The game can be boiled down to an early ejection of our pitcher and a lack of hitting by our batters. You really don’t need to read on.
Starting Pitchers: Randy Messenger (2-0, 0.60 ERA) vs. Akitake Okada (1-0, 3.00 ERA)
1
A hard-fought walk, a lucky error, and a single by Yoshio Itoi loaded the bases. Wilin Rosario did the bare minimum, hitting a sacrifice fly to center.
Hanshin 1, Hiroshima 0
2
Messenger didn’t have his control up until this point, but the umpire’s calls on balls and strikes didn’t help. And after things started going south, this:
#阪神タイガース #hanshin#広島カープ#メッセンジャー#退場
メッセ暴言退場(´･ω･`) pic.twitter.com/umYNdjUWFY
— や@マシュマリスト (@hsntgs1101) April 12, 2018
Ejected. 1.2 IP, 56 TP, 4 H, 4 BB, 3 R, 2 K. Tsuyoshi Ishizaki came in and got the third out. He also pitched three shutout innings after that.
Hanshin 1, Hiroshima 3
Ultimately the Carp tagged on a couple more runs off Akifumi Takahashi, but that’s just a minor detail. The boys managed just three singles to go along with three double plays (one for each of the cleanup hitters). That’s some awful hitting.