May 31st Nohmi v Masaru Takeda - Tigers waste again

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A very great waste by the Tigers against some inferior pitching. They outhit Fighters batting 17 to 9 but still ended up with the same amount of runs. Their execution was poor to say the least. Another interesting aspect of the game was that the Fighters pitchers who gave up so many hits issued no walks. This isn't credible and one must question the umpires judgement. Even Darvish who was superlative the night before issued two walks - something strange here. Tigers also committed another two errors and one feels that they need to do something about their poor fielding as well. Box scores



          1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 R  H E
Tigers    2 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0  0  0  0 4 17 2
Fighters  1 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 0  0  0  0 4  9 0

Starting lineups Tigers 1. Sakurai (Right) 2. Sekimoto (Second) 3. Toritani (Short) 4. Kanemoto (Left) 5. Arai (Third) 6. Hiyama (DH) 7. Imaoka (First) 8. Kanoh (Catcher) 9. Hirano (Centre) Pitcher was Nohmi Fighters 1. Tanaka (Second) 2. Morimoto (Left) 3. Inaba (Right) 4. Takahashi (First) 5. Koyano (Third) 6. Nioka (DH) 7. Itoi (Centre) 8. Tsuruoka (Catcher) 9. Kaneko (Short) PItcher was Masaru Takeda Tigers start was bright and energetic. With one out Sekimoto hit to right. This was followed by a Toritani hit in the same place and Tigers had runners on first and second. This became runners on second and third with Kanemoto's ground out and then Arai hit to left driving in both runners 2-0 Tigers, runner on first. Arai then stole second suggesting that Fighters fielding was not awake but was unable to advance further as Hiyama struck out. Why he is being used as a DH in place of Lin is difficult to fathom. It would be more useful to use Lin who is more likely to play regularly than Hiyama. The question for Nohmi was would he hold the lead in Fighters first and the answer was yes but only just. With one out he walked Morimoto who then stole second. Inaba also walked and then Takahashi hit to drive in a runner 2-1 Tigers runners on first and second. They advanced to second and third but got no further as the final batter, Nioka, struck out. Tigers second saw Kanoh hit. He stole second but once again got no support and didn't advance further. Nippon Ham's second was more lively. Tsuruoka hit to left with one out and then another out later Tanaka walked to set up runners on first and second. The final batter fell easily and the innings was over. Note though at this stage Nohmi had issued two hits and three walks whilst Tanaka had four hits and no walks. This makes you wonder whether the plate umpire was paying attention. In Tigers third Toritani hit and advanced to second on Kanemoto's ground out. He then tried to steal third - a sound move considering how successful stealing had been but was thrown out to end the innings. Fighters third was quiet as Nohmi was in control and the batters fell in order. Tigers fourth saw Hiyama hit but nothing came of this. In Fighters fourth, Itoi hit but was thrown out trying to steal second and the innings was scoreless. Tigers fifth started with a Hirano hit. Two ground outs took him to third and then Toritani hit a nice two base to left taking him home 3-1 Tigers and a nice lead building up. Kanemoto failed to convert Toritani though. Fighters responded well with a one out Kaneko hit. He stole second but another out followed and with two outs it looked difficult. However, Takahashi hit a two base 3-2 Tigers runner on second. Then Itoi hit and he was home 3-3 and the Tigers lead gone up in smoke. The final batter was Koyano who grounded out to end the innings. Tigers sixth saw Arai start off with a hit. Two strike outs later Nashida decided to replace him with Kikuchi. He promptly gave up a hit to Kanoh but Sakurai in what was a poor game for him grounded out and the Tigers runners were stranded on first and second. Takeda hadn't pitched at all well and had given up a lot of hits. Nohmi was also replaced and he hadn't pitched well either. He was replaced by Atchison who faced Jimenez (pinch hitter). He led off with a two base hit and then made third on a bunt. The bunt went to Atchison who decided to pick off Jimenez going for third but was unsuccessful and fighters now had runners on first and third with no outs. Takahashi was next and he hit a sacrifice fly to centre 4-3 Fighters with a runner on first. That runner, Itoi, tried to steal second but was thrown out for the second time that evening. The final batter struck out but it had been nice use of a pinch hitter. Tigers seventh saw Kikuchi get the first two outs before being replaced by Hayashi. He got the final out and the Tigers failed to get a man on base. Atchison continued with the Fighters seventh and gave up a hit to Inaba. This didn't matter as Atchison got the final out easily enough. For Tigers eighth Hayashi faced Kanemoto as lead off batter. He hammered a pitch into the right centre stand for a solo home run 4-4 scores tied. The next three batters failed to add to the score and the innings ended. For Fighters eighth, Mayumi chose Williams who was more like his old self - in control and efficient. All three batters fell easily and in order. Tigers ninth was pitched by Hisashi Takeda - he wasn't in control and not so efficient. With one out Hirano hit. This was followed by a Lin hit and Tigers had runners on first and second. However, Takeda was able to get the batters to strike out and ground out respectively and so the innings was scoreless. Williams returned for the Fighters ninth and walked Kaneko. However, with two out, he tried to steal second and was thrown out to end the innings. Williams had looked more efficient and like his old self this match. With the extra innings Fighters started with Miyanishi who started out with a hit to Kanemoto. This became exceptionally embarrassing for Tsuruoka when Kanemoto stole second. However, Miyanishi kept him there and retired Shimizu (pinch hitter) for the final out. Fujikawa pitched the Fighters 10th and struck out all three batters he faced swinging. A sign that he is returning to form? For Tigers 11th another pitching change, this time Tateyama. He gave up a hit to Kanoh but even though the Tigers catcher was able to get into a scoring position he was not to get home as the necessary hit didn't come. Koyano led off Fighters 11th with a two base. A repeat of the sixth innings perhaps? Not quite. With one out Itoi was deliberately walked to set up a double play. This worked amazingly well as Tsuboi (pinch hitter) obligingly hit to second and the innings was over. In Tigers 12th Kanemoto had a two base hit. This time Hiyama was deliberately walked and Yamato (replacement second) struck out to end that chance. Having used Fujikawa for two innings Mayumi couldn't really use him for the final innings and so went with Watanabe. He hasn't been pitching well and so this was a bit of a risk. Watanabe fully justifed the risky tag. He got the first out but an error at second allowed Tanaka to make first safely. He was bunted to second but now there were two outs. However, the third out is always the hardest to get. Inaba was deliberately walked but then Watanabe walked Takahashi and the bases were loaded - not to plan. Finally though Koyano flew out to second and the innings was over. Game tied. Wasted chances by the Tigers who should have made more than 4 runs out of the 17 hits they produced. Why they didn't draw any walks is also a mystery. Nippon Ham's pitching wasn't that good not with 17 hits. Tigers lack the ability to drive in runs regularly and to perform consistently. The fielding is not up to standard and the error count too high. More work is needed in these areas as a matter of urgency.

