September 17th Messenger v Miura - The future revealed

It wasn't comforting - Fujikawa had a tightened leg muscle and couldn't pitch. Whilst Tigers didn't lose the game Fukuhara's pitching as closer wasn't of the sort that encourages a fan to look forward to him in that role next season. One wonders why Tsutsui wasn't used for this game as he might have been a better choice in this situation. Instead, Fukuhara managed to give up the tying run. Incidentally, Miura ended up throwing 143 pitches - that seems rather a lot. Scores

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

Starting lineups

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

It didn't start well at all for Tigers and Messenger. Aranami singled and then Uchimura bunted back to Messenger. Messenger messed up the throw putting runners on second and third. Tsutsugoh struck out swinging and Ramirez grounded out to Messenger. Two outs and it looked like the BayStars were going to blow this one. However, Messenger had a surprise in store for Tigers walking Gotoh. This was as much to do with Fujii's fear of the DeNA lightweight as poor pitching but it loaded the bases. To be fair Gotoh has done rather well against Tigers but even so. Next was Shimozono who hit hard to left centre for a bases clearing double 3-0 BayStars. Kajitani struck out swinging but it was not a good start. Miura didn't get off to a good start either. He gave up a lead off single to Uemoto. Yamato hit right and a BayStars throwing error ensured that the runner reached home 3-1 BayStars, runner on second. Toritani managed to ground out and take the runner to third. Ryota Arai as he so often does blew the chance grounding out to third. Finally, Murton flew out to left. After the debacle of BayStars first, the second came as some relief and the batters fell nicely in order. Takahiro Arai led Tigers second off by flying out. Hirano singled left and then Fujii singled left. Tigers really should have been all over Miura who wasn't pitching well. With runners on first and third, Wada had Messenger try to bunt. This was another stupid move from our manager - if he had let Messenger hit, a run might have resulted. All that probably would have come from a successful bunt is Fujii moving round to second - pointless in the extreme. Instead Messenger was out with three failed bunts. Uemoto as he so often does with runners on failed and struck out swinging. BayStars third saw Ramirez single with two outs but Gotoh flew out to right this time. Tigers third saw Ryota Arai walk with two out but nothing came of this either.

BayStars fourth and the pattern of a runner getting on with two outs continued. This time it was Takajoh who singled but with Miura next no run resulted. Tigers fourth and Takahiro Arai led off with a walk. He was forced out by Hirano's grounder to third and then Fujii and Messenger struck out to cap a quiet innings. BayStars fifth was just quiet - no one getting on base at all. Uemoto led off Tigers fifth with a single and then stole second. Something at least was working. Uemoto took third with Toritani's ground out but this was the second out. Ryota Arai hit his first pitch to centre and was out as well. Another chance gone begging. Ramirez singled to lead off BayStars sixth. Gotoh went to bunt and this time Fujii made a mess of it and BayStars had runners on first and second. Shimozono obligingly hit into a double play which took Morimoto (pinch running for Ramirez) to third. Nothing resulted though as Kajitani hit back to Messenger for the final out. Tigers had escaped. Tigers sixth though was a disappointment. The batters all popped the ball up and were out one after the other.

BayStars seventh started nice and quietly with Takajoh grounding out. Then Miura grounded out but Aranami singled, bouncing the ball off Messenger. Tigers seventh was more interesting. Fujii led off with a single to right. Kanemoto (pinch hitter) came to the plate and everyone expected great things. Instead Kanemoto popped up to second. Uemoto hit left though and put runners on second and third; Fujii of course having a speed governor. Hiyama (pinch hitter) walked to load the bases but Tigers still needed to do something. Toritani supplied the spark, hitting to right centre for a bases clearing triple 4-3 Tigers. It just needed Ryota Arai to hit deep for another run but he popped up to second as well. This was poor batting not good pitching and once again one recalls Kakefu's comments that Ryota Arai isn't really a No. 4. Finally, Murton flew out to right. Still Tigers had the lead. Enokida took over as pitcher for BayStars eighth and with him Komiyama as catcher. The first two outs went down but Morimoto singled to centre. Wada switched pitchers and Watanabe secured the final out, getting Gotoh to fly out in foul ground. Tigers eighth was pitched by Kaga replacing a worn out Miura. He gave up a one out single to Hirano and was replaced by Shinohara. Wada in usual fool mode had Tagami (replacement right) bunt Hirano to second and a wild pitch took him to third but then Wada insisted on using Sekimoto (pinch hitter). The inevitable happened and Sekimoto flew out to centre to end the chance. BayStars ninth was pitched by Fukuhara who hasn't been so hot of late. He started by getting Kinjoh (replacement right) to fly out but then gave up a two base hit to right to Kajitani. Very poor pitching this. Nakamura (pinch hitter) struck out and then Koike (replacement first) singled to centre, deep enough for the runner to make home 4-4 scores tied, runner on first. This brought a change of pitcher with Katoh taking over and Aranami struck out to end the innings. Tigers had lost the lead but given the time (nearly 9:30 pm) were not going to lose the game. Yamaguchi pitched the Tigers ninth and struck out all three batters in a row - it was rather pathetic batting. Yamaguchi isn't a bad pitcher but Tigers do tend to give him an easy ride. Tied game.

Both sides had squandered leads they ought to have held. Tigers batting had once again been poor and really they don't have much motivation. Still the season is drawing to a close and with fifth place secured they are able to think about next season. The annoying thing is that more of Wada's futile small ball seems to be likely next season. This is not fixed in stone though and one hopes that sense will prevail.