Let’s just forget about what happened on Tuesday, shall we? OK, just one sentence. It was our fourth straight game of putting up just a single run. And Wednesday, we were close to doing the same, as it took until extra innings for our run total to break the barrier. On Thursday, the bats finally showed some signs of life, as Sheldon Neuse hit his second home run in as many games, and Ryo Watanabe hit his first as a Tiger. But the story of this series was Wednesday’s game, which saw young pitcher Shoki Murakami getting just his third career start. He had spent the first 9 games of the season in the bullpen, so manager Akinobu Okada initially planned to let him try to complete five innings and then ride the relievers for the rest of the game. But Murakami was simply too good. Perfect, in fact. Seven perfect innings, 21 straight outs. Okada said after the game that he envisioned a “relay” perfecto, but it was not meant to be. The first pitch reliever Daichi Ishii threw cleared the wall. In any case… we won the series against the Giants in their barn! We’ll take it!
