Of Tigers or Geese? - April 12, 2013

The Hanshin Tigers have been laying an awful lot of goose eggs lately. They shut out the Giants three games in a row, and have continued to do so hosting the BayStars. I can't say that they make very nice hosts.

Hanshin's Randy Messenger was on his game. He faced just 30 batters, scattering 4 hits while striking out 7 and not allowing a single walk. As a matter of fact, he didn't allow a single BayStar to reach second base. The four hits consisted of two 2-out singles, a 1-out single followed by a double play, and a leadoff single followed by 2 pop-ups to the infield and an ground out to first. Messenger said in the post-game hero interview that he was inspired by the previous three starters and wanted to do his part to keep the momentum going.

I can't wait to see what Christopher has to say about Fujii's "好リード" ("spectacular lead") as Nikkan Sports called it.

Kentaro Takasaki started off a little shaky for Yokohama, a walk and three hits allowing Hanshin to score 2 runs in the second inning. After allowing the first two batters in the third to reach on base hits, however, Takasaki settled down and retired the next 11 Tigers he faced before allowing a walk to Brooks Conrad with two down in the 6th. In all, Takasaki threw 7 innings, allowing 6 hits (all in the first 3 innings), while striking out 10, walking 3, and allowing only those 2 runs in the 2nd inning. Teruaki Yoshikawa allowed a couple of hits in the 8th inning, but no damage was done.

Hanshin took the opening game of the series at Koshien 2-0 in just 2 hours and 34 minutes. It was a great pitchers' duel.

Yokohama has managed to take 2 out of 3 in their previous 2 road series so far this series. I'm hoping they can continue that this weekend.