Post-draft reports from 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 and 2015 New manager, same excitement on Draft Day, which was October 20 this year. Freshly-minted (though retread and 64 years old) manager Akinobu Okada did not divulge which young man he would aim to acquire in the first round, though nine NPB teams did in…
Source: MBS Official Site The Tigers boast what is arguably the most passionate fanbase in the world. There’s a foreigner who has found himself completely entranced in all that makes the Tigers attractive. How did he get interested in the Tigers? Why does he keep on rooting for them? We took a look at the…
Source: Nikkan Sports 1 2 3 4 5 6 Hanshin held a press conference for newly-hired manager Akinobu Okada (64) at a hotel in Osaka City on October 16. Next season will mark 15 seasons since he last wore a Tigers uniform. Here is a part of his press conference translated into English for your…
Starter Koyo Aoyagi pitched his heart out. The team had a 3-0 lead with two outs in the seventh. Two soft infield grounders by the Swallows were our undoing, though. Jefry Marte threw a ball into left, and Masumi Hamachi glove-flipped another into right field, which resulted in a five-run inning for them. Our bats…
Leadoff hitter Takumu Nakano started the game with a triple and our team took its first lead of the series! Then Shintaro Fujinami started the pitching half of the game with three strikeouts. Then… they hit home runs while we hit a bunch of singles and a couple of sacrifice flies. The gap between these…
Let’s not kid ourselves. The Yakult Swallows delivered a powerful message to our team tonight. “Walk us, and we’ll hit multiple-run home runs. We are the champions. You finished below .500 this year. Good luck.” Starter Yuki Nishi did himself no favors by putting plenty of men on base and then letting most of them…
Hosts T-Ray and Sanjay take you through the first round of the playoffs, a successful 2-1 series win for the Hanshin Tigers, before looking in depth at the players on both teams in the upcoming Final Stage series (October 12-17?) against the Yakult Swallows. Who do they have winning the series? Listen until the end…
Going back to Game 1 of this series, the Hanshin Tigers hadn’t scored a run in 13 straight innings heading into this one. The Baystars took a two-run lead after three innings (which included 2 Tigers errors, plus a wild pitch). The momentum was completely in their favor. It looked like our season would be…
Those 26 shutout losses during the regular season were no fluke. Today, the Hanshin Tigers managed just two hits, did not earn a single free pass, and struck out 14 times (against a pitcher-generous umpire, mind you). The first of those hits was a single by Koji Chikamoto that saw him thrown out trying to…
People can look at all the regular season stats they want and try to make predictions about the postseason. The Baystars were 11-2 against the Tigers at Yokohama Stadium this year. (BUT… that includes 10-0 in night games and 1-2 in day games!) Koji Chikamoto was 1-12 against ace Shota Imanaga in 2022. (BUT… he…