July 26th Kubo v Soto - The errors continue

Tigers record for July stands at 3-12-1. This is not turning out to be a good month but with the remaining games at Koshien, maybe some victories will come their way. This was another display replete with errors - or rather enough significant errors to lose the game. Tigers really aren't trying and Wada seems to be in beached whale mode. Totally useless and a bit unsightly. On another topic Tigers have added two more players to their squad Zarate and Tamaki from the development squad. Both have gotten new numbers Zarate is No. 95 and Tamaki No. 97. Scores

         1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R  H E
Tigers   0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1  6 1
Dragons  0 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 X 4 10 0

Starting lineups

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

Dragons
1. Ohshima (Centre)
2. Nomoto (Right)
3. Wada (Left)
4. Yamasaki (First)
5. Ibata (Short)
6. Morino (Third)
7. Tanishige (Catcher)
8. Yanagida (Second)
9. Soto (Pitcher)

The revised lineup continued without any great indication that it was going to bring any benefit. Problems lie elsewhere not in shuffling the players. This game started as a pitching duel with both Kubo and Soto being difficult to hit. Soto did walk Ryota Arai in Tigers first but his elder brother flew out to right and no score resulted. Kubo also started well getting the first two outs but then giving up a single to Wada. Yamasaki flew out to left with Kanemoto being secure under the high ball. Tigers second started with Kanemoto grounding out before Murton hit his first pitch to left for a two base. Hirano flew out to short swinging too soon and then Komiyama worked the count full before grounding out to short. Dragons second was quiet as the middle order all rapidly flew out. Tigers third was just as uninspiring with Soto back in control. The same can be said of Dragons third - at this stage of the game honours were even with neither side being able to get an advantage.

Soto started to wobble in the Tigers fourth. Ryota Arai led off the innings with his second walk of the game. This time his brother singled left and Tigers had runners on first and second. Kanemoto snatched and flew out to second and then Murton hit into a double play to end the innings it was that kind of night. Fortunately, Kubo was still pitching nicely and the Dragons batters couldn't generate any momentum. The fourth was quiet. Tigers were able to get to Soto in the fifth. Hirano hit to second and beat the throw. Then Wada had Komiyama bunt him to second - it's stupid bunt time as the next batter was Kubo who struck out. Toritani hit nicely to left centre bringing in Hirano 1-0 Tigers, runner on second. Yamato could only ground out to short and the innings was over. Tigers had the lead but it lasted only as long as their fielding allowed. With Ibata out in the bottom of the fifth Morino singled. Here Tigers blew things. Tanishige grounded out to third where Ryota Arai messed the take up and allowed the runners on first and second. Ryota Arai seems to make mistakes wherever he fields and one wonders about his suitability for the top team sometimes. Here Morimichi brought on Takahiro Donoue to pinch hit. Kubo let the error get to him and let fly a wild pitch first ball taking the runners to second and third. Then, by now thoroughly flustered he left one to hit and Donoue drove it into right 1-1 scores tied, runners on first and third. Hirata (pinch hitter) walked to load the bases and Kubo was in trouble. With Komiyama's help he got out of it. Ohshima grounded out to first for the force out at home and then Nomoto flew out to right to end the innings. Losing the lead was bad but Tigers had restricted the damage and were still in the hunt. Soto was replaced for the Tigers sixth by Yamai who was sound. He handled the Tigers clean up very nicely and no one reached base. Wada decided to continue with Kubo in Dragons sixth. However, he did make one change that would prove significant bringing on Shibata to take over right and moving Murton to left to replace Kanemoto. Wada led off the innings driving a two base into centre. Yamasaki grounded out to third and then Ibata singled right to set up runners on first and third. Wada decided that this was a good time to change pitchers and brought Tsutsui on. He faced Morino who hit a fly to right off his first pitch to right. Shibata came round to take a low catch around his knees and despite the ball landing in his glove, spilled the catch. This was somehow ruled a hit - the scorer is obviously not very good. Naturally Wada was home 2-1 Dragons, runners on first and second. It wasn't an easy take but it was one Shibata should have made and it was a very costly error. Tanishige hit his first pitch to short for an innings ending double play. Tigers were behind but still not by much.

Tigers failed to respond in their seventh. Murton flew out to left and Hirano grounded out to first. Then Wada switched Komiyama for Imanari, another pointless change which Wada often indulges in. These changes seem to be made just for the sake of it or on the off chance that something might happen. There doesn't seem to be any logic to them apart from Wada's ill-informed prejudices. Imanari flew out to third to end the innings. Tsuru started Dragons seventh and with one out Hirata hit to third. Ryota Arai couldn't make the throw in time. This brought another pitching change which was incomprehensible and seems to have been panic motivated. Katoh took over. Ohshima bunted and Ryota Arai was too slow onto the ball allowing Ohshima to reach first with Hirata on second. Then things settled down and Fukuda (pinch hitter) struck out. The final batter was Wada who grounded out to end the innings. Tajima took over for Tigers eighth and was another of these Dragons pitchers that Tigers seem unable to deal with. The three batters fell in order. For Dragons eighth Wada sent Fukuhara to the mound. He wasn't good and with one out gave up a single to Ibata. Another out followed and then Tanishige swung and deposited the ball in the left stand for a two run home run 4-1 Dragons. Both times that Wada has brought Imanari on in this series, Dragons have scored runs which have put the game out of reach. The arbitrary changes don't seem to help. Tigers ninth was pitched by Sosa who was shaky.With one out Takahiro Arai singled left. Then Hiyama (pinch hitter) also singled to set up runners on first and second. Hirano grounded out to second which put runners on first and third but then final batter Hirano flew out in foul ground to end the game. Dragons victory.

Tigers had been in with a chance of winning this game but their errors and management failures ensured that they didn't do so. Ryota Arai put in another poor performance in the field and though Shibata's mistake was significant it was actually uncharacteristic of him but indicative of a general team malaise in away games. Wada's clueless management style though proved to be the main problem. In this situation replacing your pitchers so often and replacing your catcher weren't exactly the right things to do. Wada doesn't really know what he is doing and we are looking at another clueless manager.