April 11th Enokida v Sawamura - The First Series

Tigers did the unexpected and picked up a first series win against a strangely subdued Giants. Some fine pitching by Enokida in a second superb start (helped by Fukudome again) and adequate batting were enough. However, the handling of the catching was strange. Enokida pitched to Hidaka which is a pairing which works well. However, Wada decided that Enokida should pitch the eighth on after having thrown 100 pitches. This proved to be an innings too far and Enokida couldn't get the final out. What the 22 extra pitches accomplished is anyone's guess - Wada should have gone to the relief for the eighth, this is still the start of the season and one needs to conserve pitchers arms for the long haul. Enokida was replaced by Fukuhara for the final out but here Wada brought on Fujii. One was puzzled by this - why Fujii? Hidaka was doing well and surely could have continued. One can't escape the conclusion was that Fujii was brought on so he could stoke his ego. Fukuhara was his usual disdainful self and he took the plaudits for dismissing the final batter - there were no congratulations for Fujii. In fact Hidaka looked very relieved that the innings was successfully finished almost as if he expected the worst. It seems that the attempt to foist Fujii as the regular catcher is backfiring. Fans do not consider him a Tiger (he still does not have a fight song) and whilst he can work well enough with most pitchers he seems to be considered a lightweight he survives because he is 'experienced'. There is also a suspicion that he is a brown noser. I would love to know why Enokida does not pitch to Fujii as he did so pretty much exclusively when he pitched in relief. I rather think Tigers battery coach's abilities rival Wada's. Also of interest is that the ground wasn't full and there were visible gaps for what is the flagship series of Japanese baseball. Koshien was full for the first game but then figures dropped for the second and this one had only 37,981 fans in attendance. For a Giants/Tigers clash this is significant. Scores

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

Starting Lineups

Giants
1. Chono (Centre)
2. Wakiya (Second)
3. Sakamoto (Short)
4. Murata (Third)
5. Lopez (First)
6. Bowker (Left)
7. Yano (Right)
8. Sanematsu (Catcher)
9. Sawamura (Pitcher)

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

With no Ryota to screw up Enokida was in a position to win his first game and do so at Koshien. He started nervously giving up a lead off single to left to Chono. Wakiya bunted Chono to second and then Sakamoto tried to hit deep. He flew out to centre but Chono tagged up and took third. Murata though tried to hit straight and found the glove of Enokida who threw to first for the final out of the innings. Sawamura didn't start well. Nishioka singled and was bunted to second by Yamato. Then Toritani drove nicely into left bringing in Nishioka for the run 1-0 Tigers runner on first. A successful bunt and unfortunately one that will be used to justify the 60-100 failures that follow later in the season. Murton hit into right to set up runners on first and second. Fukudome though hit into a double play to end the innings but Tigers were on the way and it wasn't Fujii behind the plate. Lopez started Giants second flying out to second and then the batters fell in order. Tigers second saw two outs go down, Arai and Conrad both having quiet games with the bats but Hidaka singled to left. Unfortunately the next batter was Enokida who couldn't do anything and flew out to right. Enokida was by now in full flow and quickly disposed of Sanematsu and Sawamura. Chono hit a grounder to second which Nishioka fielded safely and threw to first for the out. There was noticeably more pop in his throw than the night before. Having survived Tigers second Sawamura was in trouble again in the third. Yamato hit left a shot which evaded Murata and just bounced inside the baseline for a nice double. Toritani flew out but Murton singled right and Yamato raced home 2-0 Tigers, runner on first. Fukudome was next and he could only hit to second to end the innings.

