April 5th Fukuhara v Ryo Kawashima - Lightning strikes twice

Mayumi shuffled his lineup this game. Why is difficult to comprehend as it didn't help the Tigers. Mench was moved down to seven and Sekimoto to sixth. Hirano took second. Fukuhara was dismal - it looks like its not going to be one of his good seasons. Kawashima wasn't much better for the Swallows but settled down sooner. Kubo was scheduled to pitch this match and on the strength of things Mayumi should have left him in. Mench is not popular with the fans at the moment. He has yet to record a hit and at the moment looks like a waste of space. He didn't finish the game and was replaced by Sakurai who immediatley managed a walk, somthing Mench hasn't done yet. Box scores

         1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R  H E
Swallows 2 2 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 7  7 0
Tigers   3 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 6 11 1

Starting lineups

Swallows
1. Fukuchi (Left)
2. Keizoh Kawashima (Short)
3. Aoki (Centre)
4. D'Antona (First)
5. Guiel (Right)
6. Miyamoto (Third)
7. Tanaka (Second)
8. Aikawa (Catcher)
9. Ryo Kawashima (Pitcher)

Tigers
1. Akahoshi (Centre)
2. Hirano (Second)
3. Toritani (Short)
4. Kanemoto (Left)
5. Arai (Third)
6. Sekimoto (First)
7. Mench (Right)
8. Kanoh (Catcher)
9. Fukuhara (Pitcher)

Fukuhara, without doubt, was dreadful. He started by dead balling Fukuchi who at the moment is a guaranteed out. Then Keizoh Kawashima hit - runners on first and second. Aoki hit 1-0 Swallows. D'Antona hit 2-0 Swallows, runners on first and second. This woke Fukuhara up and he got the next three outs. Ryo Kawashima was Swallow's starter and he matched Fukuhara. Akahoshi led off with a hit. A Hirano bunt took him to second and a Toritani ground out to third. Then Kanemoto hit to drive him in 2-1 Swallows. Arai hit and Tigers had runners on first and second. Sekimoto was next and he put the ball nicely over left for a bases clearing two base hit 3-2 Tigers, Arai making home from first (he is fast round the bases). Tigers finished the innings with a slender lead. Fukuhara though couldn't protect it. With two out Fukuchi hit and then Kawashima hit his second home run in two games 4-3 Swallows. Kanoh led off Tigers second with a two base hit. Fukuhara's bunt took him to third and Akahoshi walked to put runners on the corner. Hirano though grounded out to first who was quick enough to get Kanoh going for home - runners on first and second. The final batter was Toritani who flew out to end the innings. Things settled down after this - the third was quiet and the Swallows fourth saw Aikawa hit but nothing came of this. Tigers fourth saw Kanoh hit and then steal second after Fukuhara had messed up three bunts but once again there was no change to the score.

Tigers fifth saw Fukuhara return to his starting form. Aoki walked on a full count and then D'Antona hit his first home run of the season 6-3 Swallows and they had built a strong lead but would need all the runs. Tigers fifth was quiet and Ryo Kawashima had obviously settled down. Watanabe pitched the Swallows sixth and was untroubled. Sekimoto had a hit in the Tigers sixth but nothing came of this. Egusa took the Swallows seventh and would make the fatal error. With one out he walked Keizoh Kawashima. The Swallows short stole second but this was not really important. What happened next was. The ball was hit back to Egusa who completely messed up the ground out. This allowed Kawashima home and Aoki to reach second 7-3 Swallows. D'Antona walked and then Aoki tried to steal third. However, Kanoh is not Yano and he was thrown out. Guiel grounded out to end the innings. For Tigers seventh Takada decided to go with Igarashi who had pitched so well the game before. This time he was not so successful. He started by walking Sakurai (replacement right) and then Akahoshi. Hirano struck out but Toritani hit a bases clearing double 7-5 Swallows one out, runner on second. Exit Igarashi to be replaced by Satoh. He struck out Kanemoto and then was replaced by Matsuoka. He got Arai to ground out and end the innings.

