Pre-game: vs Yomiuri Giants.

VS

The Giants had suffered four consecutive loses (one against Hiroshima and three against Chunichi). As for our Tigers, they usually win two out of the three games composing the series. Note that Hanshin has won 8 matches against Yomiuri, and lost 4.

Team	ERA	AVG	HR
Yomiuri Giants	3.87	.269	132
Hanshin Tigers	4.04	.281	95

Hanshin's batters have a best average, but on the other hand the Giants have more powerful batters: 132 homeruns against 95. Specially Abe and Ramirez with 29 homeruns each one, Ogasawara with 17 and Sakamoto with 16. The Tigers basically rely upon Brazell who has 30 homeruns, and Johjima with 15 homeruns.

Regarding the pitchers, if both managers keep the same starting rotation we will have: Standridge, Shimoyanagi and Andoh versus Nishimura (not our NishiKen), Utsumi and Gonzales.

Yomiuri's pitchers' ERA is best than Hanshin' one, nevertheless, neither Nishimura nor Gonzales are the most formidable. For instance, since the end of the Interleague Nishimura has not won any game. He has lost one instead.

If we look at the statistics, Shimoyanagi and Standridge outclass Nishimura and Gonzales:

Pitcher	ERA	W	L	W%
T. Shimoyanagi	2.91	5	4	.556
J. Standridge	4.24	5	1	.833
K. Nishimura	4.52	4	5	.444
D. Gonzales	5.19	3	8	.273

Utsumi could be able to give the Tigers a hard time, but he has been losing recently (lost two games against Hiroshima). The great unknown remains Andoh. Since he came back in the first team, he has pitched well against the Dragons, even if the winning pitcher was not him. However, the game against the Swallows was a real failure. His next game will confirm if he is getting back on his feet or if he is on free fall...