September 12th Kubo v Tateyama - It didn't last long

Attendance at Koshien continued to decline, this game falling below 28000 for the first time since reporting actual numbers began. Tigers were abysmal and will now finish the season below .500. The dream of winning the next nine games is now shot to pieces and after a bright start to the month things have rapidly reverted to the normal Wada fare. We hear that the top management is going to hold a crisis meeting but the vital decision will not be taken - that of sacking Wada and replacing him with a proper management. Tigers front office dilatoriness and failure to take the hard decisions illustrates the problems with the running of the club. It is not that Sakai-owner doesn't know anything about baseball but rather that they don't know anything about management. Appointing the wrong person was bad enough and it was predictable that Wada would fail but the real issue is their inability to act when it became clear that there were problems which needed to be addressed. The style can be characterised as management by burying your head in the sand and is costing the organisation revenue. It is no use apologising to the fans for the poor performance or blaming the players. Rather what is needed is decisive action to correct the situation. The Kanemoto affair is a good illustration of this failure of management - Tigers were prepared to offer a player a contract for 2013 when he clearly couldn't perform but then this king of practice is standard for Japanese management. There are other attractions which compete for fans money and Tigers executives need to remember this. If they offer a sub-standard product then fans will spend money elsewhere not on a failing team. Turning a money generator into a liability is not good business practice but this is what Sakai-owner and his colleagues have done. Scores

          1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R  H E
Swallows  0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 12 0
Tigers    1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1  5 0

Starting lineups

Swallows
1. Hiyane (Centre)
2. Tanaka (Second)
3. Balentien (Right)
4. Milledge (Left)
5. Kawabata (First)
6. Miyamoto (Third)
7. Morioka (Short)
8. Kawamoto (Catcher)
9. Tateyama (Pitcher)

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

Another game between two frankly limited teams - Tigers demotivated and disinterested and Swallows unable to generate any momentum. They played a very conservative game which paid off once again. Why Wada thought it necessary to pitch Kubo into the eighth was another of those mysteries of life which will never be answered but probably lies in the area of managerial incompetence. Fujii and Enokida once again failed to get on but at least this time no runs resulted. Kubo started the game with a lead off hit to Hiyane. He was bunted to second by Tanaka and it was clear that the Swallows game plan hadn't changed from the previous game. Balentien then hit straight to Toritani and Milledge struck out looking. Tateyama started tentatively and paid for it. With one out Yamato hit to first and then beat the rather hesitant field. Yamato then stole second and Toritani, for a change, hit the ball into right for a double 1-0 Tigers, runner on second. Both Ryota Arai and Murton failed to do anything and the chance of a cushion was lost. Kubo at this stage of the game was in control of his pitches and he pitched a very satisfactory second retiring the batters in order and striking out Morioka. Unfortunately, Tateyama also found his rhythm and returned the complement in the bottom this time striking out two. Kawamoto led off Swallows third with a single but then Tateyama bunted into a double play. Hiyane couldn't manage to hit and grounded out to third to end the innings. Tateyama walked Uemoto in Tigers third but he was forced out by Yamato's ground out to short. However, Toritani, this time flew out to centre to end the innings.

Swallows fourth saw the first two batters go down before Milledge singled to left. Kawabata grounded out to end the innings. Tigers fourth was similar with Takahiro Arai singling to centre with two out and Hirano going down as the final out. Kubo was by now labouring a bit and Swallows ramped up the pressure in their fifth. With one out Morioka singled. Kawamoto's ground out to second took Morioka to second and then Tateyama walked on a full count - poor work by Kubo and Fujii. Yuhei though was lured into swinging too soon and he popped up to Toritani to end the innings. Tigers fifth saw a similar pattern. Tateyama with exquisite courtesy walked Kubo with one out. Then with two out Yamato singled to put runners on first and second. Toritani then struck out swinging to end that innings. Tanaka led off Swallows sixth with a single. Then Balentien struck out looking. Milledge flew out in foul ground and Kawabata popped the ball up to second. It had been a satisfactory innings for Kubo. Tigers sixth was just quiet - both Murton and Takahiro Arai tried to hit their way out of trouble and both struck out.

Kubo finally crumbled in Swallows seventh. The so far anonymous Miyamoto came to life and singled to lead off the innings. He was pinch run for by Miwa who was bunted to second by Morioka. Kawamoto shouldn't have presented a problem but Kubo was by now out of steam and Kawamoto singled to centre. This was deep enough for Miwa to reach home 1-1 scores tied with Kawamoto getting caught off base and being tagged out. Swallows made the same mistake the game before, having a runner try to go too far. Tateyama flew out to end the innings. He had an easy seventh - Nakamura took over the catching for Swallows and together they retired the batters in order. Kubo should have been replaced at the end of the seventh but Wada sent him in for another innings. This was the disaster one could have predicted. Of course, we also have to factor in Fujii's general inability to cope with a tied game and that certainly played a major part. Hiyane led the Swallows eighth off with a single. He was bunted to second by Tanaka. Then Balentien singled left but this only put runners on the corners. Milledge walked to load the bases in what should have sounded warning bells. Kawabata hit his first pitch to right - a repeat of the night before when he drove in the go ahead run 2-1 Swallows bases loaded. This was all Swallows could manage scoring wise. Miwa struck out swinging and then Morioka flew out to second. Still no matter how conservative the Swallows tactics they had a lead. Tateyama also returned for the Tigers eighth which is more to do with the paucity of the Swallows relief than any complete game wish. He gave up a one out single to Yamato. Neither Toritani nor Ryota Arai did anything with Ryota Arai choosing his favourite left fly as his way of getting out. Swallows ninth was almost a disaster. This time Fujii and Enokida didn't get on at all. Nakamura led the innings off with a two base hit to left. Noguchi (pinch hitter) grounded out to first but then Hiyane got plunked by a pitch. Tanaka singled left to load the bases and things were rapidly getting out of control. Even Wada could see what would happen next if he failed to make any change and so he replaced Enokida with Watanabe - a pitcher who hasn't been seen for a while. Watanabe doesn't usually pay much attention to Fujii but this time worked well and got Balentien and Milledge to end the innings. It was a good escape but Swallows still held the lead. Ogawa then sent Barnette in to close the game. He walked Takahiro Arai with one out. The pinch runner was Tagami but this didn't help as Kanemoto (pinch hitter) flew out to centre and then Hiyama (pinch hitter) hit a grounder to third. Swallows victory.

Tigers had lost the series but this time to a better pitching performance than the night before. They had been outhit 12 to 5 which shows the limit of the Swallows ambitions but against a side as poor as Tigers Swallows limited strategy had been highly effective. Tigers are pretty much certain to finish fifth this season (only the BayStars being even worse) and lack strategy or motivation to change things. Ordinarily, the team losing a series in two games bounces back to win the third game of the series but with the way Tigers are playing this cannot be guaranteed. Tigers should have made more of this game having seen the Swallows tactics the night before but the fact that they couldn't suggests the level of their demotivation runs very deep.