This has been an absolutely atrocious year for the Yakult Swallows. The injury bug bit them frequently and didn’t seem to want to leave even after there was no more blood. And the Tigers have enjoyed feasting on the li’l Birds all season, too. In this, their last tilt of the season, we picked their…
Original Articles Can Be Found Here and Here The Hanshin Tigers announced on September 10th that Masayuki Kakefu is resigning as farm manager at season’s end. Kakefu was asked to be the team’s development coordinator in the fall of 2013, and became manager of the farm team at roughly the same time as Tomoaki Kanemoto…
No matter how weak the Yomiuri Giants appear (1 game under .500 entering this series), they always seem to bring their best against the Hanshin Tigers. As the Tigers’ long 27-game stretch away from Koshien Stadium drew to a close with this series, the team hoped to end on a high note. Unfortunately, the note…
It doesn’t seem to matter how either of these teams are faring in the standings. These “Legendary Games” (伝統の一戦) have a special atmosphere, and neither team wants to lose. This is an important time of year for both teams – Hanshin needs to play well on the road and patiently wait for the high schoolers…
Let’s not fool ourselves. The Yakult Swallows are sitting a distant last in the standings, but any given team can win any given game. These Swallows have been playing decent ball of late, having come back from a 10-run deficit last week against the Dragons, and then overcoming a 4-run Giants lead on Thursday night….
This Hiroshima Carp team is strong. Really strong. Though the Tigers entered this series with a slight 6-5 edge in 11 head-to-head games this season, the last two were lopsided enough to make it feel like it’s 2016 all over again. But things would be different in this series, right? I mean, the games are…
It’s All-Star Break… no real baseball to watch and analyze, so let’s look at our crop of hitters and give a few brief comments about each of them. What’s your take? Whom do you like at the 8 fielding positions? The above “depth chart” is just my own observations, and isn’t necessarily the way the…
← 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…
Hanshin needed a big series against an opponent that had been relatively easy to beat up to this point this season. Unfortunately, extremely poor fielding cost the team two of three at Koshien, and the team finds itself out of first place heading into Interleague play. Game 44 – Friday 5/26. (Kuru)Shintaro Strikes Balls Bawls…
That second win against Chunichi was a bad omen. Just three hits? Maybe it was just a fluke. Perhaps our bats will wake up at small Jingu Stadium against the mediocre pitching of the Yakult Swallows. Perhaps our pitchers will continue to deal, and stifle the Yakult bats. Then again… Game 38 – Friday 5/19….