Tigers had a short series against Carp. The first game was lost because Wada still hasn't understood the principle of using your close in the bottom of the ninth in tied games. Carp came out winners 2-1 in the twelveth. It was also a case of over-pitching yet again - Fujinami going for 123 pitches over seven innings. Tigers bounced back and won the next game 4-3 demonstrating that this year's Carp are a formidable outfit. Iwata pitched the game and did very well only throwing 93 pitches over 8 innings whilst giving up two runs. Oh closed out the game successfully.
Returning to Koshien Tigers struggled against Inoh who for some reason causes them all sorts of problems despite being the usual BayStars mediocrity. Daily Sports was so disgusted with this game that it led with racing not Tigers - a sign that the defeat was considered particularly humiliating. Here Wada made Nohmi go 131 pitches over 8 innings - a truly pointless display of managerial pique. BayStars were deserved winners of the game 3-1. However, this is the BayStars and so they weren't going to win the series. Messenger who is setting all sorts of records for complete games shut them out the very next game 4-0 and here it was more logical to put him in for the whole game. This is his third shutout in a row which is pretty impressive. The final game of the series saw Iwazaki start and pitch well. Tigers wasted numerous chances against their mediocre opposition but finally came out winners 4-1. The games heros were Ryota Arai who hit a two run single that eased the pressure on the Tigers and Oh who pitched very nicely for the save. Next comes the Inter League games which traditionally have been the Carp's downfall. We'll see if they can handle them as well as they've handled everything else.
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Returning to Koshien Tigers struggled against Inoh who for some reason causes them all sorts of problems despite being the usual BayStars mediocrity. Daily Sports was so disgusted with this game that it led with racing not Tigers - a sign that the defeat was considered particularly humiliating. Here Wada made Nohmi go 131 pitches over 8 innings - a truly pointless display of managerial pique. BayStars were deserved winners of the game 3-1. However, this is the BayStars and so they weren't going to win the series. Messenger who is setting all sorts of records for complete games shut them out the very next game 4-0 and here it was more logical to put him in for the whole game. This is his third shutout in a row which is pretty impressive. The final game of the series saw Iwazaki start and pitch well. Tigers wasted numerous chances against their mediocre opposition but finally came out winners 4-1. The games heros were Ryota Arai who hit a two run single that eased the pressure on the Tigers and Oh who pitched very nicely for the save. Next comes the Inter League games which traditionally have been the Carp's downfall. We'll see if they can handle them as well as they've handled everything else.