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…
When wins are not coming easy, you don’t take any of your opponents for granted. Even if they are the Chunichi Dragons. Even if they’re putting a developing pitcher on the mound. And especially when your own starter is unproven. But the team pushed runs across when they needed them, and the pitching was rock-solid in…
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…
The Tigers’ 2018 slogan is 執念 (shunen = tenacity). But up to this point, the team has really failed to show resilience in most of its games. But the boys managed to grit out a W to finish the month of April on a positive note. And the hero was our new import slugger, who…
Yesterday’s game saw our pitcher walking theirs, and ultimately giving up a home run in the same inning. We couldn’t possibly repeat the same mistake in the very next game. Could we? (Cue the cricket sound effect.) Oh, and that was just one morale killer that came after a defensive mistake. *SIGH* Starting Pitchers: Atsushi…
Once again, the team’s most dependable pitcher came through when needed the most. In fact, the only run the bad guys got against him were assisted by some shaky fielding on our part. The bats took just enough advantage of the Swallows inferior pitching to make this one a no-doubter. The losing streak stops at…
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 got some extra rest thanks to yesterday’s rainout, and they showed a lot of rust in the field and at the plate for much of the game. But when it rained, it poured, and one big inning was enough to counterbalance all the mistakes made by the fielders. Starting Pitchers: Randy Messenger (2-1,…