawara also hit to left. After eliminating the threat it wasn't exactly intelligent play to set it up again. However, Kamei flew out to centre to end the innings. Fujii led off Tigers first and adopted a surprisingly effective batting strategy against Torres (it's a shame we can't say that about his calling), swinging at everything. Torres couldn't handle this but eventually Fujii hit an infield dribbler to third. Kamei came in and failed to pick up the ball meaning Fujii was safe. This was ruled an infield hit but it was obviously a glaring error. Standridge tried to bunt Fujii to second and managed to lay down an effective bunt. Then things went Giants way. Murton grounded out to Kamei who didn't make any mistake and Hirano struck out swinging to end the chance. Sanematsu led off Giants third with a hit - one would have thought that Tigers had learned to avoid that area but Fujii wasn't calling with any perception or intelligence. Torres tried to bunt but managed to fail in his three attempts and was out. Then with one out Sakamoto hit his first pitch to centre - runners on first and second. Fujimura bunted the runners to second and third and you felt you could relax. However, Chono walked to load the bases which brought up Ramirez. This looked dangerous but Standridge struck him out with a superb fork. Tigers had escaped but Giants had wasted a chance.

With one out in Tigers fourth Arai hit to right. Brazell flew out but then Arai stole second safely, the throw being too high. Sekimoto battled Torres, racking up the pitch count but finally misjudged and struck out. In Giants fifth Kamei hit to left with two outs but nothing came of this. Up until this point only one of Giants hits had been outside the left field (Sakemoto) indicating pitching drift and poor calling. Tigers fifth was quiet with the batters falling in order. In Giants fifth we saw Fujimura hit to left with two out. He stole second - the throw from Fujii being to far to the left. Then Chono hit into right and Fujimura motored round the bases crossing home safely well before the ball 1-0 Giants, runner on first. Ramirez was next and he hit along the baseline straight to Brazell. First blood to Gomiuri. Torres returned and gave up a one out hit to Hirano. Then Toritani hit to right and Tigers had runners on first and second. This prompted a mound conference with the Giants pitching coach but Torres would have to work hard to get out of this innings. Arai hit to Sakamoto who threw to second for the force out but the double play didn't come off - runners on first and third. Torres faced Brazell who drove the ball into right centre for a two base timely hit 1-1 scores tied, runners on second and third. Sekmoto needed to do something but the strike out pitch from Torres was rather good and the innings was over. Giants sixth was quiet and the batters fell in order.

For Tigers seventh Hara went with Romero. Torres had done well enough but hadn't held a lead and hadn't really looked that proficient. Romero was worse and one wonders why he was chosen. Kanemoto led off slamming the ball to right for a two base hit. He showed good speed in out pacing Takahashi's arm. He was pinch run for by Shunsuke. Fujii bunted Shunsuke to third and rather than put Standridge in again Mayumi went for the run using Hiyama as the pinch hitter. Hiyama hit to right off his second pitch bringing home the run 2-1 Tigers, runners on first. Hiyama was pinch run for by Uemoto. Murton was next and hit to left and Uemoto rounded the bases very nicely beating the throw. This was the end of Romero who had pitched terribly and been punished for it. He looked furious as he left the mound but one couldn't see why he should stay on the mound given the way he was pitching. Yamaguchi took over and faced Hirano with runners on first and third and one out. Hirano shaped to hit but then bunted - this was a stupid move, there was a sacrifice on. The only way a squeeze might have succeeded is if the ball rolled along the first baseline but it went towards third. This locked Uemoto in whilst moving Murton to second but it was a waste of a chance. Mayumi shook his head in disgust but whether it was at the bunt or the lost chance is difficult to say. Hirano would have been better hammering the ball deep which he is quite capable of doing. Toritani was next and struck out looking but this looked a bit unfair. With Enokda just coming off his enforced no throwing regime in the second team Mayumi used Watanabe for the Giants seventh. Fields flew out but Furuki hit to right. Sakamoto flew out and then Abe (pinch hitter and replacement catcher) hit to centre to set up runners on first and second. Chono was next and hit to Arai. Arai was quick and threw to Brazell at first as Furuki rounded the bases. Chono was safe but Brazell was alert and fired the ball to Fujii as Furuki came down the base path. Furuki stopped just short and started back to third aggressively pursued by Fujii who feinted and then tagged Furuki out for the final out. This had been poor work by the Giants and very good work by the Tigers and it seemed the match winning moment - well not quite. Tigers eighth and Brazell banged out a one out centre hit. However, neither Sekimoto nor Shunsuke (replacement left) did anything and the innings was scoreless. Kobayashi pitched Giants eighth and started by getting Ramirez to fly out to left. Then he faced Takahashi. With the count at 1-1, Kobayashi sent the exact same pitch he had thrown first ball the night before. The result was the same - Takahashi blasted the ball over the fence into the Tigers oendan again. This time the ball just made it but it counted - a solo home run 2-2 scores tied. Poor pitching indeed and why did he think that the same failed trick would succeed against a fired up batter on his home turf? Ogasawara hit a two base and it looked like Kobayashi would melt down but he got Tani (pinch hitter) to ground out to him. This did move Ogasawara round to third with the next batter being Fields (replacement third). He really hasn't been that effective and he struck out to end the innings. Kubo was the pitcher for the Tigers ninth They needed to get another run but with the lead off Fujii chances were slim. He struck out and Morita (pinch hitter) flew out. Finally Murton flew out to first. For Giants ninth Mayumi went with Fujikawa - the right decision but this time it didn't work out. He faced Furuki - a non-performing batter looking a bit like a seedy troll. With the count 1--1 Kyuji fired a straight into the middle of the zone. It was a very careless and stupid pitch and Furuki hammered it into the Giants oendan for a solo home run 3-2 Giants, sayonara victory.

Tigers had blown it - poor decision making and some abysmal calling had helped the Giants to victory. Both Kobayahsi and Kyuji failed and even though these things happen whilst one could forgive an Abe home run one can't really forgive the Furuki home run. It was a good hit off an appallingly poor and complacent pitch. Hirano's stupid bunt became more significant - it removed a good scoring chance with a speedster on third. I do believe that only pitchers should bunt regularly and everyone else should do so rarely.