The Marines and Fighters were rained out on Friday, leaving us to start Japan’s pro baseball weekend with three games, the last-place Tigers in a record-setting funk to start the season faced the Central League-leading Hanshin Tigers with the Swallows at the DeNA BayStars.

In a game between two struggling teams, the Seibu Lions were in Osaka to play the Orix Buffaloes, whose high point to the week was being victimized for a perfect game by Roki Sasaki. Since then, coronavirus infections caused the Buffaloes to scrap their midweek games with Orix, depriving me of a Masahiro Tanaka start I was looking forward to.

Ready? Let’s go.

Friday’s games

Tigers 4, Giants 1: At Koshien Stadium, the joy was palpable when reliever Suguru Iwazaki retired Zelous Wheeler for the final out. Eighteen games into the season, the Tigers had their second win.