Jinx at Jingu - 3rd to 5th May

The Swallows are a bunch of abject underperformers lacking all that is needed to be a good baseball team. However, they do have the beating of the Tigers and did so spectacularly this series. Of course the first game was lost because of Wada's idiocy - when will he learn that you don't push your starter unnecessarily but bring on the relief. Nohmi after seven good innings was forced to go into the eighth and collapsed with Swallows scoring four runs that innings. Of course if a relief pitcher had been brought on this wouldn't have happened and Tigers would have won - instead 5-2 Swallows. The next day Tigers started Tsuru who has been used as a starter before. This confused Swallows and Tigers ran out 4-1 winners though they needed the help of Sekimoto to do so. The final game of the series was a massacre. I have seen the Swallows destroy Tigers once before at Jingu but not to this extent. Messenger struggled and was clearly feeling the effects of his complete game - Tigers pitchers are rapidly running out of steam once they reach the 100 pitches mark or the very next game after a marathon session. Its something Wada and Nakanishi are incapable of understanding and they've also neglected the relief. Tigers pitching is already in trouble after just 30 games. The batting too was abysmal with one run being produced from 9 hits. Swallows meanwhile feasted on the inadequate display and came out 13-1 winners - that's right 13-1. It really was a poor display by everyone in the Tigers side. The fact that it was Swallows non-entities scoring the runs merely added salt to a wound caused by Tigers failing miserably against pathetic pitching. Swallows can be rather pleased with themselves though - they had managed to make the Tigers look extremely inept.