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The story
On the Nanademo Jikkyo G board, a thread blew up over how the Hanshin Tigers’ pennant race lead — once thought to be a runaway victory — has suddenly turned into a nail-biter. As of early September they held a 5-game lead over the Giants, but despite the good news of a 7-game winning streak in head-to-head matchups, that lead has been shrinking, and the thread split over whether to call it “historic.” Pointing to a roster stacked with a Triple Crown-caliber hitter, a rotation near the top of the ERA rankings, and relievers hitting 160 km/h, some posters argued “if they blow this, it’ll become legendary,” and brought up the 2014 season — when four foreign players swept individual titles yet the team still missed the pennant — as a point of comparison.
What people said
Not really historic
It's a 5-game lead we're talking about
That's rare
Congrats on the historic collapse
They've got a Triple Crown hitter, a near-Triple Crown hitter, a starting rotation sweeping the top of the ERA rankings, and two relievers throwing 160 km/h — how do you NOT win with that?
If they blow it after all this, it'll go down as a legendary season
People will be talking about it forever
Slightly different case, but the 2014 Tigers deserve high marks for style too
Messenger — Most Wins
Oh Seung-hwan — Most Saves
Matt Murton — Batting Champion
Mauro Gómez — RBI Champion
All four foreign players hit it big and swept individual titles, and the team STILL didn't win the pennant
Even if the Giants win every remaining game, Hanshin still takes the pennant as long as they win all their other games except one head-to-head with the Giants
Is having more games left really an advantage when you've been losing badly all September?
Except the Giants are basically Hanshin's best customer (the team they beat the most)
Go look at the Yomi-Jai's (a snarky nickname for the Yomiuri Giants) position player stats, it's gruesome
The only answer is that the managing has been garbage
Hiroshima's meltdown was only a 1-game lead over 2nd place, so it's nothing compared to the scale of this collapse
Honestly, falling clean out of a Climax Series (CS) playoff spot had a bigger impact than just missing the pennant
Are the Giants actually going to win the pennant?
Yep, and it'll get turned into a movie about how the team came together to honor the manager who's gone
The Giants who never quite catch up…
Apparently whenever the Giants and Tigers battle for the pennant, the Tigers never actually end up winning it 🤔
Okamoto doesn't hit at all against the Tigers, so I think it'd be even worse than it is now
It's wild that they're getting caught even after a 7-game winning streak head-to-head — you'd think they'd have banked a ton of wins off the Giants alone
He'd run up a fair number of pitches
Well, that particular call wasn't too bad, honestly
They're gonna finish dead last though lol
*chiin* (lol) (a funeral-bell sound effect used to mock someone as "done for")
lol "Chin-san" lol (a mocking nickname for Chunichi Dragons fans)
Hope he gets rewarded somewhere, over there across the sea
Busting his ass for a team he didn't even want to join, and his cleanup partner turns out like that — genuinely sad
If that guy were more like Oyama, they'd have won the pennant easily
Lmao the sponsor is straight up going "V yanen" (Kansai-dialect hype for "we're winning the pennant")
Is this a Joshin (electronics chain) ad?
I wanna watch Dad's SoftBank games too, so let's just say all 12 teams
It'd be hilarious if they won it under Hashigami
Abe would become a running joke too
Background and Key Points of the Debate
The split over whether this counts as “historic” comes down to how you weigh a 5-game lead as of early September. >>3 coolly points out that “comebacks from 4.5 games back happen fairly often,” while >>26 counters that “a 5-game lead is rare,” and >>31 discusses the scale by comparing it to Hiroshima’s 2023 collapse from a 1-game lead. The 2014 Hanshin Tigers, cited as a reference point, are a precedent where the team failed to win the pennant even though four foreign players swept individual titles — Messenger (Most Wins), Oh Seung-hwan (Most Saves), Matt Murton (Batting Champion), and Mauro Gómez (RBI Champion) — a textbook example of strong individual stats not translating into a team championship. What readers can easily misread is that this season’s Hanshin squad is also stacked, with a Triple Crown-caliber hitter, a rotation near the top of the ERA rankings, and relievers throwing in the 160 km/h range, yet they’re still fading — the same disconnect between roster strength and results seen in 2014. The fact that they’re being caught despite a 7-game winning streak in head-to-head matchups against the Giants is also worth noting as a quirk specific to this season that can’t be explained by simply saying one team is “strong” or “weak.”
※This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Nanademo Jikkyo G) thread “[LOL] Hanshin Tigers Headed for a Historic Pennant Collapse… lol🤣“.
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