May 12th Nohmi v Yagi - Boiled Swallows

Tigers swept the Swallows for the second time this season and set up a winning streak of six games. This is a nice position to be in going into the Inter league bore. Hiyama also hit his 100th pinch hit RBI which on 150 pinch hits is very nice going. Tigers bombardment of the Swallows catchers continued with Nakamura colliding with Murton as he went for home in the fourth. Masahiko Tanaka (Swallows catcher) came away with a broken collar bone from that collision. Swallows pitching coach was incensed and it later led to Yagi throwing a pitch behind Murton's back in the sixth. The retaliation was uncalled for as Murton hadn't intentionally tried to harm Tanaka. Scores

          1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R  H E
Tigers    0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 1 4 12 1
Swallows  0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 2  8 2

Starting Lineups

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

Swallows
1. Hiyane (Centre)
2. Hiroyasu Tanaka (Second)
3. Milledge (Left)
4. Balentien (Right)
5. Hatakeyama (First)
6. Miyamoto (Third)
7. Masahiro Tanaka (Catcher)
8. Kawashima (Short)
9. Yagi (Pitcher)

Tigers were always going to have to fight hard to turn this third game into a sweep and happily to say this is exactly what they did. Nishioka started well doubling off his first at bat. Yamato walked and it looked as if Tigers were going to have an easy ride. Then amazingly Toritani walked to load the bases - all with no outs. Tigers blew this chance big time though. Yagi knuckled under and the first out came with a liner from Murton straight to Hiroyasu Tanaka at second. Not only did Murton line out but Yamato was caught off second and also out. Then Ryota grounded out and Swallows had managed an unlikely escape. Swallows first was quiet with a right, left and then centre fly. Tigers second saw Shunsuke single left with two outs but the next batter was Nohmi and as is normal in these cases he was the third out to end the innings. Nohmi was pitching nicely now and struck out both Hatakeyama and Miyamoto looking to end the Swallows second very neatly. Nishioka went down striking out looking but it took a fine diving take from Hiroyasu Tanaka to get rid of Yamato. Tanaka was up quickly and threw nicely to first for the out. The final out was Toritani who struck out to end the third. Swallows came to life in the third and Masahiro Tanaka led off with a straight drive to centre. Kawashima singled as well to set up runners on first and third. Yagi bunted which took Kawashima to second and then Hiyane hit deep to left for the sacrifice fly 1-0 Swallows, runner on second. Hiroyasu Tanaka flew out to end the innings.

So to the fourth and the incident. Murton started the innings off by picking up a walk.With one out Arai singled into left to put runners on the corner. Next up was Fujii who hit a fly to centre. Murton tagged up and charged for home - he later said that his intention was to reach home not to hit the catcher. However, Masahiro Tanaka as Swallows catchers do was blocking the plate a little too completely and there is only one option for a runner in those circumstances - to go through the catcher. It is accepted in MLB but is unusual in Japanese baseball where players tend to slid in and avoid the contact with the catcher. This leads to the practice of catchers automatically blocking the plate if they can. Catchers also don't make a tag - Murton was judged out not because he was tagged by Masahiro Tanaka but because Tanaka had the ball in his glove when the collision happened. It was innings ending as Murton was the third out and very unfortunate for Tanaka who as stated above now has a broken collar bone. Murton hadn't done anything wrong - it was just one of those accidents and one can't really feel that the Swallows had any right to complain. I hope Masahiro Tanaka recovers soon. Milledge led off the Swallows fourth with a single to right. However, Balentien immediately hit into a double play - two out. Then Hatakeyama singled - Swallows were fired up by the incident. Miyamoto singled as well putting runners on the corner. Masahiko Tanaka was next and it seems that no one had realised that he had broken his collar bone as he struck out swinging to end the innings. Realisation dawned though and he did not catch Tigers fifth but was replaced by Nakamura. With one out Nohmi hit to centre Neither Nishioka nor Yamato could do anything and the innings was quiet. Swallows were doing a good job of defending their one run lead. Kawashima singled to lead off Swallows fifth and was bunted to second by Yagi. Hiyane flew out and then Tanaka struck out swinging to end the innings. Toritani led off Tigers sixth and struck out looking in three. Now to the retaliation incident which does the Swallows no credit. Murton's first pitch was a beaner thrown behind him. Murton protested to the plate umpire who did nothing. The incident with Masahiro Tanaka had been unfortunate and had not called for that display of petulance and nastiness from Yagi. Murton though didn't let it phase him and singled to centre off his third pitch. Ryota flew out but Arai sinlged left to put runners on first and second. This time Fujii couldn't do anything and popped up to second to end the innings. Swallows had lost a bit of steam by now and Nohmi was able to reestablish control in the sixth retiring the batters in order.

