September 30th Nohmi v Yuki - Swallows defeated

This game though a great win saw a demonstration of Mayumi and his teams unsuitablity to be managing Tigers. This relates to the handling of the endgame which was particularly inept and cackhanded. Firstly, the use of Fujikawa - he was brought in to pitch the Swallows eighth innings and this in itself was not a bad decision (though pairing him with Yano was). The situation was tight and Tigers needed to hold onto a slim lead though one could argue that Brazell's home run had put the game beyond the Swallows reach. Still what followed was unforgiveable. Tigers added four runs in the ninth giving them a seven run margin. Mayumi then asked Fujikawa to pitch the ninth.It is really wasting your resources to ask your star closer to wear out his arm on unimportant situations like this (even if you will earn a save). Fujikawa had pitched 1 1/3 innings the night before, in a non-save situation and he ended up throwing another 48 pitches in the two innings he pitched this night. If you tire out your closer with non-essential pitching he will not be able to give his best when it is most needed. This seems to be basic baseball knowledge but it escapes Mayumi and his cohorts.
The second piece of incredible ineptness concerned the replacement of Kanoh by Yano for the Swallows eighth. This was a lucky escape as Yano was terrible. His calling was poor and his throwing useless. Swallows runners took two steals off him in one innings. One has to charitably conclude that Mayumi wanted to give him a chance to redeem himself after his debacle on the 28th. It can't be because he's the better catcher because he's not. He is a fading catcher with a poor arm and rather restricted repertory of calls. One hopes that Mayumi and Kido have the decency to apologise to Kanoh for their stupidity. Yano was also part of the reason that Fujikawa used so many pitches. He had not improved since the 28th and it was embarassing to watch his poor play. The use of Baldris also continues to puzzle. Quite clearly he is out of his depth and really is a waste of a batting place. There are plenty of young players who are more able to hit and they should be given playing time not Baldris. Clearly if Mayumi is asked back he is likely to wreck the team and one can only hope that Sakai-owner has the guts to sack Mayumi and his sorry crew and replace him with a real manager.
Tigers are now 0.5 games ahead of the Swallows and 2.5 games ahead of Carp. Three of their remaining games are against the Swallows and they really need to win all three of these as the Swallows have four games in hand over them. This victory was a very important victory in a tight game where the Swallows cracked first. The Swallows pitcher Yuki actually pitched very well over six innings but lack of run support wore him down. Nohmi, even though he had lots of runners held on in a brave display which showed considerable character. In fact he would have probably gotten the final out in the sixth but one can understand Mayumi's reasoning in replacing him (about the only thing one can understand of his decision making process). Kanemoto showed more proof that the slump is over taking a major part in the game and good for him. He still needs to be dropped down the order though and someone else inserted into fourth. Scores

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

Starting lineups

Tigers
1. Hirano (Centre)
2. Sekimoto (Second)
3. Toritani (Short)
4. Kanemoto (Left)
5. Arai (Third)
6. Brazell (First)
7. Sakurai (Right)
8. Kanoh (Catcher)
9. Nohmi (Pitcher0

Swallows
1. Iihara (Left)
2. Hiroyasu Tanaka (Second)
3. Miyamoto (Short)
4. Aoki (Centre)
5. D'Antona (First)
6. Guiel (Right)
7. Hatakeyama (Third)
8. Kawamoto (Catcher)
9. Yuki (Pitcher)

Hirano led off Tigers first with a hit to left. The next two batters were out easily though Toritani's ground out moved Hirano onto second. Kanemoto was next and he drove the ball into centre allowing Hirano to get home 1-0 Tigers, runner on first. Kanemoto then tried to steal second but was thrown out to end the innings. Nohmi started Swallows first with a strike out of Iihara but the Tanaka hit. However, unlike Tigers no one was able to move him from first and he wasn't going to chance Kanoh's arm early in the game. The innings was scoreless. Yuki then settled down and Tigers found it very difficult to get on base. In their second no one managed it. Nohmi responded in kind for the Swallows second. Tigers third followed this pattern with the batters falling in order. This was the case with Swallows third and so by the end of the innings Tigers lead was intact.

