July 10th Shimoyanagi v K. Ishii - Errors finish the Lions

Tigers showed more spirit this game and came away with the victory they should have had against Ishii at Koshien. The plans are for Kanemoto to return to left field and the No. 4 position after Inter-league and for the first series against the BayStars. This strikes me as a retrograde step - I'd much rather prefer to see him used as a pinch hitter. Once again Kyuji was used in a non-save situation but the wrong one. Mayumi uses him whenever the difference between the teams is four runs. This rather strikes one as panicky. Surely other pitchers are capable of holding off opponents with a four run lead. He does need to use Kyuji in situations which are appropriate - the tied away game being a particular example. If he's going to use Kyuji in non-save situations why not the ones where his contribution might make a difference (and the figures indicate that it does make a difference). This is rather poor tactical management and goes back to Mayumi's lack of understanding of pitching (of which there is ample evidence). On the matter of pitching it is nice to see Shimoyanagi using the zone more often - this has given him a new lease of life recently. One hopes it will continue against the Central League teams. Scores

        1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R  H E
Tigers  3 0 0 3 0 0 2 0 0 8 10 1
Lions   0 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 4 10 3

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

Pitcher was Shimoyanagi

Lions
1. Kataoka (Second)
2. Abe (Third)
3. Nakajima (Short)
4. Kuriyama (Centre)
5. Brown (DH)
6. Takayama (Right)
7. G. G. Sato (Left)
8. Hirao (First)
9. Hosokawa (Catcher)

PItcher was K. Ishii

The Lions would put in an error ridden performance this game which Tigers took full advantage of. Ishii could not repeat the level of pitching he showed in the previous contest and was knocked out of the game in the fourth. Shimoyanagi for the most part pitched really nicely again and was able to go seven innings. One hopes this continues. Ishii started Tigers first by striking out Toritani. Hirano then hit his first pitch to right for a two base hit. Murton hit to centre and Hirano was home 1-0 Tigers, runner on first. Like the game the previous night Tigers had started well. Kanemoto struck out but Arai took a loose pitch deep for a straight 2 run home run 3-0 Tigers. The final batter of the innings Brazell tried to repeat the feat but flew out to centre. Shimoyanagi had a surprisingly easy time of protecting this nice lead in Lions first. He got the first two outs but then gave up a hit to Nakajima. However, Kuriyama flew out to left with his first pitch and ended the innings. Tigers second was a quiet innings with no one doing anything. However, Shimoyanagi ran into trouble against the bottom of the Lions order in their second. With one out he walked Takayama. G. G. Sato hit to left and Lions had runners on first and second. Hirao hit to centre for a timely hit 3-1 Tigers, runners on first and second. This wasn't good pitching from Shimoyanagi. Hosokawa hit to right to load the bases - still with one out and more poor pitching. Then Kataoka hit a sacrifice fly to centre and it was 3-2 Tigers runners on first and second. Finally, Abe flew out to left to end the innings but this is probably one Shimoyanagi would rather forget. Ishii walked HIrano in Tigers third and then advanced him to second with a wild pitch. Tigers rather wasted this opportunity as Murton and then Kanemoto struck out to strand the Tigers second. Shimoyanagi's period of living dangerously continued in Lions third. Nakajima swung at his first pitch and put it over right for a single. Kuriyama flew out and then Brown hit to Hirano who messed it up. Lions had runners on first and second with one out. This became bases loaded with one out as Takayama walked and Tigers were in a bind. However, Shimoyanagi responded as he so often does in these cases by persuading the next batter (this time G. G. Sato) to hit into a double play and end the innings. Tigers had escaped.

