September 22nd Nohmi v Itoh - The same old formula

The way to beat Tigers is surprisingly simple. Find a pitcher they've never faced before and watch as the flounder around helplessly. Thus went this game. Tigers batters struggled seemingly out of their depth but this has been the case for the whole of Mayumi's and Wada's regimes. With Okada, whatever his limitations he adopted an attitude of go out and hit into a double play. Translated this meant think and try. With Okada leaving the worthless Buffaloes (you cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear) is it too much to hope that Wada is dumped and Okada returns? Zman no doubt will be chuckling mightily when he reads this but anything is better than the non-entities we have to endure at the moment. Incidentally, the rumour is that Orix might offer Ochiai the position of kantoku. And on that sobering thought we move to the scores

         1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R  H E
Dragons  0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 11 0
Tigers   0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  4 0

Starting lineups

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

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

Remember Iwamoto - the rookie pitcher who delivered the ground breaking series victory at Nagado? Well we won't see him this series. One wonders what he has to do to get a regular spot in the top side. He won his first game but was sent down to ni-gun. Furthermore he won in style in a crunch game. He showed too much ability and character and this needs to knocked out of him. Honestly, the nediocrity of our coaches passes belief. Nohmi bled hits this game and it wasn't Fujii's best outing by a long shot. Troubles started in the Dragons first. With one out Araki singled left. Then Wada also singled to put runners on first and second. This time Nohmi was equal to the challenge and retired the next two batters. Tigers start was ominously inoccuous - the batters fell in order. In Dragons second Hirata singled with one out. Tanishige flew out but then Nohmi managed to give up a single to Itoh. This put runners on first and second. Ohshima drove his first pitch into centre and Araki raced home 1-0 Dragons, runners on first and second. Araki then grounded out to end the innings. Tigers second was depressingly quiet - Itoh was having a dream start but once again Tigers batters were all at sea. Finally, in Dragons third we saw some decent pitching and the batters went down in order. Tigers third was also the same and no one had reached first yet.

Dragons fourth saw Tanishige single. Itoh tried to bunt but was out on the three failed bunt rule. Ohshima singled left to put runners on first and second but then Araki flew out to left. It isn't that Dragons are preventing the Tigers from playing it's that the Tigers aren't letting themselves play. The Tigers fourth saw their first base runner - Uemoto led off with a walk. He made second on Yamato's over enthusiastic bunt and then third on Toritani's flyout. Ryota Arai needed to do more than fly out to left which is exactly what he did. Dragons fifth was quiet with the batters falling in order. Still, in true Dragons style they could sit on the lead. Tigers fifth saw signs that Itoh was beginning to struggle. Murton singled to lead off the innings; Tigers first single. Then Morita walked. Next was Asai who was instructed to bunt and ended up getting the runner going for third and himself out. Wada really must stop these stupid bunts. Still a runner on second and a possibility of a score but Fujii grounded out to second. Tanishige singled with two out in Dragons sixth but Itoh struck out swinging. Uemoto singled with one out in Tigers sixth but was extinguished by a Yamato double play.

So far so good - Nohmi had restricted the score to one run but with the Dragons this was too much. However, Dragons seventh was well handled by the pitcher and no one got on base. Itoh found the Tigers seventh a bit more difficult. He struck out Toritani but then Ryota Arai hit to short and beat the throw. Murton grounded out which took Ryota Arai to second and then Morita walked - runners on first and second. This was the end of Itoh's session and he was replaced by Kobayashi. Itoh had undoubtedly pitched well but had been helped by the Tigers freezing against unknown pitchers. Kobayashi. Kobayashi faced Kanemoto (pinch hitter) who hit a grounder back to the pitcher to end the innings. Dragons eighth saw Ibata single with one out. Morino followed this with a two base hit to set up runners on second and third. Hirata then hit a grounder to first ensuring that the run scored 2-0 Dragons, runner on third. Tanishige proved to be the final out, flying out to second. Tigers eighth was pitched by Asao. No longer the Dragons wonder child he can still be a formidable pitcher and this innings retired the batter in order. Wada had done his usual trick of replacing his catcher with a pinch hitter and so Komiyama took over catching duties with Fukuhara the pitcher. Fukuhara got Tani (pinch hitter) to fly out to second but then walked Ohshima. This brought another of Wada's panic attacks and he switched pitchers which wasn't the wisest move to say the least. Watanabe gave up a single to Araki which also put Ohshima on third. Araki stole second and Watanabe managed to dead ball Kuramoto (replacement left) to load the bases. Still Komiyama is good in these situations and with Watanabe persuaded Naohisa Donue (replacement first) to hit into a double play and end the innings. If Wada hadn't made the unnecessary pitching change things would have probably been over a lot quicker. Iwase pitched the Tigers ninth and retired the first two batters but then Ryota Arai hammered out a double to left. It needed something special from Murton but all he was able to do was to hit to short for the final out of the game. Dragons victory.

Dragons took the series but really this isn't surprising, they have dominated Tigers throughout 2012. Tigers had batted ineptly to say the least and generated only four hits. Once again Wada had been poor tactically but once again the batters had lacked the necessary spirit, initiative and motivation. The new batting coach is going to have to work on these factors - not the number of swings each batter takes.