August 21st Standridge v Suda - Murton wakes up

Well it took a long time coming but Murton actually hit the ball and hit it hard. Two home runs in the eighth and the ninth helped Tigers assume a commanding position in the game. Yamato it was learned has broken a bone in his finger and therefore will be out for a while. His place will be taken by Shunsuke. In this game Standridge once again fell apart at around 85 pitches as he did in the Carp game on the 15th and this time didn't figure in the result. Tigers though tightened things up considerably and even though they blew the lead again this was a smaller one but still worrying. Still the structural changes needed are unlikely to happen anytime soon. Scores

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

Starting Lineups

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

BayStars
1. Kajitani (Short)
2. Yamazaki (Second)
3. Morgan (Centre)
4. Nakamura (Third)
5. Gotoh (First)
6. Kinjoh (Left)
7. Aranami (Right)
8. Tsuruoka (Catcher)
9. Suda (Pitcher)

After the debacle of the previous game Tigers needed to step up a gear or two to show that they were a serious team. They were facing a pitcher they were unfamiliar with and started in typical style with the first two batters going down - Shunsuke falling to a nice diving catch by Yamazaki. A glimmer of light came with a double to left centre from Toritani but Murton struck out looking to end the innings. Standridge didn't start well and generally had to work harder than the game against the Swallows. The first batter, Kajitani drew a walk but tried to steal second and was thrown out. With two outs Morgan doubled and it was clear that Standridge was not at his best. Still Nakamura struck out swinging. Tigers second saw another double - with Arai gone Fukudome hit to left centre. Saka singled but Fukudome was held up on third with Saka on first. Fujii struck out swinging and it looked as if the chance was going to be missed and that holding Fukudome had been unwise. Suda's first pitch to Standridge was in the middle of the zone a reasonably fast straight but perhaps not the wisest pitch. Standridge slammed it into right centre for a timely double. Saka took the chance to reach home as well 2-0 Tigers, runner on second. Nishioka singled to short setting up runners on first and third but then Shunsuke flew out to centre. Gotoh and Kinjoh struck out to start BayStars second then Standridge managed to walk Aranami. His arm was variable. Tsuruoka grounded out to end the innings. Tigers third was quiet as was BayStars third. Tigers were holding a two run lead.

Fukudome led off Tigers fourth with a single to left. No one moved him off first and even though Standridge tried hard he could only bounce the ball into the glove of third for the ground out. With one out in BayStars fourth Nakamura singled and made second on Gotoh's ground out. This was as far as he got and Kinjoh flew out to end the innings. Nishioka has been hot since he returned and he led off Tigers fifth with a single. Wada, of course, had to waste an out and the bunt was laid down by Shunsuke, Toritani flew out and Shunsuke touched up and took third. Tigers needed something from Murton but he drew his normal walk putting runners on first and third. Thankfully Arai is also hot and the Tigers first singled over the infield to bring in the run 3-0 Tigers, runners on first and third. This was the end of Suda who was replaced by Ohhara. Fukudome couldn't convert and flew out. BayStars fifth saw Standridge's pitching start to decline seriously. Aranami led off with a single and then Tsuruoka singled right as well - runners on first and third with no outs. Blanco (pinch hitter) hit a deep sacrifice fly bringing the runner home 3-1 Tigers, runner on first. Kajitani singled to put runners on first and second and then Miyazaki (pinch hitter and replacement second) flew out to right. The throw from Fukudome was good and Kajitani was caught off base for the final out. Yamaguchi took over for Tigers sixth and was able to subdue the batting and retire them in order. Having struggled in the fifth, Wada put Standridge in for the sixth. However, like his Carp start this was more of a difficult call for the manager as Standridge still theoretically had another clean innings in him. It wasn't to be. Morgan led the innings off with a line drive to centre - runner on first. Nakamura then hit right where Fukudome didn't do too well and Morgan reached home safely 3-2 Tigers, runner on third with no outs. Nakamura reaching third was a real blow. Gotoh grounded out to second which kept Nakamura locked on third and then so did Kinjoh. It looked like Tigers were out of the woods but things didn't work out that way. Aranami who had been anonymous the night before singled right to bring in the tying run 3-3 scores tied, runner on first. Once again Tigers had blown a lead. Tsuruoka hit a line drive to put runners on first and third. Here a 'business decision' helped Tigers. Nakahata wanted Yamaguchi to pitch another innings and so instead of pinch hitting him he put his pitcher in. The result was Yamaguchi grounded out to second and ended the innings. This was a big boost for Tigers who didn't have to come from behind.

The decision to pitch Yamaguchi in Tigers seventh worked well initially though. He retired the batters in order striking out two. BayStars seventh was pitched by Katoh who after a long break looked sharper and was quite proficient as well. All three batters fell in order. Kaga took over for Tigers eighth and faced Murton. Kaga was immediately in trouble as Murton hammered the ball high into the left stand for a solo home run 4-3 Tigers. Arai singled to centre and Nakahata acted with alacrity replacing Kaga with Hayashi. He couldn't stop the rout but did get Fukudome to fly out. Saka bunted Arai to second which was a stupid waste of an out but Fujii walked. Then Ryota (pinch hitter and replacement first) doubled into left centre to bring home his brother 5-3 Tigers, runners on second and third. Next was Nishioka who hit over Morgan for a timely double bringing in another two runs 7-3 Tigers, runner on second. Finally Shunsuke grounded out to second. Tigers now had a comfortable lead at a psychologically important moment but they had blown such a margin. The pitcher was important and Wada went with Matsuda which wasn't really a difficult decision. Matsuda struck out Nakamura to start BayStars eighth. Then he did the same to Gotoh and got Kinjoh to ground out to second. Tigers were assured of the win and had broken the back of the BayStars offense. Kobayashi took over for Tigers ninth and BayStars woes continued. Toritani walked which brought up Murton again. Having hit one home run he proceeded to hit another, this one also going left and bringing another two runs 9-3 Tigers. Itoh (pinch hitter) flew to second, Fukudome to centre and Saka to end the innings. Boyer pitched BayStars ninth and retired the batters in order for a Tigers victory.

Tigers had done much better this game. They had been tighter and sharper and they had held the lead for longer. When the BayStars had attacked the struggling Standridge it had been in the fifth and sixth not the third and fourth and so they had less time. Nakahata of course made a significant mistake not going for the run in the sixth. There is no guarantee BayStars would have gotten it but with the way Standridge was pitching then it had a high probability. Tigers now face Fujii and need to bat sensibly against this mediocre pitcher. The series is theirs to take.