April 26th Nohmi v Maeda - The rematch

Tigers showed some signs of life - Arai hit a home run and Kanemoto drove in a single but poor pitching by Nohmi and failure to make the most of their chances doomed Tigers to defeat. This was not a vintage Maeda performance - in fact it is a toss up as to who was the poorer pitcher. Nohmi gave up too many extra base hits but Maeda was there to be hit and is (at least against the Tigers) looking quite ordinary.

        1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R  H E
Tigers  0 1 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 4 12 1
Carp    0 0 1 1 0 0 4 0 X 6  9 0

Starting lineups

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

Carp
1. Soyogi (Short)
2. Higashide (Second)
3. Hirose (Centre)
4. Tracey (Third)
5. Kurihara (First)
6. Iwamoto (Left)
7. Io (Right)
8. Ishihara (Catcher)
9. Maeda (Pitcher)

Off we go with a quiet innings for the Tigers first - three batters, three flyouts. One out into the Carp's first Higashide hit to centre but Hirose hit into a double play and ended the innings. Arai started Tigers second with a two base hit to right centre. Brazell grounded out but moved Arai to third which brought up Kanemoto. And guess what? He hit! Arai was home and it was 1-0 Tigers, runner on first. Johjima flew out but then Shunsuke hit to set up runners on first and second. Next was Nohmi and this can't really be counted as a missed chance - one doesn't expect the pitcher to drive in that many runs and Nohmi grounded out to second to end the innings. Tracey hit to centre to lead off the Carp's second but stayed on first as the next three batters did nothing. Tigers third started with a Murton hit. A Hirano bunt followed - once again a pretty useless move. Toritani flew out in foul ground again but Arai walked. It was all up to Brazell who drove tamely to second to end the chance. This was a wasted chance quite definitely. Carp took full advantage of it and some terrible pitching by Nohmi. He started by walking Ishihara in four - a very poor display. Maeda bunted Ishihara to second but then a wild pitch took Ishihara to third. Nohmi then walked Soyogi hoping for the double play but Soyogi took things into his own hands and tried to steal second. He was thrown out comfortably and it looked like Tigers were out of danger. One out to get with this being Higashide. He duly hit to Hirano who messed it up (one has to be charitable HIrano doesn't make too many mistakes so he can be forgiven this lapse). Ishihara though was home 1-1 scores tied, runner on first. Nohmi though was still pitching poorly and managed to walk Hirose - runners on first and second. Tracey grounded out to second and this time Hirano made no mistake to end the innings.

So into Tigers fourth with Kanemoto grounding out to start the innings. Johjima hit to left and Shunsuke followed this with a two base setting up runners on first and second. A sacrifice fly was on here and Nohmi did fly out to right. Johjima though was held back and here it is difficult to understand why. Certainly he isn't the fastest runner and Ishihara blocks the plate very effectively but it would have been worth the try. However, there was still a chance with Murton at the plate but he grounded out to short and a super chance had been wasted. Carp though made no mistake in taking the lead in their fourth. Nohmi was drifting and Kurihara hit a two base to left off his first pitch. Two outs followed with Io flying out to centre and moving Kurihara to third. Still - only the ineffective Ishihara to get for the final out. It didn't work that way - Ishihara's first pitch was also slammed to left for a two base hit 2-1 Carp. The final batter was Maeda who struck out to end the innings. The lead didn't last long - as I mentioned in the introduction it was a toss up as to who was the worst pitcher. Maeda then gave up a two base hit to right to HIrano. Toritani struck out but Arai hammered his first home run of the season over the right centre fence 3-2 Tigers. Both Brazell and Kanemoto grounded out but the lead was back with the Tigers. It almost disappeared in the bottom. With one out Higashide hit a three base. Nohmi then deadballed Hirose to set up runners on the corner but Tracey came to the rescue and proved it wasn't only the Tigers who could waste chances grounding out into an innings ending double play. A lucky escape for us. With Johjima out in Tigers sixth Shunsuke hit and was bunted to second. Once again it needed something from Murton and if he had hit this probably would have been the decisive run but he grounded out and the chance was gone. Carp's sixth was that rare sight in this game a 1-2-3 innings.

