Last year, Covid-19 only permitted me to attend one baseball game. This year, I got a quick start to matching that number, as I headed out to Hanshin Koshien Stadium in the preseason to catch the Tigers-Lions battle-for-feline-supremacy match (Part II).
It was a cloudy, cool Saturday afternoon, and Koyo Aoyagi was on the mound for our guys. He actually did a decent job of mowing down the Lions through 5 innings. Just one run scored, and that was in part because of a throwing error that allowed the runner on second to score when he should have only ended up on 3rd.
For our boys’ part, there was not a lot of action from the bats, either. Teruaki Sato, celebrating his 22nd birthday, walked in his first at-bat, then struck out looking in his second trip to the plate.
It was not until the bottom of the fifth that our guys did some damage, with Koji Chikamoto going yard (while I was tweeting about Yamamoto’s decent at-bat that ended in an out)…
And then Jefry Marte following suit two batters later.
However, Aoyagi fell apart in the top of the sixth, walking two and giving up a hit to another. With the bases stuffed, Hotaka Yamakawa went yard, putting the game out of reach as our boys failed to capitalize on their one bases-loaded opportunity in the fourth, plus two straight innings of having runners in scoring position (6th, 7th).
However, the preseason is not about wins and losses, it’s about figuring stuff out, finding the right combinations out of the bullpen and the right batting order. Taiki Ono, Ren Kajiya and Jon Edwards each pitched an inning, with the latter allowing a run in the top of the 9th.
On the whole, I will say that I was impressed with Yasuhiro Yamamoto at the plate, as he barreled a few balls but just could not muster enough mustard to put it over the fence. Yusuke Ohyama came close on one as well. Sato also hit a nice liner to center that, had it been a few feet further west, would have been a gapper for sure.
All I can say is, being at the ballpark is a great experience, and I am hoping that 2021 affords me way more chances than I had last year.
Here we go, Tigers! Here we go, H-TEN!