April 11th Kubo v Fukui - Incident upon incident

After examination it was determined that Fujii has a broken cheekbone. This seems to be quite a nasty fracture and will take some time to heal. At the moment is cheek is very badly swollen and he has been told to rest at home. Once again Tigers proved too much for Carp who one suspects of some underhand tricks in the fifth but more on the Brazell incident below. One can also see why the final game of this series will be pitched by Maeda. Carp do need a victory and their pitching hasn't been inspired up until now. Tigers meanwhile have reached first place after only 10 games. We also saw a highly successful return for Kubo though the management once again almost messed things up. Kubo had thrown exactly 100 pitches over seven innings and should have been rested. Instead he was put in for the eighth and struggled. Inexperience and the temptation of a complete game ruled out good sense. The management must try harder next time. Scores

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

Starting lineups

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. Kubo (Pitcher)

Carp
1. Higashide (Second)
2. Soyogi (Short)
3. Matsuyama (Left)
4. Kurihara (First)
5. Aizawa (Right)
6. Hirose (Centre)
7. Dobayashi (Third)
8. Kura (Catcher)
9. Fukui (Pitcher)

This is not an outing Fukui will look back on with any satisfaction - he sprayed balls around with gay abandon and was generally inaccurate. Tigers only claimed three hits off his pitching but this was probably because they couldn't hit the balls - he issued six walks in his session. The game started with Hirano striking out and Shibata flying out. Then came the first walk - Toritani to first base. Next was Arai who blasted his first pitch into the left stand for a two run home run 2-0 Tigers. Brazell flew out but once again Tigers had started well. Now for Tigers the big question was how would Kubo perform. He did very well retiring the Carp batters in order. It was an impressive first innings from the pitcher. Murton led off Tigers second with a single to centre. He then stole second on Kanemoto's strike out, Kura's throw being a bit slow. However, Komiyama grounded out to third preventing the runner advancing and Kubo striking out. Once again Carp's batters were unable to get to grips with Kubo who used a very intelligent mixture of balls and strikes to get the outs. Tigers third saw the first two batters go down and once again Fukui faced Toritani. Once again he walked the Tigers short. This time Arai hit to left centre for his second home run of the night 4-0 Tigers. Carp were in trouble. Brazell struck out swinging to end the innings. Carp's first hit came in their third a single to left off the bat of Dobayashi. Kura flew out but Fukui bunted Dobayashi to second. However, Higashide flew out to centre to end the innings.

Tigers fourth saw Murton and Kanemoto fall before Komiyama drew a walk. Unfortunately, Kubo could not do anything and hit a grounder to second. Up until now Kubo had had an easy ride but Carp's fourth produced more of a challenge. Soyogi flew out to centre and then Kurihara hit left - runners on first and second. Carp had a nice opportunity. The next batter Aizawa grounded out to first but moved the runners round to second and third. This left it all to Hirose who struck out swinging to end the chance and the danger. Tiger fifth was also an eventful innings. Hirano drew a walk and was bunted to second by Shibata. This was one of those stupid bunts beloved of managers in Japan. It wasted an out which would have been useful later. Toritani grounded out to third keeping Hirano on second and Fukui walked Arai probably reasoning it was the safer option. Brazell was next and with the count at 2 and 1 he threw an inside pitch at Brazell's knees which brushed him back. Brazell lost his footing but recovered and picked up his bat. It was difficult to see anything wrong with the pitch and maybe the Fujii incident was in Brazell's mind. Maybe Fukui said somethng but anyway Brazell started walking towards the mound gesticulating angrily. Kura was up quickly and tried to stop Brazell but the Hiroshima bench also emptied quickly.Tigers bench followed suit and their followed a lot of pushing. The Carp's manager, Nomura, seemed to be arguing strongly for the ejection of Brazell who had approached the mound but the umpires were perhaps a bit sceptical that this was all down to Brazell. After a period of argument things were allowed to continue and Fukui started warming up but as Brazell walked back to the plate things flared up again. This time the target of Brazell's ire was the Carp's first base coach, Ogata. Once again it was impossible to say what provoked it though Brazell did claim that Ogata had said something derogatory. Once again the benches emptied and there was a lot of pushing again. This time though the umpires felt that Brazell had provoked Hiroshima and he was ejected to be replaced by Sekimoto. Whatever, the cause Brazell needs to learn to hold his temper - he has made a good start to the season and he doesn't need to ruin it by letting the opposition needle him. He should channel his anger and let his bat speak for him. Of course this would entail a small field reshuffle with Arai moving over to first and Sekimoto taking third. Sekimoto drew a walk which showed the incident hadn't helped Fukui or the Carp who need to be a bit more intelligent in how they play the game. However, Murton flew out in foul ground and Tigers had missed a good chance. Kubo though acted like he had seen it all before and retired the Carp's batters in order in the bottom of the innings. By now Fukui had thrown 104 pitches and Nomura decided to replace him bringing on Nakamura. He was secure retiring the batters in order. Carp's sixth was also quiet and they were still having difficulties solving the Kubo/Komiyama combination.

Tigers seventh saw Shibata have their last hit - singling right with one out. However, Toritani and Arai both grounded out to short leaving the innings scoreless. Kubo retired the first two batters in the Carp's seventh but then Dobayashi hit deep to left and raced round the bases for a three base hit. Here was a real challenge. Maru pinch hit for Kura and was walked to set up runners on first and third. However, Maeda (pinch hitter) hit straight back at Kubo for the final out of the innings. Carp still had to score. Kishimoto took over for Tigers eighth and retired the batters in order. Kubo then returned for Carp's eighth which looked a mistake. He had just escaped in the seventh and shouldn't have been pitching another innings. He was just back from a long layoff and had done well enough. Kubo retired Higashide but then gave up a single to Soyogi. Matsuyama flew out but then a wild pitch took Soyogi to second. Kurihara hit right and this brought Soyogi home 4-1 Tigers, runner on first. Aizawa singled to set up runners on first and second which brought the overdue pitching change Enokida taking the mound. He got Hirose to ground out to first ending the innings. Carp had their consolation run but hadn't had the firepower to force a victory. Mickolio pitched Tigers ninth and walked Komiyama. He was bunted to second by Asai (pinch hitter) - a pointless exercise but Hirano flew out and Shibata grounded out to the pitcher to end the innings. Fujikawa pitched Carp's ninth and was something like his fearsome self of old blasting away the batters. Dobayashi struck out swinging, Shirahama (replacement catcher) struck out swinging and finally Nakahighashi also struck out swinging to end the game. Tigers victory.

An excellent result. Tigers had been outhit by the Carp but had made their hits count whilst restricting the Carp to one run. Kubo had pitched superbly and well deserved the victory. Fujikawa picked up his fourth save of the season and the 200th of his career. He was presented with a bouquet to mark the occasion on becoming only the fifth pitcher in Japanese baseball to reach this level. Arai had scored all the runs and Tigers had managed to stay in complete control of the game throughout. Brazell though does need to work on his temper and not let the opposition needle him. So far though Tigers can be very happy with the way they are playing.