Tigers have a new permanent catcher - Haraguchi after his stunning switch from Ikusei to full time contract is now catching for Messenger and Nohmi sidelining Okazaki entirely. The latter is still number two catcher with Sakamoto as number three.
Haraguchi was on form in the final game of the Dragons series and guided Messenger nicely to a tight victory. Dragons were entirely shut out and despite getting runners on were not able to do anything else. The only run of the game came from a Yamato home run to left - 1-0 Tigers and the series.
Next up were the Swallows who basically struggled to get runners home. They had their opportunities and managed to load the bases with only one out but were totally incompetent when it came to bringing runners home. Iwasada was pitched to long (what is it with Kanemoto and having the pitchers go seven innings?) but held out well. The only runs were driven in by Itayama - a rather bloopy single which evaded second and brought two runners home from a bases loaded situation 2-0 Tigers.
Fujikawa still doesn't look like a starter and once again struggled in the next game. Fujikawa was a mess from the start and Swallows were 5 runs ahead by the third. Tigers fought back to 5-3 - Gomez continues to drive runs in and he got support from Egoshi and Yamato. They drew level in the bottom of the fourth with Yamato driving in two more runs but it wasn't enough. Dollis was battered in the seventh giving up 5 more runs and after this pleasant canter Swallows could afford to be generous allowing the Tigers 3 more runs. The final score 10-6 though Haraguchi did help himself to a home run.
The final game of the series saw Swallows successfully seal the series with a 5-1 victory. The only incident of note was the dead fish that fell on the playing field during the game. It was not thrown by an enraged Tigers fan (and they have been known to throw things at Tigers players) so it was probably from a bird.
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Haraguchi was on form in the final game of the Dragons series and guided Messenger nicely to a tight victory. Dragons were entirely shut out and despite getting runners on were not able to do anything else. The only run of the game came from a Yamato home run to left - 1-0 Tigers and the series.
Next up were the Swallows who basically struggled to get runners home. They had their opportunities and managed to load the bases with only one out but were totally incompetent when it came to bringing runners home. Iwasada was pitched to long (what is it with Kanemoto and having the pitchers go seven innings?) but held out well. The only runs were driven in by Itayama - a rather bloopy single which evaded second and brought two runners home from a bases loaded situation 2-0 Tigers.
Fujikawa still doesn't look like a starter and once again struggled in the next game. Fujikawa was a mess from the start and Swallows were 5 runs ahead by the third. Tigers fought back to 5-3 - Gomez continues to drive runs in and he got support from Egoshi and Yamato. They drew level in the bottom of the fourth with Yamato driving in two more runs but it wasn't enough. Dollis was battered in the seventh giving up 5 more runs and after this pleasant canter Swallows could afford to be generous allowing the Tigers 3 more runs. The final score 10-6 though Haraguchi did help himself to a home run.
The final game of the series saw Swallows successfully seal the series with a 5-1 victory. The only incident of note was the dead fish that fell on the playing field during the game. It was not thrown by an enraged Tigers fan (and they have been known to throw things at Tigers players) so it was probably from a bird.