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Comments Re: May 31st Nohmi v Masaru Takeda - Tigers waste again [ Author: Guest: gotigersredsox | Posted: Jun 1, 2009 11:44 PM ] It was encouraging that the Tigers came out strong after the embarrassment the day before. But, as usual, Nohmi couldn't hold the lead. I'm also really annoyed they haven't used Lin more. With the extra batter thanks to the DH, I thought he would get more starts. But what do they do instead? Start Hiyama at DH two days in a row and put a has-been like Imaoka in the line-up. I know they were using a lot of players who bat right because of the southpaw on the mound, but Lin should be used over Hiyama. Reply to this post Re: May 31st Nohmi v Masaru Takeda - Tigers waste again [ Author: Christopher | Posted: Jun 2, 2009 8:39 AM | HAN Fan ] I have always felt that one can go a bit overboard on the left/right thing and this is what Mayumi is doing. One should really go with the people in form and whilst Hiyama is a good pinch hitter he's not really a good DH. I am surprised seeing Imaoka back and this I just can't understand - he seems as ineffective as ever. He hasn't been able to do anything since 2005 and despite a minor revival towards the end of last season Tigers do need to think seriously about whether to continue with him. Reply to this post

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Discussion Author: Christopher on: Jun 1, 2009 9:22 PM Posts: 3481 From: Tokyo HAN Fan Registered: Sep 2004 In Tiger Tails 2 replies Most recent reply: Jun 2, 2009 8:39 AM by Christopher About This is a site about Pro Yakyu (Japanese Baseball), not about who the next player to go over to MLB is. It's a community of Pro Yakyu fans who have come together to share their knowledge and opinions with the world. It's a place to follow teams and individuals playing baseball in Japan (and Asia), and to learn about Japanese (and Asian) culture through baseball. It is my sincere hope that once you learn a bit about what we're about here that you will join the community of contributors. Michael Westbay (aka westbaystars) Founder Sidebar Beta Version - Still a work in progress.