May 19th Kubo v Sugiuchi - Hawks let off the hook

Some incredibly poor batting against poor pitching saw Hawks escape with a tie. Sugiuchi wasn't on his best form at all and struggled. In contrast Kubo was superb giving up only two hits and one run. Tigers batting was a joke - 11 hits with only one run the result and two bases loaded situations wasted. What must Kubo do to get a win? Once again some of Mayumi's decision making was strange. On a different note Jettos will be banned at Koshien for the Lotte games. The shops will be told not to sell them and fans will be asked not to bring their own. This is because of swine flu and may continue for several games. Box scores

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

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

Pitcher was Kubo

Hawks
1. Honda (Second)
2. Kawasaki (Short)
3. Ortiz (Left)
4. Matsunaka (DH)
5. Kokubo (First)
6. Hasegawa (Centre)
7. Tanoue (Catcher)
8. Aguila (Right)
9. Morimoto (Third)

Pitcher was Sugiuchi

Sugiuchi would start well striking out two out of the three batters he faced in the Tigers first. The third was Toritani who was terrible and seemed to have no clue - he struck out three times to Sugiuchi. Kubo's first was also good as he retired the first three batters he faced. In Tigers second Sakurai hit but Imaoka (who would also be dreadful) was the final out, striking out swinging. Hawks second saw one of their rare chances, with one out Kubo walked Kokubo. Hasegawa hit to Arai who made a mess of it (his first error of the season) and Hawks had runners on first and second. A ground out took Kokubo round to third but then Aguila grounded out and the innings was over. Whilst Kubo had not looked in much trouble Sugiuchi really looked out of his depth in the first half of the Tigers third. Kanoh hit, followed by Hirano. Akahoshi then bunted them to second and third - a nicely worked bunt and Sugiuchi walked Sekimoto to load the bases with just one out. Here was a golden opportunity but both Toritani and Kanemoto struck out swinging and the innings was over. Hawks third saw Honda hit and then advance to second on a wild pitch but Kubo struck out both Kawasaki and Ortiz to end that faint chance.

In Tigers fourth Sugiuchi walked Sakurai but with two out he advanced a bit too far off first and was picked off in a fielder sandwich. Still you felt a Tigers score was only a matter of time. Hawks fourth was quiet as Kubo retired the batters in order. In Tigers fifth Akahoshi hit and then to continue his excellent record stole second. Sekimoto though flew out. Hawks fifth was quiet with no one causing any trouble to Kubo whose pitching was superlative at this point. The Tigers sixth started with the expected Toritani strikeout. Then Kanemoto hit to centre. Arai hit and Sakurai picked up his second walk to load the bases, once again with one out. A sacrifice fly would score a run and with Kubo pitching the way he was would probably been enough. Imaoka though was unbelievable. In an appalling piece of batting he swung at everything and flew out in foul ground to record the second out. Kanoh hit but only achieved a flyout to Honda - end of innings no score and another great chance wasted. Hawk's sixth would see their run scored and this would be because of one players vision. Honda decided to try something different and bunt hit. Kubo was on it quickly and fired it to first where Sekimoto was standing too far back and wasn't quick enough to beat the Hawks second to the sack. Kawasaki bunted him to second and then Honda stole third - an awesome piece of running. This gave the Hawks runner on third with one out. Kubo got a bit worried and walked Ortiz and Matsunaka in succession to load the bases. Here the other Kubo (pitching coach) came out to speak to him and calm him down. Kokubo was next and he was looking for a sacrifice fly. He hit to right and Sakurai caught the ball and fired it to home. Honda raced to the plate only to be blocked by Kanoh but there was enough time before the relay arrived for Honda to twist and touch home - safe 1-0 Hawks, runners on first and third. The final batter was Hasegawa who flew out to end the innings. Hawks now had the lead.

