You expect to win two, if not three when you’re playing against a bottom-feeding team like the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. The Tigers barely pulled it off – but hey, we’ll take the wins any way we get them. Game 58 – Kids Back in Kanemoto’s Good Books? Starting Pitchers: Shintaro Fujinami vs. Wataru Karashima…
After a lot of rain and mediocrity during the week at Koshien, the Tigers took their act on the road for the final week of interleague play. First stop: Sapporo Dome to face the resurgent Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters. Given the powerful bats they have, Hanshin would need theirs to come out and play, plus…
The origin of his nickname is not known to yours truly, but our starting pitcher today uses Akkyaman as part of his Twitter handle – アッキャマン has the letters for アキヤマ (Akiyama) in it, with a few extras so it sounds a little more “hero-like.” Well on this particular day, the name was 100% befitting…
The Tigers got some extra rest thanks to yesterday’s rainout, and they showed a lot of rust in the field and at the plate for much of the game. But when it rained, it poured, and one big inning was enough to counterbalance all the mistakes made by the fielders. Starting Pitchers: Randy Messenger (2-1,…
The Tigers finally got big contributions from their bats, tallying a season-high 13 hits and eight runs as they made up for three straight games of offensive lethargy earlier in the week. Starting Pitchers: Yuta Iwasada (0-0) vs. Yoshinori (0-1, 6.75 ERA) 1 Three of our guys who are a combined 114 years old (Takashi…
Today’s game looked really bleak for the Tigers until the bottom of the seventh. Unfortunately, the feeling lasted only a few minutes as things fell apart again the very next inning. Starting Pitchers: Atsushi Nohmi (0-0) vs. Shotaro Kasahara (0-1, 6.00 ERA) 2 Nohmi got bailed out by Yoshio Itoi, who threw out a runner…
If you like strikeouts, then this was a great game for you to watch. Both pitchers brought their A games, but there was just no beating our ace today. Starting PItchers: Randy Messenger (1-0, 1.29 ERA) vs. Katsuki Azuma (0-0) 4 Our lads gave Azuma a great start to his pro career, letting him strike…
It was our first matchup against the Yokohama DeNA BayStars this season, meaning it was the first chance we got to see Yamato in blue. It also meant a chance at starting the revenge for last year’s playoff elimination. Let’s see how things went down. Starting Pitchers: Taiki Ono (2-7, 4.35 ERA) vs. Satoshi Iizuka…
After what has to be the worst preseason in history, the Tigers looked lifeless, and that all the February talk about a pennant was smoke and mirrors. And heading into Tokyo Dome to face the reigning Eiji Sawamura Award winner surely wouldn’t be an encouraging start to the regular season, would it? Starting Pitchers: Randy…
The Hanshin Tigers announced their top squad members today in preparation for the start of the 2018 season, which starts tomorrow against the Yomiuri Giants at Tokyo Dome (March 30, 6:00 pm JST). Here is the list, as well as some comments from yours truly: Catchers #12 Seishiro Sakamoto: Of the three catchers, he’s got…