Original article (Daily Sports) can be seen here 元の記事はこちら
The Tigers’ pitching fell apart on April 4th at Tokyo Dome as the team lost 10-1, bringing their losing streak to four. This is the first time the team lost its first three Giants games of the season (in a single series) since 1991, and the first time they have ever been swept in their first three-game of the season at Tokyo Dome.
Right from the start, this game brought out the worst in the Tigers. Making his first start ever was Masumi Hamachi. He gave up a two-run homer to Kazuma Okamoto and a total of three runs in the first inning, and then allowed a three-run home run to Hayato Sakamoto in the fourth. In four innings, he was tagged for nine hits and six runs. Not the debut he had in mind.
“I was a little nervous with it being my first start, but above and beyond that, I was not able to deliver. I’m embarrassed by my outing today. I was hoping to hold on after giving up those first two runs, but I couldn’t fulfill my duties as a starter, and I really want to say sorry to my teammates.”
Atsushi Mochizuki took over in the fifth but gave up back-to-back homers to Okamoto and Kamei. In total, the team served up eight homers in the three-game set – the first time they’ve done that since 2010 against the Giants. After giving up 9, 6 and 10 runs (a total of 25), they clearly have to figure a few things out before the next time these teams face off.
Hiroki Uemoto made his first start of the year, batting leadoff and playing second base. Though the order was shuffled some, they only managed Seishiro Sakamoto‘s solo home run in six innings against Giants’ first-round draft pick Yuki Takahashi. In six games since season’s start, the team has failed to score more than 3 runs in a single match – the first time they’ve done so in 60 years (1959 was the last time).
This is also the first time the Tigers have given a Giants’ rookie pitcher a victory in his first career start. They have also not reached double digits in hits in any of their six games so far, and are just one game away from equalling the seven straight they went in 1991 – their worst total since the NPB adopted a two-league format in 1950. Yet another disgraceful record.
They head to Hiroshima on the 5th to face the three-time defending champion Carp. Starting that game will be six-time (including the last five) Opening Day starter Randy Messenger. Concerning his upcoming start, he said this in an attempt to fire up his mates: “We haven’t been playing good team baseball lately. We make mistakes and it costs us a lot of runs. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing, there’s no team that it’s OK to lose to. Hopefully we can win tomorrow and build some momentum.” First the team needs to get on the same page and stop this losing streak.