“I wanna hold them as close to zero as I can.” — 20-year old Tigers’ starter Shintaro Fujinami, before the game. Unfortunately, the day off and change in venue did nothing to alter the outcome of Game 3. Like Atsushi Nohmi did in Game 2, Fujinami surrendered an early run and the Tigers bats never found…
In October, everything has been coming up Tigers. They won their last game of the regular season on October 1, watched the Carp hand second place to them by losing their final game, won their best-of-3 against those same Carp despite scoring just one run in 21 innings, and then swept the Giants in their…
History was made at Koshien Stadium tonight. For the first time ever, two foreigners were named starting pitchers of Game 1 of the Nippon Series. This one was supposed to be a low-scoring battle between Randy Messenger and Jason Standridge. Both had great seasons, and Standridge even shut out the Tigers at Koshien earlier this…
Scheduled Games & Possible Starters: GAME 1: Saturday, October 25, 6:15 pm (Koshien Stadium): Randy Messenger (13-10) vs. Jason Standridge (11-8) GAME 2: Sunday, October 26, 6:15 pm (Koshien Stadium): Minoru Iwata (9-8) vs. Kenji Ohtonari (3-1) GAME 3: Tuesday, October 28, 6:30 pm (YafuOku Dome): Shintaro Fujinami (10-7) vs. Shota Takeda (3-3) GAME 4: Wednesday, October 29, 6:30 pm…
Before the Giants could even get out of the first inning, Tigers fans were partying like it was 1999 2005. If they keep this up, the party may turn into something circa 1985 in a week or so. The Tigers rode three early home runs to a 8-4 victory over the Giants, sweeping them for the…
The Tigers are just a win away from their first trip to the Japan Series in nine years. With tonight’s 4-2 win over the Giants, the series now sits at 3-1 in favor of the road team, which needs just one win in its next three to advance. Tonight’s win was slightly different from their…
On paper, the series leans in the Giants’ favor considerably. There’s a reason they take things to the diamond, though. The Hanshin Tigers stormed out to a 5-0 lead and never really looked back. With closer Seung-hwan Oh on the mound in the 9th, the atmosphere in Tokyo Dome was subdued, as fans were left to…
Eight pitches. That’s all it took to bring the Tigers bats out of their postseason slumber. A leadoff hit by Nishioka, sacrifice bunt by Uemoto, RBI double by Toritani and a 2-run HR by Gomez put the Tigers in the lead — one they would not relinquish all night as they cruised to a 4-1…
Scheduled Games & Possible Starters*: Wednesday, October 15, 6pm: Shintaro Fujinami (10-7) vs. Tetsuya Utsumi (7-9) Thursday, October 16, 6pm: Minoru Iwata (9-8) vs. Hirokazu Sawamura (5-3) Friday, October 17, 6pm: Randy Messenger (13-10) vs. Toshiya Sugiuchi (10-6) Saturday, October 18, 6pm: Atsushi Nohmi (9-13) vs. Yuki Koyama (6-2) Sunday, October 19, 6pm: Suguru Iwazaki (5-4) vs. Kan Otake (9-6) Monday, October 20, 6pm: Shintaro Fujinami…
Scheduled Games & Probable Starters: Saturday, October 11, 2pm: Randy Messenger (13-10) vs. Kenta Maeda (11-9) Sunday, October 12, 2pm: Atsushi Nohmi (9-13) vs. Daichi Ohsera (10-8) (?) Monday, October 13, 2pm: Shintaro Fujinami (10-7) vs. Bryan Bullington (9-8) (?) Record This Season: @ Koshien Stadium: Tigers 7, Carp 2 @ Mazda Stadium: Tigers 4,…