Yokohama vs. Hiroshima - 91st Loss of Season

As mentioned over on Christopher's Tiger Tails blog, it's been hard to write about the BayStars. I get severe writer's block when I look at a box score. And the standings - 46 wins to 91 losses (1 tie)! Well, at least we're not threatening 100 losses like we were a few years back.

But what went wrong last night in Hiroshima? We got off to a 4-0 lead after 3 1/2 innings. We had our new ace, Shigeru Kaga, on the mound. Kaga has only been giving up a couple runs per game (despite his 3 and 10 record going into this one), so he finally had the run support he'd been seriously lacking all season.

Well, 4 consecutive hits to start off the bottom of the 4th tied the game, the big blow being a game tying 3-run home run by Shigenobu Shima. The Carp threatened again in the inning, but didn't score any more.

While the BayStars had rapped out 8 hits for their 4 runs over the first 4 innings, Ren Nakata took over for starter Yuki Saitoh in the fifth. A combination of Nakata and 4 other pitchers held Yokohama to just 1 hit the remainder of the game. (The highlight for Hiroshima fans was Ken Takahashi striking out Jose Castillo swinging in the 8th inning for his retirement appearance.)

So as the BayStars' bats had gone dormant, Kaga couldn't get an out in the 5th inning against the Carp. Three consecutive hits followed by a walk to Shima saw Kaga relieved of duty. Kazuya Takamiya allowed an RBI single to pinch hitting Takahiro Iwamoto and was relieve by Yataro Sakamoto. Sakamoto walked in a run before getting the first out of the inning on a pop fly to second. A failed double play saw another runner cross the plate, and it wasn't until the 10th batter of the inning, Shogo Kimura, grounding out to the pitcher that the side was retired. Hiroshima had taken a 10-4 lead when all the dust had cleared.

Takehiro Fukuda pitched the 6th inning, walking 3 and allowing a 2-RBI single to catcher Yoshiyuki Ishihara to make the score Hiroshima 12 to Yokohama 4. And that was the final.

This game is pretty typical of what I've witnessed all year long. When the BayStars do manage to score first, they don't hang on to the lead long. Everything turns in an instant, often on the long ball.

While I suppose that I shouldn't be surprised by the lack of offense with a pitching manager, Obana-kantoku was supposed to bring change and confidence to the pitching staff. Ippatsu-byo is still taking the lives of many games as our pitchers can't seem to shake this illness. If Obana-kantoku can't cure this disease, who can?