June 17th and 18th - More poor management

Back to a quick summary for this rubber which was played at Koshien. In the first game we saw Wada and Nakanishi's complete lack of understanding on display (which also happened in the second game). Fujinami threw 136 pitches over eight innings and one has to ask what for? What was the point apart from obsolete ideas which were backward even when Wada was a player? Even after six innings he had thrown 113 pitches and obviously wasn't pitching well. Tigers did take the lead but lost it in the fifth and the game continued at 1-1 until the eighth. Tigers took the lead on a Uemoto sacrifice hit but Oh blew the save and suddenly Nippon Ham were 3-2 up. Tigers had to rescue the situation which they did in the bottom of the ninth through an Imanari sacrifice hit - up until then all of Tigers runs had come from sacrifices. Finally, in the bottom of the 12th Murton doubled for a sayonara victory 4-3 Tigers. However, in the following game Iwata faced Ohtani who was dominating. Iwata was good over 7 innings giving up only one run but Ohtani didn't even give up a hit until the sixth. Wada stupidly tried to push Iwata into an eighth and Iwata's arm collapsed. Then Wada compounded the idiocy by bringing on Tsuru in relief and he put the game beyond Tigers reach giving up two more runs 4-0 Nippon Ham. Tigers batting had been pathetic but what was really annoying was the stubborn thick headed management exhibited by Wada. He clearly has no talent for management and should never be in such a postion but this is Japan and this sort of thing happens all the time. Tigers tied the series with Nippon Ham and only have Golden Eagles left to realise the possibility of winning an interleague series this year.