This would be the final series that Hanshin plays at Koshien Stadium before the team vacated the premises so the 99th annual National High School baseball tournament could be held here during the first three weeks of August. With a slender 1-game lead on the hard-charging DeNA Yokohama BayStars, the Tigers would need all their…
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 pitchers and give a few brief comments about each of them. What’s your take? Whom do you like in those final couple of rotation spots? In the bullpen? The above “depth chart” is just my own observations, and…
Despite starting the month with two wins against the Swallows and a split series against the BayStars, one couldn’t help but think that this Hanshin team had still not yet found its way out of the post-interleague funk it was in. This series confirmed fans’ worst fears but ended with some hope and joy on…
This isn’t funny anymore. The implosion against a powerful Rakuten Eagles team, I get. Same with the shutout the next day. Then losing two straight to Hiroshima is hard to stomach but also a plausible scenario, one we could stomach, to an extent. But the ONE RUN series against the Dragons? Sure, it was on…
While the Carp had a slightly better interleague record than the Tigers, the standings atop the Central were still close heading into this one. Last year at this time, Hanshin opened the post-interleague schedule in Hiroshima with an embarrassing 3-game sweep. Everyone knew that and had revenge in their minds. They did not have it…
With nine interleague wins and a weekend of clear skies in the forecast, it looked like the Tigers would have a couple of good things going for them as they headed back to league play: 1) A winning record against the stronger Pacific League; and 2) With no rain dates to make up, four straight…
← Click here for a team profile Playing against these SoftBank Hawks is never easy. Though Hanshin seldom faces them, the head-to-head record isn’t too impressive (see below). But not only that, they have beaten the Tigers in the Nippon Series three times: in 1964 as the Nankai Hawks, in 2003 as the Daiei Hawks,…
← Click on the logo for a team profile! Returning home after a crushing defeat in Game 3 of the Lotte series, Hanshin needed to regroup quickly and continue to build up some credit against the weaker Pacific League teams. Yes, it is weird to call the defending champions “weaker” but the truth is, aside…
VOTING TOTALS UPDATED JUNE 16 You want Hanshin Tigers players in the All-Star Games this year, right? Last year we had 4 guys on the team, none of whom were voted in by fans (they were selected by the CL Manager): Fumihito Haraguchi, Shun Takayama, Shintaro Fujinami and Yuta Iwasada. Check this out, though. We’ve got…