Tigers’ Weekly Wrap-up – June 16-22, 2014

Tigers’ Weekly Wrap-up – June 16-22, 2014
June 22, 2014

For the fifth straight week, the Tigers have posted three losses. This time, though, because they only played four games, they finished the week 1-3 and are now sitting at .500 on the year. Interleague play was not kind to the Tigers, who finished tied for last in the interleague standings with a 9-15 record. Fortunately, one of the other low finishers was the Hiroshima Carp. Unfortunately, the team with the top record in interleague play was the Yomiuri Giants, who finished 16-8.

Tuesday’s game against the Fighters featured a blown save by Oh, who has not been his usual reliable self in the past month or so. The blown 3-1 lead looked like it would result in either a loss or draw, but Murton’s 12th-inning double gave the Tigers their lone win this week. On Wednesday night, the Tigers faced a dominant pitcher in Shohei Otani. He allowed just a harmless single through 8 innings, struck out 11, and the Tigers finished with a mere three singles on the night. One resulted in a failed steal attempt, while another was followed by a double play.

So after nine straight scoreless innings on Wednesday, it was painful to see the Tigers repeat the feat the following game. The Rakuten Eagles’ starter, Norimoto, pitched a complete game shut-out as the Tigers lost 4-0 for the second straight night. Messenger struggled at times but was not helped by the defence behind him. There were a few Eagles hits that could have easily been called errors. The series (and interleague) finale was not much better, as the Tigers mustered a mere run. After Gomez’ RBI single, Murton singled and loaded the bases with one out. Unfortunately, Imanari grounded into a double play, ending the threat and the first momentum the Tigers had built up in three games. It was a disappointing week to say the least.

June 16 WeekThe Giants retained their hold on first place, despite a better week out of the Carp. As mentioned earlier, the Tigers are sitting at .500, and are now only a game ahead of the Chunichi Dragons. Here are the standings as of the end of play on June 22nd:

June 22 StandingsHere are this week’s stat lines for our foreigners:

Player G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS
Gomez 4 14 1 5 1 0 0 1 1 5 0 0 .357 .400 .429 .829
Murton 4 15 0 6 2 0 0 1 2 1 0 0 .400 .471 .533 1.004
Player GP GS W L SV BS HLD CG SHO IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP
Messenger 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 7.1 7 4 3 1 2 8 3.68 1.23
Oh 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1.0 2 2 2 0 1 2 18.00 3.00

The Tigers couldn’t be more relieved that the interleague portion of the schedule is over. It has been a miserable month of June to this point, and the upcoming four-day break couldn’t come at a better time. This week features a three-game homestand on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. They will host Chunichi, and need to re-extend their lead in the standings against the charging Dragons. Let’s hope the coming week puts an end to their losing ways. A 3-0 week would do wonders for their confidence and their place in the standings. GO TIGERS!

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Comments 2

  1. koaladevine

    Finally out of interleague play!!!

  2. T. Raichura

    Exactly! They need to sweep the Dragons to get their confidence back. It’s been a hard month to watch games! Blown leads, bats gone silent, rallies ending before they produced runs, etc. Can’t wait to see the Tigers go on a roll!!!