To celebrate this they proceeded to go on a hitting spree. Ishii did not return for the Tigers fourth and his place was taken by Hsu who proved to be no improvement. Arai hit to left and then Brazell hit to right - runners on first and third with no outs. Johjima hit a two base to left 4-2 Tigers, runners on second and third. Sakurai grounded out and no run was scored. The next batter was Asai who hit to short. Nakajima messed up completely and Brazell was home 5-2 Tigers runners on first and third. Toritani banged a two base into centre which brought home Johjima 6-2 Tigers, runners on second and third. Hirano struck out and then Murton grounded out to end the innings. Shimoyanagi was better in Lions fourth. He did give up a two out hit to Kataoka and even though the Lions second stole a base did not put anymore runners on as Abe flew out to end the innings. Hsu was much improved in Tigers fifth and retired the batters in order. Brazell was the last batter and fouled a ball into his face and had to return to the dugout for treatment. He finished his at bat but was replaced by Sekimoto at first while he went to hospital for further examination. Lions fifth was quiet - the batters presenting Shimoyanagi with no troubles and meekly surrendering. Hsu ran into trouble in Tigers sixth. Johjima hit a two base to left to lead off the innings. Successive short ground outs by Sakurai and Asai prevented him from proceeding any further but Watanabe decided that it would be wise to change pitchers at this point and Takekuma took the mound. He started by walking Toritani and then Johjima stole third. He probably succeeded because this was totally unexpected. However, the batter was Hirano who is not so proficient at driving in runners (he is great at hitting and getting on base) and he flew out to left. Lions sixth was quiet with Shimoyanagi in complete control.

The pitcher for Tigers seventh was Tanaka who also found himself in trouble but wasn't helped by the Lions fielding errors. Murton hit a ground out to second but LIons messed this up and he was safe on first. Kanemoto walked but Arai struck out. Sekimoto hit to third who completely fouled this one and Murton tried for home but Lions recovered in time to prevent this but Tigers had runners on second and third. Johjima hit into centre to bring both runners home 8-2 Tigers and whilst Lions were messing around was able to make second. Finally Hiyama (pinch hitter) grounded out to first which given their earlier lamentable performance it was somewhat surprising that the Lions were able to actually make the first ground out play. Mayumi decided on another innings of Shimoyanagi who had pitched more than his previous outing but was still below his limit. This worked well - with two batters back in the dugout Abe hit but then Nakajima hit his first pitch straight to Arai for the ground out. Tigers were firmly in control. The pitcher for Tigers eighth was Matsunaga who gave up a lead off hit to Asai. A wild pitch took the centre to second and then a centre fly took him to third. He tried for home on HIrano's ground out but was out to end the innings. For Lions eighth Shimoyanagi was replaced by Tsutsui. A good idea but Tsutsui did not start well. He walked Kuriyama but then struck out Brown. By now Lions were in desperation mode and Takayama hit his first pitch over the left fence for a two run home run 8-4 Tigers. Mayumi acted quickly and replaced Tsutsui with Uezono. He gave up a hit to Ohshima (pinch hitter) but then induced Y. Ishii to ground out into a double play and the innings was over. The final pitcher for Lions was Ohnuma who untroubled by fielding errors retired the batters in order. As I mentioned Mayumi used Kyuji in the Lions ninth. He started with a two base hit to Uemoto (pinch hitter) but then Kyuji stepped up a gear. Kataoka flew out in foul ground and then the next two batters were blown away with typical Fujikawa strike outs, end of game. Tigers victory.

Tigers had done well. The batters had hit and shown good application driving in runs and giving Shimoyanagi the support he needed. He now stands at 4-4 and despite his wobbles is pitching well. Kanemoto was ineffective at fourth but Johjima and Arai both drove in a brace of runs. Lions took the series against Tigers 3-1 but even though this was really a consolation victory it showed that Tigers were of the same level as the Lions.

Good to see us bounce back after a tough loss the night before and beat up on a good team.
I would normally fume at using Kyuji in such a situation, but with the light schedule now, maybe Mayumi just wants to keep him sharp. Off day today, then several more off days after interleague play stops, so not so bad to give him some work. I still think Mayumi's a moron of course, but this one might have been justified.

It would have been better to use him in place of Watanabe the day before. What is the point of using having a star pitcher if you use him in non-star situations? Eric posted a couple of links to very interesting articles.