September 26th Standrige v Akagawa - Buried

Tigers pitching was abysmal this game with an uninterested team facing a fired up motivated outfit. Tigers were crushed and pretty much outplayed. Standridge has spoken before about his nerves in the first innings and these were on full display with the game basically over in the bottom of the first. Tigers did show some fighting spirit but the inadequate pitchers Komiyama had to cope with ensured that the Swallows were racing ahead. On the subject of Komiyama it was great to see him get his first career home run. This should go some way towards alleviating the worries about his batting. It seems that 'owd Kubo' won't be coaching the ichi-gun team after all but the ni-gun. Nakanishi has been persuaded to take over the top team and it certainly is better than 'owd Kubo' coming back. However, I thought that Yabu had done a very good job with the starting rotation and should have kept the job rather than drop down to ni-gun as is likely. Scores

          1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9  R  H E
Tigers    0 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 1  4  8 0
Swallows  5 0 0 0 0 1 2 2 X 10 18 1

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

Swallows
1. Yuhei (Centre)
2. Fukuuchi (Left)
3. Tanaka (Second)
4. Balentien (Right)
5. Kawabata (Short)
6. Miyamoto (Third)
7. Takeuchi (First)
8. Nakamura (Catcher)
9. Akagawa (Pitcher)

Tigers started slowly - two outs and then Toritani walked. The time he returns to lead off batter has been long delayed. He is far more suitable for this role than Uemoto. However, Ryota Arai flew out to right to end the innings. Swallows first was a disaster. Standridge never got going and was completely out of his depth. Yuhei led off with a single. He was forced out by Fukuuchi who grounded out to second; the double play not coming off. Tanaka singled right and put runners on first and second. Then Balentien hit left to bring in the runner 1-0 Swallows, runners on first and third. Next Kawabata hit right to bring in another runner 2-0 Swallows, runners on first and second. Miyamoto singled right to load the bases but Standridge struck out Takeuchi. Perhaps Tigers would escape with only light damage. Luck was not with them. Nakamura hit his first pitch over the head of Murton for a bases clearing double 5-0 Swallows, runner on second. Finally, Akagawa struck out to end the innings. Tigers found a response difficult. With one out in the second Nohara hit high to right but Balentien dropped the ball, an error which put the runner on second. This didn't help as neither Nakatani nor Komiyama could move him further. Perhaps surprisingly Standridge returned for Swallows second. Once again Yuhei led off the proceedings with a single. Fukuuchi struck out swinging and then Tanaka hit into a double play to end the innings. Tigers third saw Uemoto single with one out but then Yamato struck out and Toritani grounded out to first. Swallows third was a lucky escape for the Tigers. Balentien singled to third and was able to beat Ryota Arai to first. Kawabata walked and then we saw the stupidity to end all stupidities. With a five run lead and runners on Ogawa had Miyamoto bunt the runners to first and second. Pointless or what? Takeuchi walked in four to load the bases and then Nakamura was induced to hit into a double play which ended the innings.

Tigers fourth was quiet with the batters falling in order. Tigers needed to be playing better than this and were wasting opportunities to get runners on. Swallows fourth saw Yuhei single with one out. Fukuuchi was next and he hit straight at Toritani, lining out. Toritani fired the ball to first to catch Yuhei off base and end the innings. Tigers fifth saw the bottom of the order do nothing. Standridge was pinch hit for by Fujii who struck out swinging. Fujii though didn't replace Komiyama but was only used as a pinch hitter. The surprise is that Standridge had lasted four innings. Using Fujii as a pinch hitter was also puzzling as there wasn't a runner that needed a batter to drive him in. Shiranita took over for Swallows fifth. He didn't impress at all and in fact was rather mediocre. He got Tanaka to ground out but then gave up a single to Balentien. Kawabata was then induced to hit into a double play - Komiyama was making good use of these to rescue his pitchers but even his skills in this department would not be enough. Uemoto led off Tigers sixth with a double to right centre. Yamato - an aggressive batter singled right bringing in Tigers first run 5-1 Swallows, runner on first. Toritani grounded out which took Yamato to second but it was poor shot selection by the Tigers short. Ryota Arai also grounded out and this kept Yamato on second. Then Murton got it right and singled left bringing in Yamato 5-2 Swallows, runner on first. Nohara singled as well and put runners on first and second. Nakatani though managed a weak mess of a shot and Nakamura pounced on the ball for the final out of the innings. Having cut the lead Tigers needed to keep the pressure on but Shiranita couldn't manage this. He got Miyamoto and Takeuchi to fly but then stumbled with Nakamura who hit to right. Still no problem - the next batter was Akagawa. Here Shiranita threw a dismal straight which Akagawa drove into centre for a timely double 6-2 Swallows runner on second. Yuhei in a rare failure for him this game popped up to short and the innings were over.

Akagawa returned for the Tigers seventh which given the evidence of the sixth was maybe not wise. His first pitch to Komiyama was a straight which Komiyama hit into the left stand for a solo home run and his first career home run 6-3 Swallows. Watching Komiyama bat, the elements have all been there but not quite together. This might just be the catalyst for Komiyama to become a useful (though not great) batter. Shunsuke (pinch hitter) hit the ball off Akagawa and he was replaced by Oshimoto. Oshimoto struck out Uemoto and as he did so Shunsuke stole second. Yamato popped up to short and Toritani grounded out to second to end the innings. Once again a Tigers pitcher squandered this fightback; the culprit this time being Tsuru. He got Fukuuchi to fly out to start Swallows second but then gave up a single to Tanaka. Balentien grounded out taking Tanaka to second and here Tsuru really should have done better - the work was done and he had Kawabata to deal with. Instead Kawabata singled to set up runners on first and third. Miyamoto hit right to bring in the run 7-3 Swallows, runners on first and third. Takeuchi then hit left and brought home another runner 8-3 Swallows, runners on first and second. Tsuru had blown whatever slender chances Tigers had. It was clear that Tigers weren't really trying to win the game but just to try out pitchers and see how they went (very badly it seems). Nakamura was the final out grounding out to third. Tigers eighth was pitched by Yamamoto who was highly effective in retiring the batters in order - by now the batting lineup had given up. Fujihara took over for Swallows eighth and he must be a candidate for a pink slip. In all the games I have seen him he has never impressed and is not even at journeyman level. He started by walking Iihara (pinch hitter and replacement right). Then Yuhei singled to set up runners on first and third with no outs. Fukuuchi doubled into left centre bringing in both runners 10-3 Swallows, runner on second. Tanaka and Balentien struck out swinging and then Kawabata grounded out to second. Masabuchi pitched Tigers ninth - a mere formality. Imanari (pinch hitter) flew out which brought up Kanemoto (pinch hitter). He got hold of a loose pitch and dropped it over the right fence for a solo home run 10-4 Swallows and a nice goodbye for the veteran batter. Morita (pinch hitter) struck out swinging and finally Uemoto struck out swinging to end the game. Swallows victory.

Tigers had been crushed. They were faced with a motivated side with a clear goal (the final Climax Series place) and were unmotivated themselves. Even so they were in with a chance but wasted it by not responding until the sixth. Even then the relief pitching should have performed better but it was useful to see how some of the lesser pitchers performed. It seems Tigers still have a problem with developing younger pitchers which makes it all the more strange that it is Yabu (who was in charge of the starters) is being replaced and the relief coach retained.