At Nagado

Travelling to Nagoya is not a particularly exciting thing for Tigers fans and the dome has to be one of the most boring places in Japan. This is saying something especially if you have had to sit through a Noh performance.

Fujinami was paired with Umeno and didn't really click this game. Six undistinguished innings left Dragons 4-0 up though perhaps to be fair one should mention that all the runs came in the sixth. However, the only reason that Dragons didn't open the scoring in the fifth was that the final batter was Noberto faced with a bases loaded two out situation. Kazuo Itoh took over the pitching for the seventh and pitched to Haraguchi. This didn't work well as Dragons were able to add three more runs. Tigers two runs came from a triple from the bat of Hayata Itoh and a Toritani ground out. Final score 7-2.

As Haraguchi hadn't been able to do much the previous game he was dropped as starting catcher for the next game and Okazaki called for Nohmi. This didn't start out well. Tigers bounded to a two run lead in the top of the second and immediately lost it in the bottom tying the score. Tigers managed to add a run in the sixth and then luckily held onto it. The baseball gods were on Tigers side for the remainder of the match and Dollis picked up the save. Tigers had won 3-2. However, the relief looks thinner and thinner.

Game 3 was inept. Iwasada lasted three innings and by the end of it the score was 6-1. There then followed a succession of relief pitchers as usually happens in this situation. Tigers added 2 more runs in the fifth but even at 6-3 the result was never in doubt. Dragons coasted until the seventh and added another run in that innings and also the eighth 8-3 to the home team. Gomez drove in a run and Haraguchi managed two hits but there was no real batting support. The relief is still weak and there is very little the team can do as this is a coaching issue which doesn't look like it'll be solved soon.