Tigers Mania: Hanshin in "banzai mode"

Score

Our Tigers did a great game today. They won against their unbeatable opponents with a large difference in score. Hanshin was winning 9 - 0 in the 6th inning and 11 - 1 in the 7th inning.

Hanshin's starter Jason Standridge seemed to be in an off day since he faced a full-base situation early in the game. It was the 2nd inning, Chunichi's 4th batter Wada was on base and Standridge stroke out the 5th batter Blanco. Unfortunately he gave 2 base on balls. But finally he eliminated the 8th and 9th batters without trouble. Only Nomoto was able to score a run from Standridge thanks to his homerun in the 7th inning.

Starters	J. Standridge	K. Asakura
W - L - S	4 - 1 - 0	3 - 4 - 0
Innings	7	4
ER	1	5
Throws	110	65
Batters	27	19
Hits	6 (1 HR)	6 (3 HR)
K	5	3
BB	3	0

Hanshin's batters seemed to be in "banzai mode" (a mode of the video game Pawapuro which turns almost every hit into a homerun). Specially Brazell: 4 hits in 4 at-bat, 3 were homeruns. He scored the first run in the 2nd inning with a solo homerun. That gave confidence to the Tigers and they scored 5 runs the next inning: Murton scored with captain Tori, Arai batted a 3-run homerun and Brazell batted a homerun again. Johjima had no hit in the last game against the Swallows, but today he batted a homerun too.

C. Brazell

N° 67
Infielder
AVG .319
RBI 56
80 Hits
26 HR

T. Arai

N° 25
Infielder
AVG .277
RBI 47
73 Hits
10 HR

K. Johjima

N° 2
Catcher
AVG .275
RBI 44
71 Hits
12 HR

Because of the score difference (11 - 1), Mayumi decided to send his young pitchers to the mound, in order to make them gain experience. Yesterday, the relief pitcher Tsutsui was demoted to the second team, and the one who was promoted was young Masanori Fujihara (22 years old), professional player since this season. Unfortunately he gave up two runs. Manager Mayumi said at the end of the game that he still lacks of something. Anyway, Fujihara can be proud that his first professional strike out was Nomoto, who had just batted a homerun in the previous inning. Ryonosuke Yokoyama (21 years old) had the same outcome: 2 earned runs in 2/3 innings pitched. He had been a professional since 4 years, but it is the first time that he pitches in the first team.