So the lead was now down to a half game. The Hanshin Tigers needed to take advantage of the short “home” respite at Kyocera Dome on the weekend against the floundering Yokohama DeNA Baystars. Could they hold them off and preserve or even build on their lead over the surging Giants? Game 1: Starter Minoru…
Two straight huge wins over the Hiroshima Carp had the Tigers looking great and remaining in the thick of the Central League race. The weekend series in Yokohama would feature their two legitimate aces and a chance to move into first place if all the cards got dealt in their favor. How would they fare…
The “Road Trip of Death” (which hardly deserves that name anymore) has officially begun. Not only will the Tigers spend the month away from the confines of Koshien Stadium (where they boast a great record this year), but they will suffer through the heat of summer while trying to remain close to the top of…
With the Road Trip of Death looming and a quick series in Nagoya on tap, the Tigers needed to sneak in a couple of road wins before coming home for one last Koshien Ultra Summer series. They were facing the last place Chunichi Dragons with just one problem: a history of losing at Nagoya Dome….
For the Central League, the All-Star Break may as well have been the offseason, and the remaining games a full season. The gap between all the teams was a mere 5 games (including 4 teams within a single game of first). To make things even more spring-like, no team was above .500! With fewer than…
Two losses and a win, two losses and a win. What comes next in this pattern? If two losses, then there would be no time for a win – the team had just two games remaining before the all-star break. That being the case, they started two of their core pitchers on short rest at…
The events of the past few games have prompted sports writers to start dreaming up scenarios of how the Tigers can break out of their mediocrity, leaving the rest of the Central League behind them (assuming no other team snaps out of their funk). Here are the two most interesting ideas I have read, along…
Drastic Times Call for What? Drastic Measures! Yes! Who said that? I did. Now, I don’t know the game of baseball the way the experts do. I’ve never been a player (beyond age 13) and I’ve never been a coach (beyond assistant-coaching a girls’ team way back in the day). But I do know a few things. 1)…
The Tigers played their second of two 2-game sets to open up the post-interleague schedule. This time, they traveled to the “Hokuriku” region to play a couple of true road games: the first in Nagano, the second in Toyama. With just 0.5 games separating them from the Giants for the league lead, but also with…
Let’s look back on the past 3 weeks, in which we played against the six Pacific League teams. We’ll go through the numbers, starting with… 0 – The number of runs allowed in 24 innings pitched by Randy Messenger. He shut out the Saitama Seibu Lions for 7 innings, then the Nippon Ham Fighters for 8,…