The Hanshin Tigers game I saw last night was one of total dominance for the home team. Starter Randy Messenger pitched 6 innings of 4-hit, 10-strikeout shutout ball while the hitters put up two runs in the 4th inning. The relievers (Kaneda, Takamiya, Shimamoto, Matsuda and Ishizaki) cobbled together two more innings of shutout ball…
Despite winning the series finale against the Carp on Sunday, the Tigers were in no place to get complacent. In fact, they juggled their roster and order throughout this series in hopes of generating more offense and breaking out of their losing skid. They brought in Shunsuke, Keisuke Kanoh and Hayata Itoh as starting outfielders…
Remember in the preseason when Akihiro Yano interviewed Randy Messenger? One of the questions he asked him was, “What is the best ramen you’ve eaten in Japan?” And Randy replied that it was Yoshimuraya in Yokohama? So this past weekend I was in that general area but did not have time to take in any…
As the Tigers’ miserable start on home soil left fans drowning their sorrows, the heavens decided to give the team a break on Friday. Continuous rain all Friday caused the night game to be canceled (and rescheduled for September 11), and gave the Tigers another day to regroup and hopefully put an end to their…
If you decided to attend one of the first games at Koshien but were worried about showing up late, you needn’t have worried. The Tigers also failed to show up early. Often they failed to show up late, too. In all three games of their opening series on their home turf, the Tigers produced zero…
For the second straight series, the Hanshin Tigers lost two of three to an opponent that should have been easier to beat. This time, the losses were at the hands of long-time rivals Yomiuri (Kyojin) Giants. The series opened up on Friday with a Tigers win as starter Randy Messenger tossed 8 innings of 2-run…
The Hanshin Tigers opened their season series with the Yomiuri Giants last night on a winning note, outlasting the home team 4-2 in front of a boisterous crowd at Tokyo Dome. The game featured a solid start from Randy Messenger (8IP, 2ER), a four-hit night from Tsuyoshi Nishioka and 3 RBIs from Ryutaro Umeno. These three…
After a promising opening series at Kyocera Dome, the Tigers looked to jump out to a perfect 6-0 start as they faced the Tokyo Yakult Swallows at Jingu Stadium. Unfortunately, the cooler weather brought about a cold spell at the plate as well. In three games, the pinstripes managed just seven runs, losing two of three…
Earlier in the spring I took time to look at the Tigers’ players in a four-part series. Click on one of the links here to see them: Infielders Outfielders Starting Pitchers Relief Pitchers Today we take one last look at the team as we head into the regular season. What are the team’s glaring weaknesses?…
Japanese Title: 阪神タイガースの黄金時代が永遠に来ない理由 – Hanshin Tigers no Ohgon Jidai ga Eien ni Konai Riyuu) Originally I thought this was a book written specifically about this problem, but a co-worker told me that it was actually a compilation of former great catcher and manager Katsuya Nomura’s newspaper columns. So while the book does address what the…