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…
Camp is over! The team packed up late this morning and are on their way back to mainland. Exhibition season up here starts on March 3 (in Fukuoka, where they’re selling “open seating” all-you-can-eat tickets for ¥2500) and runs through the 25th. Looking forward to see how the field and mound start to take shape!…
We’re most of the way through this long meal called Spring Training. The fifth course is now in the books, and on this, Wilin Rosario‘s 29th birthday, we bring you the news of the past 3 days. First, Rosario took some time during batting practice to teach struggling outfielder Taiga Egoshi about hitting. We can…
It’s another precious day off for our heroes on the diamond, so let’s look back on the last few days of spring training action! First, the “news”: Newly acquired relief pitcher Diego Moreno looked good pitching in the bullpen and in live batting practice. Some have called him a “skinny Mateo” – he uses the…
See Recaps of Game 1 here, and Game 2 here. The Kansai area got way too much rain for baseball to have been played on Sunday or Monday. But due to poor scheduling plans, one of those days had a historically muddy game. After Monday night off, the teams played a winner-takes-all matchup on Tuesday….
It was looking like the weather might wash away the entire weekend of baseball, but the skies held up as Game 1 between the Hanshin Tigers and the Yokohama DeNA BayStars got started. All the talk was that winners of Game 1 of this playoff series go on to the next round 95% of the…
The Yomiuri Giants have gotten the better of us most of the year, especially on our home turf. Though our spot in the playoffs was secure, second was still up for grabs, and the Giants were looking to complete their comeback attempt at sneaking into third. Though the BayStars shut us out in two straight…
This shouldn’t have been a “must win” series. By now, Hanshin should have locked up second place. Unfortunately, life as a Tigers fan is never that easy. Two straight shutout losses to these BayStars left the team up just 3.5 games with 7 to go. Fortunately, now with 4 games to go, the gap is…
This has been an absolutely atrocious year for the Yakult Swallows. The injury bug bit them frequently and didn’t seem to want to leave even after there was no more blood. And the Tigers have enjoyed feasting on the li’l Birds all season, too. In this, their last tilt of the season, we picked their…
The Tigers come into this one having lost four straight games to the Hiroshima Carp. But now that the red helmets have clinched the league pennant and deactivated Brad Eldred among others, and with the Tigers actually having something to play for, perhaps this would be the team’s chance to end the season series on…