The Tigers pieced together a first-inning run against a pitcher who has always had success against them (and everyone, honestly). Sugano was sharp the rest of the way, shutting out our bats for the next six innings. Unfortunately, Joe Gunkel got tagged for 7 runs in the second inning, but honestly, it could have been…
After a day off Thursday and a rainout on Friday, it was about time we had some baseball to watch, was it not? The adversary looked good, though, as the Chunichi Dragons have been on a roll lately. Let’s also not forget that their ace, last year’s Sawamura Award winner Yudai Ohno, had a career…
Despite getting the leadoff man on base five times tonight, the Tigers bats were simply unable to push anyone across home plate. That is mostly because the same three guys kept getting on base, but the rest of the batters did pretty much nothing. Great outing by rookie Masashi Itoh goes to waste. Swallows win,…
Most of you know about RISP (batting average with runners in scoring position)… and the higher your number, the more clutch you appear to be. That said, our sluggers really blew such chances four innings in a row. The most glaring was a no-out, bases-loaded situation that came up completely fruitless. This game looked like…
Note: The essays in this book are readable online! Baseball in 2021 is far from perfect. Some argue that technology and over-analysis have led to the fly-ball revolution, infield shifting, and other strategies that have taken the joy out of the game. But if you think the game’s evolution is complete, or that it is…
I’ll give the team this much. After playing at Koshien in the first part of the week, they headed west to Hiroshima for a pair of games, and then traveled to Yokohama just for this one game. I mostly expected they would be tired and struggle against Shota Imanaga, who is historically good against our…
After a rough last outing (2 innings, 5 runs), Takumi Akiyama had something to prove. And prove it, he did. His lone base runner through six was a hit batsman, and until the solo home run he gave up in the seventh, he faced the minimum number of batters. He could have easily gone out…
At long last on his eighth attempt, Yuki Nishi has joined the 100-win club. He threw 5 innings and gave up just one run, and thankfully, Jerry Sands came through with the winning RBI as Nishi’s pinch hitter. The relievers held tight, and closer Robert Suarez became the fourth pitcher in club history to record…
Two first-inning errors. Walked the bases loaded in the sixth. Gave five free passes in the seventh. Not our night. At least the Giants did not win, either. But they added to their impressive tie total…
Coming from behind to win games feels good, but falling behind early game in and game out, well, does not feel so good. Once again, the Tigers’ starter – in this case, Masashi Itoh – surrendered three runs in the game’s first three innings… and our bats only really came to life in the fifth…