The Hanshin Tigers and Yomiuri Giants have a long, bitter rivalry, and every year the two clubs try to pump up the season’s matchups with colorful ads on which the words 伝統の一戦 (Legendary/Classic Series) appear. But last year the Tigers won just 2 of 13 at Tokyo Dome, and this year so far, they brought…
Five straight losses. Against teams that are beatable. Three at home, and two on the road with your best pitchers starting. Could it get any worse for the Tigers? The only good news was that they would host the Yokohama DeNA BayStars, who had a rough August and who have struggled against our Tigers. But…
A three-game sweep at the hands of the then-fifth place Swallows pushed the Tigers down a spot in the standings, and the dream of reaching the playoffs seemed less likely to come true. A two-game stint in Nagoya with the team’s two best pitchers slated to start should have been the remedy to the team’s…
At long last, the Tigers could play on their home field. The high schoolers were long gone and the Kansai region was anxious to be able to cheer on their home team – especially in light of the 4-game winning streak and the ever-heating-up playoff race. Could the Tigers claw their way up into third,…
The Tigers have a combined 4-16 record against the Hiroshima Carp and Yomiuri Giants since the start of July. On the flip side, they have a 14-6 record against the rest of the league since July 1st. For now, they can focus on the rest of the league, as they only have 8 more games total…
There’s no moving up in the standings too far if you can’t beat the teams at the top. After a humiliating two-game mini-series against the CL-leading Carp, the Tigers looked to redeem themselves against the second place Yomiuri Giants on the weekend. Redemption, minimal as it was, didn’t come until the last inning of play on…
This year the Hiroshima Carp have utterly dominated our boys, no matter the venue. In Hiroshima, they have won 8 of 12, and at Koshien, they have won 7 of 9. Would playing in a different city but still being the home team reverse the Tigers’ fortunes? It reversed Takahiro Arai’s fortunes in 2015, and…
For some reason, the Hanshin Tigers have played relatively well at Kyocera Dome Osaka in recent years. It is definitely not as electric an atmosphere as Koshien Stadium, but for this series, which coincided with the Japanese obon holiday season, the house was packed and home field advantage could be felt. Still, when facing a…
The weekend series against the Yakult Swallows left a bad taste in the mouths of Hanshin fans. But things were about to get a whole lot harder for the traveling Tigers. Having started the season even (4 wins 4 losses) against the Fish, an ugly, humiliating 9-game losing streak meant this series would probably be the hardest…
Three straight series wins and an exciting come-from-behind victory on Thursday gave Tigers fans plenty to talk about. But this team of mostly youngsters was still sitting 9 games under .500 and 4 games out of a playoff spot heading into this one. Could they take a chunk out of both of those numbers against…