What on earth happened on Saturday night? How did these two teams, who combined for 34 runs on Friday and Sunday, manage one measly run on a solo homer? That’s baseball for you. Rookie Shoki Murakami did not have the debut he hoped for, but the Tigers fought tooth and nail to make sure they finished the weekend as the top feline team in NPB. Ryutaro Umeno hit his first homer of the year, and added insurance on an RBI triple in the seventh. Yuta Iwasada’s shaky seventh, followed by a really tentative zero with Suguru Iwazaki in the eighth, and you have yourself a real barnburner. Heck, even Robert Suarez saw himself in a bind with runners on the corners in the ninth. But somehow, the bullpen held on tight enough to preserve the W. The Tigers are now 16-0-1 in day games in 2021. Wow.
