With a huge win on Tuesday and our best pitcher due up on the mound today, it looked like the Tigers might be well on their way to avenging a sweep at Koshien by these same Yomiuri Giants just a few weeks back. But a couple of judgment lapses by the sophomoric third baseman might have been the difference between win and loss in this one.
Starting Pitchers: Randy Messenger (5-1, 1.72 ERA) vs. Mitsuo Yoshikawa (1-2, 3.70 ERA)
1
I’m not sure how these things work as far as runs charged to pitcher, but this is what went down. Randy got the first guy out. Then walked one. He stole second. The next batter was Guerrero, who grounded to third. Yusuke Ohyama tried to nail the lead runner who was retreating to second. Didn’t get him. So with runners on first and second and one out, Randy gets the next guy before giving up two hits, both of which scored a run apiece.
Hanshin 0, Yomiuri 2
5
It took awhile for the Tigers to generate anything. Kento Itohara took first on four bad pitches, and advanced to second on Ohyama’s grounder. He scored on (gasp) Ryutaro Umeno‘s one-out (gasp) double. Unfortunately, the rally ended there.
Hanshin 1, Yomiuri 2
6
Nothing to see here. Just move on. Randy gave up his first home run of the season… a solo shot, fortunately. So his night ended after this frame… 6 IP, 107 TP, 5 H, 4 BB, 3 R, 6 K.
7
The very next frame looked promising. Ohyama led off with a single, and Fumihito Haraguchi followed it up with one of his own. But then Ohyama got picked off at second, which took the wind out of the Tiger sails. SIGH. The bright spot for these Tigers today was Kai Ueda, who got two hits and two walks and stole a base. The kid is on fire!