Koyo Aoyagi had never reached double digits in wins, despite coming close and setting the bar for himself at 13 wins these past 2-3 seasons. This year, though, shall be different. He went 7 strong innings despite not having his best control, and got plenty of support from the big bats, as Koji Chikamoto and…
Masashi Itoh continued his dominant form against the Baystars, going 8 strong innings and making just a few mistakes with pitch locations. Meanwhile, Mel Rojas Jr led off the scoring with a line-drive, solo home run into the front row of the right-field bleachers. Later in the game, he put the Tigers ahead for good…
With the Giants winning earlier in the day, the Tigers needed a W to stay at the top of the standings. Starter Akira Niho did not get things off to a very good start with a couple of walks and an RBI hit… but he settled in, and the bats took over from the second…
The Hanshin Tigers were slumping when we hit the all-star break, and everyone agreed that the month off would do them some good. If it did, the results did not show any of those benefits. Sure, baseball is a game of inches, and the near-double play in the top of the first meant 4 runs…
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…
This was far from an ideal game, far from an ideal series. But nevertheless, with the game on the line, captain Yusuke Ohyama delivered, hitting a go-ahead three-run into a crowd of rain-soaked Yakult Swallows fans in right field. Joe Gunkel had one bad inning but was otherwise solid. Jefry Marte continues to get on…
For the first time in 17 games, Yusuke Ohyama hit a ball over the fence. And all it took was dropping him down to seventh in the batting order. That was a huge key to victory, but so was Koyo Aoyagi’s outstanding outing, which has further cemented him as a true pillar in the rotation,…
Friday and Saturday, the Tigers lost primarily due to untimely two-run home runs, and a lack of hitting. Mostly, a lack of hitting. On this day, it was not so much the lack of hitting (though chances were once again blown) as a complete shellacking of our pitchers, as the Baystars hit four balls into…
This was a must-win game, given that the Giants had the night off… and Joe Gunkel was up to the task of leading the team to victory. He scattered six hits over his seven innings of shutout ball, walking none and striking out five. Meanwhile, the top of the order put up points every time…
The Tigers had a seven-game lead over the Giants heading into this weekend tilt. They put seven runs up on the scoreboard in the first one-third of the game, pushing their winning streak to seven and shoving the Giants down into third place. But we all know that there is still plenty of season left,…