Takumi Akiyama had much to atone for after his last outing, a disastrous one against the Giants. For the game’s first seven innings, he did just that. And the bats sprayed a bunch of singles and watched a lot of bad pitches by Aren Kuri, which enabled them to piece together a bunch of early…
For the second straight game, our bats failed to produce multiple runs. While this one was close most of the way, two home runs in the bottom of the eighth served up by Yuta Iwasada made this one a blowout in the end. Hoping to avoid the sweep tomorrow with Wei-Yin Chen making his top-squad…
Friday night, a boatload of walks and a pair of errors extended the Tigers’ losing streak to three, and ended the Baystars’ winless streak at 12. Saturday, the Baystars got thumped HARD. On this day, the lead changed hands four times, once thanks to a pair of defensive blunders by the visiting team – a…
Riding an eight-game winning streak, the Tigers looked to continue the romp as two players (Koji Chikamoto and Jefry Marte) went yard in the first inning of this one… but that was pretty much all the action we got. Three more hits the rest of the way but nary a runner crossing home. Meanwhile, starter…
Because of persistent rain on Tuesday night, Hanshin Tigers fans had to wait an extra evening to see a rematch between ace pitchers Masato Morishita and Yuki Nishi. Last time, the sophomore in red did just enough to get the win, as the Tigers dropped a 1-0 decision in Hiroshima. This time, things would be…
Two weekends ago, when the 2021 season began, Hanshin Tigers fans across the globe were elated when the team left the Tokyo region with three straight wins. They were facing the defending cellar-dwellers at that time. This time, they faced the current basement residents in the Yokohama DeNA Baystars. Different team, same result: one tight…
This game was a well-fought battle through eight innings. Koyo Aoyagi was his usual (?) steady (?) self, throwing 7 shutout innings and allowing just 5 base runners. When the Tigers got the chance in the ninth inning, they put this one out of reach with a huge Jerry Sands home run and a bunch…
As a fan, it is always a nervous proposition seeing a rookie pitcher starting against the orangemen. Whether they are injury- (or corona-) plagued or not, they still have a certain swagger against our men, which often turns them into little boys. On this night, though, the freshman kept his composure despite having a man…
Last season, the Tigers not only started the year 2-10, they also dropped their first three against the Yomiuri Giants. Two of them were not even close. Enter 2021, and the Giants not only have Sugano on the DL, but they have used Togo over the weekend and also got hit with a Covid cluster,…
After the first two games of this series went to the team that did not deserve them (in my opinion… Friday’s Dragons committed 4 errors and still pulled off a win, while Hanshin’s lone hit that left the infield was its last one on Saturday), this one actually played out quite calmly. Very little drama,…