August 9th Nohmi v Nelson - Dragons outdragoned

A typical Dragons grind with only one run scored and the pitching and fielding combining to shut out the opposition, only this was the Tigers doing the shutting out. Not only did Nohmi shut the Dragons out but he carried a no hitter into the eighth innings and drove in the winning run. Tigers batters could have driven in more runs particularly in the earlier stages but the fact that they won was more important. Once again Nohmi's strikeout ball was working and he was fantastic getting 13 outs this way. Dragons offense looked weak and feeble and they do seem to have big problems here. Tigers do have the better batters so it seems all the more ironic that the winning run came from the weakest batter in the side. Scores

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

Starting lineups

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

Dragons
1. Araki (Short)
2. Hidenori (Centre)
3. Guzman (First)
4. Morino (Third)
5. Wada (Left)
6. Hirata (Right)
7. N. Donoue (Second)
8. Oda (Catcher)
9. Nelson (Pitcher)

Murton made a welcome return to the lineup but batting six rather than lead off. Certainly, having him bat six does add a bit of power lower down the order where it has been lacking recently. However, he is likely to return to the lead off spot fairly soon. Nelson was very shaky during the first few innings and Tigers didn't really take advantage of it. Hirano started the Tigers first aggressively but was too aggressive and struck out swinging. Uemoto hit to right and then tried to steal second. Oda was cued in to this and threw him out successfully but then Nelson walked Toritani. Arai singled to centre moving Toritani to third and Tigers had a nice chance. Brazell was too keen to swing and flew out to Morino in foul ground to end the innings. Tigers had managed to waste their opportunities. Nohmi started poorly without seeming to know where the zone was and Araki walked in four. This you thought was a bad sign - Dragons would get a run and then suck the energy out of the Tigers. Hidenori was next and tried to bunt - one was judged foul and this roused the ire of Ochiai who came out to argue the incident feeling it should have been a dead ball. Obviously, he argued too much because he was ejected from the ground and the call stood. Actually, it is very rare for a call to be changed so one wonders why managers manage to get themselves ejected over such unimportant details. Anyway Hidenori struck out swinging for the first out but Nohmi wasn't out of danger yet. Araki managed to make second on a delayed steal - Fujii looking really stupid for missing this one. Guzman flew out to left bringing Araki onto third but then Morino hit straight back to Nohmi for the final out. Nelson's struggles continued in Tigers second. Murton led off with a single to right. Kanemoto flew out but Fujii hit his first pitch to left - runners on first and third. The next batter was Nohmi and the double play was on. He drove the ball through the infield into right for a timely single 1-0 Tigers, runners on first and second. Hirano grounded out to first forcing out Nohmi and moving Fujii round to third. He was safe on first himself. Uemoto drew a walk to load the bases and Tigers really were in with a good chance to do something spectacular. Toritani hit a grounder to first and ended the chance. Tigers could and should have had more but had a lead at least. Being forced out allowed Nohmi to begin warming up and so he was quite ready when Dragons second started. Wada went looking and Hirata struck out swinging. Then Donoue flew out to end the innings. Tigers third saw Brazell hit to centre with Arai out. Murton walked and there were runners on first and second. Kanemoto struck out looking and Fujii grounded out to third to end the innings. Another chance down. However, Dragons couldn't get going and the next three batters became strike out victims as Nohmi cleaned up the bottom of the order and Araki. His forks and straights were really impressive.

Tigers fourth was the first innings they didn't have a runner on base. Nelson seemingly settled and pitching well but with the one run deficit. Dragons fourth saw Hidenori pick up a lead off walk but the clean up were all at sea. Guzman and Morino struck out and Wada flew out to left. Nohmi would stray and would miss the zone with four batters but Dragons never really got the chance to exploit the situation apart from the first. In Tigers fifth Arai hit to right with one out. But once again Nelson was able to keep the Tigers batters from advancing him with Murton being the last out grounding out to short. Nohmi's only difficulty in Dragons fifth was Tanishige (replacment catcher) who worked the count full before lining out nicely to Arai. Tigers sixth was uneventful as well and was Kanemoto's last innings. He was replaced by Shunsuke at left. Nohmi struck out two looking in Dragons sixth, one victim being Nelson which was to be expected but the other was Araki - nice pitching. Once again no runner had made base.

Both pitchers returned for the seventh innings with Nelson having thrown more than Nohmi. He gave up a two out hit to Toritani but once again had enough to keep Arai from turning this into something good. Dragons seventh was their clean up who still had no answer to Nohmi's pitching, all three falling in order. Tigers had done a good job of holding onto the lead. Nohmi by now had thrown 101 pitches and you did think that he could be replaced for the eighth. However, it was a tight game and a no hitter so the decision to keep him in for Dragons eighth was understandable. The decision to keep Nelson in was less defensible but he did well in Tigers eighth retiring the batters in order. The first batter of Dragons eighth was Hirata who swung and blooped the ball into left between the infield and outfield for a single. Dragons first and only hit. Donoue struck out swinging and then Tanishige flew out to right. Next was Koike (pinch hitter) the decision to replace Nelson having been finally made. He had pitched well in the later stages but had been there for the taking in the first three innings. Koike picked up a full count walk - Nohmi was beginning to tire. This was the first time Dragons had had multiple runners on in the game. It was also to be the only time with runners on first and second Nohmi induced Araki to fly out to left to end the innings. Great pitching by the Tigers ace. Dragons pitcher for Tigers ninth was Suzuki. He kept the runners off base including a restored Saka who did work the count full as a pinch hitter before striking out. Dragons ninth was pitched by Fujikawa and he was flawless striking out the three batters he saw, Ohshima (pinch hitter), Guzman and Morino to end the game. Tigers victory.

A very important victory which was founded on Nohmi's superb pitching display. The 13 strike outs were a career high for him and coupled with the fact that the Dragons could only manage one hit demonstrated a level of dominance that was truely awesome. Fujikawa picked up save 25 and he had been brought in at just the right time. Tigers do need to take another of the games they will play against the Dragons to continue their momentum as Swallows lost to the Carp in another 1-0 defeat. The gap between the two teams is now four games.