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…
Not sure what to tell you. I did not watch this one and honestly, I do not feel like I missed much. More costly errors, another poor start from our starting pitcher, the top of the order continues to sputter, and the Tigers’ win percentage in Nagoya continues to hover around .333 since the opening…
The Tigers have been bad at home of late. I mean, really bad. The last time they won a three-game series at Koshien was May 11-13 against the Dragons, and that was due in part to a rainout. They got swept by the Baystars three weeks ago at home, and wanted so badly to end…
Koyo Aoyagi lowered his ERA even further, hurling 7 innings of one (earned) run ball. Still, he seemed destined to be the second straight hard-luck loser for the Tigers. After all, it took the Tigers 26 outs to finally come to life. Held off the board for 8 ⅔ innings, and giving up three runs…
You can say what you want about the nature of this game ending in the top of the seventh with the Giants threatening to make it a close game. The fact of the matter is that the grounds crew know the field better than anyone, and they do not play favorites. When they can fix…
Koyo Aoyagi did not look like himself tonight. Strike out the side? Finish the night with 9 Ks? And just one (intentional) walk? A single that led to a five-run rally? Not sure what to make of it. But hey, the three-game losing streak is over and the sun shines brightly on the team once…
The Tigers put men on base in the first three innings, only to snuff out chances with double plays each time. It was beginning to look like the Swallows would win their first day game of the season, while the Tigers lost theirs, as starter Yuki Nishi sputtered in the middle innings. However, a clutch…