After a rollercoaster of a ride on Opening Day, the Tigers settled down nicely to finish off the Yakult Swallows on the weekend. This contrasts nicely with last season’s opening weekend sweep at the hands of the Giants. The power on display at Meiji Jingu Stadium sure gave fans a lot to get excited about!
Game 2 – Saturday, March 27, 2:00 pm
Starting Pitchers: Koyo Aoyagi vs. Kazuto Taguchi
Top 1: Taguchi, who came over from the Giants in a trade, did not bring a winning spirit with him. The first two outs he recorded in this game also brought in the first two runs of the game (sac flies by Yusuke Ohyama and Jerry Sands). Teruaki Sato also introduced himself to NPB, hitting a towering blast to deep center, his first career home run. Behold. Enjoy. T 4-0 S
Top 3: Ryutaro Umeno hit a bases-loaded double down the right-field line, scoring a pair (Jefry Marte, who walked, plus Ohyama, who doubled). T 6-0 S
Bottom 5: Quite good until this inning, Aoyagi allowed back-to-back hits (the second of which was an infield dribbler of a single), and then a hard-hit Aoki ball bounced off the shortstop’s glove and rolled into no-man’s land. T 6-2 S
Top 6: The bottom part of the order, including an Aoyagi chopper over first, put men on the corners. Kento Itohara brought one of them home on a single to center. T 7-2 S
Bottom 6: Can’t stop Munetaka Murakami forever. He teed off on an Aoyagi offering, and later in the inning when he had walked and plunked his first hitters of the day, he got pulled. Yuta Iwasada put out the fire pretty quickly. T 7-3 S
Top 9: Naomasa Yohkawa clubbed one over the right-center wall for his first big fly of the season. Later, Umeno picked up his second RBI double of the game. Blowout! T 9-3 S
Bottom 9: Could have, should have been a peaceful ending, but Kentaro Kuwahara walked their #8 hitter, gave up a homer to their #9 hitter, then gave up a pinch-hit single. Would Jingu have some early-season dramatics? Not on this day. Three outs later, the Tigers high-fived each other.
Final Score: Hanshin 9, Yakult 5
WP: Aoyagi (5.2 IP 105 TP 7 H 1 BB 1 HBP 5 K 3 R)
Game 3 – Sunday, March 28, 1:00 pm
Starting Pitchers: Joe Gunkel vs. Yasunobu Okugawa
Top 1: Itohara singled and Sands brought him home on a double to left-center. T 1-0 S
Top 3: Marte beautifully worked the count full, laying off some really tough pitches, and then sent one into the left-field stands. T 2-0 S
Top 5: Seiya Kinami picked up a single to left, and Itohara cashed him in with a double to the right-center gap. T 3-0 S
Top 8: The Swallows bullpen showed up in a bad way. The first four men got hits, including an RBI single by Marte and more fireworks from Sands, who hit a first-pitch offering into the crowd. T 7-0 S
Bottom 8: Daichi Ishii made his second mound appearance of the series, and this one did not go much better, as Tetsuto Yamada teed off on a fat pitch, putting it over the center-field wall. T 7-2 S
Top 9: Chikamoto broke up a double play, then later scored on a sac fly by Yasuhiro Yamamoto.