August 31st Fujinami v Bullington - Victory in the rain

Fujinami becomes the first Tigers pitcher to win 10 games in his rookie year since Enatsu in 1967. The game suffered from injury and rain delays and interesting incidents galore. My favourite is the appearance of a weasel in the Hiroshima dugout. Amazingly, the Tigers pitching was sensible and Fujinami (not pitching to Fujii this time - recently Fujii has been catching less and less) only threw 94 pitches. The relief took over and one can only think of what might have been if Wada hadn't been so stupid at Tokyo Dome. We saw his Toritani experiment continue and we also saw Toritani's first run at No. 4. Scores

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

Starting Lineups

Carp
1. Amaya (Left)
2. Kikuchi (Second)
3. Maru (Centre)
4. Ka'aihue (First)
5. Soyogi (Short)
6. Matsuyama (Right)
7. Kimura (Short)
8. Ishihara (Catcher)
9. Bullington (Pitcher)

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

Once again the Uemoto at second experiment was continued and once again it was unclear that Uemoto added anything to the side especially at second. Fujinami started well getting Amaya and Kikuchi but then Maru hit back to him. Fujinami fielded but his throw to first was absurd and by the time the confusion was sorted out Maru was ensconced on third. Fujinami kept his cool, though, and struck out Ka'aihue to end the innings using a barrage of high pitches. Tigers started promisingly with Nishioka singling left. Of course, this brought the inevitable bunt from Uemoto which moved Nishioka to second. Murton failed - grounding out to second but Toritani hit his first pitch to left and this was enough to bring in Nishioka 1-0 Tigers, runner on first. Arai struck out swinging but Tigers had started well. It didn't last and with a huge measure of luck Hiroshima drew level. Soyogi swung and the ball bounced off Fujinami's glove for a pitcher single. Then Matsuyama managed to ground out to short but it did move the runner round to second. Kimura singled to centre which put runners on first and third. Then Ishihara went for the squeeze play and bunted towards Fujinami who couldn't decide where to throw and by the time he did the runner was home 1-1 scores tired, runners on first and second. It was not Fujinami's finest moment. Then Bullington went to bunt, once again to Fujinami who threw to second for the double play and the end of the innings. He had blown the lead but Carp hadn't taken it. Tigers second was led off by Imanari who hit the ball straight back at Bullington. Bullington missed the take and took the ball on his knee. Imanari was safe on first and Bullington needed treatment. Unfortunately, he was not able to return and was replaced by Hisamoto. Shunsuke flew out and then Shimizu struck out swinging. As he did so Imanari went for the steal - this is a stupid type of steal in which it is assumed that the catcher is distracted by the strike out. Most catchers expect this sort of thing and if they have a good arm like Ishihara the outcome is generally a foregone conclusion. It started to rain at Koshien and Fujinami's pitching was in unfavourable conditions. That being said he did rather well. Amaya hit to first where Arai was able to field but not to get the out. He was bunted to second by Kikuchi - Carp's bunting tactics probably suited the conditions rather well. Then Maru walked as conditions got really uncomfortable. However, Ka'aihue intending to hit hard produced a weak swing which Shimizu fielded and whipped to second for a nice double play. There then followed a 19 minute delay whilst it rained. Neither team were particularly keen to call the game and so after the delay it continued. Tigers third when the game resumed turned out to be quiet.

With things restored to a semblance of normality, Fujinami struck out Soyogi and Matsuyama and then got Kimura to ground out to short. Murton led Tigers fourth off spectacularly with a double to centre left. Toritani grounded out which took Murton to third and it was up to Arai. He waited for the right pitch and then hit deep to centre. Murton tagged up and raced home 2-1 Tigers. Imanari would ground out to short and end the innings. Now the weasel appeared running out of the Hiroshima dugout and disappearing into the field. Ishihara grounded out to start Carp's fifth and then Hisamoto bounced a hit to third where Nishioka could only wait for it to come down and not prevent the runner on third. Amaya singled left to set up runners on first and second and then Kikuchi also hit left to load the bases. Tigers were in trouble but once again Fujinami rose to the challenges. Maru struck out looking in three to a cutball as Fujinami put everything in the same spot. Then Ka'aihue went for a inviting looking pitch and skied it to third for the final out. Tigers had survived. Tigers fifth was quiet with no one reaching base. The rain had started falling again but Fujinami retired the batters in order and the Carp's sixth was quiet. The delay after this innings was very long 68 minutes and the game could have been called. It wasn't though for reasons unconnected to rationality and Yokoyama took over for Tigers sixth. The batters tumbled in order and the innings finished without anyone making base.

Matsuda pitched Carp's seventh and with two out managed to walk Amaya. Amaya promptly stole second but Matsuda then got Kikuchi to swing too soon and pop up to short to end the chance. Imamura took over for Tigers seventh and pitched to Kura. With two out Shunsuke singled left and then stole second returning the compliment but Shimizu grounded out to short and ended that chance. Carp's eighth was pitched by Katoh who was boiling aggression personified and took on and destroyed Carp's clean up. Maru went swinging and then an inside slider got Ka'aihue before Soyogi also misjudged a slider and struck out swinging. It was a vital innings and once again it was interesting to contemplate what might have happened if Katoh had pitched the eighth at Tokyo Dome instead of Nohmi. With one out in Tigers eighth Nishioka singled to second and beat Kikuchi to first. Then we had the absurdity of Uemoto bunting the runner to second and of course Murton grounded out. Fukuhara took over for Carp's ninth. Matsuyama singled to lead off the innings. He was pinch run for by Akamatsu but neither Fukuhara nor Shimizu let that concern them, not even when Akamatsu stole second. Nomura sent Eldred in to pinch hit and he struck out swinging and so did Abe (replacement second). Ato hitori greeted Hirose who hit his first pitch high into centre where Shunsuke was waiting for the catch. Tigers victory.

It had been tight and hard fought all the way and the weather conditions had played a part. Fujinami had been rather nervous going for his 10th victory but had reached it. Fukuhara picked up his 11th save and Tigers narrowed the gap between them and Giants to eight games. Still on course for a second place.