Golden Week ended up being quite the golden week for Hanshin. With a stadium full of kids cheering them on, and a scoreboard with every name written in hiragana (syllabic Japanese, much easier for children to read than kanji), the players put on performances that gave every kid in attendance hopes and dreams for their…
If you want to read more about the Yakult Swallows, click here. There is definitely no lost love between these two teams. Last time the two faced off, a brawl ensued that will surely be talked about throughout the season, and will make highlight shows for years to come. Hanshin took that series after losing…
Vs. Chunichi Dragons @ Koshien Stadium Hanshin faced lefties Valdes (Tuesday), Jordan (Wednesday) and Ohno (Thursday) the last time these teams met earlier this month. With starters usually pitching the same day of the week (6 man rotation and Mondays off), one would have expected to face completely different guys this time around, But… Game…
The steady diet of opponents’ lefty pitchers continued at Koshien for the Tigers on Tuesday. One can’t help but wonder if other teams feel their greatest chance of success at stifling the attack is to put a southpaw on the mound to start the game. The Chunichi Dragons sent 3 our way (Valdes, Jordan, Ohno),…
The good news: facing Yomiuri on the weekend has meant being able to avoid ace Sugano 2 series in a row. The bad news: it would mean facing other pitchers that the Tigers generally fare poorly against: Mikolas and Taguchi. The question is, would we be able to figure out one of our hardest pitchers…
Last season, Hanshin won just 5 of 13 matches in Nagoya against the dismal Chunichi Dragons. But the hard times at the dome go back further than one season. In the 20 years of the Dome’s existence, Hanshin has put up a pitiful 82-153-5 record there. So there’s no doubt that expecting a sweep, no matter how…
The last time Hanshin won a 3-game series against the red helmets was almost a year ago. Since then, nothing but misery. Errors, defense, pitching, hitting, everything cost us at least a game or two. And despite winning the season opener against the Carp, not only did we drop the next two (one in which…
Last year, the Tigers had success against just one team that finished higher than them in the standings: The Yokohama DeNA BayStars. This year, the hope was that the BayStars (along with the rest of the CL) would sit below Hanshin in the standings. The first matchup of the season was set to take place…
Rare is the day that the Hanshin Tigers baseball game is not broadcast on a local TV station. Almost as rare is the day that a game will be broadcast in its entirety. Perhaps this is because of the early start times (6:00pm, which I suppose is when the news is supposed to be on),…
Hanshin’s momentum heading back home was at an all-time low. A frustrating loss on Saturday was followed by an embarrassing one on Sunday, and the team needed to win quickly and often if they were to keep their fan base excited for the season to come. This series was not without its moments. Fortunately, many…