July 29th Nohmi v Miura - Tigers remember how to hit

Surprising as it may seem Tigers batters actually remembered that the ground has a fence you can hit the ball over and produced four home runs this game completely overwhelming a shell shocked BayStars. The fact that it was against Miura was doubly good though his previous outing against Tigers at Koshien hadn't been that good. Both Arai brothers homered - a feat that hasn't been done since 1981. Still BayStars had taken the series and Tigers are still fifth so perspective needs to be maintained. Scores

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

Starting lineups

BayStars
1. Aranami (Centre)
2. Uchimura (Second)
3. Nakamura (Third)
4. Ramirez (Left)
5. Kinjoh (Right)
6. Watanabe (Short)
7. Gotoh (First)
8. Kurobane (Catcher)
9. Miura (Pitcher)

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

The addition of Kanemoto to the lineup was a retrograde step - the fading star adding nothing to Tigers offense. Tigers start was such that you felt that they were heading towards their eighth straight loss. Aranami led the game off with a three base hit into left centre. He then made home on an error by Tigers 1-0 BayStars. Uchimura walked and then Nakamura walked - runners on first and second with no outs. Ramirez grounded out to second which took the runners to second and third but Kinjoh popped up to short and Gotoh grounded out to third. Miura's start was all BayStars could have wished, three Tigers, three outs with only Yamato lasting more than one pitch. BayStars second saw much better pitching by Nohmi who struck out two. In Tigers second the batters all grounded out to first falling for exactly the same stratagem. Aranami singled in BayStars third and was bunted to second by Uchimura. Second was wherre he stayed as Nohmi retired the next two batters. Tigers third was quiet - no one had gotten on base and the whole team had gone down in order. It really looked like Tigers were going to loose this one as well.

BayStars fourth saw Gotoh single with two out but Kurobane flew out to right to end the innings. Then things suddenly went wrong for BayStars. Hirano led Tigers fourth off with a walk. Good - the first base runner - but nothing special. Yamato bunted him to second, standard wasteful Tigers practice. Next was Toritani and instead of striking out or walking Toritani slammed his second pitch into the centre stand for a two run home run 2-1 Tigers. That woke the crowd up and also knocked the stuffing out of Miura. Takahrio Arai singled to centre but Kanemoto popped the ball up to Kurobane swinging too soon. Murton drove a two base into left centre setting up runners on second and third. With Miura shell shocked by this sudden change round he left one in the zone and Ryota Arai whacked a big straight 3 run home run 5-1 Tigers. Fujii singled to first and then Nohmi singled as well. Tigers had runners on first and second again. Hirano flew out to end what had been a disaster for BayStars. The BayStars fifth saw some shell shocked batting - no one seemed to know what to do and even though Uchimura walked in four there was never going to be a challenge. Having taken five runs off the fourth Tigers batters went back to sleep for the fifth and they fell in order. Perhaps surprisingly Miura was still on the mound. One would have thought that BayStars would have gone to the relief but maybe they had given up any thought of victory. Ramriez led off BayStars sixth banging his second pitch to left for a solo home run 5-2 Tigers. This failed to galvanize the BayStars and some tight pitching by Nohmi kept the batters firmly under the thumb. With Kanemoto out in Tigers sixth, Murton hit his first pitch to centre for a solo home run 6-2 Tigers and the margin restored. Ryota Arai took a dead ball and made second on Fujii's ground out. The last batter was Nohmi and the innings ended quietly.

Any fight the BayStars had had probably been extinguished by that last home run and they just queued up to get themselves out in the seventh. Tigers seventh was different. Nakahata had finally bowed to the inevitable and replaced Miura with a different pitcher for Tigers seventh. Hayashi faced Hirano who flew out. Yamato struck out but Toritani singled. Then Takahiro Arai worked the count full and for the first time since May banged over a home run 8-2 Tigers. Itoh (replacment right with Murton taking left) singled and Murton walked. This time Ryota Arai could only ground out to the pitcher. Fukuhara took over for BayStars eighth and wasn't particularly good. He walked Uchimura but Nakamura flew out to right. Ramirez singled right to set up runners on first and third but Kinjoh struck out. Finally Watanabe grounded out to second and the BayStars had wasted that chance. Tigers eighth saw some very poor pitching by Fukuda. With one out he just could not find the zone. He walked Sekimoto (replacement third), then Hirano and then Yamato to load the bases. Toritani hit a grounder to second allowing Sekimoto to score 9-2 Tigers, runners on first and third. Brazell (pinch hitter) managed to ground out as well to end the innings. The BayStars ninth was pitched by Kyuji Fujikawa to allow him to turn his arm over. There was never any danger of the Tigers losing this game He had a fairly easy ride retiring the batters in order to end the game. Tigers victory.

A big victory which had been a long time coming. The win went to Nohmi who had pitched very well. The proliferation of long balls was surprising and welcome but not an indicator of future performances. One hopes that the Tigers can build on this thrashing of the BayStars but with shi no rodo coming up one feels rather cautious. There is still the problem of the extremely incompetent management and for the moment this game should be regarded as a flash in the pan rather than a new start.