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…
It really doesn’t matter too much what the Tigers’ record is. They need to beat their longtime rivals, the Yomiuri Giants. Wada himself said, “We’re more focused on the rivalry than our record in this series.” He backed that up by slotting three of his strongest pitchers to take the mound under the EGG in…
August is usually a fair barometer for how the Hanshin Tigers’ season will develop. Typically the team gets one series at Koshien Stadium to start the month, and one at the end to finish it. The rest, they travel to nearly all Central League parks, playing a few interspersed “home” series at Kyocera Dome (home…
Since the all-star break, the Hanshin Tigers are playing much better ball. They are 11-6 with a run differential of +13. Before the break they were 41-42 and got outscored by 86 runs. The team has won all but one of their six series (losing two of three to the Swallows at home), and started…
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…
The tightly-packed Central League is starting to loosen up a little bit. Ten short days ago, just two games separated first from fifth, and no team was over the .500 mark. But collapses by the Chunichi Dragons and DeNA Baystars, along with the continued mediocre play of the Hiroshima Carp, have turned things (at least for this week) into…
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….
It is completely illogical and unfathomable, and in all ways inconceivable that two .500 teams should be tied for the league lead as summer vacation started here in Japan. And yet that is exactly where the Central League found itself – the Yakult Swallows and Hanshin Tigers sat at the top, a game ahead of…
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…