The Tigers defeated by Hiroshima.

Hanshin has lost two games against the Carp (5 - 4 and 8 - 3).

Friday's match was very intense, none of the teams wanted to cede anything to the other. In these circumstances the defeat did not really look like a defeat, especially because the Giants also has lost.

On the other hand, today's game was a real nightmare for the Hanshin pitchers:

Pitcher	ERA	IP	H	HR	SO	BB	ER
Tsuru	3.51	2	2	0	0	3	3
Sajikihara	9.00	1	1	0	1	1	1
Watanabe	2.86	3	1	0	2	2	0
Fukuhara	5.68	1	1	0	1	0	1
Uezono	4.29	1	2	1	0	1	3

Watanabe is not used to long reliefs, however he was the one who pitched more innings (3) without giving up a single run. Usually Tsuru is quite reliable but does not look comfortable as a starter (2 wins and 4 losses). His bad control today did not allow him to pitch more than two innings. Sajikihara and Fukuhara's outcomes in the first team are not good, but Mayumi was unable to send the two remaining relief pitchers, Nishimura and Kubota, because they pitched yesterday and the day before. Concerning Uezono, he was promoted to the first team after Egusa's demotion. No one could foretell the bad performance of the best rookie 2007.

Pitchers remaining in the bullpen:

Akiyama (starter): ERA 4.09

Nishimura (relief): ERA 3.56

Kubota (relief): ERA 4.13

K. Fujikawa (closer): ERA 1.49

Regarding the line-up, six out of the 8 batters have an average higher than .300, nevertheless Hiroshima's starter (Giancarlo Alvarado, alias Gio) managed to defeat them giving up 5 hits and 3 runs. The two reliefs pitchers, Oshima and Yokoyama did not give up any hit. Neither Hanshin's first batter nor the third were able bat a hit today, reducing the chances of scoring.

AVG of the standard line-up:

1. Murton (.341)

2. Hirano (.354)

3. Toritani (.302)

4. Arai (.309)

5. Brazell (.304)

6. Kanemoto (.248)

7. Johjima (.300)

8. S. Fujikawa (.247)

(9. Pitcher)

The dead balls ended up doing Hirano in. He was obliged to left the game in the first inning. He was replaced by Saka, who was promoted to the first team some days before. Many of us were wondering if he will play at least one game, because he is in competition with Toritani and Hirano. And he did very well, he batted a homerun and a hit. Along with Arai and Brazell, he is one of the three batters that managed to hit today.

Tomorrow is the last game of the series against Hiroshima. If they lose again it may inspire confidence to their next opponents, the Dragons. They have been winning against the Giants and snatched the second place. Now the Chunichi Dragons are at 0.5 from Hanshin, and the Yomiuri Giants are at 1.5 from Chunichi.

Since the beginning of the season, the Dragons are the team that causes the more trouble to the Tigers. Luckily Nohmi will be back on time. Last Friday, during his last game on Western League he pitched 6 innings and a third, struck out 10 batters, and his faster pitch was 148 km/h.