A loss and a win

The final game of the series against the BayStars saw the return of the abysmal Sakamoto/Nohmi pairing and it went to form. This time Tigers squandered a two run lead resulting from a Gomez two run home run in the first. The BayStars finally got to Nohmi in the fifth and in fact he didn't even complete the innings. Talk is of transferring him back to the relief (he used to play there in the past) next season. Maybe though pairing him with a decent catcher would be a better idea rather than continuing with Kanemoto's vanity project. Speculation is that the whole team will be switched around and Fukudome at first (as is one of the speculations) would mean the end of Gomez. BayStars scored 4 runs in the fifth and added another couple in the eighth to complete a 6-3 victory and clinch a Climax Series place.

The other game played was the only surviving game from the last Tigers Giants series; the other two games having been hit by weather. This saw the recently successful Haraguchi Iwasada pairing who delivered very well. Once again Tigers took the lead and Iwasada carried a shutout into the seventh when a Murata solo home run ended that. Haraguchi was also superb behind the plate and Tigers ended with a 4-1 victory, runs coming from the bats of Hojoh, Takayama and Itayama. This amazingly was Tigers first win of the season at Koshien against the old enemy. That is not a good record by any stretch of the imagination and it is something that Tigers fans will not be happy about.