April 24th Standridge v Cabrera - The Silver Lining

Dragons were batted out. The night before they had scored what would be their quota for six games normally. They couldn't bring themselves to score anymore runs being fully satiated. It meant that Tigers who batted ineptly were able to work a very handy shutout victory. Dragons got the hits and the runners but couldn't convert. I mentioned last post a relief pitcher who gave up lots of runs against BayStars. This was Yoshino on 7th April 2004 and he gave up eight runs in the eighth innings. I do believe BayStars scored 26 runs in that game. Scores

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

Starting Lineups

Tigers
1. Nishioka (Second)
2. Yamato (Centre)
3. Toritani (Short)
4. Murton (Left)
5. Fukudome (Right)
6. Takahiro Arai (First)
7. Ryota Arai (Third)
8. Fujii (Catcher)
9. Standridge (Pitcher)

Dragons
1. Ohshima (Centre)
2. Araki (Second)
3. Luna (Third)
4. Wada (Left)
5. Clark (First)
6. Ibata (Short)
7. Tanishige (Catcher)
8. Fujii (Right)
9. Cabrera (Pitcher)

Not a classic display by Standridge by any means but sufficient enough to earn him his first victory. Tigers would start well and Tanishige had an off day with Tigers working three steals. Nishioka led off driving into left. He then stole second and was bunted to third by Yamato. Toritani grounded out to short and Ibata locked Nishioka on third before throwing to first for the out. Next was Murton and he singled in the same area as Cabrera drifted bringing Nishioka in 1-0 Tigers, runner on first. Then Murton stole second. Fukudome worked a walk with a long at bat (10 pitches) - Tigers on first and second. However, Cabrera finally got his pitching together and struck out Arai looking to end the innings. Tigers had the lead. The first two batters in Dragons first went down easily but Luna doubled to centre. Unlike the day before Wada couldn't convert and he grounded out to a low slider. Tigers second was quiet - it was the bottom of the order and no one got on base. Clark struck out to start Dragons second but Ibata hit a sharp line drive to centre - runner on first. Tanishige struck out swinging and the Dragons reluctance to steal here was surprising. Fujii has a poor arm and Ibata has quite good acceleration. Still this was very helpful for Tigers. Dragons Fujii drove into left field - runners on first and third. However, the next batter was Cabrera who struck out swinging to end the innings. Nishioka came round again to lead off Tigers third and he was having a great night. He doubled to left centre. He was again bunted to third by Yamato - not exactly clever management at all. Both Toritani and Murton grounded out to short and the chance had been wasted. Still Cabrera was not pitching well and there would be other opportunities. Ohshima grounded out and then Araki did the same. This time Luna struck out swinging and Dragons third had been successfully negotiated.

Fukudome led off Tigers fourth and worked his second walk of the evening. Wada didn't have the temerity to ask Arai to bunt and he singled left to set up runners on first and third. Tigers then went for the sacrifice fly but Ryota didn't hit far enough and Fukudome was held on third. Fujii though did hit deep enough and Fukudome slid home safely 2-0 Tigers, runner on first. Then to everyone's surprise Standridge hit right to put runners on the corners again. Nishioka didn't hit this time and grounded out. He should have done better though. Even though Tigers would win the game they wouldn't really exploit their chances well. Standridge started Dragons fourth by walking Wada - a plethora of outside low pitches being ignored. Clark grounded into a 4-6-3 double play but then Ibata hit another fierce line drive - this one to centre right, runner on first. Once again Tanishige who was having a very anonymous night failed to move him round and the innings was over. Tigers fifth saw Toritani single left with one out. Murton flew out deep to right. Toritani stole second but it was wasted as Fukudome grounded out to end the innings. Dragons fifth saw the batters fall in order. It was a very useful innings in consolidating what was beginning to look like a Tigers victory. Tigers sixth started dramatically with Arai singling left. Then Ryota hit to centre - runners on first and second. Fujii singled to left to load the bases with no outs. Tigers really didn't handle this situation well. One can't expect much of Standridge and he struck out looking. Maybe a pinch hitter at this point would have been better. Nishioka, this time, singled to centre. Both Arai brothers went for home with Ryota being tagged out and Takahiro making it 3-0 Tigers, runners on first and second. Yamato could only ground out to end the innings. Tigers were pretty much home and dry but could have scored more. Morino (pinch hitter and replacement second) led off Dragons response in the sixth with a single to left. Two strike outs followed and then Clark singled to left - runners on first and third. Just when Dragons needed Ibata to come through he failed and grounded out to second to end the innings.

Mise replaced Cabrera for Tigers seventh. He gave up a one out single to Murton. Fukudome flew out to centre and then Arai struck out looking to end that innings. For Dragons seventh the pitcher was Andoh who got into a mess. Tanishige suddenly woke up and led off the innings with a single. Dragons Fujii singled to centre to set up runners on first and second. Takahiro Donoue flew out though but Ohshima singled to load the bases. Tigers then had a nice piece of fortune - Morino lined out to Toritani who fired the ball to second to catch Fujii off base for the third out. This time there was no mistake with Nishioka's foot. Inoue pitched Tigers eighth and retired the batters in order. The third batter was Imanari as Wada now has four catchers in the lineup. One wonders why and why Shimizu is not up there instead of Imanari who is even worse than Fujii. Fukuhara pitched Dragons eighth and started with a lead off single to Luna. Wada he struck out but then Clark singled again - runners on first and second. Ibata though hit to Nishioka and Tigers turned a neat double play to end the innings. Dragons chances were running out. Kobayashi pitched Tigers ninth. Neither Nishioka nor Yamato could get on base but Toritani doubled up the centre. Murton walked to set up runners on first and second and was pinch run for by Shunsuke but Fukudome flew out to left. It was down to Kubo to close the game and he started by striking out Tanishige. Then he dead balled Fujii - the similarity of name no doubt confusing him. Nakata (pinch hitter) popped up to Nishioka and finally Ohshima hit deep to left where Shunsuke took the catch to end the game. Tigers victory.

The catalyst for victory had been Nishioka who had done almost everything that could have been expected of him. Dragons hadn't played well and Tigers had taken advantage of it. It was nice to see Dragons fail to take advantage of Fujii's poor calling and weak arm and we can only say that their game tactics were inept. Standridge had been workmanlike and had kept it together enough for Tigers to win and him to pick up his first victory of the season. Thankfully the coaches had not over-pitched him. Tigers can now take the final game of the series especially if Dragons play like this again.