Let’s not kid ourselves. The Yakult Swallows delivered a powerful message to our team tonight. “Walk us, and we’ll hit multiple-run home runs. We are the champions. You finished below .500 this year. Good luck.” Starter Yuki Nishi did himself no favors by putting plenty of men on base and then letting most of them…
Hosts T-Ray and Sanjay take you through the first round of the playoffs, a successful 2-1 series win for the Hanshin Tigers, before looking in depth at the players on both teams in the upcoming Final Stage series (October 12-17?) against the Yakult Swallows. Who do they have winning the series? Listen until the end…
Going back to Game 1 of this series, the Hanshin Tigers hadn’t scored a run in 13 straight innings heading into this one. The Baystars took a two-run lead after three innings (which included 2 Tigers errors, plus a wild pitch). The momentum was completely in their favor. It looked like our season would be…
Those 26 shutout losses during the regular season were no fluke. Today, the Hanshin Tigers managed just two hits, did not earn a single free pass, and struck out 14 times (against a pitcher-generous umpire, mind you). The first of those hits was a single by Koji Chikamoto that saw him thrown out trying to…
People can look at all the regular season stats they want and try to make predictions about the postseason. The Baystars were 11-2 against the Tigers at Yokohama Stadium this year. (BUT… that includes 10-0 in night games and 1-2 in day games!) Koji Chikamoto was 1-12 against ace Shota Imanaga in 2022. (BUT… he…
Akihiro Yano looked every bit the inexperienced manager in Game 1, leaving two of his power bats on the bench and calling for a hit-and-run that backfired in the fifth. The result was that the Tigers needed a win (or tie) in this one, or the season would come to a premature end. And this…
And so it begins. October was a good month for the Tigers, despite not taking home the pennant. On the other hand, the Giants had a historically bad month, finishing below .500 but secured the third spot. In the playoffs, none of that matters, other than the Tigers being able to host the entire best-of-three…
The game started with some promise on both ends, but ultimately the superior team (and all their money and scandals and annoying orange) took over in the game’s latter half. There will be no Japan Series miracle for the Hanshin Tigers in 2019. Starting Pitchers: Yuki Nishi vs. Yuki Takahashi First Few Innings – Looked…
Honestly, there’s not much good to report from the first two games. And there were plenty of moments in Game 3 that made it seem like this would be the final recap of the season. Fortunately, an unlikely hitter woke up from his slumber and extended the season by a couple more days. Game 1…
The common thought about the NPB playoff format, particularly among the ex-pat community, is “it’s stupid” or “ridiculous” or “unfair.” I dare argue that it is actually quite reasonable.