July 3rd Nohmi v Gonzalez - The great BayStars massacre

The marketing of Fujii continues apace. Another hero interview after an admittedly impressive performance with the bat. The PR and management team are desperate to turn him into a Tiger and get a similar measure of acceptance for him that Johjima and Kanoh have. At the moment he's just thought of as a temporary addition to the side and hasn't reached this level despite his obvious motivational qualities and acceptance by the team. Winning over the fans is the big prize and Fujii is doing quite well in his hero interviews but isn't there yet. Quite simply this game was over in the bottom of the first. Gonzalez was abysmal and paid for it presenting Tigers with the biggest innings of their season so far. 2-8 hit and 4-8 drove runs. By contrast Nohmi was excellent and despite allowing runners was in control. Once again why Mayumi thought he should pitch the eighth with a 10 run lead escapes me. It would have been better to replace him and give the innings to one of the relief. Okada pulled a similar trick with Andoh which wrecked his arm. Mayumi hasn't quite done this yet but you can imagine him being stupid enough to do so. He needs to abandon this obsolete attitude and remember it is 2011. Scores

          1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9  R  H E
BayStars  0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  0  7 0
Tigers    6 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 X 10 14 1

Starting lineups

BayStars
1. Ishikawa (Shortstop)
2. Morimoto (Centre)
3. Kinjoh (Right)
4. Murata (Third)
5. Sledge (Left)
6. Nakamura (First)
7. Watanabe (Second)
8. Takeyama (Catcher)
9. Gonzalez (Pitcher)

Tigers
1. Murton (Right)
2. Hirano (Centre)
3. Toritani (Short)
4. Arai (Third)
5. Brazell (First)
6. Sekimoto (Second)
7. Asai (Left)
8. Fujii (Catcher)
9. Nohmi (Pitcher)

It was nice to see Kanemoto taking another well earned rest and Asai playing left field in his place. He also had a good game and would share the hero interview with Fujii. Ishikawa led off for the BayStars - his arm protectors are red and make him look like he's wearing red longjohns. He grounded out to first off the first pitch of the day which rather set the tone of the game for BayStars. Morimoto struck out and then Kinjoh flew out to end the innings. Gonzalez started by striking out Murton - thowing a rising pitch as a challenge and getting Murton to swing. That was the last bit of good news in the innings. Hirano stroked the ball left of Gonzalez into the outfield. Toritani hit to Watanabe who hesitated as Hirano flew past and with Nakamura off base he had to toss the pitch to Gonzalez. The latter wasn't fast enough and Toritani was safe - runners on first and second. Something went wrong here for Gonzlez. Arai drove left neatly between third and short. Hirano charged home 1-0 Tigers, runners on first and second. Brazell found the gap to right and Toritani was home 2-0 Tigers, runners on first and third. Sekimoto bounced one into centre which brought Arai home 3-0, runners on first and second. Next was Asai who drove along the left baseline Murata missing the take. This was a two base and brought home Brazell 4-0, runners on second and third. Fujii hit to the right of Gonzalez and despite the dive of Watanabe worked the ball into centre for a two run timely hit 6-0 Tigers, runner on first. Nohmi bunted Fujii to second but then Murton grounded out in what had been a crushing start, six runs on seven hits. Nohmi then rubbed salt into the wounds with a superb innings striking out Murata, Sledge and Nakamura, all in a row. His strike out of Sledge was particularly impressive with a superb fork getting the swing. Gonzalez surprisingly returned for Tigers second and immediately gave up a hit to HIrano. Toritani swung too soon and flew out to Takeyama (who seems to have had a particularly bad series). Then Arai hit into a double play to end the innings. BayStars third saw Gonzalez pinch hit for by Inada who managed a single to right. Obviously, his good second innings had not been able to save him. The final batter of the innings though was Ishikawa who grounded out to second to end that. Tigers third was pitched by Kosugi - the poseur. However, whatever his satorial aspects he pitched very competently, enough to ask what was Obana thinking when he removed him the day before. Tigers batters fell in order but with a 6-0 lead this wasn't that vital.

