September 30th Iwata v Nelson - Two home runs

Tigers record for September 6-12-2. Not very good and we saw an example of why when Mayumi was asked if he had considered taking Nohmi out in the eighth innings on Thursday. His answer was no he never even thought of it. Still Tigers ended September with a win and they have a good record against Nelson which continued. Komiyama once again started the game which showed rare good sense on the part of Mayumi but he was replaced by Fujii after the seventh which showed poor sense. Still it all worked out. Tigers did need to win this game - fans at Koshien are not as gentle as the fans at Jingu and another loss wouldn't have been well received. Scores

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

Starting lineups

Dragons
1. Araki (Short)
2. Ibata (Second)
3. Morino (Third)
4. Blanco (First)
5. Tanishige (Catcher)
6. Wada (Left)
7. Hirata (Right)
8. Ohshima (Centre)
9. Nelson (Pitcher)

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

Iwata and Komiyama hit it off immediately which was good. Iwata started spectacularly striking out Araki before retiring the next two batters. Nelson also started confidently - he had won his last two starts and showed this by retiring the Tigers in order. Dragons second was similar - some nice calling and nice pitching combining to restrict the Dragons options and no one got on base. The first hit of the game actually came in Tigers second with Murton hitting to short. Whilst Araki could field he couldn't get the out but Kanemoto then popped one up to short, a standard mistimed swing. Dragons third was quiet as well and in fact Iwata had been perfect over the first three innings. Komiyama led off Tigers third grounding out to Araki who messed it up allowing the Tigers catcher to reach first safely. He was bunted to second by Iwata and then Hirano grounded out to second moving Komiyama round to third. But Shibata struck out looking misjudging a pitch and the innings was over with the chance gone.

Dragons fourth produced their first runner - with two outs Arai messed one up and Morino was able to make first. Blanco then grounded out to short to end the innings. So far Iwata had been devastatingly accurate. Toritani hit to second to lead off Tigers fourth. Here Ibata messed this one up - another error which would prove costly. Nelson was clearly rattled and let fly a wild pitch which took Toritani to second. Then Arai lifted one to left for a two run home run 2-0 Tigers and a nice hit. Next was Brazell who slammed his first pitch back over Nelson's head for a solo home run 3-0 Tigers with no outs. It's a long time since Brazell hit a home run like that. Nelson managed to strike out both Murton and Kanemoto both of whom were trying to have a go but then gave up a two base hit to Komiyama. However, the last batter was Iwata who also struck out. This had been a nice innings. Dragons needed to fight back but Tanishige led the fifth off by striking out. Next was Wada who hit into the right corner and turned the hit into a three base. Hirata hit a grounder to Hirano who could do nothing to prevent the run 3-1 Tigers. Finally Ohshima also grounded out to second. The lead had been trimmed slightly. Shibata picked up a walk in Tigers fifth with one out but he stayed on first with Toritani flying out and Arai striking out. Dragons tried again in their sixth. Nelson managed a hit to centre - this was poor pitching by Iwata. Araki grounded out to first moving Nelson round to second and then Ibata hit to centre setting up runners on first and third with one out. Things looked set for a sacrifice fly. Morino hit to centre but not far enough and the runners stayed on base. Blanco walked to load the bases which brought up Tanishige who has been hitting well recently. Not this time though - he struck out looking fooled by a fine pitch to end the innings. Tigers had fought off the challenge well. Neither Brazell nor Murton did anything in Tigers sixth but Kanemoto hit (he was pinch run for and replaced by Asai). This time though he flew out swinging at his first pitch to end the innings.

Iwata returned for Dragons seventh and did well again. He did allow a hit to Ohshima with two out but Ochiai's pinch hitter Yanagida struck out swinging to end what had been a very satisfactory session by Iwata with only four hits given up and one run. Mise took over for Tigers seventh and here we saw Uemoto lead off pinch hitting for Iwata. He grounded out to third but Hirano hit to the pitcher and made first safely. Shibata bunted Hirano to second however, Toritani flew out to left. Enokida pitched Dragons eighth and here Mayumi switched catchers. This wasn't such a bright move but did work out - Fujii is a problem for Tigers though. Enokida started the innings by walking Araki. Ibata flew out in foul ground and then Araki tried to steal second but was thrown out. Morino swung at a nice looking pitch and struck out swinging to end the innings. Dragons chances were rapidly disappearing. Hirai pitched Tigers eighth and was OK until he got to Murton. Murton whacked a two base hit to left and it was all down to Asai, the next batter. He grounded out to short to end the innings. His power and lively hitting of the last season seem to have disappeared and he isn't getting the coaching he needs. So rather than Swallows facing a well rested Fujikawa it was Dragons who had the dubious honour. Blanco grounded out, Tanishige flew out and finally Wada also flew out to right to end the game. Tigers victory.

A tight but well worked victory based on some nice pitching by Iwata. Komiyama had once again done well and there was really no reason to replace him with Fujii after the seventh. Tigers had gotten the runs when needed and held the lead successfully fighting off the Dragons challenges. Fujikawa picked up his 35th save and Iwata his eighth victory. He now stands at 8-12. Tigers need to do more but at least this game we saw them at their best.