In Tigers fourth Kanemoto hit with two out but this time didn't try to steal. However, Arai grounded out to end the innings. Swallows fourth saw Nohmi's first real challenge, the first two batters lined out but then Aoki got one through to centre for a base hit. D'Antona walked and then Guiel hit to short to load the bases. This looked serious but Nohmi induced Hatakeyama to fly out to Toritani and end the innings scoreless. Brazell led off Tigers fifth with a hit but then Sakurai hit into a double play and Kanoh struck out looking to end the innings. Kawamoto led off Swallows fifth with a hit to right and was bunted to second by Yuki. However, Iihara flew out and Tanaka grounded out and he went no further. Tigers sixth was quiet but Nohmi once again ran into trouble. Miyamoto led off Swallows sixth with a hit. This was immediately followed by another hit from Aoki. Runners on first and second with no outs became runners on first and third with one out when D'Antona flew out. Swallows had the chance of a sacrifice fly but Nohmi responded superbly and struck out Fukuchi (pinch hitter). At this point Mayumi decided to replace Nohmi with Atchison. Whilst a sound move he might have profitably left Nohmi in for the final out. Atchison faced Hatakeyama and while he was pitching Aoki stole second. Hatakeyama walked and now the bases were loaded. Atchison then struck out Kawamoto with a superb pitch to end the innings and Tigers had just preserved their lead.

Whether or not this failure to score had demoralized their pitcher it certainly inspired Tigers. Yuki had pitched well for five innings and kept the score manageable but in Tigers seventh with two out gave up a hit to Arai. Brazell was next and took his second pitch deep to right for a two run home run 3-0 Tigers and probably the killer blow. Sakurai then flew out to end the innings. Atchison returned for the Swallows seventh and struck out Yuichi (pinch hitter). Iihara hit and then stole second but the next two batters also struck out and the innings was over. Swallows pitcher for Tigers eighth was Oshimoto who retired the batters in order. It was at this point that we saw Mayumi's folly in bringing Yano on as catcher. Kanoh was perfectly capable of doing the job and in fact is better than Yano. Why replace the superior with the inferior? Fujikawa was the pitcher (perhaps Kanemura would have been better?) and immediately ran into problems. Aoki led off the innings with a hit and then stole second. One out later Fukuchi hit and also stole second, Swallows had runners on second and third with only one out - hardly auspicious calling by Yano. Once again Hatakeyama came to the rescue of Tigers,, flying out to Toritani again. Then Kawamoto struck out on a full count but it had been a lucky escape. Tigers batters decided that they would do something about this and facing another over-used pitcher, Igarashi had an enjoyable ninth innings. Yamato (replacement second) hit to start the innings. Toritani slammed a two base, runners on second and third with no outs. Kanemoto put a nice two base into the left corner, 5-0 Tigers runner on second. Arai went right with his first pitch, another two base, 6-0 Tigers runner on second. This brought a pitching change from the Swallows, Hashimoto taking the mound. He got the ineffective Baldris to ground out but Arai was able to move round to third. Then Shibata (replacement centre) hit a deep sacrifice fly to centre for the first RBI of his professional career 7-0 Tigers. Finally Fujikawa struck out to end the innings but this was a what the? moment. Fujikawa is going to pitch with a seven run lead? It is difficult to fathom what Mayumi was thinking. Fujikawa was obviously tired and paired with a poor catcher was immediately in trouble. Takeuchi hit to centre and then one out later Tanaka also hit to centre. Finally Aoki hit to centre as well driving in a run 7-1 Tigers, runners on first and second. This was poor calling as the hits all went in the same place. The final batter of the innings was D'Antona who struck out to end the innings. Tigers victory.

This fine victory was marred by the farce at the end - one has to say it again, it wasn't necessary for Fujikawa to pitch the ninth. It wasn't necessary to replace Kanoh with Yano. The decision making took the gloss of the win and even though it didn't affect the result, it is storing up trouble for the future. It took a long time for Fujikawa to recover from the overpitching of the last season. Kubota still hasn't recovered. Relievers and closers of this pairs quality are rare commodities and need to be cherished not wasted to statisfy managers and coaches vanities and idiocies. If any further proof was needed that Mayumi and Kido are not fit to be in charge of the Tigers then this game furnishes it in full.

[Edited by: Christopher on Oct 1, 2009 3:01 PM]