BayStars fourth was led off by Morimoto who collected his second strike out (he would eventually end up with three). With two out Murata hit a straightforward grounder to Arai who missed the take completely - runner on first. Sledge swung and grounded out to Brazell at first. Kosugi returned for Tigers fourth and retired Fujii but then walked Nohmi. Murton was then induced to hit into a double play and end that innings. Murton wasn't having a good day. Nakamura then led off BayStars fifth with a nice two base hit to left - along the baseline. This was to be the story of the BayStars day. A hit or chance without execution. Watanabe flew out and was nicely taken by Asai. Then Takeyama flew out to Sekimoto. Finally, Shinamura (pinch hitter) was fooled by an excellent pitch and struck out swinging to end the innings. Nakamura had remained rooted on second. Shinohara took over the pitching duties for the Tigers fifth and retired the batters in order. Ishikawa led off BayStars sixth with a hit to left. Morimoto struck out looking but then Kinjoh hit to left centre. The ball stayed up a long time and Ishikawa rather than go for third stayed on second with Kinjoh on first. This was poor base running. Murata then hit straight to Arai for the double play and the innings was over. Sanada took over the mound duties for Tigers sixth. He faced Brazell whom he hit on the elbow third pitch. This didn't look to be malicious, just misdirected. However, Brazell took exception to it and started to walk towards the mound. Sekimoto, Takeyama and Higashi (the plate umpire) all rushed to intercept him and head him off to first. Reinforcements arrived and Brazell was successfully placed on first but just to be sure Mayumi wisely replaced him with Ryota Arai. Sekimoto then flew out in foul ground but Asai hit to left to set up runners on first and second. Fujii was next and he hit to right to load the bases. Sanada's confidence was evaporating and he faced Nohmi who hit into left for a timely hit. Ryota Arai was home closely followed by Asai. The ball arrived before Asai but he charged the catcher bowling over Takeyama who nevertheless held onto the ball successfully for the out. Still good stuff by Asai who is an aggressive runner 7-0 Tigers, runners on first and second. Murton took the plate and with his second pitch redeemed his day swinging hard and far for a three run home run 10-0 Tigers. Finally, Hirano grounded out to second to end the innings.

Two outs went down quickly in BayStars seventh before Watanabe hit into right and reached third. However, Shimozono drove straight to Hirano (moved to second) and lined out to end the innings. Fujie pitched Tigers seventh and started by walking Toritani. The Arai brothers flew out and then Shibata (replacement centre) grounded out tamely to Fujie. Nohmi returned for BayStars eighth which seemed an innings too far. Still he retired the first two batters but then ran into trouble. Morimoto hit to left as Nohmi tired and then Kinjoh also hit to left. Both had taken full counts and Nohmi was having to work - runners on first and third. Finally, Murata grounded out to short - the ball bobbling out of Toritani's glove but landing in front of him making the pick up and throw for the final out. Mayumi does need to learn when his pitchers are tiring. Like Okada he seems to have problems with this aspect of the game but unlike Okada he doesn't have the sense to use the relief. Tigers eighth was quite worrying for the BayStars. Yamaguchi was the pitcher and gave up a centre lead off hit to Asai. Fujii hit to left and was pinch run for by Komiyama. Now if Mayumi can replace his catcher and give someone else a run out in a comfortable situation why can't he do it for his pitchers? What is this mental blind spot he has? Lin (pinch hitter) then drove into a double play but moved Asai to third. Murton joined him on base, walking but HIrano struck out to end the innings, the BayStars no doubt being very relieved at having escaped without more damage. Watanabe took the mound for BayStars ninth and pitched to Komiyama. The pairing was effective with no one reaching base and Watanabe striking out two to end the game Tigers victory.

There was a strange incident at the end of the game. As the lines of players did the usual high five ritual, Kanemoto stepped out in front of Hirano and blocked his progress. It might have been a joke but it didn't look friendly and in fact it looked very unpleasant on the part of Kanemoto. BayStars had been comprehensively beaten and had failed to establish themselves at all in the series. They had competed but really were lacking when they needed to drive in runs.