June 22nd Messenger v Takasaki - This is depressing

Back to the Central League and Tigers immediately messed up against one of the worst pitchers and worst teams in Japan. Three hits against such an abject outfit is not really what anyone expects and the batting was abysmal. Fujii returned to catching duties and quite apart from the fact that this was totally unnecessary managed to mess up in the sixth failing to communicate effectively with his pitcher. Still this wouldn't have mattered if Tigers batters had bothered to perform. Murton also returned to the lineup and wasn't impressive at all not managing to get on base. All in all a poor performance against an inferior team. On a totally different subject, Tigers scouts have been instructed to look for players who hit for average rather than those who hit for power when evaluating foreign prospects. Cue more B class finishes. Scores

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

Starting lineups

BayStars
1. Aranami (Centre)
2. Ishikawa (Second)
3. Nakamura (First)
4. Ramirez (Left)
5. Tsutsugoh (Third)
6. Kinjoh (Right)
7. Kajitani (Short)
8. Tsuruoka (Catcher)
9. Takasaki (Pitcher)

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

Arai was restored to fourth but one would have thought that on hitting Brazell should have been dropped into the four slot. Instead he was kept at sixth with Kanemoto at fifth. BayStars first started with a one out single to Ishikawa. However, Nakamura immediately hit into a double play and ended the innings. Tigers first was quiet with Murton grounding out in his first at bat back in the top team. He would seem off the pace throughout the game. Messenger struck out the first two batters in BayStars second, a sign that he and Fujii were working well together but then gave up a single to Kinjoh. Kajitani grounded out to short and that was the end of the innings. Tigers second was a but more useful. Arai singled to centre and then Kanemoto hit his first pitch to left neatly setting up runners on first and third. Asai grounded out but Ishikawa could only throw to first and Arai was home 1-0 Tigers, runner on second and a very neat run. Fujii hit back to Takasaki who threw to first for the final out. Messesnger then retired the BayStars batters in order in the third. However, Takasaki did the same with the Tigers and one began to get a bit worried. This kind of batting against a pitcher with a 4.58 average wasn't exactly encouraging.

Ramirez singled with two out in BayStars fourth but nothing came of this. Tigers then proceeded to waste a gift. Toritani led off Tigers fourth with a walk. Arai also walked - runners on first and second. Kanemoto struck out swinging and then Brazell hit a grounder to first. Well fielded by Nakamura, he was able to catch Arai off base as well for the third out. Tigers hadn't handled that innings very well at all. Kinjoh then walked to start BayStars ffith. Both Kajitani and Tsuruoka flew out. Kinjoh stayed on first. The final batter was Takasaki who could only ground out second. Fujii singled with one out in Tigers fifth. Wada had Messenger bunt him to second which meant that the chance of a run went down to almost zero. And so it proved with Murton grounding out. It would have been more productive to have Messenger try to hit with one out. Aranami led off BayStars sixth with a single. He was bunted to second by Ishikawa - a welcome mistake but Messenger was tiring by now and Fujii's calling wasn't helping matters. Nakamura struck out swinging which did help but then Ramirez walked in four to set up runners on first and second. Next was Tsutsugoh and here the failure of Messenger and Fujii to communicate got Tigers into trouble. Tsutsugoh hit to right. Tthe ball rolled into the corner. This of course meant that both runners were home 2-1 BayStars, runner on third. Kinjoh swung and flew out but despite the switch of the lead Tigers still had a good chance of victory. They blew it. Arai picked up a walk in Tigers sixth but with two out needed something from Kanemoto. He swung at his first pitch, totally mistimed it and flew out to short.

Messenger returned for BayStars seventh. This innings was straightforward with two batters striking out and no one getting on base. Shinohara took over from Takasaki for Tigers seventh. He got Brazell to ground out and then was replaced by Kaga. This was not a wise move as Kaga walked Imanari (pinch hitter) though why Wada wanted a pinch hitter in for Asai escapes me. In another sign that the Tigers kantoku completely mismanged the seventh. Fujii bunted Imanari to second for the second out. On came Hiyama who was deliberately walked to get at Murton. BayStars had gotten themselves in trouble and here was Wada handing them a get out of jail card. The next batter was Murton who struck out swinging to end the innings. This had been inept management. Tsutsui pitched BayStars eighth and with one out gave up a single. Ishikawa hit to short and beat Toritani to first. Ishikawa then tried to steal second but was thrown out by Fujii. It was a nice piece of work as Fujii is usually pretty ineffective in this sort of situation. Finally, Nakamura grounded out to second. For BayStars Fujie was the pitcher in the eighth and did rather well striking out Hirano, Toritani and Arai. A very poor showing by the Tigers batting and nice work (for a change) by the BayStars relief. Fukuhara pitched BayStars ninth and got his batters to go down in order. Then came Tigers ninth and Yamaguchi. Tigers were caught in a spotlight and couldn't move or do anything. Even the addition of Ryota Arai as a last pinch hitter did nothing merely demonstrating that Wada has no clues about pinch hitters. BayStars victory.

It would have been better to have Komiyama as the catcher for this game. Messenger works better with him but the rigid orthodoxy is that Fujii is the catcher and calls all the games. He does work well with Standridge but for pitchers who work better with other catchers one should vary the catcher. This though is advanced thinkng for Wada and beyond his ability to comprehend. Tigers even though they were still shaking the cobwebs out of their heads should have won this game and their poor play and the abysmal tactical handling of the seventh by Wada doomed them to what can only be called an embarrassing defeat.