May 14th Standridge v Dickson - Boring

First the interesting stuff - Gen over at Yakyu Baka has posted an excellent analysis of Murton's batting performance with videos and graphs. Well done and many thanks - it is worth looking at. Now for the boring stuff - this game which wasn't quite unrelieved tedium but came close. Tigers managed to lose to a home run which was quite frankly lucky and one expected more from this batting lineup. The bunt made its doleful appearance and we had possibly the most idiotic squeeze of the season. It also seems that Fujii is having a bit of difficulty adjusting to batting seventh - his performance in recent games has fallen off a bit. Scores

           1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Buffaloes  0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 7 0
Tigers     0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0

Starting Lineups

Buffaloes
1. Sakaguchi (Centre)
2. Hirano (Right)
3. Baldris (Third)
4. Lee (First)
5. Rottino (Left)
6. Mitsutaka Gotoh (Second)
7. Itoh (Catcher)
8. Adachi (Short)
9. Dickson (Pitcher)

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

Standridge started by getting Sakaguchi to ground out but then gave up a hit to his old teammate Hirano. Another old Tiger, Baldris, struck out and then Lee flew out to right. Nishioka bounced one high enough to take first and then Wada wheeled out the usual stupid bunt from Yamato - runner on second. Toritani worked a walk to put runners on first and second. Dickson whilst competent and having some good stuff wasn't spectacular and it is a wonder that Tigers struggled to hit him. Mind you the umpiring was pretty awful with an interesting interpretation of what the bottom corner of the zone was. Murton struck out swinging and then Ryota grounded out to short to end that innings. Rottino led off Buffaloes second hitting into the left corner for a double. Gotoh flew out to Murton and then Itoh grounded out to second which took Rottino to third. Adachi took a strike and then Fujii decided to deliberately walk him to get at Dickson. Pretty pointless one thinks but it worked. Dickson grounded out to third to end that innings. Tigers second saw Arai and Fujii fail but then Itoh doubled nicely to centre, over Sakaguchi's head. Seemingly, unfortunately for Tigers the next batter was Standridge but amazingly he walked. Dickson seemed to get into quite a mess over this at bat. Once again Tigers had runners on first and second and this time a recognized batter - Nishioka. Nishioka battled for seven pitches and struck out swinging - this was a very poor at bat and wasted another chance. Dickson would exhibit the ability to get out of difficult situations but Tigers would only generate one more hit off him. With two out in Buffaloes third Baldris singled left. Interestingly the batter before, Hirano struck out swinging in the style that Tigers fans were familiar with - swinging at a low pitch and trying to lift it. Lee worked a walk to set up runners on first and second and then Rottino lifted one into centre where Yamato was safely under it for the final out. Yamato led off Tigers third with a single. Toritani hit to short forcing out Yamato but beating the throw to first. He then stole second with Murton at the plate - once again Tigers had a chance and once again they squandered it. Murton flew out to centre and then Ryota grounded out to short - he definitely is not looking like a No. 5 and one wonders why Wada persists with him in that position.

Buffaloes fourth started with a shock - a double from Gotoh. Itoh bunted him to third and Buffaloes decided on a squeeze play. This is the aforesaid idiotic move as it was so obvious even the most paralytic Tigers fan knew what was coming. Standridge sent in a low slider to Adachi who tried to bunt and missed. Fujii took the catch cleanly and was up and charging up the third baseline after Gotoh who had come two thirds down the baseline. He tried to duck under the tag but had no chance and was out. Adachi then tried to redeem himself hitting deep but only flew out to Murton to end the innings. Tigers fourth was incident free, the three batters fell in order in conventional ways. Buffaloes fifth and with one out Sakaguchi took the plate. He swung wildly and it was wild at an inside pitch which flew off the bat down the first baseline just staying inside the foul pole for a solo home run - lucky but it counted 1-0 Buffaloes. Kawabata (pinch hitter and replacement right) flew out in foul ground - Itoh did well to track it down and then Baldris grounded out to end the innings. Tigers fifth saw nothing happen except the outs. With two out in Buffaloes sixth Gotoh singled to left but then Itoh flew out to centre and the innings was over. Tigers sixth saw a base runner - Ryota walked. Here was a slim chance but Takahiro was having a quiet day and struck out swinging to end that hope.

Buffoles seventh proved to be the only innings in which Standridge did not have a base runner, all three batters falling in order. His pitch count was a bit high at 113 but not excessively so for Wada and apart from the lucky home run he had controlled the game well. Tigers seventh was also quiet with the final batter Imanari (pinch hitter) striking out swinging and trying to run for first but being thrown out. One wonders how someone so ineffective can actually be a part of the top team. Fukuhara pitched Buffaloes eighth and started by getting Kawabata to ground out to Toritani. Then he dead balled Baldris. Lee singled to left to put runners on first and second. This was the end of Fukuhara who was in his I will not cooperate with Fujii mode and he was replaced by Katoh. I used to dislike Katoh but now admire his aggression and commitment. He did well getting Itoi (pinch hitter) to fly out to centre. Shunta Gotoh (pinch runner and replacement third) tagged up and took third but this didn't phase Katoh who got Mitsutaka Gotoh to ground out to Nishioka to end the innings. Satoh pitched Tigers eighth and struck out Nishioka looking - this was a bit dubious to say the least. Yamato grounded out to second and then Toritani lined out straight at short for the final out. Tsutsui pitched Buffaloes ninth and got Itoh to ground out to him. He struck out Adachi and then got Yamamoto (replacement third) to fly out to right. Tigers ninth was pitched by Hirano. It was depressingly similar to the other innings except for one bright spark - an Arai single to right with two outs. This was the only bright spark though and Hiyama (pinch hitter) flew out to end the innings. Buffaloes victory.

I have tried to make this account interesting but to be honest it was difficult to watch this game; it was so tedious. Despite the incidents there seemed to be no soul or passion from the Tigers and the reduced crowd where disappointed. Tigers didn't play well and should have done considerably better. Buffaloes weren't impressive either but they could be satisfied with the win. Sometimes one loses to second rate sides and this was the case in this game.