Let’s not kid ourselves. The Yakult Swallows delivered a powerful message to our team tonight. “Walk us, and we’ll hit multiple-run home runs. We are the champions. You finished below .500 this year. Good luck.” Starter Yuki Nishi did himself no favors by putting plenty of men on base and then letting most of them…
Those 26 shutout losses during the regular season were no fluke. Today, the Hanshin Tigers managed just two hits, did not earn a single free pass, and struck out 14 times (against a pitcher-generous umpire, mind you). The first of those hits was a single by Koji Chikamoto that saw him thrown out trying to…
Thanks to the Yakult Swallows beating the Hiroshima Carp on September 29 and 30, they were eliminated from the playoff race. Then the Yokohama DeNA Baystars beat the Yomiuri Giants on October 1, which mathematically eliminated the orangemen. This meant neither was our final game must-win, nor were any of the other two CL games…
Pretty much every game in the past two weeks has been “must win” for the Tigers, but it is only recently that they have started taking those words literally. Tonight was no different. It took until the eighth inning for the team to put together a good chance, and our clutchest bat of late –…
Given the approaching typhoon, the entire series was a question mark on Tuesday. Somehow, they managed to play all three games (rain delay on Tuesday, shortened game on Thursday) and in the end, that’s what matters. The Tigers pitching was once again outstanding, and a spot in the playoffs is looking more and more promising,…
Hosts T-Ray and Sanjay discuss team news, the last month of Tigers baseball, choose a few players of the summer, roast our manager for some really questionable decisions, and then list some guys that should (or that we hope will) be cut at season’s end. In the post-show show, they talk about personal encounters that…
Weeknights simply have not brought out the best in our bats. For the 15th time this season (11 in night games), the Tigers have ended a game with no runs to show for their 27 outs (or more in the case of 2 games) at the plate. On this night, the team struggled to get…
From Daily Sports Column (Japanese) / デイリースポーツオンラインの連載コラムから The Tigers’ woes continue in large part due to their lack of run support for the excellent pitching staff they have fielded this year. After their twenty-one-game streak of allowing 3 runs or fewer came to an end on May 20, they have had two games of giving…
From our Daily Sports column (Japanese) / デイリースポーツオンラインの連載コラムから So the 2022 season hasn’t started as anyone has expected. I mean, the 0-9 record is the worst start in Central League history – that’s 73 seasons times six teams, for those keeping track at home. Many people have lamented the loss of Robert Suarez and the…
About a week before the regular season began, we sat down with new pitcher Kyle Keller. At this point, he had appeared in just one preseason game (against the Softbank Hawks in Fukuoka) and was brimming with optimism. While the season has not gone at all as planned for him or the Tigers, this interview…