August 29th Nohmi v Sawamura - Disaster at the Dome

Firstly, something unrelated to Tigers. The Swallows Wladimir Balentien is on 51 home runs with 30 odd games to go. Let's all wish him the best in breaking the false Oh season home run record. It would be nice to see Japanese baseball come of age and join the modern world.
Onto the game - it was interesting to watch the contrast in TV coverage between BS and terrestrial TV. There was no competition - the BS coverage was professional and showed the game. The terrestrial coverage of what was a fascinating and exciting game was an amateur joke. Idiot editors running adverts into the action and missing outs frequently and some mind-bogglingly stupid best nine thing with two non-descript fools presenting it. The best nine wasn't even that and merely contributed to the impression that NTV are racing TV Asahi (the other worthless TV station for coverage in Japan) to the bottom.
Tigers lost the game due to their stupid manager who once again over-pitched his starter. Nohmi was good for seven innings but tired in the eighth. Normally you would expect the starter to be relieved after the seventh but not with Wada and Nohmi gave up a run. Therefore for the ninth it would be logical to go to one's closer but not with Wada and this strange and incomprehensible mismanagement produced a dire result for Tigers. A winnable game was thrown away by Wada's ineptness and rank stupidity. Sacking Wada is essential - this wasn't even a judgement call it was not knowing how to run a game. Scores

        1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 R H E
Tigers  0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0  2 6 1
Giants  0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1x 3 9 0

Starting Lineups

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

Giants
1. Chono (Centre)
2. Kamei (Right)
3. Abe (Catcher)
4. Murata (Third)
5. Takahashi (Left)
6. Sakamoto (Short)
7. Lopez (First)
8. Terauchi (Second)
9. Sawamura (Pitcher)

No matter what he does Sawamura looks smug, he gets an out - he looks smug; he gives up a run - he looks smug; he sits on the toilet - he looks... well you get the idea. He was a bit of a curate egg this game showing some good stuff but also dropping some clangers. Wada went for a lightweight team when power would have probably been a better choice. The omission of Fukudome was understandable but Uemoto at third? It wasn't the best choice by any means. Tigers started with Nishioka grounding out. Then Uemoto threaded the ball past Sawamura who looked smug to where it was fielded by Sakamoto who couldn't get the throw away. Next was Toritani who took a painful dead ball on the inside of his thigh. Tigers had runners on first and second. Then a brilliant bit of work by Giants saw Toritani out. He was standing off first as normal and Sawamura threw to first to pick him off. Lopez who had been standing behind Toritani ran in to take the ball and tagged the diving Toritani out. Toritani had apparently missed the Lopez move and the throw was very good as well. Murton managed to strike out and end the innings. Chono struck out to start Giants campaign and then things seemed to go wrong. Kamei singled right and Abe singled left - runners on first and second. Next was Murata - would he hit a home run again? He certainly went for it and hit deep to left where Murton running back took a superb catch at the wall and held onto the ball as he hit the wall. Meanwhile Abe as he ran round from first did not touch second and then returned to first and so as the ball returned to Nohmi he threw to second where Toritani tagged Kamei for the out (it being Abe). Hara came out to argue the point but the Giants had done something similar before when the runner failed to touch third against Lotte. The Tigers second was quiet with no one getting on base. Takahashi led off the Giants second hitting to Toritani who took the ball and went to throw but bobbled the ball and missed the chance to make the throw. The next three batters flew out and the innings was scoreless. In Tigers third we saw more difficulty for the batters - they couldn't get going at all and no one made base. With one out in Giants third Chono hit to Uemoto who failed to pick the ball up and allowed the runner on. Chono chanced Fujii's arm and stole second easily and then made third when Kamei grounded out to first. This gave Abe a chance to redeem himself for the mistake in the first but he could only ground out to second ending the innings.

Sawamura looking smug, of course, dead balled Uemoto to lead off Tigers fourth. The latter took the knock on his arm and immediately hustled to first. Toritani was next and hit to centre. Murton hit to third but was able to beat the throw from second as the action was all a bit far back. However, Toritani was forced out and Tigers had runners on first and third. Sawamura smugly contemplated Arai but his fourth pitch was hit back at him along the ground and rocketed by him before he had a chance to react for a timely single 1-0 Tigers, runners on first and second. Imanari hit right - a shallow hit which a speedster on second could have made something of but not the actual runner - Murton. He was waved round by Yoshitake, the third base coach, who must have had cotton wool between his ears. As he rounded the base Murton began to slow probably because he realised the run wasn't on and he had no chance of getting back. The throw from Kamei was accurate and Murton was tagged out by Abe. He did not look happy but it was indicative of Yoshitake's poor third base work generally. Shunsuke was the final out flying out weakly to end the innings. Nohmi held the line well in Giants fourth retiring the batters in order. Tigers fifth saw no score either and no base runners. With two out in Giants fifth Sawamura swung and put the ball high where it managed to land between Murton and Shunsuke neither being able to reach it. It didn't help Giants as Chono skied one to Nishioka for the final out. With two out in Tigers sixth Murton got hold of his first pitch and hit it straight and far just to the left of the scoreboard where a disloyal Giants fan snagged the ball happily 2-0 Tigers. Even at this point Sawamura looked smug - it really is a strange phenomena. He also looks a bit supercilious as well. Arai hit to third but could only ground out. Once again Nohmi held the lead well and no Giants reached base.

