April 2nd Nohmi v Bradley - From zero to hero

Tigers home campaign started in the second worst dome in Japan - Kyocera Dome (the worst being Nagoya Dome). It was interesting to watch the game on TV rather than at the stadium, one misses so much which the TV reveals. The revelation this game was the mediocrity of Fuji's catching. To give him credit he tries to be involved in everything but with his limited abilities it is not necessarily the best approach. We also saw the limited nature of both managers - dull, unimaginative clods who lacked tactical nous. On the plus side Fukudome was really impressive; making a major contribution to victory and Nishioka came through when needed. Dragons do not look the force they used to be and should have been buried but managed to fight out a respectable defeat. Scores

         1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9  R  H E
Dragons  0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0  3  6 0
Tigers   0 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 1x 4 10 2

Starting Lineups

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

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

To be honest Nohmi wasn't at full efficiency but Fujii's calling made too much use of the centre of the zone and Dragons figured this out very well. However, they seemed to lack the ability of previous seasons though it is early yet. The first innings started with Ohshima and Araki falling quickly but Luna singled left. Wada went right and flew out. Nishioka flew out but Yamato singled to get the first Tiger on base. He then stole second with Tanishige dropping the ball as he went to throw. Toritani and Ryota both flew out to end the chance but the start had been encouraging. Dragons second was quiet - none of the batters could get on base and things looked good. Murton singled into centre with one out in Tigers second. Conrad struck out and as he did so Murton successfully took second - at this stage Tanishige looked the more clueless catcher. Fujii grounded out though and no score resulted. Dragons third was good for Nohmi - he struck out all three batters he faced using mainly outside pitches. Tigers third was also quiet with Nishioka and Yamato grounding out.

Things change in Dragons fourth. The innings started quietly with Araki flying out. Then Luna singled left - by now Fujii was calling more pitches down the middle and Dragons were able to capitalize. Luna singled left and then Wada dug a fork out to hit into centre and put runners on first and second. Ibata got a pitch down the middle and turned it left. It looped up high but Murton had no chance to reach it and Luna was home 1-0 Dragons, runners on first and second. Morino attacked his first pitch and hit straight at Nishioka who was perfectly positioned for the double play. The transfer from glove to hand was good but then Nishioka unaccountably dropped the ball - bases loaded. Tanishige suffered a rush of blood to the head and flew out to Fukudome but not far enough for a run. Then Fujii (pachimon) battled hard fouling off five pitches before misjudging an outside straight and striking out looking. Takagi did not look pleased and would replace Fujii with Hirata shortly after. Tigers needed to respond and did so in style Toritani led off the bottom with a well placed single. Ryota hit into right field and Toritani set off for third. The throw from right was wayward and pulled Luna off base allowing Toritani to slide in safely. As the throw reached third Ryota was on his way to second and beat the throw to the sack. Tigers had runners on second and third with no outs. Fukudome followed and lifted his seventh pitch over the infield for a single 1-1 scores tied, runners on first and third. Bradley was struggling but got a bit of help from Murton who hit straight to third. Ryota was too far off base and was run down by Luna. In the meantime Fukudome moved round to third and Murton took second. Conrad took a walk as Bradley had trouble locating the zone and Tigers had the bases loaded. Next was Fujii who hit a fly to right but not that deep. Fukudome tagged up and slid in barging Tanishige's leg out of the way - safe! 2-1 Tigers, runners on first and second. The last batter was Nohmi who grounded out. A very nice response by Tigers and very good work by Fukudome. Dragons didn't really have an immediate response and their fifth was quiet with the batters grounding out. Nishioka grounded out to start Tigers fifth - he was looking very subdued. Yamato singled but then tried to steal second. This time Tanishige was ready and a laser beam of a throw gave Ibata all the time in the world to tag him out. Toritani then grounded out to end the innings. Dragons sixth changed the complexion of the game. With one out Nohmi sent a straight down the middle of the zone and Wada hit it high into the left stand for a solo home run 2-2 scores tied. It hadn't been a good call and even the next two batters going down couldn't disguise the bitter feeling in Tigers fans mouths. Still Tigers had time to bounce back. Ryota Arai grounded out but Fukudome worked a walk. Next was Murton who hit hard to right centre - the ball landing near the fence. Fukudome set off round the bases as if his legs had wings. He was surprisingly fast round the bases and slid in just before the throw. He had to pause at home for a while to catch his breath but what a run 3-2 Tigers, runner on second. Conrad struck out swinging and then Fujii flew out to centre. Tigers were back in front.

