It was a night of sighs and squandered chances for Hanshin fans in Nagoya, as the Tigers suffered their worst losing streak of the season—four straight losses—failing to capitalize on three bases-loaded situations.
Manager Fujikawa, keeping a composed expression, accepted the bitter outcome with grace:
“This is part of the pennant race. Around the middle of the game, I could sense we’ve hit one of those stretches.”
Despite pressuring rookie starting pitcher Miura throughout, the Tigers couldn’t deliver the finishing blow. The first bases-loaded chance came in the third inning, but Morishita grounded out weakly to the mound. In the fourth, with two outs and the bases juiced once again, Chikamoto grounded out to short, managing just one run. The sixth brought a third opportunity—two outs, bases loaded—but Morishita swung through strike three, ending the threat.
“We’ll reset and do our best in the next game,” he said, biting his lip as he boarded the team bus.
Even amid misfiring pitching and hitting, the manager made tactical calls to stay in the game. In the fourth inning, Chunichi’s Shuhei Takahashi appeared to hit a three-run homer off the top of the right field fence. Fujikawa immediately challenged the ruling, and the umpires overturned it to a double—limiting the damage to two runs. For a moment, the tide seemed to turn.
But this version of the Tigers just couldn’t escape their downward spiral.
Even the go-ahead run for the Dragons came in frustrating fashion. With two outs and runners on first and third in the fifth, runner Kanemoto broke for second on the second pitch to Takahashi. Catcher Sakamoto threw to second, and as Obata chased the runner, Okabayashi dashed home from third to score.
“Well, it was only the fifth inning. I don’t think there was anything wrong with the strategy itself,” Fujikawa commented calmly.
In the end, Hanshin left 12 runners on base—a painful reminder of their recent offensive struggles. The mood after the game was hey, but the skipper remained firm:
“It’s here. This stretch we knew would come. Now we face it head on.”
The Tigers return to Koshien for a three-game series against the Swallows starting May 2. It’s time to break the cycle and weather their first real test of the season.
Box Order Pos # Name AB R H RBI SB 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1(CF)5Chikamoto50000F4–G4G6–K––G4 2(2B)51Nakano30000G1–BB–KBB––G4 3(RF)1Morishita40000G6–G1–G6K––BB –PR62Ueda00000––––––––– 4(3B)8Sato51211–G3–G4HR7①–K–1B7 5(1B)3Ohyama31000–K–BBBB–F7–G6 6(LF)58Maegawa40000–G4–F8K–K–– 7(C)12Sakamoto20110––BB2B89①–BB–F8– 8(SS)38Obata20100––2B8IBB–SH2–G4– 9(P)49Ohtake20100––G41B7––––– –PH25Watanabe10100–––––1B1––– –PR4Kumagai00001––––––––– –P34Urushihara00000––––––––– –PH68Nakagawa10000–––––––G6– –P46Shimamoto00000––––––––– TEAM322622 # Name NP BF IP H HR BB HBP K WP BK R ER LP49Ohtake87225601140033 34Urushihara2572101010000 46Shimamoto1041100000000 TEAM122338802150033 Stats from NPB👉 May 1, 2025