Tigers seventh saw Shunsuke and Nohmi fall but then Nishioka hit left - runner on first. Yamato popped up to first in foul ground though and no score resulted. Nohmi pitched nicely in Swallows seventh and the batters went down in order. Still Swallows held the lead. Things changed in Tigers eighth. Swallows went to their relief and Matsuoka took the mound. Toritani singled to centre. As Matsuoka battled Murton Toritani stole second and then sent a line drive screeching into right field to bring in Toritani 1-1 scores tied, runner on first. Murton was pinch run for by Tagami who stole second upending Tanaka as he slid in. Tanaka lost control of the ball which rolled away and Tagami took third. Swallows were in trouble but Ryota struck out swinging. Just one out to go. Next was Arai and he wasn't the out - he hit hard and high to left for a two run home run 3-1 Tigers and a nice cushion. Once again Swallows relief had failed them. The final batter turned out to be Shunsuke who grounded out to short to end what had been a very successful innings for Tigers. The return of Nohmi for Swallows eighth was perhaps questionable. He had thrown 101 pitches over his seven innings and it would have been a nice point to rest him. However, one serious issue Tigers management do have is with pitching limits or the lack of them. They probably thought that at 101 pitches Nohmi had another innings in him but need to think more about natural limits. For Tigers another issue is the relief or lack of it. The current set of coaches haven't been able to develop a reliable and consistent relief - a serious failing - and so they try to rely too much on the starters. The questionable nature of the decision was manifest with the very first batter; pinch hitter Mizuta. He put a tired straight just over the left fence for a solo home run 3-2 Tigers. The game was close again. Hiyane fell to a good diving catch by Fujii chasing a pop up from a bunt of all things. Tanaka doubled to left centre. This was the end of Nohmi who had done quite well (a quality start) and Andoh took over. Milledge went to bunt and grounded out to Toritani taking Tanaka to third. Andoh and Fujii went outside to Balentien who wasn't biting and walked. Then Hatakeyama hit deep into right. Shunsuke raced round and took a nice sliding catch for the third out. Tigers still held a slender lead. Roman was the pitcher for Tigers ninth and he gave up a lead off single to Sekimoto (replacement third). Nishioka hit a grounder to Roman who tried for the runner (Saka pinch running for Sekimoto) going for second. The throw missed and Nishioka was able to reach first safely as well - runners on first and second. Yamato bunted the runners to second and third. Toritani was deliberately walked to load the bases and set up the double play. It didn't work because Hiyama (pinch hitter) was the next batter and he hit to right to bring in a runner 4-2 Tigers. Imanari (pinch hitter) was next and hit to short. Kawashima threw to home for the force out and the second out. Bases were still loaded but only one out to go. This was Arai who struck out swinging - Tigers had a two run lead again. For Swallows ninth and no doubt with a certain amount of trepidation Wada turned to Kubo to close the game down. This time he needn't have worried as Kubo was very secure and retired the batters in order to end the game. Tigers victory.

An excellent series win and one can safely say that Tigers own the Swallows. Tigers had had to fight hard and were unable to crack open the Swallows until the eighth. Then their strength in depth told and Swallows really had no answer. There was no need for Yagi to throw behind Murton and one understands that Swallows were aggrieved to lose their second catcher but that kind of behaviour just demonstrates a second rate team. The good teams don't let incidents affect them and Tigers response was exemplary. It was also nice to see Kubo picking up another save. Tigers management do need to work on the relief though and give the starters more support.