Thursday night, the Hanshin Tigers clinched their first Central League pennant since 2005, and just the sixth in club history. From what I observed on TV and in the newspapers, they were up quite late into the night (as they deserved to fully celebrate their accomplishment). They then had to travel to Hiroshima very fatigued Friday morning… and yet the first 5 members of the lineup were the same as always! Still, they put up 5 runs and (sorry to blame someone) were it not for the fact that they used a lot of inexperienced pitchers and catcher, they only lost by one! Then today, they went all out and punished the second-place Carp. In all, they sent a message to that team, putting up decent run totals against their two best pitchers (Tokoda and Morishita) two weeks in a row. (Teruaki Sato had six hits and five RBIs in these two games!) So now the team heads back home to play four at Koshien in five days… let the good times roll!
[…] long weekend. Clinching the pennant at the home ballpark on September 14 was special, but having to play on the road the day after meant that fans did not get a chance to see their champs live for a few days. Unfortunately, the […]