August 4th Fujinami v Sugano - The hit that wouldn't come

I have mentioned how I would like to see Fujinami pitch to a different catcher than Fujii and this game I got my wish. Fujii, as I mentioned, was running stiffly in the previous game and was held out of this game due to this issue. It might even be significant because Shimizu who replaced him called the entire game. It was a game that Giants will be unhappy with; their fielding wasn't up to standard and they failed to score a single run on 11 hits and 2 walks. Tigers will be very satisfied with the result and certainly Fujinami who this game reminded one of Shimoyanagi. On a slightly related note - Fujinami threw 105 pitches over six innings. There was no question of trying to force another innings out of him. This kind of sensible management ought to be applied to the other pitchers in the starting rotation. Scores

        1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R  H E
Tigers  1 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 1 7 12 0
Giants  0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 1

Starting Lineups

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

Giants
1. Chono (Centre)
2. Hashimoto (Right)
3. Sakamoto (Short)
4. Abe (Catcher)
5. Murata (Third)
6. Lopez (First)
7. Bowker (Left)
8. Nakai (Second)
9. Sugano (Pitcher)

It was nice to see Lin back in the Tigers lineup even though he didn't have a good game with the bat. Saka in place of Kurose was a definite improvement though. It was Saka who started the game off well walking as Sugano struggled to find the zone. Yamato provided the usual waste of an out to move Saka to second and then Toritani singled left. This stayed in the air a long time and contributed to Saka only taking third with Toritani on first. Sugano then got things together and struck out Murton. Arai put the ball over the infield into right for the timely single 1-0 Tigers, runners on first and second. Nakai dived for this but couldn't reach it and injured his knee. He was replaced by Furuki for the second innings. Lin in his first at bat in the top team this season could only strike out swinging. Fujinami started well with Chono flying out to right. Hashimoto singled left and tried to steal second as Sakamoto struck out. Shimizu has a far better arm than Fujii and it showed as Hashimoto was tagged out as he slid in. If one thinks back to the game on Friday Tigers took an early one run lead and held it. The same thing would happen this game and like Friday's game Tigers would find runs hard to come by for a period. We saw this in the second. Sugano settled down and both Ryota and Shimizu grounded out to him. Fujinami then lined out to Sakamoto to end the innings. Fujinami retired the first two batters in the Giants second but then Lopez hit one off the wall for a double. Bowker was lured into striking out swinging though and the innings was scoreless. With one out in the third Yamato hit a line drive to centre. Toritani did the same to put runners on first and second. Murton grounded out which moved the runners round to second and third. Then Arai struck out swinging. Giants had survived that challenge. Giants third was quiet - no one getting on base in a nice innings by Fujinami. Shimizu was also calling quite well if a little wastefully.

With Lin out in Tigers fourth, Ryota walked. Shimizu hit into a 6-4-3 double play ending the innings. Hashimoto popped up to short to lead off Giants fourth but Sakamoto walked. Abe popped up to second - Giants batters were getting bundled up nicely then Murata hit to centre to put runners on first and second. Lopez failed this time grounding out to Ryota to end the innings. Tigers fifth was quiet and no one made base. Giants fifth started with a big threat. Bowker hit deep to right and reached second safely. None of the Giants batters could do anything. Furuki struck out looking, Sugano, of course was out and then Chono struck out swinging. In Tigers sixth Murton singled with one out and then was out himself when Arai hit into another 6-4-3 double play. Still Tigers were holding the lead. Giants turned up the pressure slightly in their sixth as they are wont to do. With Hashimoto out Sakamoto drove into centre. Abe hit his first pitch into right field to set up runners on first and second. A Giants rally? Not so - Murata swung and flew out to left. Then Lopez mistimed his hit and grounded out tamely to Fujinami to end the innings.

Perhaps Hara should have taken a leaf out of Wada's book and replaced Sugano at the end of the sixth. Still Sugano hadn't actually thrown a lot of pitches and despite being one run down was more economical than Fujinami at the end of the sixth (78 pitches v 105). So the decision to have Sugano pitch the seventh was totally rational. Lin led the innings off and struck out swinging. Then Sugano lost control and dead balled Ryota to put a runner on first. Shimizu was next and he swung and doubled into the left corner to put runners on second and third. Here Furuki came into play. Wada had pinch hit Fujinami with Hiyama who after a long at bat hit to Furuki. Furuki had two choices - he could throw to home or he could throw to first for the out. He hesitated too long and by the time he made his decision Shunsuke (pinch running for Ryota) was home and Hiyama was safe on first 2-0 Tigers, runners on first and third. Then Saka hit to Furuki who threw to second for the force out but missed Sakamoto on base. The ball rolled away with Shimizu home 3-0 Tigers, runners on second and third. Yamato singled to centre off a demoralized Sugano and brought home Hiyama 4-0 Tigers, runners on first and third. Here Hara made a pitching change and brought on Aoki. He got Toritani to fly out to left but no run resulted. Hara made another pitching change when he should have stuck with Aoki and brought Katsuki on. He faced Murton and while he did so Yamato stole second. Murton drove hard into centre to bring in both runners 6-0 Tigers, runner on first. Arai singled left - runners on first and second. Giants breathed a sigh of relief when Lin grounded out to first to end the innings. It had been a total disaster for the home team but great for the visitors who had a commanding lead. Matsuda who is rapidly becoming a favoured relief pitcher took the Giants seventh. The bottom of the Giants order Bowker and Furuki didn't last long but Terauchi (pinch hitter and replacement second) singled to centre. Once again Chono failed to respond to this opportunity and hit a weak grounder to Matsuda to end the innings. Egarashi took over for Tigers eighth and started with a lead off double to Shunsuke (replacement right). Shimizu grounded out to second taking Shunsuke to third and Tigers had an opportunity to add another run. This they didn't take advantage of; Tagami (replacement left) lined out to Murata and Saka flew out to left. Andoh took over for Giants eighth and had to weather a full fledged Giants counter attack. Hashimoto walked but then Sakamoto hit into a double play. However, Abe hit over Yamato bouncing the ball off the fence. He was unsure whether the ball was going to be caught and so was a bit too casual in his running only taking first. Murata hit left to set up runners on first and second but Lopez struck out looking to a very fine pitch and that was the end of the innings. Yamato struck out swinging to start Tigers ninth and then Toritani singled left. Imanari (pinch hitter) singled right and Toritani took third. Next was Arai who just banged the ball deep to right. If the fielder missed it, it was a run. If the fielder caught it, it was a run. Chono took the catch but very deep and Toritani touched up and ambled home 7-0 Tigers, runner on first. Sekimoto (replacement third) swung and mishit into the infield where Abe fielded and threw to first for the out. Now the question (except for diehard Giants fans) was would the Giants get a consolation run or would they be shut out. Fukuhara was the pitcher and started poorly giving up a double to Bowker. Yano (pinch hitter) hit a grounder to short - a very nice piece of fielding by Toritani. Terauchi hit to Sekimoto who did well to stop the ball but couldn't prevent Terauchi reaching first safely. However, he did keep Bowker on second. Chono hit to right and flew out with no one risking a touch up. Then Fukuhara dead balled Hashimoto. It actually just brushed the Giants player's jersey but loaded the bases. Next was Sakamoto who hit to centre where Yamato positioned himself under the ball for the final out of the game. Tigers victory.

A very good victory and Tigers had shut out Giants twice. Fujinami picked up the win of course and Tigers had fought really hard. Of course the gap between Tigers and Giants remains at 6.5 games but Tigers headed in the right direction.

[Edited by: Christopher on Aug 5, 2013 4:01 PM]