Wakiya led off Giants fourth and got a wild pitch for his fifth pitch. He swung and missed but as Hidaka couldn't take was able to make first. Sakamoto fought hard but ended up flying out to Fukudome. Murata was next and Hidaka worked well with Enokida to engineer a very neat 6-4-3 double play to end the innings. Tigers fourth started with Arai grounding out to some good work by Sakamoto. Then Conrad hit right. It brought to mind the previous night when Bowker had hit deep to Fukudome and paid the price for trying to take second. Conrad has more steam and Yano has a weaker arm and so Conrad was able to turn the hit into a double with ease. Unfortunately, both Hidaka and Enokida struck out and this piece of enterprise went unrewarded. Giants kept on trying to get back into the game. Lopez led off hitting very nicely to right-centre. Fukudome tracked the ball and launched himself into the air to take a magnificent full stretch diving catch. He landed on his stomach, winding himself but was otherwise OK - superb fielding. This pumped Enokida up and he struck out Bowker. Yano managed to fly out in foul ground and the innings was over. Tigers fifth was quiet with both Nishioka and Toritani striking out swinging. Sawamura employed a very nice fork to take both these outs. Enokida seemed to have trouble with the height of his pitches at the start of the Giants sixth and walked Sanematsu. He was bunted to second by Sawamura and then Chono tried to drive past Enokida who fielded. Enokida fired the ball to Conrad who was quick and tagged out Sanematsu who couldn't turn quickly enough. What made this an impressive piece of fielding was that Conrad locked Chono on first as well. Wakiya then grounded out to Nishioka for the final out. Giants were getting the runners on early but failing to exploit this in the face of unyielding defense. Tigers sixth saw Murton, Fukudome and Arai fall in order with Arai hitting deep but not getting the distance.

Giants seventh didn't happen. Enokida struck out Sakamoto and Murata which kind of killed any momentum. Lopez bounced one infield but Conrad was quickly on it and sent a powerful throw to first to beat the runner and end the innings. Once again nice work by Tigers third. Tigers seventh was also over quickly with the batters falling in order. Conrad and Hidaka flew out and then Enokida struck out looking. What was surprising was that Enokida was going to pitch another innings. He had thrown 99 pitches on seven innings and this was surely enough. It was a good time to go to the relief but Wada no doubt saw the two figures without taking account of the fact that 99 is just short of 100. Enokida had done enough. The innings started well though with Ohta (replacement left) grounding out. Then Yano did the same but Enokida had reached his limit. Sanematsu got hold of a tired straight and pumped into left centre for a double. Abe (pinch hitter) was next. He swung at a couple but Enokida's control had gone and Abe walked. Here Wada made the necessary pitching change and the unnecessary catching change. Fukuhara faced Chono. Once again his disdain was obvious - whilst Fujii was making his initial call Fukuhara was looking round checking the field. Then he threw a curve down the centre which was a ball. The next pitch was also a curve down the centre and Chono mistimed his swing and flew out to right to end the innings. Kasahara took Tigers eighth and started by walking Nishioka. Yamato bunted Nishioka to second - a waste of an out of course. Toritani walked as Kasahara had difficulty with keeping his pitches low enough - runners on first and second. Murton struck out swinging so it was all down to Fukudome. To cap a fine evening he drove his fourth pitch into right field and set off. Nishioka was home 3-0 Tigers but interestingly Fukudome rounded first and kept on going for second. The hit was never a double but Fukudome's intention was to distract the Giants fielders so that Toritani could make home. It didn't quite work as the Giants spotted the ploy and ran down Toritani for the final out. Kubo pitched the Giants ninth and worked well. Wakiya struck out and then Sakamoto grounded out. Next was Murata whom Fujii insisted on calling low outside balls for. This was actually the sensible approach as Murata swung at these quite happily and struck out to end the game. Tigers victory.

Wada said he considered Fujii to be his number one catcher though how any rational human being can come to that conclusion is a mystery. One remembers the mess Tigers made with the brilliant Kanoh and it seems to be happening again. At the moment things are going well with a massive drubbing of the Giants. But the start to the season hasn't been good and we have Fujii's abysmal throwing ability to contend with. Against stealing sides he is going to be cruelly exposed and as the season goes on his mediocre calling skills will also be exposed. Using Fujii so frequently is a retrograde step but then we cannot expect anything else from the Wada regime. On the positive side the Tigers had demonstrated a ferocious intensity this series which if they can repeat will serve them well. They had shut the Giants out over 30 innings and had won their first series. Fukudome once again had been brilliant and Conrad had also shown very good defense. His hitting isn't quite there yet which is something you can say about all the Tigers. So an excellent application of baseball skills by the Tigers but it needs to be maintained and built on.