I’m beside myself. The Tigers ended the Heisei Era with eight straight losses to the Giants (six this year, including shutouts in the last two). Heading into Tokyo Dome against a team that crushed the Swallows for 19 runs in a single game just last week? Not feeling this series, I thought to myself.
And Koyo Aoyagi gave up two runs in the first inning on Tuesday. But then…
Jefry Marte became the first import hitter in team history to hit a home run in his first at bat against the Giants:
It took several innings for the Tigers to do anything more, but in the seventh, after Fumiya Hojoh tied it up with an RBI single, Kento Itohara came up to the dish with the bags juiced. His single up the middle put the winning runs on the board, and the relievers held on for the win.
The icing on the cake was that Rafael Dolis recorded the final out of the game on Hayato Sakamoto, putting an end to his record-breaking streak of reaching base safely in 36 straight games to start the season.
Final Score: Hanshin 4, Yomiuri 2
WP: Aoyagi (3-3); SV: Dolis (8)
But that was nothing compared to what went down on Wednesday night. Leaving aside the fact that the Tigers gave up a boatload of runs, just look at what we did to Sugano and the relievers:
Yoshio Itoi with his first in 39 games.
Kosuke Fukudome stretching a lead that had been reduced to one:
Seiya Kinami with his second career home run (both off Sugano):
Yusuke Ohyama with one off the upper deck signs:
And Sugano’s out after giving up TEN runs (7 earned) in 5.2 innings of batting practice. But the Tigers weren’t done. Ryutaro Umeno put one into the left-center stands, too:
And ya know what? We needed just about all those runs, because the Giants just wouldn’t go away. The Giants hit some bombs of their own and even with a six-run lead and two innings to go, no one was ready to call this game over. Can you believe it? WE SWEPT THE GIANTS!