Sugiuchi returned for the Tigers seventh and in one of Mayumi's unfathomable decisions faced Fujiwara who was pinch hitting for Hirano. Why Hirano needed replacing is difficult to understand as he had had a good game. Maybe Mayumi thought that he could shake things up with a right handed batter but then the better option would have been Mistunobu Takahashi who is quite proficient as a pinch hitter. Except that Takahashi is in ni-gun and so a lightweight batter with a career average similar to Kevin Mench's was introduced. This decision is just so incomprehensible - remove a performing player for an almost never performing player just because he's a right hander. It goes beyond stupidity into the realms of artistry. Anyway Fujiwara struck out and that was that. Another out later Sugiuchi walked Sekimoto but Toritani was next though for a bit of variety he grounded out to first and the innings was over. Hawks seventh saw Kubo walk Aguila but his pinch runner (Kidokoro) stayed on first where he belonged as Kubo retired the next two batters. Sugiuchi retired at the end of the seventh having thrown 135 pitches in an undistinguished display but still with one run lead. He was replaced by Falkenborg who gave up a hit to Arai which was immediatley extinguished in a double play. Kubo returned for the Hawks eighth and retired the side in order. When he retired at the end of the innings he had thrown 111 pitches - very impressive pitching indeed with only two hits. The top of the ninth had arrived - Tigers last chance. Mayumi led off with a pinch hitter Lin. He faced Mahara and laced a fastball into the left stand for a solo home run 1-1 scores tied. Once again a Hawks pitcher was shakey and Kanoh hit to centre. He was bunted to second by Fujimoto (more on him later) and then the batting failed again. Akahoshi flew out and Sekimoto struck out swinging. Another chance to take advantage of a shakey Hawks pitcher had been lost. Williams took the Hawks ninth and after his previous outings one was a bit concerned. The innings was eventful but Williams was always in control and more like his old self. The first batter was Kokubo who grounded out to second or would have if Fujimoto hadn't dropped the ball allowing Kokubo to reach first safely. It is difficult to understand why Mayumi is so obssessed with playing Fujimoto when he has the better Hirano available. Fujimoto hasn't even been fielding well at second and has been fumbling a lot. He doesn't have the knack of making things happen and is not as versatile. He is a player I like but not at the expense of a better player who is on form. Williams then struck out Hasegawa and Shibahara (replacement right) bunted the runner to second leaving one to get. Nakanishi (pinch hitter) was walked to get at Morimoto who struck out to end the innings. Nice pitching and a much better outing by Williams but the game went into extra innings.

Mahara continued in the Tigers 10th. He walked Toritani but with two outs he decided to steal second. Well he thought it would work but he was thrown out and the innings was over. For Hawks 10th Mayumi went with Egusa. This decision worked and despite Egusa being good with runners on he was very impressive this time. Well done Mayumi. Egusa retired the three batters he faced, striking out two. Akiyama (Hawks kantoku) decided that Mahara couldn't pitch the Tigers eleventh and so Settsu took the mound. He gave up a leadoff hit to Sakurai but then the batting once again failed to give support and Sakurai stayed on first. Egusa continued into the Hawks 11th and managed a one out hit to Kokubo. Nothing happened after that as the next two batters fell easily. Satoh started the Tigers 12th. He gave up a leadoff hit to Akahoshi who was bunted to second by Sekimoto. A good position for Tigers and it brought a pitching change, Mizuta replacing Satoh. He started by walking Toritani, not so encouraging for the Hawks. However, both Kanemoto and Arai failed and the Hawks escaped with no damage. Their last chance would come next. This would be Fujikawa with one or two question marks over his pitching. Like Williams he was much improved and had no problems retiring the batters in order. Game tied.

This game was distinguished by lamentable Tigers batting particularly the clean up batters. They had failed to hit with runners on and some good pitching had almost been wasted. Only Lin's pinch hit home run had saved the Tigers from an embarrassing defeat and they really should have made more of 11 hits. Hawks this game hadn't had much to offer and over the whole game had generated only three hits. Mayumi's continuing use of Fujimoto is looking more and more questionable and his use of Fujiwara was just bizarre. Tigers take on the Hawks again at Fukuoka Dome and let's hope that they can do better this time.