The Tigers had a seven-game lead over the Giants heading into this weekend tilt. They put seven runs up on the scoreboard in the first one-third of the game, pushing their winning streak to seven and shoving the Giants down into third place. But we all know that there is still plenty of season left,…
What can you say about these Hanshin TIgers? I can say that the bullpen took a real beating these past 18 games. I can also say that the bats came through a ton against some really good pitchers. Today made that evident beyond any other game in interleague play. Ace rookie Takahisa Hayakawa lasted just…
I’ll be honest with you. I predicted the Tigers would go 1-2 against the Buffaloes and they did. I predicted they would go 1-2 against the Hawks and they did. I predicted they would sweep the Fighters and they did. So a part of me was hoping to be right about a 1-2 finish against…
For just the second time in 2021 (I think), the Hanshin Tigers game was not on network TV in Kansai. As a result, I have very little to say about this game except that Koyo Aoyagi pitched a gem, allowing just one earned run in eight innings, and Jefry Marte hit the go-ahead two-run home…
A solid outing from starter Raul Alcantara ended prematurely with a single to the shin, but he still threw six shutout innings and the bats came through at a fairly constant pace. Takumu Nakano led the way with two hits, including the opening RBI single in the fifth. The Tigers won all three against the…
Takumi Akiyama did not look like himself again. He now has as many walks in his last two outings (5) as he had in his first seven. Still, he kept the damage to a minimum, thanks in large part to UZR king Koji Chikamoto’s superior range in center. Meanwhile, the bats found all the gaps,…
There were not a whole lot of hits in this one for our Tigers. As for our pitchers, they simply weathered the “storm” of singles and bunts. While not a Koshien walk-off win (as he did in 2019), Fumihito Haraguchi provided the late-game heroics with an RBI double in the top of the ninth that…
The truth is, the Hanshin Tigers *do* (kind of) have an alibi and reason for being U-G-L-Y for the second straight game. The starter today was supposed to be Joe Gunkel, but he had a migraine and sore throat this morning, and was sent to the hospital for a PCR test. It came back negative…
This one was ugly. Well, through five innings, it was actually quite fun to watch! And watch it, we did, H-TEN + Patreon-style! But a combination of shaky pitching (including a gruesome injury to Keisuke Kobayashi), untimely errors, bad base running and silent bats in the second half meant that the defending champions walked all…
The forecast heading into today called for rain all day, and it looked like Koyo Aoyagi was going to fall victim to his 12th career rain-out, including four straight at Koshien Stadium this year alone! But somehow, the rains stopped mid-afternoon and did not come back hard enough to allow us to see Aoyagi pitch…