March 27th Uezono v Terahara - Johjima does it again

Kenji Johjima is making a very big difference to the Tigers in their first series. Both games his contributions have been vital to the victory. The surprise for the Tigers was that Uezono was thought to be ready to start. He pitched very well for five innings and then got into trouble forcing Mayumi to go to the relief earlier than anticipated. BayStars put up a very good fight but finally succumbed in the eleventh. Scores

          1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 R H E
BayStars  0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0  0  0 3 6 1
Tigers    0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0  0 1x 4 8 0

Starting lineups

BayStars
1. Ishikawa (Short)
2. Hayakawa (Centre)
3. Uchikawa (First)
4. Murata (Third)
5. Sledge (Left)
6. Castillo (Second)
7. Hashimoto (Catcher)
8. Yoshimura (Right)
9. Terahara (Pitcher)

Tigers
1. Murton (Centre)
2. Hirano (Second)
3. Toritani (Short)
4. Kanemoto (Left)
5. Arai (Third)
6. Johjima (Catcher)
7. Brazell (First)
8. Sakurai (Right)
9. Uezono (Pitcher)

Uezono started nicely and retired the batters in order. He would pitch well over five innings. However, if Uezono was good, Terahara was superb - he would take only 50 pitches for his first five innings. So the situation at the end of the first, no runners or walks. Uezono then walked Sledge in BayStars second but nothing came of this. Tigers second saw Johjima hit with two out but nothing came of this either. In the third Terahara surprisingly collected a walk but didn't get beyond first. Murton generated Tigers second hit and then stole second very nicely but Hirano couldn't convert him and the innings ended scoreless

BayStars fourth saw Uchikawa lead off with a hit but this was immediately negated by a Murata double play. Tigers fourth had Toritani getting a lead off walk but falling to a Kanemoto double play and the innings was scoreless. Hashimoto hit in BayStars fifth and made second on an Uezono balk as the Tigers pitcher's problems began to manifest themselves. Uezono still had enough in him to retire the next two batters and escape the innings without damage. Terahara sailed through the Tigers fifth in seven pitches. BayStars sixth was where Uezono really came undone. Ishikawa has been hitting well and he led off with a two base to centre, over the head of Murton. He then balked again taking Ishikawa to third and to add insult to injury walked Hayakawa to set up runners on first and third with no outs. Uchikawa then banged out a nice sacrifice fly to right and it was 1-0 BayStars, runner on first. Murata was next and he hit a two base which brought Hayakawa home 2-0 BayStars runner on second. At this point Mayumi switched pitchers rapidly and Tsutsui took the mound. He struck out Sledge and induced a short ground out from Castillo to end the innings. One thing about Terahara is that he normally falls apart in the fifth or sixth innings and this game was no exception. He wasn't helped by one of the BayStars usual fielding screwups at first which allowed Kanoh (pinch hitter) to get on base. Murton then hammered a pitch to right centre for a two base hit and Kanoh also showed good speed to motor home 2-1 BayStars, runner on second, no outs. Hirano bunted Murton to third (an intelligent use of the bunt) and then Toritani slammed his first pitch to right centre for a three base hit 2-2 scores tied, runner on third. Kanemoto supplied the sacrifice fly 3-2 Tigers. Arai hit to centre but Johjima couldn't convert and the innings was over with the Tigers in the lead. For BayStars seventh Mayumi turned to his relief - specifically Kubota. He motored through the three batters he faced showing more of the old Kubota at his best. Obana switched to Ushida who was similarly able to keep the Tigers scoring in the seventh. BayStars eighth was pitched by Messenger. He ran into trouble and gave off another leadoff two base to Ishikawa who was playing well. Once again an intelligent bunt was made, this time by Hayakawa and Uchikawa supplied the sacrifice fly to level the scores 3-3. Murata flew out to end the innings but the BayStars could be happy. Ushida returned for the Tigers eighth and successfully retired the batters in order again. For BayStars ninth Mayumi went with Fujikawa who struck out two of the three batters he faced. Tigers ninth was pitched by Yamaguchi who also retired the three batters.

