It took until the ninth inning for the Tigers to get on the scoreboard, and they got good pitching from their birthday boy starter, but ultimately they fell in extras.
Starting Pitchers: Shintaro Fujinami (0-0, 5.59 ERA) vs. David Buchanan (2-0, 0.56 ERA)
2
Three straight singles gave the Swallows a quick lead. It took an inning-ending double play to keep the damage to a minimum.
Hanshin 0, Yakult 1
5
The brilliant managing of Tomoaki Kanemoto struck again. Kento Itohara got the team’s first hit (!) of the game, and was gifted second thanks to an errant pick-off throw. So what do you do, coach? How about essentially burn two outs to advance him one more base? The “bunt in front of the pitcher” move fails. AGAIN.
6
Two straight singles (plus some atypically lazy fielding in left) put runners on the corners with one out. Fortunately, Fujinami coaxed a double play out of Kawabata, ending the threat.
6
It looked like we might crack the nut at last, with runners on first and second and nobody out. But it wasn’t mean to be… a strikeout and then a double play kept the bagels coming.
7
Three nice fielding plays by our infield (re-read that – it’s not a mistake, just don’t expect to read it here much this year) kept this inning clean and gave Fujinami a happy end to his high quality start. 7 IP, 96 TP, 6 H, 2 BB, 1 R, 5 K.
8
Suguru Iwazaki gave up a solo home run to Tetsuto Yamada.
Hanshin 0, Yakult 2
9
Just when it looked like Buchanan was going to go the distance and shut us out, Wilin Rosario hit him in the butt with a batted ball and legged out an infield single, and then Kosuke Fukudome reached a big milestone (300th career NPB+MLB homer) in style…
福留孝介、日米通算300号は起死回生の同点ツーランホームラン！😳😳✨
やっぱ福留は神やわ😎⚾✨ pic.twitter.com/QpkiuzuciJ
— や す ぽ ん くん@FCU (@ksmokya_fcu_21) April 13, 2018
Hanshin 2, Yakult 2
10
Rafael Dolis gave up a leadoff double to Tetsuto Yamada, who then got bunted over to third, and scored on the ensuing single. The game ended on with yet another Takashi Toritani grounder, which dropped his batting average to a skinny .111 on the year.