August 25th Messenger v Yamai - Uncharted territory

With this stunning victory Tigers have now won five in a row at Nagoya Dome - the first time ever. We even saw proof that Wada could learn as well - Messenger after giving up a brace of runs was taken off and replaced by the relief. He had only thrown 94 pitches which is normally an invitation for Wada to force another innings out of him. What happened to our management? On the negative side we saw Hidaka back as catcher - it seems Fujii is on holiday. So far the shi no rodo total is 14-6-0 with three to play. A truly surprising performance all round with two sweeps and only two old style disasters (14th v Hiroshima and 20th v Yokohama) and one series lost. If Wada and co can restrict their urge to burn out their pitchers arms Tigers could actually go all the way though at the moment second still looks the more likely final position. Scores

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

Starting Lineups

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

Dragons
1. Fujii (Centre)
2. Ibata (Short)
3. Morino (Second)
4. Wada (Left)
5. Hirata (Right)
6. Clark (First)
7. Shuhei Takahashi (Third)
8. Tanishige (Catcher)
9. Yamai (Pitcher)

The move of Fukudome was not unexpected. Wada had signaled that he wanted to ply Imanari and right is about the only place one can slot the latter in. His pop is very welcome and Fukudome is better at deep field play than Shunsuke. It does slow the side down somewhat but not to any great degree. It also reduces the urge of Wada to go for the automatic bunt waste. With power at second you want to use it rather than waste an out. Tigers start was a dream with one out Imanari singled. Toritani went down but Murton doubled nicely. Here we felt the lack of speed though, Imanari only reached third whereas Shunsuke or Yamato would have been home. It was a good situation and Arai didn't waste it hitting his first pitch - a slider in the middle of the zone for a double. Both runners home 2-0 Tigers, runner on second. Fukudome hit to right but couldn't get past first and grounded out to end the innings. All eyes were on Messenger - he had blown a big lead against BayStars in the previous week but he started well. None of the Dragons batters could get on base and the innings ended with Morino flying out to left. Still there were eight innings left and plenty of time for the Dragons to overhaul the lead. They needed to hold the margin and Tigers second disabused them of any notion that they were going to be capable of doing so. Yamai couldn't locate his pitches at all and Saka led off with a single to left. Hidaka singled right to put runners on first and second. Messenger struck out looking as he failed in his bunt attempts for the first out - Dragons had a potential double play lined up. Nishioka lined out to short but then Imanari worked a walk to load the bases. Toritani singled left to bring in two runs hitting over the infield 4-0 Tigers, runners on first and second. Then Murton taking advantage of Yamai's drift also singled left with another run scoring as a result 5-0 Tigers, runners on first and second. Next was Arai who hit deep to right centre - a big hit which brought Toritani and Murton home 7-0 Tigers, runner on second. This was the end of Yamai who was hurriedly pulled and replaced by Mutoh. He didn't have much effect with Fukudome turning the ball right to bring in Arai 8-0 Tigers, runner on first. Dragons must have wished for a mercy rule. Finally, Saka struck out swinging but the chances of Tigers losing this game were now remote. They became even more remote with the Dragons second. The home team just couldn't summon a response and all three batters grounded out - Clark falling victim to a diving take by Nishioka. After the excitement of the first two innings Tigers third was quiet - no one got on base but then they didn't need to. Dragons third saw their first base runner with Tanishige working a walk. Mutoh tried to bunt him to second but Messenger was quickly on the ball and threw to second for the force out. With Mutoh on first, Messenger then struck out Fujii to end the innings.

For some reason Imanari at second was difficult for the Dragons pitchers to deal with and he picked up his second walk to lead off Tigers fourth. Toritani hit to second for a double play and Murton grounded out and the innings was scoreless. Dragons fourth once again saw no runners on base. Time was running out and Messenger was doing really well. Mutoh presented Arai with a why not? situation in Tigers fifth. As lead off batter and the first pitch another slider in the middle of the zone Arai was basically invited to help himself which is what he did. The ball flew high and landed just over the fence for a solo home run 9-0 Tigers, and Arai's fifth RBI of the game. The next three batters were also lured by the chance of big hits but no one managed it and no one reached base. Still Tigers were totally in command. Dragons fifth, once again saw the batters floundering and Messenger exercising control over proceedings. No one reached base. With two out in Tigers sixth Imanari walked again but this time Toritani flew out and ended the innings. Messenger finally started to go in Dragons sixth. Tanishige led the innings off and worked a walk. Ohshima (pinch hitter and replacement centre) flew out but Fujii doubled to put runners on second and third. Ibata singled to centre bringing in a run 9-1 Tigers, runners on first and third. Then Morino hit one off the wall for a timely double 9-2 Tigers, runners on second and third with only one out. Wada mistimed his swing badly and flew out to Hidaka - a nice break for Tigers. Then Messenger summoning up his last reserves got Hirata to ground out to end the innings. Tigers were still comfortably in the lead.

Akifumi Takahashi pitched Tigers seventh. With two out he walked Shunsuke (replacement centre) but then Saka grounded out ending the innings. Dragons seventh was pitched by Katoh, Wada having wisely decided not to use Messenger after the Yokohama debacle. Katoh retired the batters in order which was a vital innings eating up another three outs and preventing any momentum from developing. Tajima took over for Tigers eighth and gave up a lead off double to Hidaka. This woke Tajima up and he settled down to strike out Asai (replacement left), Ryota (replacement third) and Imanari ensuring the innings was scorless. Kubo pitched Dragons eighth and ran into trouble with some poor calling from Hidaka who had been reasonably quiet until then. With one out (the hapless Ohshima), Fujii singled. Then Ibata grounded out forcing out Fujii and was pinch run for by Yanagida. Morino was next and his first pitch into the right stand for a two run home urn 9-4 Dragons. But Dragons had run out of power and Morikoshi (pinch hitter and replacement left) could only ground out to end the innings. Yachi pitched Tigers ninth and walked Toritani to lead off the innings. We saw the phenomena of Ueda batting fourth but given the lead it wasn't of any great issue. Anyway no one else got on base and Toritani stayed on first as Yachi retired the next three batters in order. For Dragons ninth Wada surprisingly brought Kubota on. He had a straightforward job retiring the batters in order to end the game. Tigers victory.

Dragons had been comprehensively beaten and were never in the game after the second innings. Arai's five runs were vital to the victory and his hot period has been very useful. Tigers next opponents are Giants for the final series of shi no rodo. Giving how Tigers are playing there is no reason that they shouldn't take the series as well. They still need to overturn a five game margin though to take the pennant.