Saturday, November 11, 2006

Konami Cup, Day Two, Fighters Game Log

Fun stuff. Keizo Kawashima finally gets to play in a game, Yukio Tanaka gets to start, and former Hiroshima Carp pitcher Kenny Rayborn gets to exact a little revenge on Japan.
                     

Hichori Morimoto CF Long-Yi Huang CF
Kensuke Tanaka 2B Chun-Hsiung Lu RF
Ogasawara 1B Chih-Sheng Lin SS
Inaba RF Chin-Feng Chen DH
Takahashi C Chih-Wei Shih 3B
Kimoto 3B Chung-Wei Pan 1B
Yukio Tanaka! DH Hao-Ji Zheng LF
Kawashima LF Feng-Min Chen C
Kaneko SS Chih-Tsung Chiang 2B

--------------- ----------------
M. Takeda (5-2, 2.04) Rayborn (16-5, 1.94)

Read full game log here (cut post)

First inning, top: Hichori grounded the 2-2 pitch back to the mound. Kensuke Tanaka grounded out to third on an inside pitch. Ogasawara hit a fastball down the middle for a single to center, but Inaba grounded out to short, ending the inning. Rayborn threw 10 pitches.

First inning, bottom: Huang struck out swinging on the 2-2 pitch. Lu was called out on strikes on the 1-2 pitch. Lin grounded out to short. Takeda threw 11 pitches.

Second inning, top: Takahashi struck out on three straight pitches. Kimoto grounded out to first. Yukio Tanaka watched a curveball go by for a called third strike on the outside corner. Rayborn threw 9 pitches for a total of 19.

Second inning, bottom: Chin-Feng Chen struck out swinging. Shih lined out to third. Pan watched a fastball go by on the high inside corner for a called third strike. Takeda threw 10 pitches.

Third inning, top: Kawashima watched a 2-2 fastball go by on the low outside corner for a called third strike. Kaneko hit a low curve and popped out to center. Hichori was hit on the left hand by the first pitch he saw, a curveball. Kensuke got under a cutter and popped out to short. Rayborn threw 14 pitches for a total of 33.

Third inning, bottom: Zheng got up to a full count and eventually walked. Feng-Min Chen hit a huge fly ball to deep right field, Inaba making a running catch while facing the back wall. Chiang struck out swinging on a change-up. Huang finally got the first hit for the Bears with a single to left, but Lu grounded out to short. Takeda threw 16 pitches for a total of 37.

Fourth inning, top: Ogasawara flew out to left. Inaba flew out to second. Takahashi got up to a full count before hitting a hard grounder to second which Chih-Tsung Chiang apparently made a really nice diving leap to his side to catch. Rayborn threw 13 pitches for a total of 46 through four.

Fourth inning, bottom: Lin singled through the short-third gap. Chin-Feng Chen grounded back to the mound, where Takeda threw to Kaneko covering second for the force-out on Lin, who slid in hard and prevented him from making the double play, so Chen was safe at first. Shih grounded to third, Kimoto making the throw to second to get the forceout on Chen. Pan struck out swinging to end the inning. Takeda threw 18 pitches for a total of 55.

Fifth inning, top: Kimoto got up to a full count before grounding out to short. Yukio Tanaka lofted an outside curve for a fly out to right. Kawashima struck out again, this time swinging. Rayborn threw 16 pitches for a total of 62 through five.

Fifth inning, bottom: Hao-Ju Zheng took the second pitch he saw and sent it flying into the left-field stands for a home run as the Bears took a 1-0 lead. Feng-Min Chen flew out to right. Chiang grounded out to short, and Huang flew out to center. Takeda threw 12 pitches for a total of 67.

Sixth inning, top: Kaneko got hit on his left hand by the 2-2 pitch, or at least he thought he did, and though the trainers came out to look at his hand and all, the ball was ruled a foul. A few pitches later he grounded out to second. Hichori hit a ball to centerfield which fell in for a single. Kensuke hit a fly ball to left, but Hichori wasn't able to tag up and advance. Ogasawara grounded out to short. Rayborn threw 14 pitches for a total of 76 through six.

