August 21st Kaneda v Cabrera - A quick summary

Tigers swept the Dragons in a hard fought contest. Fukudome managed to shine hitting a two run home run to tie the game after Kaneda had started poorly in his first game as a starter. Dragons took a first innings lead. Tigers then added 2 more runs to give Kaneda a good lead. He was ably handled by Umeno who also had to deal with a difficult fightback from the Dragons. He did this with considerable aplomb. We had a real waste in the Tigers sixth though. Itoh singled and then Wada had Umeno bunt. This worked really well and not only did Itoh reach second but Umeno was safe on first. What did Wada do next? He made sure he wasted an out by having Yamato (who was pinch hitting) bunt the runners to second and third. What a pointless waste. Tigers managed to load the bases though and Imanari hit to Hernandez who made a good stop but then threw from his knees. The throw was wild and even Takeyama (Dragons catcher) was pulled off the plate in taking the ball. The umpire was perfectly positioned to see and ruled Itoh safe 5-2 Tigers. This brought howls of protest from the Drgaons whose sense of entitlement was greatly offended but the replay clearly backed the umpire up. Dragons fought back in their seventh to 5-4 but Tigers held. Umeno then demonstrated his quality by enabling Fukuhara to get out of runners on second and third with one out in the Dragons eighth. That was really good work by both members of the battery. Oh produced his 32nd save of the season and Tigers won 5-4. The win went to Kaneda who hadn't been over-pitched. But why does Wada have to have bunts?