September 25th Messenger v Alvarado - Tigers hopes continue

Murton continued to move into uncharted territory for Tigers batters adding two more hits. Tigers needed to win this game to keep their pennant hopes alive having blown them earlier. The Dragons also won which consigned BayStars to last place. Arai moved onto his career highest number of RBIs with a nicely struck home run. We also saw the return of Kanemoto who this time batted seventh - after Johjima which is much more appropriate. Incidently, Johjima became Tigers highest ever hitting catcher with 156 hits. This team is breaking a lot of batting records but it's pitching that wins games as the Dragons have shown. Scores

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

Starting lineups

Carp
1. Soyogi (Short)
2. Kimura (Second)
3. Amaya (First)
4. Kurihara (First)
5. Shima (Left)
6. Hirose (Right)
7. Nakatani (Third)
8. Ishihara (Catcher)
9. Alvarado (PItcher)

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

Messenger started and ended the first with a strike out. In between that he walked Kimura, gave up a hit to Kurihara, got Amaya to fly out and gave up a run to Shima 1-0 Carp, runners on first and second. Not exactly a good start. And Alvardo? Alvarado wasn't able to repeat his control of the Tigers this time. Murton grounded out but Hirano hit to left and Toritani to right - runners on first and second with Arai next. This time he hit nicely - swinging through the ball for a three run home run to left centre 3-1 Tigers. Brazell grounded out and Johjima struck out and Tigers were comfortably in the lead. Messenger took heart from this and retired the Carp batters in order in the second. Messenger managed a two out walk in Tigers second - an interesting development but one which the Tigers couldn't exploit as Murton grounded out again. In Carp's third the batters fell in order. Arai was up again in Tigers third but this time didn't have any runners on - he still managed a two base hit, however, Brazell struck out swinging and the innings was scoreless.

In Carp's fourth Hirose had a two out two base hit but by now Messenger was comfortable and was able to easily deal with Nakatani who grounded out to short off his first pitch to end the innings. Tigers fourth was quiet - the first innings of theirs without a runner on base. Carp's fifth was also quiet - nothing happened. Tigers fifth saw a lucky escape for the Carp. Messenger led the innings off by flying out. Messenger hit to short. Then Hirano hit and Tigers had runners on first and second. However, Toritani struck out and Arai hit his first pitch back to Alvarado who fielded easily and threw to first for the final out. Messenger then ran into trouble in Carp's sxith. Kimura hit to centre and made second on Amaya's ground out. Then Kurihara walked. This prompted a quick pitching change and Watanabe replaced Messenger who had pitched fairly well. He got Shima to fly out to centre which did take Kimura to third. Then Hirose flew out to right to end the innings. Tigers had done well here. With one out in Tigers sixth Johjima hit to right. Kanemoto hit a fly to Soyogi who dropped it and Tigers had runners on first and second. This brought up Saka who hit to right and raced round the bases to third. Both Johjima and Kanemoto were home 5-1 Tigers. Next was Lin (pinch hitter) and his first pitch went into centre 6-1 Tigers, runner on first with just one out. Murton though hit into a double play and ended the innings. Tigers were in control and the result of the match was settled.

It was really emphasised with Kubota taking the mound - he retired the Carp batters in order in the seventh and made sure that there would be no counter attack. Ohshima replaced Alvarado for Tigers seventh and whilst he wasn't battered as he had been before he gave up runs. With one out Toritani walked. Ohshima then dead balled Arai. Brazell hit which brought home Toritani 7-1 Tigers runners on first and third. Johjima hit a grounder but Arai was able to make home with Uemoto (pinch running for Brazell) on second, 8-1 Tigers. A wild pitch took Uemoto to third before Shunsuke Fujikawa (replacement left) struck out to end the innings. Kubota then motored through the Carp's eighth retiring the batters nicely in order. Nakata pitched Tigers eighth and gave up a two out centre hit to Murton. Interestingly, the other three batters he all struck out looking but it didn't really matter. Nishimura took Carp's ninth and started by dead balling Kurihara. Then he walked Shima - it was going to be one of those Nishimura innings but with a seven run margin Mayumi was feeling a bit indulgent. Hirose flew out and then Nakatani swung and hit a two base bringing home a run 8-2 Tigers, runners on second and third. Ishihara was deliberately walked but Nishimura managed to sandwich this with a wild pitch which brough home a run 8-3 Tigers, runners on the corners. Aizawa struck out swinging for the second out and then Nishimura struck out Soyogi to end the game. Tigers victory.

This had been overwhelming - Tigers had handled the threat of Alvarado well and beaten the Carp comfortably. This in fact was the correct way to play the Carp and Tigers should have done this earlier - talent and abilitywise Tigers are a far superior team and shouldn't lose any series to a team like the Carp. Part of their current trouble is due to the fact that they have forgotten how to play at times and have had a manager who doesn't know how to motivate them to do so. Tigers are still in with a chance of winning the pennant but realistically speaking do need to win all their remaining games. A tall order and we will see if they can do it.

Giants and Dragons loss today, so hope continues. By the way, I saw a headline today that said Hanshin's magic was 8 or 9. How can a second place team have a magic number? Or was this referring to the magic number for clinching second?

The Tigers are a special case since they control their own destiny - if they win all their remaining games, they win the Central regardless of what the Dragons do, since they have so many games in hand on the Dragons. I think with the Dragons' loss to the Swallows last night they even earned a one-loss cushion, meaning that they can lose one game and still clinch the Central.

That is correct Tigers can go 8-1 and still win the Central League. It's tight but doable. If the Dragons loose their final game the cushion becomes 2 games.

NPB really needs to do doubleheaders or something to avoid these awkward pennant races.