The Yomiuri Giants are in a bit of a slump. That’s putting it nicely, as they have now fallen to .500 on the year, and while it is still mathematically unlikely, they could miss the playoffs still. Their losing streak is 8 (with two ties thrown in the middle) and their star leadoff guy saw…
What a close game. The Tigers had a couple of great chances that went for naught, but put up a two-spot early and got solid pitching from starter Koyo Aoyagi (career-high 12 wins) and closer Robert Suarez (first in NPB to 40 saves this year). They also won the season series against the Yomiuri Giants…
This game was essentially over after seven batters. Haruto Takahashi worked around a fluky hit (that could have been an error) in the top of the first, and then the third batter for the Tigers, Jefry Marte, hit one out of the park to provide all the runs this game had. Takahashi went the distance…
You might not have been tracking along with me, but Hanshin hit just 10 home runs the entire month of September. It is a big reason that the team was unable to get on a roll, and ultimately, it saw the team drop into second place. But tonight, the two sluggers who were in the…
It is hard to win games in which you serve up three home runs, especially if you only hit one yourselves. The team had chances, pulled even a couple of times, but simply could not get the job done. They got out-homered in the series 6-1 and the three-game party at Tokyo Dome over the…
Koyo Aoyagi has not been the same since the Olympics. He has now given up 17 runs in his last five starts after giving up just 24 (21 earned) in his first 16 starts. That said, the bats once again came up short when they had chances. Two straight innings of bases-loaded situations yielded two…
Haruto Takahashi has had some pretty epic starts against the Yomiuri Giants. Last season, he struck out a career-high 14 in seven innings of work at Koshien in a blowout win. This start, in the Heart of Darkness known as Tokyo Dome, he bettered himself. For the first time in his career, he went the…
Somehow, despite having a decent number of chances to bring home runs, our guys were squeezing the bat too tightly, did not play their game, and ended the game with a check-swing foul tip into the catcher’s glove for strike three, game over. That made Koji Chikamoto the seventh batter (well, fourth — Jefry Marte…
The Tigers pieced together a first-inning run against a pitcher who has always had success against them (and everyone, honestly). Sugano was sharp the rest of the way, shutting out our bats for the next six innings. Unfortunately, Joe Gunkel got tagged for 7 runs in the second inning, but honestly, it could have been…
After a day off Thursday and a rainout on Friday, it was about time we had some baseball to watch, was it not? The adversary looked good, though, as the Chunichi Dragons have been on a roll lately. Let’s also not forget that their ace, last year’s Sawamura Award winner Yudai Ohno, had a career…