Atchison made his first appearance of the season and was untroubled retiring the Swallows in order. For Tigers eighth Oshimoto took the mound and didn't do as well. Sekimoto led off with a two base hit. Katsuragi (pinch hitter) hit to centre but Sekimoto stopped on third. One would have thought that changing Wada as third base coach would have produced more aggressive running but it seems not. For the third game in a row the Tigers have wasted a potential scoring chance. One cannot see the Swallows (even though they are fast) wasting such a chance. With runners on first and third Oshimoto walked Hiyama (pinch hitter), bases loaded with no outs. Sakurai messed up the sacrifice fly but Akahoshi didn't 7-6 Swallows. Finally Imaoka (pinch hitter) flew out to first and the Swallows still had a one run lead. One can't help thinking what a waste. Williams pitched the Swallows ninth walking Fukuchi but this was all. The Tigers ninth was pitched by Lim. He gave up a one out hit to Kanemoto but the Tigers no.4 did not get beyond first. Swallows victory.

Tigers had out hit Swallows by a big margin but the number of hits is irrelevant. They had failed to take their chances whereas the Swallows execution had been good. Fukuhara had been terrible and why he was preferred to Kubo is difficult to understand. Tigers had failed to take base running chances over the three game series and suffered for it. Mayumi needs to instill his philosophy more deeply. This is only the first series but Tigers cannot guarantee getting so many chances and need to take all that come along. Mench is a big worry and really at the moment looks out of his depth.

Yeah I'm quite concerned by Mench- he looks absolutely hopeless, unable to hit the ball at all. Needs to get his act together!

Starting pitchers are not looking too great either are they- Andoh performed well on day 1, but I'm a bit confused as to why Mayumi's started Nohmi and Fukuhara when they are plenty of other decent starters in our line up. I know you need to try pitchers out but Fukuhara has never exactly shined has he.

Anyway too early to tell, but the home series against an in-form Hiroshima tuesday to thursday will be interesting.

Seems like I jinxed us by saying before that I was glad Sekimoto was 2nd and Hirano 8th. Hopefully the shuffle was temporary.
Yeah, I imagine Mench is not popular at the moment. When you are already pinch hit for in the opening series, it's not a good sign. To put more pressure on him, Lin--someone who could replace him in right--is a very popular player.

Hanshin losing twice at home, I am sure Mayumi who has so far seemed quite laid back and relaxed now will feel some pressure. How long before Mayumi will not use Mench? According to a Sankei Sports article, some of the Hanshin fans are losing patience over Mench. In the last game, fans were aparently yelling to bench him and place with him some other. Other fans were yellng the good old " go home" (kaere) Lots of fans at Kiyocera were coming with verbal abuse.

http://sports.yahoo.co.jp/news/20090406-00000509-sanspo-base.html

If Mench can come through, the Hanshin line up will look very powerful, if not, then it will not look that powerful. Lots of responsibilities and pressure rest on his shoulders now.

Watching him at bat, he is very nervous. He needs to settle and that is going to be difficult with all the good (and bad) natured barracking he is facing. Even Okada struggled to handle that and he played for Tigers for most of his career. Both Mench's rivals, Sakurai and Lin are highly popular and yes he has a deadline of Golden Week to do something.

Mench looked much better today after what i think was 6 bad fly balls and 5 strikeouts against Ys. He finally hit the ground towards third in his first at-bat. It was a crappy one but somehow got to base thanks to an error. Then he followed with 2 hits in that direction.

Kanemoto was on fire, that rally wouldn't even look believable if it was a Rookies episode

Kanemoto was on fire, that rally wouldn't even look believable if it was a Rookies episode.
And he follows it up last night with 3 HRs! I keep waiting for him to show his age and slow down, but he's having an unbelievable start.