September 29th Nohmi v Kenta Maeda - Shutout at Koshien

Johjima duly retired playing his last game in the ni-gun match up against Orix. Another player who will also not be returning to Tigers next year is the Taiwanese pitcher Cheng. He never really broke through he threw some nice stuff and seemed to be rather competent. Carp were hoping to win this game and be able to progress to the Climax Series but their defeat doomed them to fourth place. Scores

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

Starting lineups

Carp
1. Abe (Second)
2. Akamatsu (Centre)
3. Soyogi (Short)
4. Eldred (First)
5. Mukae (Left)
6. Maru (Right)
7. Dobayashi (Third)
8. Ishihara (Catcher)
9. Kenta Maeda (Pitcher)

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

Tigers started confidently belying their lowly position. Nohmi was smooth and prevented any base runners in the first. Kenta Maeda was different and did well to escape the innings with only one run damage. He got the first two outs but then Toritani hit his first pitch to right for a solo home run 1-0 Tigers. Ryota Arai hit a double to left centre and Kanemoto walked. Morita was next but he could only ground out to second. Carp's second was also quiet with a nice strike out looking of Eldred by Nohmi. Tigers second saw the bottom three in the order and Kenta Maeda dealt with these efficiently not allowing any base runners. Carp's third and their first base runner. A lead off ground out to third from the bat of Dobayashi was misfielded by Ryota Arai allowing the Carp third to reach first safely. Ishihara lined out to short and then Kenta Maeda bunted Dobayashi to second which was a waste of time as Abe lined out to first. Uemoto singled right to lead off Tigers third and then was forced out by Yamato grounding out to Kenta Maeda. Toritani hit into a double play to end the innings.

Akamatsu walked to lead off Carp's fourth and made second on Soyogi's ground out. There he stayed as the next two batters were unable to create anything. Ryota Arai led off Tigers fourth with his second double of the evening, also to left centre. He took third on Kanemoto's fly out to right and then Morita hit deep to centre for the sacrifice fly 2-0 Tigers. Finally, Itoh grounded out to second. Carp had basically failed to respond to Tigers scores and their fifth was no different. Maru did lead the innings off with a single but then no one else could get him off first and the innings was scoreless. In Tigers fifth Uemoto singled with two out but didn't get further than first as Yamato struck out swinging. Soyogi singled with two out in Carp's sixth - they were only able to generate the odd hit and couldn't string anything together against Nohmi's pitching. Eldred flew out to right and no score resulted. Tigers also weren't having it easy against Kenta Maeda and their sxith was quiet with no one reaching base.

Carp's big chance came in their seventh. Mukae grounded out to Nohmi and then Maru singled right. Dobayashi bounced his first pitch off Nohmi for a single - runners on first and second. Ishihara singled right but could only load the bases. Hirose (pinch hitter) struck out looking which left Nohmi with one out to get and this he did superbly striking out Abe swinging to end the innings and preserve Tigers lead intact. Egusa pitched Tigers seventh and had no problems with his former colleagues retiring them in order. Nohmi had no problems with the batters in Carp's eighth and even though the pitch count was creeping up one was thinking, complete game shut out. Yokoyama took over for Tigers eighth and with one out dead balled Uemoto. Yamato's ground out took Uemoto to second and Carp switched pitchers with Kawauchi taking over. He got Toritani to ground out and end the innings. Carp's ninth was over surprisingly quickly, Nohmi got Mukae to fly out to right in two pitches; Maru hit his first to first to ground out. Dobayashi hit his second pitch, a grounder, to third but once again Ryota Arai made a mess of it and Dobayashi reached first safely. It made no difference, Ishihara hit his second pitch straight into the glove of Morita for the final out of the game. Tigers victory.

A neat little victory - too bad it hadn't happened more often earlier in the season. Nohmi picked up the win and evened his record to 10-10. This is likely his last start of the season with only three games to go. Tigers travel to Hiroshima to play the final game of their series against the Carp providing the incoming typhoon doesn't disrupt the game. Then it is back to Koshien for the Swallows.