A strong effort from starting pitcher Yuki Nishi, including a home run and an RBI double, went for naught as the birthday boy, Suguru Iwazaki, served up a home run in the bottom of the seventh. Tigers drop the season opener in a close one at Tokyo Dome. [event_full id=”15505″ align=”none”]
The game started with some promise on both ends, but ultimately the superior team (and all their money and scandals and annoying orange) took over in the game’s latter half. There will be no Japan Series miracle for the Hanshin Tigers in 2019. Starting Pitchers: Yuki Nishi vs. Yuki Takahashi First Few Innings – Looked…
Honestly, there’s not much good to report from the first two games. And there were plenty of moments in Game 3 that made it seem like this would be the final recap of the season. Fortunately, an unlikely hitter woke up from his slumber and extended the season by a couple more days. Game 1…
This one was nothing like the first two, especially in that the BayStars did not crank one out of the park early. The losers would go home for good, and the winners would advance to face the Central League champs. Neither team’s pitchers seemed interested in giving up a run, and neither team’s hitters seemed…
Some aspects of Game 2 were quite similar to Game 1. An early deficit. Clawing back from the jaws of defeat. Unfortunately, lightning does not strike the same place twice – at least not on back-to-back days.
When your best pitcher gets tagged for five straight hits to open the game, and you find yourself down six runs with just a few innings to go, it’s easy to just pack it in and hope for better fortunes tomorrow. Fans who did just this are kicking themselves now, because they gave up on…
The Cats Came Back… they just wouldn’t stay away… The Tigers found themselves in pretty bad trouble at the start of the month. Takashi Toritani‘s dismissal (in essence that’s what it is) had just been announced and the team was also on the verge of losing Yangervis Solarte and days later would find out Randy…
June ended with a couple of humiliating losses to the Chunichi Dragons, dropping the team from the thick of the hunt to the back of the pack. July didn’t start any better, but at least it ended with a hope that run production is about to improve by leaps and bounds. If only the same…
There was no baseball over the past four days, and perhaps it was for the better: the Tigers were coming off yet another humiliating 3-game sweep at the hands of the Giants. (I was at two of those.) But actually, there was baseball – just not the kind that counts in the standings. That’s right…
It’s hard to remember a June that went well for the Hanshin Tigers. Interleague is simply not our friend, and I have a theory about that, but I’ll save it for another time. Anyhow, the team also often struggles out of the gates and in the short stretch between interleague and the all-star break. This…