August 16th Futagami v Takasaki - Futagami's debut

Sakai-owner wasn't quite prepared for the storm of criticism which enveloped him when he indicated that Wada would return next year. His handling of the situation has been poor and now he has angry fans and the press pestering him with questions. The mess where Takahiro Arai tried to steal third has also been generating further controversy with Wada and various other coaches scrambling to evade any responsibility. Takahiro Arai was benched for this game - you bench a player who had three hits in the previous game, one of them a double and drove in a run? It is not surprising that players are not responding or performing with management behaviour like this. Tigers managed to blow a three run game lead this game but thankfully were tighter and better. They weren't good enough to beat BayStars though and even with BayStars inept pitching could only manage a tie. It will be interesting to see how Tigers handle the next series with the Swallows - two teams dead in the water. Scores

          1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 R  H E
Tigers    0 0 3 0 0 0 1 0 0  0 4 13 0
BayStars  0 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 0  0 4  7 0

Startling lineups

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

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

Tigers brought Saka into the lineup - one wonders why but he had a dream start. Beginner's luck as it were. None of Wada's lineup changes seem to have any rhyme or reason to them. Just make a change and hope it works. Some do, most don't. With one out in Tigers first Hirano singled to centre. Nothing happened from then on - neither Toritani nor Ryota Arai could move him off first. Futagami's first was incident filled. He, of course, was nervous and coupled with the useless Fujii this was a recipe for disaster. The reason that the disaster didn't happen was more due to the BayStars incompetence than any dazzling pitching by Futagami. He started by walking Aranami. Aranami then tried to steal second but managed to get himself thrown out by Fujii. Then Futagami walked Uchimura. Tsutsugoh singled to set up runners on first and third but Ramirez hit into a double play and Tigers escaped without damage. Takasaki started to act up in Tigers second. With two out he walked Brazell in four - one wonders what he was thinking. Then Fujii hit right - a nice but lucky swing and Tigers had runners on first and second. The final batter was Futagami who grounded out to Takasaki to end that chance. Futagami after his nerves of the first settled down very nicely in the BayStars second - this was most impressive and pitched well. He retired the three batters and picked up his first strike out, that of Gotoh. Takasaki struggled in Tigers third to say the least. Uemoto led off the innings with a single to centre. The usual useless bunt was laid down by Hirano which took Uemoto to second. Toritani hit to third which set up runners on first and third. Ryota Arai popped up to short and Kanemoto walked to load the bases. Next was Saka who like Fujii swung nicely but luckily and drove the ball right bringing in two runs 2-0 Tigers, runners on first and third. Brazell also hit right bringing in another runner 3-0 Tigers, runner on first and third. Fujii spoiled the party with his usual trick of grounding out to short to end the innings. BayStars third was just what Tigers needed - a 1-2-3 batters out innings. Nice defense by Tigers battery.

Tigers fourth saw Uemoto single again and take second on Hirano's ground out to short. Toritani hit to first to end that chance. Takasaki was by now holding his own. BayStars fourth had Tsutsugoh single with one out but once again Ramirez hit into a innings ending double play. He really wasn't having a good night. Tigers fifth started quietly - the batters weren't able to get onto base until Saka hit back at Takasaki. Takasaki fielded with his glove but couldn't hold and deflected the ball towards third. He chased after it and threw but a bit too high pulling first off base. Saka was safe on first. Takasaki made up for his error by then striking out Brazell looking to end the innings. Futagami faced Gotoh leading off BayStars fifth. His first pitch to the BayStars first was low, in the bottom of the zone, straight and not particularly fast. Gotoh drove it hard back over Futagami's head into the centre stand for a solo home run 3-1 Tigers. It was Futagami's first run given up. This brought a chat and a pat on the bottom from Yabu which seemed to work as Futagami then struck out Kinjoh and got Watanabe and Tsuruoka to both fly out. He had held the lead but you did feel that BayStars would soon draw level. Tigers sixth was quiet and was Takasaki's best innings. The home run had settled his nerves and he pitched confidently against the Tigers lower order. Futagami's nerves seemed to have returned. He got Takasaki to ground out to short to start BayStars sixth but then Aranami singled right. Uchimura also singled right - hitting over the jumping Uemoto at second which caused Aranami to pause. As a consequence, BayStars only had runners on first and second. This though brought a change of pitcher, it being judged that Futagami wouldn't get out of the innings. This was undoubtedly wise and Katoh took over. He walked Tsutsugoh in four to load the bases, being all over the place. Once again Wada and team reacted quickly changing the pitcher. Here though their choice was strange. It is good to Cheng back in the top team but I wouldn't myself put a pitcher into such a tense situation on his first outing. It was asking for trouble which is what Tigers got. Ramirez hit a high bounce grounder to third which gave the runner time to get home 3-2 Tigers, runners on second and third with Ramirez being out. Then Cheng threw an outside pitch which Fujii got his glove on and deflected away for a pass ball. Once again a runner was home 3-3 scores tied, runner on third. Poor catching had blown the lead. Gotoh single easily and lazily right to bring in the next run 4-3 BayStars, runner on first and Tigers had blown the lead. Finally, Kinjoh flew out to second to end the innings. BayStars could be pleased.

