August 29th Iwata v Fujii - The two faces of Ryota

We saw the two sides of Takahiro's younger brother - Ryota who comes up with creative ways to make mistakes but then also came through when Tigers needed it. Iwata pitched well but was over-pitched by Wada. He was ably supported by Komiyama who this time just survived to call the final two innings. Wada had Hiyama warming up with two out in the Tigers eighth but the batter at the plate, Shunsuke struck out and Komiyama called the bottom. Tigers had to fight hard for this victory and it was nice to see them doing so and not giving up. Scores

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

Starting lineups

Tigers
1. Uemoto (Second)
2. Yamato (Centre)
3. Toritani (Short)
4. Ryota Arai (Third)
5. Takahiro Arai (First)
6. Kanoh (Left)
7. Shusuke (Right)
8. Komiyama (Catcher)
9. Iwata (Pitcher)

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

The interesting thing was the return of Kanoh to the lineup fielding left in place of Kanemoto. It is impossible to say whether he was happy to be there - he wasn't really challenged and his performance was adequate enough. He was replaced by Shunsuke later in the game with Hirano taking over the right field place. Tigers started well but would find they had similar issues to the BayStars, they struggled to get runners home. With Uemoto out, Yamato hit to left and took two bases. Toritani grounded out but moved Yamato to third. The sacrifice wasn't on and Ryota Arai walked on a full count. It was up to his brother Takahiro Arai who unfortunately grounded out to short to end the innings. Iwata's start was nice and this series both the flaky pitchers (Kubo and Iwata) have benefited from a good start. Iwata pitched nicely and no one reached base. Tigers second saw them fail to replicate the first. Kanoh in his first at bat for the season flew out to right. Shunsuke popped the ball up to Fujii and Komiyama popped up to second. Iwata continued his progress in BayStars second - he wasn't getting the strike outs but was getting batters to hit the channels he wanted. Once again the batters fell in order. Iwata and Uemoto did nothing in Tigers third but then Yamato singled to right. He tried to steal second but a nice throw by Tsuruoka gave Uchimura a straight forward tag out to end the innings. BayStars got their first base runner in the third with Kajitani working a full count walk. He did hit a fly ball into fall ground which Kanoh coming round failed to take even with a slide. Tsuruoka bunted Kajitani to second with Fujii next so Tigers were guaranteed two outs. Fujii grounded out to short as did the final batter Aranami.

Fujii had been doing quite well though living dangerously and in Tigers fourth he would really live dangerously. He started by getting Toritani to strike out something the Tigers short does too often. Ryota Arai singled to left and then with the count full Fujii threw a wild pitch which went through Tsuruoka. Of course the batter, Takahiro Arai, didn't swing and took the walk but Ryota Arai was able to take two bases with a nice turn of speed. So Tigers had runners on first and third with only one out. Kanoh was next and with the count at 1-2 hit a shallow fly to centre. Aranami took the ball and threw to Tsuruoka who was standing well in front of the home plate. Ryota Arai set off then checked and returned to third blowing the chance of a run. This was actually a very good chance as Tsuruoka had no hope of being able to make the tag. Ryota Arai had blown it. The TBS-BS presenters were raving about the throw which wasn't anything special but then any half decent play got that accolade. Basically all Ryota Arai had to do was slide in to score. Shunsuke was next and hit a fly to right. Tigers paid for this casualness the very next innings. Uchimura singled to centre - BayStars first hit and through the legs of Iwata. Kinjoh bunted him to second - what can one say? Ramirez snatched and flew out to second and it looked like Tigers were going to escape the innings. For some reason Iwata found Tsutsugoh difficult to deal with and with the count full was a bit to high. Tsutsugoh drove the ball to right centre and even though he only took one base (he seemed to be limping) on what was a two base hit brought the runner home 1-0 BayStars. Gotoh singled to centre but once again Tsutsugoh didn't seem to have much speed and only reached second. Then Kajitani hit to short for the force out and the innings was over. One didn't expect much for Tigers fifth with Komiyama leading off the batting. He had singled the game before and repeated the feat with a single to centre. Iwata bunted him to second and then Uemoto hit nicely to left. Komiyama was quickly round the bases for the tying run 1-1 with Uemoto using his speed to take second on what was basically a single. Yamato hit a shallow fly to centre and Aranami was quick to throw to second. Uemoto was too far off base and was out - this was nice work but Tigers were level. Iwata struck out Tsuruoka to start BayStars fifth and got Fujii to fly out. Aranami singled to third - this was another of Ryota's little mistakes. He picked the ball up nicely and went to throw but paused to reach a better position and then threw. Aranami is quite fast and so beat the throw to first - poor fielding by Ryota Arai. Uchimura couldn't make anything of this though and grounded out to second to end the innings. Toritani led off Tigers sixth with a deep fly to left which just died but here we saw how a good left fielder positions himself by the fence to take the ball. Next was Ryota Arai who also hit left - high over the fence for a solo home run 2-1 Tigers and Ryota Arai had redeemed himself. Takahiro Arai grounded out and then Kanoh who was totally anonymous flew out to Uchimura running round from second to end the innings. Tigers had a tight lead. Iwata started BayStars sixth well disposing of Kinjoh and Ramirez in three pitches. Tsutsugoh took a bit more effort and fought hard before hitting the ball to Toritani for the ground out.

