October 4th Shimoyanagi v Katoh - No one gets an advantage

The Giants lost and as a result this tie restored the Tigers 0.5 game lead. Some fans weren't happy with the performance but the Swallows had fought hard. The relief was much improved on Friday and everyone did their job. Watanabe was surprisingly comfortable in the last two innings and much better than of late. Line scores

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

Starting lineups

1. Akahoshi (Centre)
2. Sekimoto (Second)
3. Arai (First)
4. Kanemoto (Left)
5. Imaoka (Third)
6. Toritani (Short)
7. Yano (Catcher)
8. Hirano (Right)
9. Shimoyanagi (Pitcher)

Swallows
1. Aoki (Centre)
2. Kawashima (Short)
3. Iihara (Left)
4. Hatakeyama (First)
5. Fukuchi (Right)
6. Kajimoto (Third)
7. Tanaka (Second)
8. Kawamoto (Catcher)
9. Katoh (Pitcher)

Some Swallows commentators wondered about the use of Katoh as a starter but he was OK. His first innings started poorly and he needed help to get out of it. Akahoshi struck out but then Sekimoto hit. This was followed by an Arai hit and Tigers had runners on first and second. A Kanemoto walk loaded the bases and then Imaoka launched a deep fly to right and Sekimoto tagged up and was home 1-0 Tigers. Arai moved up to third and the situation looked promising. Toritani was next and he hit his first ball towards Tanaka at second who took a superb diving catch low to his left to end the innings. This catch was important as Toritani had hit a scoring shot if Tanaka missed it. Shimoyanagi didn't start well either, Aoki hit but then Kawashima flew out. Iihara hit the ball straight at Imaoka who made a dreadful error and allowed the ball to go right through him turning a ground out into a two base hit. Swallows had runners on second and third with one out. How costly this error was was demonstrated by the next batter Hatakeyama who hit to centre driving in both runners 2-1 Swallows. Fukuchi hit to centre and Swallows had runnes on first and second. Then came Kajimoto who lined out to a nicely positioned Toritani who also tagged the second base catching the runner off and ending the innings. Tigers second was quiet as Katoh got everyone to ground out. Tanaka led off the Swallows second with a hit. One out later Katoh bunted him to second but Aoki grounded out and that chance came to nothing. Shimoyanagi continued to pitch poorly - he the Swallows third by walking Kawashima who was bunted to second by Iihara. Kawashima then stole third and Shimoyanagi walked Hatakeyama - runners on first and third with one out. A sacrifice fly looked possible but Fukuchi chose to hit straight to Toritani who took the double play opportunity with gratitude. Another chance that came to nothing.

Kanemoto led off Tigers fourth with a hit. A wild pitch took him to second and Imaoka grounded out taking him to third. Next was Toritani who hit nicely to centre for the run 2-2 scores level. Then Yano hit a two base putting runners on second and third. With one out a sacrifice fly looked possible but Hirano chose to try and hit a ground ball which bounced weakly to the pitcher who fired it to Kawamoto getting Toritani who was heading for home out. The final batter was Shimoyanagi who even though he tried struck out to end the innings. Shimoyanagi gave up a one out two base hit to Tanaka in the Swallows fourth but nothing came of this either. Takada obviously felt that he had risked Katoh enough as he had used Ono as a pinch hitter in the bottom of the fourth so Matsui took the mound. He walked Sekimoto but nothing came of this either. Shimoyanagi returned for his fifth innings and gave up a hit to Iihara. He stole second - the throw from Yano being too high but nothing came of this and the innings ended scoreless. Tigers big chance would come in their sixth. With one out Toritani walked. Yano laid down a bunt hit and then beat the throw to first in a nice display of speed. Hiyama (replacement right) walked to load the bases and Okada sent Katsuragi (pinch hitter) to the mound. With one out and bases loaded this looked like a great opportunity. Katsuragi didn't seem to know what to do and struck out. Akahoshi grounded out and the Swallows escaped without damage. Atchison pitched the Swallows sixth and in the previous game had been rather poor being charged with three runs. This time he was immesurably better and retired the batters he faced in order getting them all to ground out. Matsui was replaced by Kida once the Tigers fans jetto's had been cleared up. He gave up a hit to Arai. Kanemoto was next and he hit into a double play. He felt that he had been hard done by and was safe though it looked like the umpire had clearly got it right. Anyway his protest was ignored and the innings was over. Atchison returned for the Swallows seventh and with two outs walked Aoki. He stole second but then Kawashima flew out and that was that. Matsuoka pitched the Tigers eighth and retired the batters in order.

Okada's practice is to use Fujikawa for two innings now so it was no surprise he started the eighth. His pitching was also much better and he retired the batters in order. Matsuoka gave up a leadoff walk in Tigers ninth to Hiyama and he was bunted to second by Baldris (replacement third). This was as far as he got as the next two batters couldn't do anything. Fujikawa was once again in control in the Swallows ninth and the game moved into extra innings. Here Takada switched to Igarashi who retired the Tigers batters in order. Williams pitched the bottom and went a long way to erasing memories of his dreadful Friday performance. He was calm and pitched intelligently not trying to blast batters out. A new relief took the mound for Tigers eleventh, Oshimoto,. Toritani led off with a hit to second and beat Tanaka's throw to first. Yano bunted him to second and a Lin (replacement right) ground out took him to third. Baldris though was unable to do anything and the innings ended without score. The surprise of the Swallows eleventh was Watanabe. One wouldn't have thought he was a good pitcher to use given his recent performances but Okada probably couldn't rely on Kubota. Watanabe was assured and comfortable retiring the batters in order. Tigers twelth was quiet with Oshimoto in control and the game moved to the final chance for the Swallows. Kawabata (replacement third) led off with a hit and was bunted to second. With two outs to go the Swallows fans started to make a lot of noise but Kawamoto flew out to centre and then Yuichi (pinch hitter) grounded out to first to end the game - tied game.

Some Tigers fans were unhappy about the draw feeling that they should have won the game. Okada came in for a lot of barracking but really Tigers hadn't done too badly. The Swallows weren't going to give in and capitulate quietly and had fought hard. Tigers could be said to have wasted chances but the same could have been said of the Swallows. Tigers hadn't lost and had competed well. The real plus was the relief pitching had lifted its performance and performed exactly as it should.