May 30th Fukuhara v Darvish - Tigers have no answer

One might think that a better selection of pitcher would have helped. Fighters aren't exactly the most offensively gifted side so a tighter focused pitcher would work nicely but Tigers don't have any of those so we have to make do with Fukuhara, He was not at his best and the game was really over by the second innings, Darvish was so good that everything else was icing on the cake. Box scores

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

Starting lineups

Tigers
1. Akahoshi (Centre)
2. Sekimoto (Second)
3. Toritani (Short)
4. Kanemoto (Left)
5. Arai (Third)
6. Hiyama (DH)
7. Katsuragi (First)
8. Kanoh (Catcher)
9. Hirano (Right)

Pitcher was Fukuhara

Fighters
1. Tanaka (Second)
2. Itoi (Centre)
3. Inaba (Right)
4. Takahashi (First)
5. Koyano (Third)
6. Tsuboi (Left)
7. Jimenez (DH)
8. Tsuruoka (Catcher)
9. Makoto Kaneko (Short)

Everything in the Tigers early innings would revolve around their inability to hit Darvish. With Akahoshi out in the first Sekimoto walked. He then stole second! It doesn't say much for Fighters defence that Sekimoto was able to steal second. Darvish though didn't let it bother him and retired to end the innings nicely. Fighters first started off brightly enough with a one out walk to Itoi. One out later, Takahashi grounded out to second but in what was an overally absymal fielding display by the Tigers the first error was committed and Sekimoto let him get on base, runners on first and third. Fukuhara was not up to the challenge and Koyano drove in the first run 1-0 Fighters, runners on first and third. Again another hit, this time by Tsuboi 2-0 Fighters runners on first and second. The final batter Jimenez struck out but a good start by the Fighters. Tigers second was appalling (for the Tigers) - Darvish struck out the three batters he faced. Fighters second was also appalling for the Tigers. With one out Makoto Kaneko hit a two base. Tanaka banged one to Sekimoto who once again made a complete mess of it and Fighters had runners on first and third. Tanaka stole second and things looked ominous. They looked even more ominous when Itoi walked and the bases were loaded. Inaba hit a sacrifice fly 3-0 Fighters runners on first and second and then a wild pitch took them to second and third. Takahashi walked as Fukuhara made a valiant attempt to win the worst pitching of the season competition and the bases were loaded again. A dead ball on Koyano followed - oshidashi 4-0 Fighters. The final batter was Tsuboi who grounded out. Tigers third saw Akahoshi walk but nothing came of this. In Fighters third Fukuhara managed to keep the runners off home plate but did give up a two base hit to Kaneko.

Tigers fourth was quiet with the batters falling in order. In Fighters fourth Fukuhara was once again in trouble. He gave up a lead off home run to Itoi 5-0 Fighters. Two outs later Koyano hit but this time it didn't lead to anything and no further score resulted. Mayumi was using Hiyama as DH, the rationale for which escapes me as he can quite easily use either Lin or Sakurai who are both hitting well. Hiyama hit to right and then Katsuragi hit (the first two hits off Darvish from the Tigers). This set up runners on first and third with no outs. After Kanoh struck out Hirano hit to second who messed the chance up and Hiyama was home 5-1 Fighters, runners on first and third. Akahoshi hit a ground out to Darvish but Fighters didn't get the double play and Tigers had runners on first and third. As is usual Akahoshi stole second and things looked interesting. Darvish though struck out Sekimoto to end the chance for that innings. Fukuhara, perhaps surprisingly, returned for the Fighters fifth and once again ran into trouble. He started by walking Tsuruoka. A balk then took the Fighters catcher to second and then a hit from Kaneko brought him home 6-1 Fighters runner on first. At this point Mayumi decided enough was enough. Fukuhara had been quite abysmal and had managed to put the game well out of Tigers reach by his poor pitching. Egusa replaced him and with two outs Kaneko stole second. Egusa walked Itoi but then got the final batter, Inaba to line out and end the innings. Tigers sixth saw more trouble for Darvish. He gave up a two base hit to Kanemoto and then followed this with a centre hit to Arai. Inexplicably Kanemoto was held up on third whilst he could have gone for home (I thought the Wada disease had finished). This gave Darvish the break he needed and when Hiyama lined out the field was able to get the runner off base and the innings and chance was lost. Fighters sixth was quiet as Watanabe (replacing Egusa) retired the batters in order.

Tigers seventh was also quiet and the batters fell easily in order. Tsutsui replaced Watanabe for Fighters seventh and was in control with no batter getting on base. In Tigers eighth which was pitched by Miyanishi, Sakurai (pinch hitter and replacement right)led off proceedings with a two base hit. One out later Toritani hit to centre and this time the Tigers made no mistake with the runner reaching home 6-2 Fighters, runner on first. Kanemoto struck out and Miyanishi was replaced by Tateyama for the final out which he duly got. Fighters eighth saw Tsutsui continue only not as well as before. Tanaka led off with a hit. The next batter Itoi bunted which Tsutsui screwed up badly and Tanaka was able to make home 7-2 Fighters. Inaba hit to left driving in Itoi 8-2 Fighters but even though a ground out took him to third that was the end of the scoring. Tigers ninth saw Lin (pinch hitter ) walk but that was all as Tateyama was in control. Fighters victory.

Tigers had been completely outplayed. Their fielding was woeful and error prone. Base running had shown signs of conservatism and been basically poor. Pitching was dismal and batting only less so. Darvish had been excellent and had been in control but during his fifth and sixth innings had been vulnerable. However, Tigers batters had demonstrated a complete inability to take advantage of the chances. Nippon Ham batters in contrast had been sharp and taken their chances nicely. A poor performance all round by the Tigers.