Nothing went well for the Tigers on this night, outside of the bottom of the fifth inning. The pitchers gave up a season-worst 17 hits to the worst-hitting team in the Central in one of the most pitcher-friendly parks in the Central. Many of the defenders, though not charged with errors, did not make plays…
Koyo Aoyagi had never reached double digits in wins, despite coming close and setting the bar for himself at 13 wins these past 2-3 seasons. This year, though, shall be different. He went 7 strong innings despite not having his best control, and got plenty of support from the big bats, as Koji Chikamoto and…
Koyo Aoyagi lowered his ERA even further, hurling 7 innings of one (earned) run ball. Still, he seemed destined to be the second straight hard-luck loser for the Tigers. After all, it took the Tigers 26 outs to finally come to life. Held off the board for 8 ⅔ innings, and giving up three runs…
For the first time in 17 games, Yusuke Ohyama hit a ball over the fence. And all it took was dropping him down to seventh in the batting order. That was a huge key to victory, but so was Koyo Aoyagi’s outstanding outing, which has further cemented him as a true pillar in the rotation,…
Koyo Aoyagi did not look like himself tonight. Strike out the side? Finish the night with 9 Ks? And just one (intentional) walk? A single that led to a five-run rally? Not sure what to make of it. But hey, the three-game losing streak is over and the sun shines brightly on the team once…
Today was a showdown of two pitchers who recently were named to the Japanese Olympic baseball team: Koyo Aoyagi and Yudai Ohno. One has gotten very little recognition despite a fairly solid couple of years. The other won the Eiji Sawamura Award last season. It didn’t matter, though, as our guys pieced together a nice…
For just the second time in 2021 (I think), the Hanshin Tigers game was not on network TV in Kansai. As a result, I have very little to say about this game except that Koyo Aoyagi pitched a gem, allowing just one earned run in eight innings, and Jefry Marte hit the go-ahead two-run home…
The forecast heading into today called for rain all day, and it looked like Koyo Aoyagi was going to fall victim to his 12th career rain-out, including four straight at Koshien Stadium this year alone! But somehow, the rains stopped mid-afternoon and did not come back hard enough to allow us to see Aoyagi pitch…
I’m pretty sure most Tigers fans were thinking the same thing as I was heading into this weekend series. Even in the worst-case scenario, we will return to Kansai in first place. Given the team’s recent history at Tokyo Dome, it is hard to blame fans for fearing the worst but hoping for the best….
Well, it was bound to happen eventually. Already at this point, the Pacific League had played 15 tie games, and the Central had 10. The Tigers were part of none of them. This was hardly the ideal scenario in which to break that streak – the two-run lead did not hold, and the bats were…