The Cats Came Back… they just wouldn’t stay away...
The Tigers found themselves in pretty bad trouble at the start of the month. Takashi Toritani‘s dismissal (in essence that’s what it is) had just been announced and the team was also on the verge of losing Yangervis Solarte and days later would find out Randy Messenger was retiring. All of those punches to the gut seemed to suck the wind out of the team, and by the middle of the month, all fans could do was hope for a miracle run from the Tigers and that the Hiroshima Carp would stumble across their own finish line.
The losses early in the month really hurt, as we saw Atsushi Nohmi serve up a highlight-reel walk-off home run to Yoshitomo Tsutsugoh in extras in Yokohama, then Rafael Dolis give up an extra-inning run after the team fought back from an early deficit against the Swallows at Koshien. Haruto Takahashi also looked completely gassed, giving up six or more runs in his first three September starts. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the bats got snuffed out twice: one no-hitter at the hands of Yudai Ohno of the Dragons (he will come into play later), and once at home against the basement dwellers. Hard to blame Hanshin fans for thinking the season was over on September 15 when an Alex Guerrero home run off Pierce Johnson meant seven September losses against just five wins. The bullpen was finally showing fatigue, as did our young ace, and the bats looked limp.
It’s almost as though we fielded a different team in the latter half of the month, though. There were but nine games left on the Tigers schedule, while Hiroshima had six. Even if they went 2-4, we would need to be perfect the rest of the way.
First, the good news: they went 1-5.
Now, the better news! Though we still needed to go 8-1, that’s exactly what we did. In our 8 wins, we gave up 8 runs. (Also, we gave up 8 runs in our lone loss.) FOUR shutouts in the last five games. The bullpen had one burp, and that was when Kyuji Fujikawa gave up three runs with the team up six.
Onelki Garcia won four games in 13 days (three out of the bullpen). Yuki Nishi peeled off four wins on the month. Home runs were pretty sporadic, but it didn’t matter. Not the way our pitchers were hurling.
The surprise game of the year was the last one. Hanshin was tied with Hiroshima at .500 but the tiebreaker went to them, as they had more wins on the season. The Tigers would need a win against Yudai “No-no” Ohno at Koshien. There was just one catch: he needed 3 ⅓ innings of scoreless ball to win the Central League ERA title… and that’s exactly what he did. Ten up, 10 down, and his manager pulled him. They had nothing to gain by leaving him in and risking the Tigers put up a run against him. Ohno’s relief helped us to a 2-0 lead, which extended to 3 soon thereafter, and we held on. Koyo Aoyagi went five, and the foursome of Hiroya Shimamoto, Suguru Iwazaki, Johnson and Kyuji kept the bagels coming. Oh, and Akifumi Takahashi, who also announced his retirement earlier in the week, faced one batter and left to much applause in the seventh.
Let’s also not forget Randy Messenger, who started the game on September 29. He faced Yohei Ohshima to start the game, and the already-legendary righty fanned him to bring his career total to 1475 whiffs. At the conclusion of that game, the team had an elaborate retirement ceremony for him, the first one held for a foreigner in team history. It was touching and properly sent the big American off with the honors he deserved.
Strangely enough, the 30th was Takashi Toritani day, but aside from his two innings at shortstop and a relatively lengthy salute to the crowd, there was nothing sending him off into the sunset. Perhaps because he has said he is not ready to fade away (he will play elsewhere next year, if anywhere), and perhaps because the team is hoping he will get more action on Koshien soil during the Nippon Series.
For now, we rejoice because thanks to such an incredible September…
WE’RE GOING TO THE PLAYOFFS!!!
