It had been four years since the Tigers swept a 3-game series against the Yomiuri Giants at Koshien Stadium. Bringing in a 19-year old rookie against a pitcher who was undefeated against the Tigers this season did not seem like a recipe for ending that streak. Then again, you can’t predict baseball.
Starting Pitchers: Hiroto Saiki (0-1, 7.50 ERA) vs. Ryoma Nogami (4-3, 4.84 ERA)
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Yoshio Itoi, batting fourth (and the struggling Rosario in the 7-slot), led off this inning with a double. The crowd didn’t even get to start Masahiro Nakatani‘s cheer song (which calls for him to hit a long, high fly ball into the stands. He did just that on the first pitch he saw, for his first dong of the year:
This batflip by Nakatani is A-1! #hanshin @thehanshintiger pic.twitter.com/161L4u4Cc8
— Max G. (@MistaMaxG) May 27, 2018
Hanshin 2, Yomiuri 0
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Nakatani walked, then scored on a sweet gapper double by Yusuke Ohyama, who seems to have found his stroke once again… Sunday was his second straight game with three hits.
Hanshin 3, Yomiuri 0
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Kento Itohara walked, then moved to third on a Kosuke Fukudome single, and scored on an Itoi sacrifice fly.
Hanshin 4, Yomiuri 0
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Kai Ueda walked (we sure enjoyed walking our way on base!), and moved to second on an Itohara single. A double-steal later, their reliever threw one in the dirt and gave Ueda plenty of time to score. And just to heap it on a little more, Itoi hit his second sacrifice fly of the day.
Hanshin 6, Yomiuri 0
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Ohyama hit. Takahiro Kumagai’s first career hit. Noriharu Yamazaki‘s first hit and RBI as a Tiger. Ueda came an error away from his first career RBI, when Guerrero muffed the ball in left, then threw it wide of home. Run scores. And for good measure, another sacrifice fly, this one by Itohara. Even Taiga Egoshi got in on the action, beating out a Sakamoto throw for an infield hit. On the ensuing bobble, Ueda tried to score, but was thrown out at home.
Hanshin 9, Yomiuri 0
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Marcos Mateo got sent down to the farm to give his right shoulder time to heal, and his replacement, Diego Moreno, took the mound here. He got smacked around big time. He gave up a run, and then with one out and the bases juiced, this happened:
For those if you who don’t care for video, or who didn’t quite follow what happened, let me explain. The deep fly ball by Chono was ruled a non-catch by Nakatani. The runners all believed he caught it, and that they had their second run of the inning on a sacrifice fly. But the umpire never signaled that it was a catch, and Nakatani relayed the ball in to third. Since it was deemed a non-catch, the runners had to advance a base or be called out. The ensuing throw to second completed a highly unusual 7-5-4 game-ending double play. Giants manager Takahashi protested it initially, but gave up eventually. For the record, Saiki went 6 IP, 95 TP, 2 H, 0 BB, 0 R, 7 K. Impressive indeed.
Take out your brooms, everyone. Let’s sweep those Giants right out of town!