Nakahata decided to rely on Takasaki for another innings. All he needed to do was hold the lead. It was working out well. Hirano flew out to left - a sharp catch by Morimoto (replacement left) and Toritani grounded out to first. Two outs and things going smoothly so Takasaki relaxed and was a bit too casual to Ryota Arai. The first pitch was the victim and was hammered into the left stand for a solo home run 4-4 scores tied. This brought a talk from Tomori (BayStars pitching coach) and a pat on the bottom. It worked with Kanemoto flying out to centre to end the innings. Tigers were back in the game. Tsuru pitched BayStars seventh and gave up a single to Watanabe. He was bunted to second by Tsuruoka and then Shimozono (pinch hitter) flew out to centre keeping Watanabe on second. A mound conference decided to deliberately walk Aranami which meant Tsuru had to deal with Uchimura. This Tsuru did effectively getting Uchimura to ground out to Toritani first pitch and the innings was over. Tigers eighth was pitched by Fujie who fumbled and bumbled around but eventually got out of the innings without damage. Saka started by singling to second who fielded well but couldn't get the throw away in time, the ball going through Fujie's legs on it's way to Uchimura's glove. Brazell hit into a double play but then Fujii hit to centre. Shunsuke (replacement left) struck out swinging to end the innings. Surprisingly Tsuru pitched BayStars eighth as well. He retired the first two batters and then faced Gotoh. Gotoh was batting away merrily and then picked up a thigh strain which meant he couldn't continue. He was replaced by Ikki for the final stage of his at bat which was all of one pitch; Ikki swinging and missing to strike out. Yamaguchi pitched Tigers ninth and struck out Uemoto. Then Hirano singled to centre. Toritani grounded out to first forcing out Hirano but was able to steal second in recompense. Ryota Arai hit to short to set up runners on first and third and Wada brought on Hiyama (pinch hitter). Not the best option and Wada really does need to think about when he uses Hiyama - it shouldn't be every time there is a run to be scored. Hiyama hit his first pitch to left where it was taken by Morimoto to end the innings. Fukuhara pitched BayStars ninth and did well getting Kinjoh to ground out to first. Then he struck out Watanabe who looked nonplussed as well he might. It was a very dubious call by the plate umpire. Finally, Tsuruoka popped the ball up to first for the end of the innings.

The game went into extra innings but there would only be one of those as the 9:30 pm deadline was very close. Kikuchi pitched Tigers tenth and Saka started by lining out to short - a nice jumping take by Watanabe who did hurt his leg slightly as he came down and rolled over. Sekimoto (replacement third) hit deep to left where Morimoto took the catch and after all that Imanari (pinch hitter) fouled off for a long while before lining out to short. Kyuji Fujikawa pitched BayStars tenth with Komiyama as catcher - which does say something about the other two. BayStars couldn't get out of the starting gate. Ruiz struck out swinging as did Aranami and finally Uchimura flew out to centre. Tied game.

Tigers hadn't lost but had blown a three run lead. The handling of the pitching had been questionable with an unprepared pitcher being thrown into the fray. Tigers record for August now stands at 3-9-2 and this is shaping up to be another bad month. Still they play the struggling Swallows next and they may pick up more wins.