Koyo Aoyagi lowered his ERA even further, hurling 7 innings of one (earned) run ball. Still, he seemed destined to be the second straight hard-luck loser for the Tigers. After all, it took the Tigers 26 outs to finally come to life. Held off the board for 8 ⅔ innings, and giving up three runs (two due to errors), it was difficult to foresee what would happen next. Remember that game when the Tigers strung together 7 straight singles to score 5 against the Swallows in one inning? This time, they did it with their backs against the wall… Teruaki Sato and Koji Chikamoto and Kento Itohara and Jefry Marte and Yusuke Ohyama — the last four driving in a run — to give the team just its second walkoff of the season, first at Koshien, and a “safer” two-game lead over the Giants. What a finish!
You are forgetting Umeno’s efforts and 3 hits…
You’re totally right. He was perhaps more heroic than Sato was last night. I was thinking that when Sato went down 0-2 in the count that he was striking out for sure, which is why his hit was crucial. But Umeno was outstanding last night.