Yuki Nishi really did not have his best stuff tonight. He did not have his health, either, it seems. After giving up two runs and recording only five outs, he left the game and was replaced by Kosuke Baba. Then Masashi Itoh. Then Raul Alcantara. All the relievers did a good job, allowing just one…
Post-draft reports from 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 and 2015 For the third straight year, Hanshin manager Akihiro Yano did not divulge the team’s direction as to which player they would enter the sweepstakes for in Round 1 of the draft, which took place on Monday, October 11 in Tokyo. Once again, each club had…
It’s how you finish. This is true of tonight’s game, the season, and also the Swallows game tonight as well. The Tigers got off to a 3-0 lead, but once again failed to put anything else up on the board after that. And ultimately, Neftali Soto teed off on a Masaki Oyokawa offering and the…
You might not have been tracking along with me, but Hanshin hit just 10 home runs the entire month of September. It is a big reason that the team was unable to get on a roll, and ultimately, it saw the team drop into second place. But tonight, the two sluggers who were in the…
It may be a mystery, but it is no hidden secret that the Hanshin Tigers struggle to score and win at Vantelin Dome Nagoya. After getting on the board in the top of the first and watching starter Masashi Itoh cruise through the first five innings of the game, it looked as though this would…
Despite getting the leadoff man on base five times tonight, the Tigers bats were simply unable to push anyone across home plate. That is mostly because the same three guys kept getting on base, but the rest of the batters did pretty much nothing. Great outing by rookie Masashi Itoh goes to waste. Swallows win,…
Coming from behind to win games feels good, but falling behind early game in and game out, well, does not feel so good. Once again, the Tigers’ starter – in this case, Masashi Itoh – surrendered three runs in the game’s first three innings… and our bats only really came to life in the fifth…
Neither of these teams looked like the ones that combined for 27 hits and 13 runs on Tuesday. Perhaps that is a good thing, though, as it was getting a little old seeing our team falling deep into holes early in games. This time around, Masashi Itoh pitched masterfully, with the lone run he surrendered…
Masashi Itoh (5 in 3) and Yukiya Saitoh (3 in 1) and Yuta Iwasada (2 in 2) combined to allow 10 runs in 6 innings of work. The batters did next-to-nothing. We almost had more stolen bases in this game (3) than we did hits (4). Oh. Our pitchers also made Shugo Maki the first…
Unfortunately, it neither rained nor poured at Koshien Stadium on this day. It would have helped if the game had been called before the fifth inning because at no point during these nine innings did it look like our guys were going to pull off the win. Masashi Itoh walked three and plunked one in…