June 30th Akiyama v Kenta Maeda - Saving face

Last time Tigers faced Maeda he was pitching to give them a series victory but this time to spare Carp from a sweep of their own making. Their fielding up until this game had been poor and they had paid for it with two defeats. Tigers had managed to win the series despite the lamentably bad Hidaka being used as catcher throughout it. Once again
Carp were able to seize a lead but this time they held it. One wonders why Fujii is not being used as starting catcher. I don't think much of him it is true but he is a better catcher than Hidaka and given that Wada is stupid enough to ignore Komiyama and Shimizu one would rather he used the better of the imported has beens. Scores

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

Starting Lineups

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

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

Finally, we saw some sense in the lineup with Ryota being restored to sixth. The past run of games had been absurd with batters with less ability in the six slot consistently. Tigers though would not be able to exploit this situation despite getting more hits off Maeda who was not at his best. Carp started well with Lewis doubling to centre bouncing the ball off the fence. Kikuchi bunted him to third and then Maru hit a sacrifice fly 1-0 Carp and poor work by Akiyama and Hidaka. Eldred provided the final out of the innings lining out to Toritani. Tigers peppered lineouts both sides of second in their first before Toritani got on base with a line drive into centre. Murton struck out and nothing came of this. Back came Carp in the second with another double; a one out hit to centre from Soyogi who also bounced it off the fence. Dobayashi flew out to first and then Ishihara was deliberately walked to get at Maeda. Here Hidaka and Akiyama messed up again with some naive pitching and calling. If you are going to deliberately walk a batter you do need to get your execution of the next out right. Maeda swung at his third pitch and hit past Toritani into left. Soyogi raced home 2-0 Carp but Ishihara was caught trying to stretch to third and was out to end the innings. A two run lead wasn't really anything to worry about but the pitching was of a higher level and even a poor Maeda is difficult to beat. The Arai brothers both struck out in Tigers second and then Itoh grounded out. Akiyama's third innings was much better as the Carp batters found it difficult to get on base and the margin remained at 2-0. Tigers third saw Hidaka hit to right to lead off the innings. Akiyama bunted him to second but only managed to force out Hidaka even though he made first safely. Then Nishioka got his line drive past the infield into left but this only put runners on first and second - Akiyama being not so speedy. Next was Yamato who fresh from his triumph the day before also singled left. Maeda was there to be hit and Akiyama went for home but was caught and tagged out by Ishihara - runners on first and second. Toritani was next and hit to left where a much improved Lewis took a diving catch to end the innings.

With one out in Carp's fourth Matsuyama singled but was forced out by Soyogi's ground out to second. Soyogi stole second but the final out was Dobayashi who popped up weakly to Nishioka. Tigers fourth was - well - quiet. Two strike outs and a ground out accounted for everyone. Maeda was having a good day with the bat and the pitching too him was very poor. With one out in Carp's fifth he singled to centre and then was able to take second on the throwing error. However, he didn't get any further with Lewis striking out looking and Kikuchi grounding out. Hidaka was also doing better than normal with the bat and in Tigers fifth he singled also with one out. Imanari (pinch hitter and replacement right) grounded out taking Hidaka to second but then Nishioka hit to second for the third out. Tigers were getting runners on but not getting them home. Tsutsui took over for Carp's sixth and with two out walked Hirose (replacement right). Soyogi grounded out immediately after that so Carp couldn't exploit the situation at all. Tigers sixth was disappointing and ended in a whimper with Murton flying out.

Once again Tsutsui walked a batter, this time Ishihara with one out in Carp's seventh. Maeda struck out looking but then Lewis singled to centre - runners on first and second. This brought a change of pitchers with Watanabe taking over and he struck out Kikuchi preventing Carp from benefiting from this largess. Tigers seventh was Maeda's best innings. He struck out the two Arai brothers and then struck out Itoh as well. Boyer pitched Carp's eighth and did well retiring all three batters he faced. Here though was Tigers big opportunity - a tiring Maeda going for a complete game and not pitching at his best. Imanari singled with one out in the eighth. Then Nishioka also singled to centre but Imanari could only make second. Yamato shaped to bunt and popped the ball up where Kikuchi made a good sliding catch to get the second out. Then Toritani hit to left where Soyogi made a fine diving stop and was up in time to get the ground out and end the innings. Boyer pitched Carp's ninth and got the first two batters then Ishihara hit to Nishioka. He messed up and Ishihara was safe on first. Maeda followed and flew out. Maeda was by now tired and Tigers really had a great chance. Murton led the ninth off with a single to centre. More power here would help - Murton is still thinking like a lead off batter. Arai singled right to put runners on first and second. Tigers ability to get runners round to third had also been lacking. Ryota hit deep to left and this time Lewis was well positioned though Murton tagged up and took third. Then Hiyama flew out. Finally Hidaka (and what was he doing still on the field? This was a situation for a pinch hitter) hit a line drive to first to end the game. Carp victory.

It had been as much a psychological triumph as a triumph of skill. Tigers had had chances and had failed to exploit them rather because they believed they couldn't. There had been some good stuff from Maeda but he had been vulnerable this game and Tigers hadn't really gone for the jugular.