This has been an absolutely atrocious year for the Yakult Swallows. The injury bug bit them frequently and didn’t seem to want to leave even after there was no more blood. And the Tigers have enjoyed feasting on the li’l Birds all season, too. In this, their last tilt of the season, we picked their carcass clean.
Game 134 – Saturday 9/23. A Sound Thumping
Starting Pitchers: Taiki Ono (1-7) vs. Yoshinori Satoh (3-4)
Despite the bagels that lined the scoreboard through three, there were chances on both sides. But it took until…
Top 4: With the bases loaded, Yoshinori found the five-hole on his catcher, and a run scored from third. Yamato the Lefty was up at the plate, and he found a spot in shallow center to deposit a ball to score a second run. Hanshin 2, Yakult 0
Top 5: For the second straight inning, Kosuke Fukudome walked, but this time he made it home a lot faster than he did in the previous inning, courtesy of this blast from Jason Rogers. Welcome back, Panda! Hanshin 4, Yakult 0
🐯出ました！ww
パンダ🐼が2ランです！👏🏻🤣#阪神タイガース pic.twitter.com/zFwwD09EJe— ⚾️埼とら⚾️今季は怪我無く！ (@yakyuragu) September 23, 2017
Bottom 6: Ono’s night ended at the end of the fifth with this line: 5 IP, 101 TP, 3 H, 5 BB, 0 R, 4 K. His first reliever was Suguru Iwazaki. With two outs he walked a guy, and then induced a pop up to shallow right. Which was dropped. Hanshin 4, Yakult 1
Top 7: Fukudome and Rogers got back-to-back hits, advanced a base each on an error, then Yamato walked and a slew of hits (Ryutaro Umeno 2 RBI single, Hayata Itoh RBI double, Shunsuke RBI single, Hiroki Uemoto) brought in four more runs.
And that was it. Blowout complete. Season series domination complete.
Final Score: Hanshin 8, Yakult 1. WP: Ono (2-7). Team Record: 73-58-3
18 – 7 