Sixth inning, bottom: Lu struck out swinging. Lin got up to a full count and also struck out swinging. Chin-Feng Chen struck out on three straight pitches as well. Takeda threw 12 pitches to strike out the side.

Seventh inning, top: Inaba flew out to right. Takahashi struck out swinging on a 143km/h fastball. Kimoto sat around fouling off pitches for a while until he had a full count, and on the 10th pitch of the at-bat he finally struck out swinging. Rayborn threw 17 pitches for a total of 93 through seven.

Seventh inning, bottom: Shih hit the ball to shallow left field where it looked like it would fall for a single, but Kawashima ran it down and stretched to make the catch. Pan singled to right. Zheng hit the ball off the end of his bat towards first, and Ogasawara threw to second for the forceout on Pan. Feng-Min Chen flew out to left after that. Takeda threw 8 pitches that inning for 87 through seven.

Eighth inning, top: Inada came in to pinch-hit for Yukio Tanaka. Inada broke his bat hitting a change-up back to the pitcher, but the ball snapped out of his glove for what was ruled an infield hit. Konta came in to pinch-hit for Kawashima, and for whatever reason he sac bunted on a 3-0 count, Inada advancing to second. For whatever reason at this point, Rayborn was taken out of the game and replaced with Ramon Rafael Morel.

(Rayborn's line: 7.1 IP, 3 H, 0 BB, 6 K, 1 HBP, 1 R/ER, 100 pitches. Not bad!)

Kaneko got up to a full count and walked. Hichori also got up to a full count and walked. This loaded the bases. Kensuke Tanaka came up and grounded to first, but first baseman Pan was slightly offtarget when throwing home and so Inada scored the tying run, bringing it to 1-1; the play was called a fielder's choice. Everyone advanced. Ogasawara hit a sac fly to left field, and Kaneko scored from third to bring the score to 2-1, but Hichori also tried to tag up and get to third and he was tagged out, ending the inning. Morel threw 19 pitches.

Eighth inning, bottom: Hisashi Takeda replaced Masaru Takeda on the mound. Satoshi Nakajima came in to catch.

(Masaru Takeda's line: 7 IP, 4 H, 1 BB, 9 K, 1 HR (1 ER/R). Wow!)

Chiang flew out to right. Huang grounded out to third. Min-Yen Chang came in to pinch-hit for Lu and ended up watching a fastball go by on the outside for a called third strike. Hisashi threw 9 pitches.

Ninth inning, top: Wen-Hsiung Hsu took the mound. Chin-Te Yu went to play right field. (Morel's line: 0.2 IP, 0 H, 2 BB, 1 R/ER, and the loss eventually.)

Inaba got an infield hit to second, and Nakajima predictably bunted him ahead. Kimoto followed that up with a single to left. Yuuji Iiyama came in to pinch-run for Kimoto. Inada hit a fly ball caught at second. With two outs and runners at first and third and the count at 2-2, Iiyama took off to steal second. As soon as the catcher threw the ball Inaba took off for home from third, and the pitcher cut off the throw to second and threw it to third and caught Inaba in a rundown, where he was tagged out to end the inning. (Or something. I know Inaba ended up in a rundown, I'm not clear on whether the catcher actually threw all the way to second or not.) Hsu threw 14 pitches.

Ninth inning, bottom: Micheal Nakamura took the mound. (Hisashi's line: 1 IP, 1 K, 0 everything else)

Lin lead off the inning by getting hit in the head by a super looping curveball. Chin-Feng Chen flew out to second. Shih struck out swinging. During Pan's at-bat, on a 1-2 count, Lin ran for second, and the pitch bounced away from Nakajima, so Pan got to third base. Unfortunately for him, Pan grounded out to short and ended the game. Michael threw 14 pitches.

Fighters won the game, 2-1. Log, Box Score

Oh, there's also apparently a Japanball article about the game, too.

Apparently Ogasawara was game hero.

I finally finished going through this game... and the Fighters have already completed their Saturday afternoon game. Oops. I'm a little worried by the small margin they beat the Taiwan and China teams by, honestly, although it could also be said that they had a lot of second-string guys playing in the lineup, so eh.

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