The origin of his nickname is not known to yours truly, but our starting pitcher today uses Akkyaman as part of his Twitter handle – アッキャマン has the letters for アキヤマ (Akiyama) in it, with a few extras so it sounds a little more “hero-like.” Well on this particular day, the name was 100% befitting of the man, who pretty much won this one on his own with his arm and his bat.
Starting Pitchers: Takumi Akiyama (2-3, 2.73 ERA) vs. Shun Yamaguchi (3-1, 3.03 ERA)
2
A walk and a couple of beaned batters loaded up the bases, and it looked like Ryutaro Umeno might have grounded into an inning-ending double play… but their middle infielders messed up, and instead the first run of the game scored. Then the second came in off an Akiyama single. Then a third on a Takashi Toritani sacrifice fly. It’s nice to have momentum handed to you like that.
Hanshin 3, Yomiuri 0
3
It looked like it should have been ball four. Wilin Rosario was sure of it. But instead the ump decided it was a strike. No worries…
🐯出たぁ〜〜ww
ロサリオ選手が超特大❗
実況「看板に直撃、吉永小百合さんに当たりました！」😂🤣#阪神タイガース #WilinRosarioss pic.twitter.com/IashE3tGF7
— ⚾埼とら⚾今季も怪我無く！ (@yakyuragu) May 8, 2018
Hanshin 4, Yomiuri 0
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I kid you not. When the count reached 2-0 on Akiyama, I turned to my son and said, “We might see a home run here.” Call me prophet. Or lucky guesser. Whatever. Result is the same. (And for the record, I made a hundred wrong predictions tonight, too.)
🐯大谷には負けない❗ww
秋山がスタンドに
放り込みましたよ。👏🏻😆#阪神タイガース #秋山拓巳 pic.twitter.com/A8e1Ga5grx— ⚾埼とら⚾今季も怪我無く！ (@yakyuragu) May 8, 2018
Hanshin 5, Yomiuri 0
5
Once again Yamaguchi had his back against the wall, and with the bases stuffed (a double and a couple of walks), Shun Takayama singled up the middle to turn this one into a laugher. For US.
Hanshin 7, Yomiuri 0
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You like that and you want more, you said? What say you, Yoshio Itoi? Can you give Tigers fans even more to get excited about? How about this blast into the right field bleachers, one pitch after Kai Ueda‘s single?
🐯植田のヒットから
糸井がツーランです❗👏🏻😆#阪神タイガース pic.twitter.com/BFOlcRCc0o— ⚾埼とら⚾今季も怪我無く！ (@yakyuragu) May 8, 2018
9
Nothing. Well, they tried. Guerrero hit one off the wall in left center, and tried to stretch it into a triple. But the most exciting play in baseball is a great defensive play to prevent the triple from happening, not the triple itself. And so, with just one out left to record, Akiyama got McGehee to ground out to shortstop, and he earned himself his first complete game shutout in 8 years. 9 IP, 127 TP, 5 H, 1 BB, 9 K, 0 R. “I feel like someone else did it, not me,” he said in the post-game interview. He’s right. A superhero named Akkyaman did it. And boy, did he ever do it well.