Hanshin used its two best pitchers against the Hawks, to no avail. Now they were left with the back end of their rotation, against the powerful Saitama Seibu Lions hitting order. This had the making of an ugly weekend and a terrible start to interleague play. Game 48 – Another Great Start Wasted Starting Pitchers:…
It had been four years since the Tigers swept a 3-game series against the Yomiuri Giants at Koshien Stadium. Bringing in a 19-year old rookie against a pitcher who was undefeated against the Tigers this season did not seem like a recipe for ending that streak. Then again, you can’t predict baseball. Starting Pitchers: Hiroto Saiki (0-1, 7.50…
I have to admit, it’s a special atmosphere at these games against the Yomiuri Giants. But in the seven that I have seen at Koshien, the home team has won just one (against five losses and a tie). And this one twice looked like it would end in a loss or tie. But it didn’t. Starting…
You can never like the Hanshin Tigers’ odds against Yomiuri Giants ace Sugano. Until his last start, he had a 29 2/3 scoreless innings streak, and he’s looking every bit the Sawamura Award winner he was last season, and not at all like the guy who gave us our first win back on March 30. But then,…
You want Randy Messenger to play in his first ever NPB All-Star Game, right? Last year we were well represented, with Marcos Mateo, Ryutaro Umeno, Takashi Toritani and Yoshio Itoi being voted in. Takumi Akiyama also got selected by the CL Manager. Here are the results of the voting so far, as of June 11:…
When you’re playing on a field with smaller dimensions, against a team that’s not know for its pitching (the Yakult Swallows), you have to take advantage. And that’s exactly what the Tigers did. A couple of bombs and their first 10+ hit game in two weeks, and you’ve no longer got a losing streak on your…
There really isn’t much to talk about in this game. The Tigers were desperate to break out of their season-long 4-game losing streak, and had their mighty ace on the mound to try to get it done. He was about as good as ever, and was fairly close to completing the game on his own….
The origin of his nickname is not known to yours truly, but our starting pitcher today uses Akkyaman as part of his Twitter handle – アッキャマン has the letters for アキヤマ (Akiyama) in it, with a few extras so it sounds a little more “hero-like.” Well on this particular day, the name was 100% befitting…
Let me start by saying that was one of the worst games I have ever attended. At least ones in which the team I was cheering for won. Our starting pitcher worked PAINFULLY slowly. I mean, he put 10 guys on base in his six innings of work, and he always works extra slowly when…
After yesterday’s ugly extra innings loss, these Tigers had something to prove. They used shaky pitching from their opponent and combined it with big bats from the two guys who couldn’t get it done yesterday to trounce the Dragons. Unfortunately, it also cost them a player who was hotter than hot until he slid awkwardly…