Their imports absolutely crushed it tonight. Two home runs and a slick defensive play that saved a run. Meanwhile, our starter had a rare poor outing, which was not helped by poor defense behind him. Yes, the Yokohama DeNA BayStars took it to the Tigers again to keep the slump going. P.S. – BayStars version of the recap here!
Starting Pitchers: Takumi Akiyama (3-3, 2.14 ERA) vs. Kentaro Taira (0-0)
4
Akiyama didn’t look much like himself right from the start, but managed to keep the game scoreless. Until Toshiro Miyazaki drilled a bases-empty pitch into the left field stands. Frozen rope.
4
Nothing seemed to be going well for us. Then Kosuke Fukudome introduced 41-year old wood to the ball.
さすがキャプテン！福留のホームランで同点！ #hanshin #虎テレ pic.twitter.com/YGEnZMvJBA
— 虎テレ運用担当 (@toratele) May 17, 2018
Hanshin 1, Yokohama 1
5
A certain guy who used to play for the Tigers led off the inning with a double, came home on a single by Neftali Soto, who then made it home on a two-run homer by Jose Lopez. A couple of errors (only one enters the ledger as an E) later and Akiyama was on the verge of full meltdown. But he coaxed a double play out of the next batter to stop the bleeding. Still, his night was over. 5 IP, 75 TP, 8 H, 1 BB, 1 HBP, 2 K, 4 R.
Hanshin 1, Yokohama 4
7
Another near-error (ground ball pops out of glove, falls, gets kicked, but reliever Marcos Mateo was there to scoop it up and step on the bag) by our struggling first baseman put a runner on second with one out. A grounder and a hit later, and the lead gets extended.
7
It wasn’t a pretty partial comeback, but when you’re this bad at scoring runs, they all count. A rare (well, not this year – he leads the CL with 7) Yamato error gave us our first runner of the inning. Two walks gave us stuffed bases. Fumihito Haraguchi entered as a pinch hitter and brought one home, and then another walk gave us a second. But a double play ended the rally just as it was starting to look like the team might snap out of its funk.
Hanshin 3, Yokohama 5
8 & 9
First of all, it bears mentioning that our compensation pick for losing Yamato to the ‘Stars, Yuya Onaka, pitched this inning against his former mates. And against the one BayStar who was never his former mate: Yamato. Struck him out. In your face! But Suguru Iwazaki, you got served. Jose Lopez once again with the big fly.
Tigers got two men on base in the last frame, but a strikeout and a weak grounder to first ended this one feebly for the mangy cats.