Tigers seventh was disappointing. Tigers were punishing the odd Giants mistake but they weren't pushing the home team. No one reached base again. Giants seventh was also quiet and Nohmi looked to be on course for a complete game shutout. However, his pitch count was now getting a bit high and he really needed a rest. Hara showed more sense at this point and replaced Sawamura who had thrown 97 pitches. Fukuda pitched Tigers eighth and he also retired the batters in order. Tigers had made good use of their hits but hadn't gotten that many. Nohmi had thrown 90 pitches and it would have been a good move for him to be relieved. However, Wada put him in for the eighth and he faced Yano (pinch hitter). He hit over Sekimoto with the ball landing just fair and rolling away into the corner. Yano made second and was pinch run for by Wakiya. Bowker (pinch hitter) could only ground out to Arai but this moved Wakiya to third and Giants had a great opportunity to score. Nohmi was tiring and rather than use his range of pitches Fujii was calling mostly straights. This of course made it easier for Fujii who finds it difficult to deal with forks but is lazy catching. Chono fouled a long series of straights off before Nohmi rebelled and dropped a fork in front of him. It worked like a dream and Chono struck out for the second out. Then came the call for another straight which Nohmi delivered and which Kamei pounced on hitting comfortably into centre for a single 2-1 Tigers, runner on first. Abe swung at his first pitch and realised he had made a mistake which was true - the ball ballooned up into the glove of Toritani for the final out. Giants had reduced the lead but with the ninth innings coming we would see Fukuhara and Tigers would take a narrow victory. Aoki pitched Tigers ninth and got Toritani to ground out. Then Hara switched pitchers and brought Ichioka on. He got both Murton and Arai to ground out and end the innings. Then the act of supreme folly - it is the ninth, you have a one run lead. You bring on your closer. This isn't rocket science but Wada put Nohmi in for another innings. Maybe Giants bribed him to do it? One just can't see the point of it. What was our moronic manager thinking or not thinking? Nohmi entered the Giants ninth with resignation. He didn't look happy or sad but his body language said:- this is a task I have to do, I don't think I should be doing but I will do it because I have been assigned it. Having given up one run in the eighth Nohmi could be expected to give up another one and the innings started disastrously for him. Murata led off and hit a double to left which this time was not within Murton's reach. Then Takahashi hit left to put runners on first and third with no outs. There was no way Giants would not score now. The tying run came the very next pitch - all Sakamoto did was hit a deep fly to left off a tiring Nohmi. Murata tagged up and made home 2-2 scores tied, runner on first. At this point Wada acted and replaced Nohmi with Andoh. Nohmi walked off and in rare show of emotion threw his glove down angrily before exiting the dugout. He shouldn't have been angry with himself but with Wada who had messed up yet again. Matsumoto (pinch runner) went for second and Fujii managed to drop the ball after taking it and failed to make the throw. Andoh got Lopez to fly out to centre for the second out. For some reason Wakiya was deliberately walked - Fujii probably panicked and Andoh pitched to Kawano. He struck out swinging to end the ninth and take the game into extra innings.

Tigers tenth was pitched by Nishimura. He started well striking out Asai (replacement right) but then things badly as Shunsuke hit into left centre for a lead off double. Unfortunately Tigers, ability to convert was not the same as the Giants. Fujii struck out swinging - it might have been a good idea to pinch hit for him. With two outs Nishimura walked Hiyama - this was a no brainer and unfortunately Giants were using their brains in the end game. Nishioka was next but couldn't get the ball past Nishimura and ended up grounding out weakly. He was mortified but this kind of situation isn't really his forte. For Giants tenth Wada chose Matsuda whose ERA was 0.00 and had given up no runs. He faced Chono and threw one straight before sending another one down which Chono latched onto. This also went left and this time just cleared the wall for a home run 3-2 Giants sayonara victory.

Giants swept Tigers which was disappointing as it needn't have been the case. Tigers were in the lead and comfortable after the seventh. Everything went downhill from there with Wada's pig headed and inept management. The point of the relief is so that starters do not get unnecessarily tired out and that teams are able to win games by bringing on fresh pitchers. If your starters are tired they cannot locate their pitches and give up runs. It seems that somehow Wada cannot understand this and wants to make his starters go deep all the time. The situation in the ninth was a classic closer situation so why didn't Wada use his closer? There was no point in having Nohmi pitch the ninth - the shutout had disappeared the innings before and the main focus should have been the win. Wada's stubbornness and desire to hang onto an outmoded idea ensured defeat. The sooner we sack him, his crony coaches and catchers the sooner Tigers can become a pennant winner again.