Since it’s the preseason and these games mean precious little once the season has begun, we will keep things short and sweet.
March 3: Starting pitcher Takumi Akiyama went 4 scoreless innings, scattering 3 hits (no more than one per inning) and striking out 4.
Kyuji Fujikawa (37) threw the fifth and allowed 2 runs on 2 hits and a walk. He took the loss.
Akifumi Takahashi gave up a solo home run in the sixth.
Marcos Mateo threw a scoreless seventh, despite giving up a hit plus hitting a batter.
Diego Moreno gave up one final run in the bottom of the eighth, no thanks to an error by Kento Itohara that put a man on third with one out.
And at long last, one bat did one good thing against one great pitcher who only landed in Japan one day prior. Enjoy it, though. I present to you… Ryosuke Ogata.
🐯緒方が１軍に昇格して…
いきなり、バックスクリーンに
放り込みました❗👏🏻😆#阪神タイガース #緒方凌介 pic.twitter.com/I3rvOrJGSl— ⚾埼とら⚾今年も怪我無く！ (@yakyuragu) March 3, 2018
Final Score: SoftBank 4, Hanshin 1
March 4: Starting pitcher Atsushi Nohmi (38) gave up a first-inning grand slam (aided by two walks) to Matsuda, and two more runs in the second inning via three straight two-out hits. Nohmi went one more inning and hit the showers. He was the losing pitcher on this day. But he stuck around long enough to see Seishiro Sakamoto deliver a baseball into the left field stands.
3月4日
阪神vsソフトバンク オープン戦坂本誠志郎 １号#坂本誠志郎#阪神#ソフトバンク#オープン戦#プロ野球速報 pic.twitter.com/a9met2dC4q
— ＡＫＩＲＡ (@AKIRA___games20) March 4, 2018
Impressing Kanemoto the most was second round pick Haruto Takahashi, who threw two scoreless innings, inducing 5 grounders and walking just one. In fact, after the second inning, the Hawks managed no hits at all. Also showing good stuff on the mound were Kentaro Kuwahara (1 IP) and Yuta Iwasada (2 IP).
Once again in the ninth inning, our boys “showed grit” (whatever that means in preseason games) by posting three runs. With two outs and runners on first and second, Kento Itohara hit an RBI double, and then Masahiro Nakatani hit a deep double to bring home the final two runs of the game.