For BayStars tenth we saw Egusa for the first time. He started with a hit to Yoshimura (who was pinch run for by Nonaka). Nonaka was out to an Ishikawa ground out which failed to turn into a double play. Ishikawa then decided to chance Johjima's arm and steal second. He failed and became the third out. Tigers tenth was where they should have won the game but made a mess of things. The innings started well with a Hiyama (pinch hitter) hit. Sakurai struck out but Katsuragi (pinch hitter) then hit a two base to left bouncing it out and setting up runners on second and third. Murton was walked to load the bases and to get at Hirano who was pinch hit for by Sekimoto. He hit to centre but not far enough and the runner stayed on third. Mayumi would have been better off leaving Hirano in who has a simple approach to sacrfice flies - put them deep. Finally Toritani flew out to end the innings and BayStars had escaped. Nishimura pitched the BayStars eleventh and retried the batters in order. By now you felt the tide had turned and that the BayStars were playing to survive not to win. Kizuka pitched the Tigers eleventh and got the first two batters out before facing Johjima. His third pitch was invitingly high and in the zone and Johjima latched onto it for a sayonara home run 4-3 Tiger victory.

Nishimura picked up the win and joined Johjima for the hero interview (it was his first win in Tigers colours) about which he was a bit sheepish. Tigers had taken the series but this game had been pushed hard by the BayStars. Once again Johjima had made the vital contribution and this time hit his first sayonara home run since 2000.

Aren't you getting a little worried about Toritani's inability to throw the ball straight to first base? He's only been charged with 1 error so far, but it seems like he throws wide of first very often. (Brazell has done a good job saving him.)

I remember Imaoka at third used to do something similar - so much so that when Sheets (Tigers then first) got a throw from Kataoka which was dead straight he almost dropped the ball in surprise. What does worry me about Toritani is he often seems to feel the need to jump when he throws. It looks spectacular but loses accuracy. Still hopefully he'll settle down as the season wears on.

What's the word on the rest of the rotation? Will Nohmi and Kubo be next up? I was surprised to see Nohmi pushed so far back in the rotation after being the best starter last year down the stretch.

Nohmi is scheduled to start today (March 30th) against the Carp. Next will be Kubo and then Kojima. It had been intended that Nohmi and Kubo would pitch the two games of the BayStars series after Andoh but this was changed.

Right, forgot about the 6-man rotation. We definitely don't have an ace, but good to see a couple young guys (Uezono and Kojima) get a shot instead of Fukuhara and Sugiyama. I guess Mayumi finally listened to all of our grips on this blog, haha.

"What does worry me about Toritani is he often seems to feel the need to jump when he throws."

2nd basemen/shortstops do this to avoid the runner going from 1st to 2nd. It's the runners job to go in hard on 2nd base and the 2nd baseman to try and break up the double play.

Edited 30 March 2.24 pm

Toritani has also developed the habit of jumping for the runner going to first without another runner on base. In this match he did it for an infield hit and drew Brazell off first. Brazell did well to take the ball but the runner was safe on what was a straightforward short ground out.

Toritani isn't your best defensive shortshop but what he does its typical of other middle infielders. That "jump" is a way of stopping your momentum so it's easier to throw to first than rather throw on the sprint.

Trust me, I've played up the middle. But hey, don't listen to me, if you think you could field the position better or at least coach the infield of a pro team better than Hanshin's coaching staff, go right ahead and tell Toritani what he's doing wrong.

Just out of curiousity. what makes you know better?

Toritani loses accuracy when he jumps - his throws go wide or very high. If he had the accuracy then it wouldn't matter so much but he doesn't. Arai has a similar problem with a weaker arm and the only one of the infield who you can trust to jump and throw is Hirano. Unfortunately, as you may have discerned our coaching team is not that sharp - it took about two years to sort out the base running so we shouldn't expect changes soon.

"Toritani loses accuracy when he jumps - his throws go wide or very high."

Very general statement. Are you saying that happens every time?

Be careful of wild exagerrations.

What's he supposed to do? Defy the laws of physics and magically shift/stop his momentum and then throw? You don't get to be a shortstop at that level if you are fundamentally flawed at that position.

I notice on your blog, you're a pretty argumentative guy who doesn't seem to know much about the game and doesn't like to admit when you're wrong. You've clearly never played the game. That's very obvious. What makes you think you know better than everyone else?

Pretty much every time and I watch a lot of Tigers games. Be careful with your assumptions. Firstly you assume that to comment you must have played the baseball a lot. Not true - I have played baseball but not to any very high level. However, watching a game you can learn about it and even become a better commentator on it than those who've played it. Secondly don't assume that you have the definitive interpretation because you may have played more. With regard to Toritani other people have noticed is accuracy problems (go back and read Michael's original post about Toritani's accuracy). I've followed Toritani since he started playing for Tigers and so I think I have a good idea of his capabilities and his problem areas. Finally, read the posts properly before you post - your comments suggest that you don't do this and you miss the important details. You obviously have something to comment but you need to get past this hang up that because you've played the game your interpretation and opinion is necessarily the definitive one.