Nohmi returned for Dragons seventh which on only 85 pitches made sense. However, he couldn't hold of Tanishige who got hold of one of his centre pitches for a lead off double. Tigers were in danger again. Hirata (replacement right) was next and Takagi gave him strict instructions to bunt. Hirata did so with his first pitch mistiming and popping the ball up behind him. Fujii took the catch and Dragons looked rather inept. Clark (pinch hitter) hit straight breaking his bat and bouncing the ball off Nohmi's leg. Nohmi was able to recover though and beat Clark to base. Tanishige was able to take third though. Nohmi was OK and faced Ohshima. His third pitch was down the middle and it was driven into centre for a timely single 3-3 scores tied, runner on first. Araki was next and Tigers were alert for the attempted steal. This came first pitch but Fujii's throw to second was so terrible that it evaded Nishioka and Yamato who was backing up allowing Ohshima to reach third. Here a piece of stupidity helped Tigers - Araki decided to bunt his second pitch. Maybe he thought it would surprise Tigers but Fujii threw quickly to first for the final out. Takagi looked even more furious if that were possible. Mutoh pitched Tigers seventh and one has to say his performance was interesting. As a pitcher he did not look ready. Itoh's (pinch hitting for Nohmi) fifth pitch was so wild that no one could get it and given that he had already received three balls he walked. Nishioka was next and in a classic piece of Wada stupidity was instructed to bunt. After two fluffs he swung and flew out and looked very dejected. Wada then had Yamato bunt which worked moving Itoh to second but two outs for such little gain doesn't make much sense. At this point Dragons decided to walk Toritani to get at Ryota. Tanishige stood up and moved to the side as the catcher does when deliberately walking a batter. Mutoh then looped a pitch way over Tanishige's head landing it by the bench wall. Itoh moved round to third and Tanishige squatted down for the rest of the deliberate walk. This worked and Tigers had runners on first and third. The next play was exactly as predicted and Ryota struck out to end the innings. Fukuhara pitched Dragons eighth and I wrote about how he seems to get on with Fujii now; but I am not so sure about this. Fujii kept on trying to get Fukuhara to pitch low and outside. Fukuhara didn't want to - he wasn't averse to throwing the odd pitch in that area but he wanted to use other parts of the zone. He looked most frustrated and often ignored the calls. Given that all of his outs came from pitches at the top of the zone one suspects that he was right. He did not look happy pitching to Fujii. Tigers eighth was pitched by Tajima. He had an easy innings retiring the batters in order. Kubo pitched Dragons ninth and had a similar experience to that of Fukuhara. Fujii wanted everything low and outside. He didn't' seem to like it either but was more cooperative leading to a walk for Hirata with two out. However, the last batter was Tajima who swung wildly at an outside pitch - a bit higher this time. One wonders why Takagi didn't use a pinch hitter in this situation and a different pitcher for the ninth. Saka pinch hit for Fujii and singled neatly to left to lead off the innings. He was pinch run for by Araki. Wada being Wada then brought on Komiyama to pinch bunt (!!) for Kubo. Komiyama didn't really want to bunt though and made a couple of ineffective attempts before defying instructions and after shaping to bunt swinging at his sixth pitch bouncing it nicely over the pitcher and past short for a single. Araki raced round to third nicely. Tigers had all the options - runners on first and third with no outs. Nishioka stepped up to the plate and clinically hit his second pitch into right for the sayonara run 4-3 Tigers victory and his first hero interview in Tigers colours.

It was interesting watching the various shades of red and purple on Takagi's face as it wasn't a particularly inspiring display by the Dragons. Tigers had though made heavy weather of it and this must mostly be put down to Fujii's poor catching - it really was mediocre. Nishioka had come through when needed and the bit of insubordination by Komiyama had also been vital. The real star though had been Fukudome who had really impressed. So all the usual Tigers features are there, Fujii, Wada added to a crop of interesting new players. It will be interesting to see if the Dragons can bounce back this evening but an encouraging victory for the Tigers.