September 14th Fujinami v Kiya - The latest Murton incident

Matt Murton is currently attracting trouble it seems and this incident was courtesy of Aikawa - the Swallows catcher. As Murton rounded third in the sixth Aikawa was blocking the plate. He received the ball before Murton slid in for the tag and the only way Murton could score or be safe was to charge the catcher and dislodge the ball. Now this doesn't happen that much in Japanese baseball and catchers will cheerfully block the plate and wait for the ball. Sometimes they don't even apply a tag but the out is given. However, recently, umpires have been cracking down on this and there have been some surprised catchers. Other catchers avoid blocking the plate if they can, Abe, Fujii and Tanishige are more likely to try a swiping tag than block the plate. Tigers have been active in charging catchers, Sekimoto, Machida, Sheets and even Kanemoto have done so. Foreign players in Japan also charge the catcher no matter what the team. So Murton charged the catcher as he was entitled to do and bundled Aikawa over. Aikawa held onto the ball and Murton was out. End of story one would have throught. Here though Aikawa was at fault in that he jumped up and attacked Murton. Murton himself apart from a half-push to seperate himself from Aikawa didn't get involved in any fighting. He also didn't get involved in the fracas which resulted from the dugouts emptying. In fact nothing Murton had done warranted the reaction of Aikawa - he had played the game hard but fair. Of course, Aikawa should have been ejected but Murton should have been allowed to remain on the field. However, we run into umpire incompetence and the fact that umpires in general have decided that Murton is a nail that sticks up. Thus Murton was also punished for Aikawa's transgression by also being ejected. Scores

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

Starting Lineups

Tigers
1. Nishioka (Second)
2. Shibata (Centre)
3. Takahiro Arai (First)
4. Toritani (Short)
5. Murton (Left)
6. Fukudome (Right)
7. Ryota Arai (Third)
8. Shimizu (Catcher)
9. Fujinami (Pitcher)

Swallows
1. Ueda (Centre)
2. Miwa (Right)
3. Kawabata (Third)
4. Balentien (Left)
5. Yuichi (First)
6. Aikawa (Catcher)
7. Morioka (Short)
8. Yamada (Second)
9. Kiya (Pitcher)

The Murton incident did detract from what was a fine performance by the Swallows pitcher who outpitched the Tigers sensation Fujinami. Kiya started well getting Nishioka and Shibata out but Arai hit neatly into centre. It didn't help as Toritani flew out to end the innings. Fujinami's start was much better - he kept the Swallows off base. Murton struck out looking to lead off Tigers second and then Fukudome singled right. Kiya was not well directed as Ryota also singled right - runners on first and second. Shimizu and then Fujinami struck out swinging and no run resulted. Swallows second was quiet with Fujinami striking out Balentien. With the top of Tigers order back round again things looked promising and even more promising when Nishioka led off with a walk. Now it is almost a rule in Japanese baseball that if No. 1 gets on base with no outs, No 2 bunts. Never mind the actual value of the move - it happens automatically. There was a glorious period when Akahoshi was stealing bases and negating the need for a bunt but even there towards the end of his career Okada was insisting on the bunt and not the steal. This is what happened in Nishioka's at bat - Shibata bunted him to second. Arai grounded out to third and Toritani struck out looking. Kiya was beginning to assert himself. Swallows first base runner came in their third and surprisingly it was Kiya who was walked with two out by Fujinami. Recently some of the pitching to the pitchers has been poor. Ueda could only ground out to second to end the innings though.

Tigers fourth saw no one get on base and was a much improved innings for the Swallows. In fact the pendulum of the game had swung Swallows way and with two out in the Swallows fourth Balentien singled right off his first pitch. Yuichi hit to centre and Swallows had runners on first and second. However, the two outs counted against them and when Aikawa hit to second the innings was over. Two outs followed in Tigers fifth and then Nishioka doubled to left centre. Next was Arai who has been having an awful run - partly self generated, partly due to coaching and management failures. He grounded out to end the innings. Swallows fifth was quiet - Tigers were getting the chances but weren't converting the runners and this would cost them. With two out and Kiya struggling Murton doubled off his first pitch. Fukudome singled to centre also off his first pitch and Murton headed for home and the incident. He was the final out of the innings and was replaced by Asai. Nishida replaced Aikawa for the Swallows. With one out in Swallows sixth Miwa singled. He stole second and then advanced to third on a wild pitch. Kawabata bounced one in short and it hung up such a long time that Miwa was able to scamper home 1-0 Swallows and a piece of luck for the home team. Balentein swung and popped up to third for the final out.

Tigers seventh saw no one get on base but Swallows seventh was different. Yuichi led the innings off with a single. He was bunted to second by Nishida which in fact was a disaster as the ball went straight to Fujinami who threw to second for the force out. Fujinami emboldened by this tried to pick Nishida off and missed badly allowing the Swallows replacement catcher to take third. Morioka followed and in what can only be described as a diving squeeze play managed to hit the ball and send it up the first baseline (where it stayed fair and where there was no cover) which gave enough time for the runner to reach home 2-0 Swallows. Like the other Swallows run it was pure luck but then it was a lucky night for the Swallows. Yamada was the final out conventionally grounding out to second. Here Swallows switched pitchers and brought Yamamoto on - a sensible move. He started Tigers eighth poorly though and Nishioka hit to short for a single. Two outs followed and then Toritani singled to centre - runners on first and second. Hidaka (pinch hitter) was next and managed to ground out to second. Wada ever keen to push his pitchers beyond their limit brought the tired Fujinami back for the Swallows eighth. This was unproductive as he failed to hold a hit back at him from Miyamoto (pinch hitter) with no outs. He was pinch run for by Kawasaki who was bunted to second. Then Fujinami walked Miwa which wasn't helpful. The scales fell from Wada's eyes and he replaced Fujinami with Tsutsui - back in the relief now. He got Kawabata to fly out to Arai for the second out which brought another pitching change - unnecessary as it was with Watanabe taking over. A wild pitch from Watanabe took the runners to second and third and here Tigers did walk Balentien with intent. They didn't want to risk the game getting away from them. Bases loaded and Yuichi next. He grounded out to Watanabe who made no mistake to end the innings. Tigers ninth was pitched by Ishiyama and was quiet - even the introduction of Hiyama as pinch hitter for the final at bat didn't change things and the pinch hitter flew out to right to end the game. Swallows victory.

The Murton incident overshadowed what had been a tightly fought Swallows victory. It was nice to see the team giving Murton the support he needed and one hopes that he realises that the team is behind him though he is known to be dissatisfied with the current regime. Tigers should have made more of their chances whilst Swallows despite their luck had taken their chances well for a rare victory against the Tigers.

I invite you to watch this Pro Yakyu Report and have a listen to this Japan Baseball Weekly Podcast. Even Murton himself disagrees with you.

Here is the link to the Daily Sports report (September 15th edition) on Murton's comments. Murton is quite clear that he will charge catchers covering the plate.

http://www.daily.co.jp/newsflash/tigers/2013/09/15/0006340488.shtml

Gen over on Yakyu Baka also points out that the plate umpire thought it a normal play. Murton was ejected for fighting back not for the charge. His summary of the aftermath is worth reading as the reactions seem to indicate unequivocally (apart from Ogawa-kantoku) that it was considered a normal play.