After a lot of rain and mediocrity during the week at Koshien, the Tigers took their act on the road for the final week of interleague play. First stop: Sapporo Dome to face the resurgent Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters. Given the powerful bats they have, Hanshin would need theirs to come out and play, plus…
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:…
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…
There’s something about playing at Nagoya Dome that causes these Hanshin Tigers to struggle, especially offensively. Sure, we could give some credit to the Chunichi Dragons, but there also might be something to the hex that has been placed on this team for the past 23 years since the Dome opened. Ignore the perfect 3-0 record…
We lost. We walked a ton of guys, many of whom came around to score. We got one home run again from a young, recent call-up. That is all. Starting Pitchers: Taiki Ono (3-0, 3.00 ERA) vs. Daichi Ohsera (4-2, 2.27 ERA) 2 Ono allowed a hit, a walk, and a beaning before giving up…
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…
There was a lot of excitement about this young Tigers team, particularly the first two draft picks in 2016. The team’s future slugger and ace, respectively, had great springs. But this is one game I’m sure both of them would rather forget… Starting Pitchers: Taiki Ono vs. Kris Johnson 1 Amazing! We’re stealing bases again!…
I wouldn’t say the Tigers won this game so much as they didn’t lose it. They did very little to put points on the board, and played sloppy enough defense to put the win in jeopardy, but in the end, it was the Dragons, and that in itself was enough to get our boys the…
The Tigers were gifted ten free passes, and a crucial error by the usually-reliable Carp shortstop allowed Hanshin to turn the tables in the sixth inning to steal a win in their first game at Koshien Stadium this season. Starting Pitchers: Taiki Ono (1-0, 1.23 ERA) vs. Kazuki Yabuta (1-0, 3.60 ERA) 2 With two…
It was our first matchup against the Yokohama DeNA BayStars this season, meaning it was the first chance we got to see Yamato in blue. It also meant a chance at starting the revenge for last year’s playoff elimination. Let’s see how things went down. Starting Pitchers: Taiki Ono (2-7, 4.35 ERA) vs. Satoshi Iizuka…