September 21st Iwata v Yamamoto - Iwata meltdown

What do you do with a pitcher who has carried a no hitter through the sixth and in fact only walked one batter. Furthermore, he has only thrown 70 pitches to reach this point and his team is 2-0 up. Of course you put him in for the seventh innings and what happened next was totally unpredictable. It wasn't that Dragons suddenly got the measure of Iwata - they couldn't it was that Iwata suddenly and dramatically imploded. He got no one out in that innings and in fact left the innings with the bases loaded. This against a side which was beaten but suddenly found themselves in the driving seat. It didn't make any difference to the Dragons ambitons though as the Giants won the Central League championship, Tigers still have some games to go and we can expect experiments with lineups. On the Fukudome and Nishioka fronts, the management has given the go ahead to chase both players and funding will be made available to whatever level is needed (as long as it is not to exhorbitant). Fukudome is rumoured to be interested but Nishioka will need to be bought out of a contract which has a year left to run - Minnesota Twins are rumoured to be in selling. Scores

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

Starting lineups

Dragons
1. Ohshima (Centre)
2. Araki (Second)
3. Wada (Left)
4. Blanco (First)
5. Ibata (Short)
6. Hirata (Right)
7. Morino (Third)
8. Tanishige (Catcher)
9. Yamamoto (Pitcher)

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

Iwata's start was nice - he retired the first two Dragons and then walked Wada. This didn't phase him as he rapidly persuaded Blanco to ground out to short. This was the last base runner Dragons would have until the seventh. Uemoto flew out to start Tigers challenge and then Yamato singled. As Toritani struck out Yamato stole second. However, Ryota Arai struck out looking to end the innings. Of course no Dragon got on base in the second - Iwata was dominant. Tigers second was similar though and Yamamoto was matching Iwata pitch for pitch. Dragons third saw the batters go down in order with no one even challenging Iwata. Tigers third was similar - both third innings were basically the bottom of the order anyway.

Dragons fourth and once again the batters fell easily - some great work by Iwata and Komiyama was showing up the Dragons. Tigers fourth saw two batters go down but then Ryota Arai unleashed a two base hit to right centre. It is nice to see him hitting to other places than left. Murton drove nicely into centre bringing in the runner 1-0 Tigers, runner on first. Takahiro Arai then managed to fly out to centre. Would the Dragons respond in their fifth. The answer was no, they were unable to deal with Iwata and went down in order. Tigers did the same in their fifth but with a one run lead it was not such a serious business. Dragons sixth and the batters once again fell easily with Yamamoto being pinch hit for by Matsui. Thus it was Mutoh who pitched Tigers sixth with Oda calling. Uemoto flew out in foul ground but Yamato hit to second where Araki messed up and put Yamato safely on first. Toritani flew out but Ryota Arai walked to move Yamato into a scoring position. Murton drove his first pitch right bringing in the runner 2-0 Tigers. Unfortunately Toritani tried to go too far and was tagged out to end the innings.

Of course it was a no brainer that Iwata would pitch Dragons seventh. He had been completely dominant which makes his meltdown even more inexplicable. Maybe he was worrying about a complete game shutout but really he should have focused on what was (as he had demonstrated earlier) an easy task. It wasn't that Dragons suddenly started hitting, the didn't. But Iwata walked Araki on a full count and then walked Wada - runners on first and second with no outs. Iwata's confidence seemed to go right out of the window. His third pitch to Blanco was high and was hammered into the centre stand for a three run home run 3-2 Dragons. Araki singled to centre and then Hirata walked. Morino manage to hit to centre as well loading the bases and this was the end of Iwata. He departed in ignominy. Watanabe took over and struck out Oda. Then Katoh followed and struck out Kuramoto and Ohshima to end the innings. Illustration if illustration were needed that it wasn't the Dragons who had won the game but Iwata who had thrown it away. Tigers seventh can be usefully taught as an example of how not to handle a seventh - with Wada's incompetence coming fully to the fore. Asai pitched the innings and gave up a lead off single to left to Takahiro Arai. Next was Asai who was called on to bunt - you have an aggressive batter with an under-performing pitcher and you ask him to bunt? The bunt worked and took Tagami (pinch running for Takahiro Arai) to second. Then Wada brought on his pinch hitters, firstly Kanemoto who doesn't like the role anyway. He struck out looking. Then Hiyama (pinch hitter) flew out to centre off his first pitch. Wada now had to use Fujii as his catcher. Tsuru was the pitcher for Dragons eighth and retired the batters in order. Tajima pitched Tigers eighth and retired the batters in order as well - Tigers were too shell shocked to play effectively. With one out in Dragons ninth, Hirata singled - the only hit the Dragons had outside the seventh. He was immediately cancelled out by a Morino double play. Yamai was chosen to close out Tigers ninth. He walked Ryota Arai but Murton managed to hit into a double play. Sekimoto (replacement third) singled but Asai managed to strike out looking to end the game. Dragons victory.

The amazing fact of this game is that outside the seventh Dragons had only two base runners and one hit. The fact that Tigers were so dominant should have resulted in victory. However, the implosion of Iwata in the seventh gifted Dragons a game they certainly didn't deserve. Wada's handling of Tigers seventh was also inept - with a stupid bunt at the wrong moment. A certain batting coach to be mouthed off about psychology not being the issue. He should study this game with care before he opens his mouth to insert his other foot.