Tigers seventh was interesting to say the least. Shunsuke hit to Fujii who failed to hold and by the time he got the ball Shunsuke was safe. Komiyama bunted the runner to second and with Iwata next one questions the rationale behind this move. This is really a case of wasting two outs for no progress. Iwata flew out to right and then Uemoto walked. Nakahata decided that this was enough of Fujii and brought on Kaga. He faced Yamato who hit to second. Second went for the force out but missed and Yamato was safe - bases loaded. BayStars pitching had contrived to put themselves in a difficult situation. Kaga left the mound and was replaced by Shinohara. He got Toritani to strike out swinging to end the innings. The endgame was going to be tight. Iwata returned for BayStars seventh - he had already pitched enough but BayStars pitcher had pitched into the seventh so for Wada's pride Iwata had to do the same. He started by walking Gotoh. There was some good stuff in his pitching but also some tired pitching. Kajitani bunted Gotoh to second - the first out and very helpful. Tsuruoka flew out to second and then Watanabe walked. Iwata had no control for the first three pitches so Komiyama singled the final pitch as a ball and took the walk. Then Iwata got Aranami to hit into the channel to short and Tigers had their third out. Iwata had escaped by the skin of his teeth. Kikuchi took over for Tigers eighth and walked Ryota Arai. Takahiro Arai hit straight to Tsutsugoh and into the double play. Once again a straight forward though competent piece of play received rhapsodies of praise from the television commentators. Hirano (replacement right) then worked a walk but Shunsuke struck out swinging and incidentally probably saved Tigers victory. Hiyama wasn't used and Komiyama continued behind the plate. Fukuhara pitched BayStars eighth and started by striking out Uchimura looking. Then his attention seemed to wander and he gave up a single to centre to Kinjoh. Ramirez singled as well to set up runners on first and second. This woke Fukuhara up - his strike out of Tsutsugoh saw an excellent third strike shaving the zone and then Fukuhara and Komiyama went high to Gotoh and got him to swing twice at high pitches to strike out. Some very fine pitching. Fujie pitched Tigers ninth and got the batters in order - it was a change from the previous night. So BayStars had a one run deficit with one innings to go and Tigers star closer Fujikawa pitching. It started out alarmingly well for the BayStars. Kajitani was able to get hold of a pitch and turn it into a two base hit to left with no outs. He was bunted to third by Koike with BayStars basically going for the tie. Here though Fujikawa showed his quality He blasted out Shimozono (pinch hitter) swinging with four pitches and then got Aranami the same way to end the game. Tigers victory.

Iwata picked up his third victory in a row and now has seven wins for the season though at 127 pitches the count was too high. Fujikawa picked up his 20th save and this is the sixth year in a row he has reached this milestone. If he goes to America he will leave a huge hole in the bullpen. What was really encouraging though was that Tigers restricted BayStars to one run and then held on to win a tight victory. Of course it is only the BayStars but it helps morale for the tougher encounters ahead. One more game in the series remains - the rubber game and Tigers have a good chance of taking this.