August 10th Standridge v Chen - The obverse

After Tigers victory of the night before by the slimmest margin possible Dragons returned the compliment. It wasn't quite expected but Chen pitched superbly well and Tigers batted poorly. Standridge was good but unlucky especially with the run. Tigers winning streak came to an end at four games but they have a good chance of taking the series tonight given that Dragons offense is very weak at the moment. It's about time Iwata was lucky and picked up a win. Scores

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

Starting lineups

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

Dragons
1. Araki (Short)
2. Ohshima (Centre)
3. Guzman (First)
4. Morino (Third)
5. Wada (Left)
6. Hirata (Right)
7. N. Donoue (Second)
8. Ohyama (Catcher)
9. Chen (PItcher)

Another dull grind at Nagoya Dome. These are OK if Tigers are doing the grinding but not when Tigers are being ground down. Chen was excellent and so was Standridge so we did have good pitching to enjoy. Tigers only real chance came in their first innings. They adopted a strategy of swinging at the first available pitch and this generally failed dismally but in the first with Chen not settled worked well up to a point. Uemoto flew out but then Hirano hit to left. Next Toritani hit to right and Tigers had runners on first and third with one out. This was a very good situation but Tigers failed to exploit it. Arai struck out swinging and then Murton grounded out to first to end the innings. Murton at five didn't really work last season and there is no reason why it should work this season. The reason for benching Brazell - that he doesn't do well against Chen was only valid insofar as everyone else did well and this game they didn't. The team lacked power and even though Brazell might not have made a distance equally he might have. Ohshima hit to centre in Tigers first but then Guzman hit into a neat double play to end the innings. Tigers second was where things began to settle down for Chen. Having survived the scare of the first and gotten out of it successfully he pitched with more confidence and retired the batters in order. Standridge walked Hirata with two out in Dragons second but Donoue grounded out to second to extinguish that brief hope. Chen then struck out the next three batters he faced - so much for Tigers third innings - the shot selection wasn't good. Standridge struck out his first two in Dragons third and then got Araki swinging to short and grounding out to end the innings.

Tigers fourth was quiet as the cleanup failed to get past Chen. Arai picking up his second strike out of the night. He was in swing at anything mode without thinking. Ohshima led off Dragons fourth with a hit surprisingly. Guzman swung too soon and flew out to right but Ohshima did advance to second on Morino's ground out. However, Wada also grounded out and the innings was scoreless. The Tigers fifth saw three batters fall easily - the game was moving along at a fantastic pace. Dragons fifth was the same with Donoue and Ohyama striking out. Neither group of batters were covering themselves with glory. Tigers sixth saw Hirano hit to third with two out but then Toritani hit his first pitch straight to second for the final out. Once again shot selection and pitch selection was poor. Dragons sixth was also over quickly with the batters falling in order.

Tigers seventh was farcical - four pitches was all it took and Arai, Murton and Sekimoto were like rabbits caught in the headlights. Standridge started Dragons seventh well striking out the first two batters but then let his attention wander. Wada hit to centre and then Hirata had a lucky swing which went into right - runners on first and third. Still only one out to get. Donoue was next and he swung and got enough of an impact to keep it away from third long enough for the runner to get home 1-0 Dragons, runners on first and third. Tanishige (pinch hitter) flew out to end the innings. The Dragons batters had strung together three hits which had given them what you were certain was the winning run. Chen walked Shunsuke (pinch hitter) to start the Tigers eighth and he was bunted to second by Fujii. Next was Hiyama who struck out swinging and then Uemoto who grounded out to short. As Mayumi had used a pinch hitter in place of Standridge he needed a new pitcher and this was Watanabe. He pitched well retiring the three batters in order to end the innings scoreless. Dragons still clung to the one run lead but with the ninth innings coming up one didn't see much chance for Tigers. It would be Iwase next, only it wasn't. Ochiai was going to give Chen a complete game but Hirano led off the innings with another hit to left. Toritani grounded out to short forcing out Hirano but then Ochiai decided to switch pitchers. It was Asao who took the mound though and he struck out Arai. The final batter was Murton who hit his first pitch straight to second to end the game. Dragons victory.

Not good batting by the Tigers. They needed to wait more and not swing so soon. Standridge picked up his third loss and the first since 25th May but he had to lose sometime. The shuffled lineup hadn't really conferred any advantage at all and leaving Brazell out was a mistake. Giants have been making a good run and are now 0.5 games behind Tigers in third. Swallows won and so the gap between the two teams is back to five. Still, by picking up their game Tigers can beat this weak Dragons outfit in the rubber game of the series.