Unlike last season, the Yomiuri Giants vs. Hanshin Tigers games this year are full of excitement and drama. The teams have been fairly evenly matched to this point, with Hanshin winning 4 of 7. But with a subpar end to last week, the Tigers were in sore need of a swing in their momentum before…
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 –…
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…
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…
If you want to read more about the Yakult Swallows, click here. There is definitely no lost love between these two teams. Last time the two faced off, a brawl ensued that will surely be talked about throughout the season, and will make highlight shows for years to come. Hanshin took that series after losing…
The last time Hanshin won a 3-game series against the red helmets was almost a year ago. Since then, nothing but misery. Errors, defense, pitching, hitting, everything cost us at least a game or two. And despite winning the season opener against the Carp, not only did we drop the next two (one in which…
Last year, the Tigers had success against just one team that finished higher than them in the standings: The Yokohama DeNA BayStars. This year, the hope was that the BayStars (along with the rest of the CL) would sit below Hanshin in the standings. The first matchup of the season was set to take place…
Yesterday, we had a look at the battle for playing time on the pitching staff. Today, we continue our look at the Tigers’ lineup and who can be expected to stand on the field and in the batter’s box at the start of 2017. In case you missed it, Fumihito Haraguchi has been given the…
To see a few pictures of the game, click here Samurai Japan seemed to have found its stroke in a recent exhibition match against Chinese Taipei. With just two more practice games before the World Baseball Classic starts (on Tuesday, March 7), Hanshin was supposed to help them feel good about their lineup and pitchers…
* Check out the news from the 1st Cool, the 2nd Cool, the 3rd Cool, the 4th Cool or the 5th Cool if you want to look back on the month of February. In case you missed it, “cool” is not a correct transcription of the Japanese クール (which comes from the French cours = course / installment / season),…