This simply was not the Tigers’ night. They actually had some reasonably well-hit balls that went directly at their outfielders. They also created two good chances (thanks to poor control by the Carp pitchers). Starter Takumi Akiyama was quite strong, giving up just two runs in seven innings of work (and striking out nine!) but…
The Tigers got hold to just 4 hits on this day, but it was not all that important, given that they were handed 8 free passes in the first five innings. Two of their hits produced the runs they needed, and three of the walks scored those runs. The Giants made it close at the…
Haruto Takahashi has had some pretty epic starts against the Yomiuri Giants. Last season, he struck out a career-high 14 in seven innings of work at Koshien in a blowout win. This start, in the Heart of Darkness known as Tokyo Dome, he bettered himself. For the first time in his career, he went the…
The Tigers got off to a good start, though the 3-0 score was a deceptive one – it could have (and should have) been much greater of a lead than that. And then, it vanished. Yuki Nishi walked a batter with two outs in the bottom of the third and came completely unraveled… single, home…
It may be a mystery, but it is no hidden secret that the Hanshin Tigers struggle to score and win at Vantelin Dome Nagoya. After getting on the board in the top of the first and watching starter Masashi Itoh cruise through the first five innings of the game, it looked as though this would…
Somehow, despite having a decent number of chances to bring home runs, our guys were squeezing the bat too tightly, did not play their game, and ended the game with a check-swing foul tip into the catcher’s glove for strike three, game over. That made Koji Chikamoto the seventh batter (well, fourth — Jefry Marte…
The Dome. It does not matter how many times the Tigers head to Nagoya… it still baffles the mind that they struggle so much to score (and win) there. Tonight was no exception. Two golden chances ended with nothing, and the defense did a lot worse than the one error that goes on record. But…
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,…