What to say. This was a true pitching gem by starter Yuki Nishi. He dissected the powerful Giants order all night, and made just one mistake on an 0-2 count… his pitch missed Umeno’s glove by maybe 6″ and was in the bottom of the strike zone, enough for Takumi Ohshiro to push it through…
Unfortunately, it neither rained nor poured at Koshien Stadium on this day. It would have helped if the game had been called before the fifth inning because at no point during these nine innings did it look like our guys were going to pull off the win. Masashi Itoh walked three and plunked one in…
You can say what you want about the nature of this game ending in the top of the seventh with the Giants threatening to make it a close game. The fact of the matter is that the grounds crew know the field better than anyone, and they do not play favorites. When they can fix…
This was far from an ideal game, far from an ideal series. But nevertheless, with the game on the line, captain Yusuke Ohyama delivered, hitting a go-ahead three-run into a crowd of rain-soaked Yakult Swallows fans in right field. Joe Gunkel had one bad inning but was otherwise solid. Jefry Marte continues to get on…
Everything is lined up for this to be a lucky game for the Tigers: it is Tanabata Festival Day (make a wish day) in Japan, it is 7/7, and game 77. You’d think that would be enough for us to get some cool mojo going, like a ninth-inning three-run home run to give us 7…
For the first time in 17 games, Yusuke Ohyama hit a ball over the fence. And all it took was dropping him down to seventh in the batting order. That was a huge key to victory, but so was Koyo Aoyagi’s outstanding outing, which has further cemented him as a true pillar in the rotation,…
We were watching our child learning to ride a bicycle today. Fall off, scrape a knee, pick him back up, dust him off, encourage him to keep trying – he’ll get it right next time. Repeat the process enough, and the kid will eventually figure it out, right? Well, today, the opportunities could have been…
This was a tight game, with the lone run in the game’s first six innings coming on a broken-up double play. But then in the seventh, Jefry Marte homered off Robert Corniel, and in the eighth, both he and Jerry Sands got RBI hits off Kyle Bird. On our end of things, Masashi Itoh pitched…
Now, I’m not going to excuse this game away as bad luck for the Tigers. You don’t win when you can’t hit in scoring situations. But a dribbler of a single by their pitcher extended an inning that coulda-shoulda-woulda-but-didn’t end after just one run. Nope, and another weak infield single broke the inning wide open….
Joe Gunkel was having himself a game for the ages. The second-year American hurler, who says he is more of a contact pitcher than anything, struck out ten and scattered just three hits (one a solo home run) over seven innings. He left with the game tied, and no one could have possibly imagined a…