May 19th Nohmi v Shiomi - Tight but fruitless

Tigers struggles continue - we are still seeing Kanemoto batting No. 4 despite the obvious fact that he is not up to it at all. No one his really hitting and if they are the catching is blowing things very effectively. Fujii is mediocre and the new catcher Imanari looked unprepared in this game. Tigers do need to bring back Komiyama and Kanoh urgently and sack Wada who shall we say possesses Mayumi's appreciation of the game. The Daily's response to yesterday's defeat was to put the report on the back page. Scores

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

Starting lineups

Golden Eagles
1. Hijirisawa (Centre)
2. Akaminai (Second)
3. Takasu (Third)
4. Fernandez (First)
5. Makida (Right)
6. Terrero (Left)
7. Masuda (Short)
8. Shima (Catcher)
9. Shiomi (Pitcher)

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

Once again Wada shuffled his lineup whilst actually making no significant changes. It is the Japanese practice of appearing to do something whilst actually not doing anything. The main issues are left undealt with, in this case a pathetic catcher and a batter at No. 4 who is not suited for the position anymore. Still the Golden Eagles first innings started quietly and the three batters were soon back in the dugout. Tigers first was also similar with Toritani swinging at his first pitch and flying out. When a team is not doing well they tend to swing too soon and not to wait for the oppotune moment. Nohmi though was doing nicely and repeated his feat of the first innings. Shiomi returned the complement and things were bumbling along. Things changed slightly in Golden Eagles third with Masuda leading off with a single. Shima lined out to second which also enabled Hirano to catch Masuda off base. Tigers then blew the good work as Shiomi hit to third and beat the throw. Hijirisawa walked and then Akaminai singled left to load the bases. Fujii's calling was really terrible. Luckily for Tigers Takasu grounded out to short to end the innings but it had been close. Tigers third by contrast was quiet and the bottom of the order was supine in response to some nice pitching.

Rakuten's fourth did not repeat the drama of the thrid and no one got on base. Tigers fourth saw Shiomi's turn to wobble and do a bit more than wobble. Toritani singled to left. He was bunted to second in a typical stupid bunt. Murton tried to hurry things along but grounded out to third which meant the runner couldn't move round. Kanemoto walked - another wasted at bat. Arai was next and he singled left on a full count bringing in a run 1-0 Tigers, runners on first and second. Sekimoto though flew out to right. Once again the question comes up - why do we have a player at fourth who does not drive in runs? Rakuten's fifth was also quiet - they seemed almost afraid to attack the pitching and Nohmi was doing quite well. Tigers fifth saw a two base hit from Fujii with one out. Nohmi flew out to right and Fujii tagged up and made third but Toritani did not repeat his hit of the previous innings and and hit his first pitch to first to ground out. Akaminai singled with one out in Rakuten's sixth - he was pinch run for by Uchimura and after Takasu struck out swinging tried to steal second. He was thrown out in a rare piece of good work by Fujii. Tigers sixth was quiet and in fact they had only come to life in the fourth otherwise they had been dormant.

Nohmi started Golden Eagles seventh well getting Fernandez to fly out. Then he and Fujii messed things up. Makida who had been quiet all game singled to centre off his first pitch. Next was Ferraro who swung and deposited the ball into the stands for a two run home run 2-1 Golden Eagles. Nakashima (pinch hitter) flew out and then Shima singled. Finally Shiomi grounded out but it was now time to replace Nohmi who had done enough. Shiomi started Tigers seventh by getting Arai to fly out. Then he walked Sekimoto and this decided Hoshino that enough was enough and he was replaced by Koyama. Asai then flew out and Imanari (pinch hitter and replacement catcher) grounded out to first. Tagami who had pinch run for Sekimoto and stolen second was left stranded on base. Imanari took over the catching and called to Nohmi. This was rank stupidity by Wada ignoring his pitcher's limit and punishing him for giving up the home run. With one out Uchimura (replacement second) singled. Takasu hit to right as a tired Nohmi struggled with his location and set up runners on first and third. Next was Fernandez who hit deep to left for the sacrifice fly 3-1 Golden Eagles runner on first. Finally, Makida flew out to centre but Wada's stupidity in over pitching his starter had given the Golden Eagles an insurance run. They needed it. Facing Heuser, Ryota Arai hit right for the first home run of his Tigers career 3-2 Golden Eagles. Two more outs followed and then Aoyama took over for the final out which was Murton who struck out. Fukuhara pitched Golden Eagles ninth and seemed to prosper with Imanari striking out all three batters, two looking. Aoyama continued into Tigers ninth and got his first two batters, the worthless Kanemoto and Arai but then gave up a hit to Brazell (replacement first). However, it was too little too late and Hiyama (pinch hitter) hit straight back to the pitcher for the final out. Golden Eagles victory.

Some rather poor batting by Tigers had seen them fail to score enough. Both Tigers runs came from the Arai brothers but frankly the decision of Wada to over pitch Nohmi was just stupid and petty. Unnecessary and costly Tigers had lost another close game.