May 26th Fujinami v Masaru Takeda - Complete dominance

Blaine Boyer duly joined the Tigers and will wear No. 41. Expect him in the first team before the end of inter-league. As for the game - perfect, it you're a Tigers fan. Good pitching, good batting and good calling (it was an excellent performance from Fujii this game). Surprisingly good management as well with Fujinami not being over-pitched at all on what is probably his best performance so far in Tigers colours. Couple this with a full house and it was a good day's baseball. Scores

          1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R  H E
Fighters  0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1  8 1
Tigers    6 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 X 7 13 1

Starting Lineups

Fighters
1. Yoh (Centre)
2. Nishikawa (Second)
3. Abreu (First)
4. Nakata (Left)
5. Ohtani (Right)
6. Ohbiki (Short)
7. Imanami (Third)
8. Tsuruoka (Catcher)
9. Masaru Takeda (Pitcher)

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

The game was billed as a contest between the two golden rookies, Fujinami and Ohtani. Honours were possibly with Ohtani with the Fighters right taking two doubles off Fujinami but driving in any runs. Fighters had a quiet start - their batters were retired in order. It was nice to see Fujinami throw some very good stuff as well. Nishioka started Tigers first by flying out. That was really the last bit of good news Takeda had all innings. Yamato walked and then Toritani hit to centre. A fumble by the fielder allowed the runners to reach second and third and then things hit the fan for the Fighters. Takeda drifted too far and a series of hits to right blew apart the defense. Firstly, Murton cracked one to right 1-0 Tigers, runners on first and third. Then Arai singled right 2-0 Tigers, runners on first and second and his 999th RBI. Ryota hit right as well to bring in another run 3-0 Tigers, runners on first and third. Asai was next and also singled right 4-0 Tigers, runners on first and second. Next was Fujii and he hasn't been hitting well over the past few games but this time he had no problem hitting over left for a timely double 6-0 Tigers. Fujii tried to take third but was tagged out. Finally, Fujinami grounded out to first but Tigers were firmly in the driving seat and would stay there. A response of sorts came immediately with Nakata leading off Fighters second with a double. Ohtani flew out and Ohbiki grounded out which all kept Nakata on second. Next batter was Imanami who hit right and brought home Nakata 6-1 Tigers, runner on first. Finally, Tsuruoka flew out to right - Tigers were still in a commanding position. Tigers second saw two outs and then Nakata wobbled again. Toritani hit left as did Murton to put runners on first and second. This time Arai flew out to right and missed out on his 1,000th RBI for the moment. In Fighters third Yoh singled and made second on Nishikawa's ground out but didn't get any further as Abreu grounded out to third. Tigers third saw Fujii's second hit of the game - a two out single which unfortunately resulted in nothing because Fujinami was the next batter and he grounded out to third.

Nakata grounded out to start off Fighters fourth and then Ohtani hit a double to left. He stayed on second as Fujinami shut his colleagues down quite efficiently. Tigers fourth was led off by Nishioka with a single. Automatically, Wada's Pavlovian response was to order the bunt which moved Nishioka to second. With a five run lead one wonders at the mentality. Then Nishioka stole third - a very satisfactory act. Toritani singled to centre 7-1 Tigers, runner on first. Murton grounded out to short forcing out Toritani but still a runner on first which then became runners on first and second when Arai singled as well. This time Ryota went for the big hit and missed striking out swinging to end the innings. Tsuruoka led off Fighters fifth with a single. Hoffpauir (pinch hitter) flew out as did the following two batters. Fighters were still faced with an abyss between them and Tigers. Kagiya was the new pitcher for Tigers fifth. He did well retiring the batters in order to keep the innings scoreless. Fighters sixth saw another Ohtani/Fujinami confrontation which the Fighters batter won with another double - this time to right centre. However, there was only one out needed at the time and that was Ohbiki who flew out to right to end that innings. Tigers were still under the spell of Kagiya and did nothing in their sixth either.

Imanami led off Fighters seventh with a grounder to Nishioka. He fluffed it and Fighters had a runner on. This didn't last long as Tsuruoka hit to Toritani who smoothly initiated the double play. Inaba (pinch hitter) was the last batter and he struck out swinging. Some excellent pitching by Fujinami. Nemoto pitched Tigers seventh and retired the batters in order rather smoothly. Andoh took over for Fighters eighth and with one out gave up a single to Nishikawa. As Abreu struck out Nishikawa successfully stole second but Nakata grounded out ending that short ray of hope. With one out in Tigers eighth Fujii singled again. Conrad (pinch hitter) was next and surprisingly took a dead ball - runners on first and second. The chances were good but neither Nishioka nor Yamato could do anything and the innings was scoreless. Katoh was chosen to finish off the game and started by striking out Ohtani and Ohbiki in particularly aggressive fashion. He then gave up a single to Koyano (pinch hitter) but kept his cool to get Kaneko (pinch hitter) to ground out to end the game. Tigers victory.

A very fine victory by Tigers. They had seized the lead and held it comfortably subduing and controlling fighters. Fujinami picked up his fourth win and on 87 pitches over seven innings with 6 hits this was nice work in anyone's book. He took the hero interview with Fujii after the game and one must say that the Tigers catcher deserved it - he had played well.