Tigers seventh saw Maeda return and Arai hit a single with two out - he needed a triple to complete the cycle. However Brazell couldn't do anything and the innings was scoreless. With Carp's seventh next it would have been a good time to change pitchers and go to the relief. Admittedly Nohmi had only thrown 74 pitches at that stage and theoretically was still fresh but his pitching hadn't been good and he was being hit regularly. However, it is likely that Mayumi saw only pitch count and anything your pitcher can do my pitcher can do to so Nohmi was inserted for another innings. It proved to be just the disaster that was indicated. Ishihara grounded out but then Kokubo (pinch hitter) hit a two base to right. The next batter, Soyogi hit a nice three base to right centre 3-3 scores tied and definitely the time to change the pitching. Mayumi kept Nohmi in and he with his control gone walked Kurihara to set up runners on first and third with just one out. Next was Hirose who hit deep to right centre for a three run home run 6-3 Carp. Nohmi had blown the lead in a big way. Finally Mayumi acted and brought on Kojima. He was a bit nervous and allowed Tracey a two base hi to left. However, he settled down and struck out the next two batters to end the innings. Having used a pinch hitter for Maeda, Carp put Aoki onto the mound for Tigers eighth. Kanemoto led the innings off with a hit which brought a quick pitching change with Schultz taking over. This didn't help as Kanemoto stole second and Johjima hit to set up runners on first and third with no outs. Shunsuke hit to Soyogi forcing out Johjima but Kanemoto was home 6-4 Carp, runner on first. Lin (pinch hitter) grounded out and Murton struck out looking. Fukuhara pitched Carps eighth and thankfully gave up no runs retiring the batters in order. For Tigers ninth Sarfate closed out also retiring the batters in order. Carp victory.

Too many wasted chances but the signs of life from Kanemoto and Arai were encouraging. Mayumi currently has an obsession with all his pitchers throwing seven innings no matter what the warning signs. Experience should have warned him that Nohmi wasn't doing wonderfully and that it would have been better to try and preserve the victory. Instead Nohmi was put into a situation he was unable to cope with. This game had actually been winnable up until the seventh when the balance tipped firmly the way of the Carp.

This loss really made me miss the JFK days. I don't think Mayumi has complete trust in his bullpen yet, as he shouldn't. Kubota is unpredictable, Kobayashi hasn't quite settled in yet, and Fujikawa isn't the lights-out closer he used to be. Our bullpen has a lot of potential, so hopefully everyone will settle in.

The starting pitching has been decent, so if we can just improve our clutch hitting/ability to manafacture runs and get the bullpen to the right level we can go on a hot streak. 12 hits with only 4 runs to show for it is not the way to win ball games.

Kubota has always been a bit flaky at times - remember his time as closer.

I would have gone for the bullpen after the sixth. Did you see the Sanspo article which asked the same question? Mayumi's problem is more rigidity than trust. He still doesn't understand pitching.

Well, Mayumi's still an OB who wouldn't even consider taking out the starting pitcher until his pitch count reaches triple digits. As you mentioned, Nohmi's pitch count was quite low, but Mayumi could have at least taken him out when he started getting into trouble in that inning. If he puts more trust in his bullpen they might start rewarding him. I'm actually pleased with Kubota's performance this year, but every few appearances you just have a feeling "flaky" Kubota with no control is going to show up. I wonder how some of the veteran relievers feel seeing Enokida thrown in such important situations right off the bat.

Mayumi plans to integrate Enokida into the KKK set up. I'm not convinced that he's that good yet. He still lacks the necessary focus and nerve to be a top relief pitcher.