In their 83 years of existence, the Yomiuri Giants have never had a stretch quite this bad.
The rapidly sinking Kyojin reached new depths on Wednesday night after Shingo Ishikawa struck out to end a 3-0 loss to the Seibu Lions at MetLife Dome. It was the 12th straight defeat for the Giants, the worst losing streak in team history.
Almost any and everything that could've gone wrong has during the team's record cold spell. Some of their fans, weary of the losing, showed up on Wednesday night with large white banners emblazoned with black exhortations for the team to right the ship. Instead, it was more of the same, another defeat.
"Everyone is struggling," first baseman Shinnosuke Abe told Sports Hochi after the game.
The last time the Giants were in a rut this bad was in 1975, the first year NPB legend Shigeo Nagashima managed the club. Nagashima oversaw a then-record run of 11 straight losing decisions in September of that year. Those Giants had a tie mixed in, with their longest slide in terms of consecutive games reaching nine. The cleanup hitter for those '75 Giants, the great Sadaharu Oh, was asked about the current streak on Wednesday night.
"I hope they can do something to stop it," said Oh, the current chairman of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks.
Nothing the team has done has worked so far.
Manager Yoshinobu Takahashi has tinkered with his lineup, brought Luis Cruz up from the farm and on Tuesday finally got Daikan Yoh, who was acquired as a free agent over the offseason and has missed most of the season while recovering from injuries, into the lineup. Nothing has worked.
