This isn’t funny anymore. The implosion against a powerful Rakuten Eagles team, I get. Same with the shutout the next day. Then losing two straight to Hiroshima is hard to stomach but also a plausible scenario, one we could stomach, to an extent. But the ONE RUN series against the Dragons? Sure, it was on…
With nine interleague wins and a weekend of clear skies in the forecast, it looked like the Tigers would have a couple of good things going for them as they headed back to league play: 1) A winning record against the stronger Pacific League; and 2) With no rain dates to make up, four straight…
← Click here for a team profile The last three seasons of cat fights, the Lions have remained kings of the jungle. As the Tigers try to claw their way back into the hunt for first, beating the team out of Saitama at home would be key, especially with the best team coming last on…
← Click here for more information about the Orix Buffaloes The last time these two teams clashed at Kyocera Dome (in 2015), the results were disgraceful. Hanshin got outscored 26-2 over three games, and left Osaka for the comfortable confines of Koshien with bruised egos. Would this time be any different? Game 53 – Tuesday…
← Click on the logo for a team profile! Returning home after a crushing defeat in Game 3 of the Lotte series, Hanshin needed to regroup quickly and continue to build up some credit against the weaker Pacific League teams. Yes, it is weird to call the defending champions “weaker” but the truth is, aside…
It certainly is unusual to see the Tigers playing this well. Especially in light of the fact that heading into this set, Hanshin had winning records against every CL team except these Chunichi Dragons. Would playing at home change the team’s fortunes? (After all, Hanshin took two of three last time at Koshien!) Game 35 –…
On Tuesday night, I had the privilege of going to watch the Hanshin Tigers face the Chunichi Dragons. Without going into too many details about the game (series recap will come out after Thursday’s match), suffice to say that there was little drama in the game itself, but it ended jubilantly. I received an invitation…
Yokohama BayStars manager Alex Ramirez said at the start of the season that he thought the Hanshin Tigers would be a tough opponent. Apparently he knew what he was saying. Hanshin came into this series winning 3 of 4 against last year’s feel-good story team. Both of the series featured a rainout on day 2…
They call it “The Classic Series” (伝統の一戦) any time the Hanshin Tigers face the Yomiuri Giants. This two-game mini-series was a chance for Hanshin to keep its strong momentum against the league’s better teams. But there was one problem: Giants’ pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano was coming off three straight complete game shutouts. Could the Cats stop…
Golden Week ended up being quite the golden week for Hanshin. With a stadium full of kids cheering them on, and a scoreboard with every name written in hiragana (syllabic Japanese, much easier for children to read than kanji), the players put on performances that gave every kid in attendance hopes and dreams for their…