Hawks Clobbered by Lions, Lose 11-4

The SoftBank Hawks are still in their holding pattern of win one, lose one baseball, and the trend continued today at Yahoo Dome against the Saitama Seibu Lions.

SoftBank sent American starter Rick Guttormson to the mound, and he was promptly clobbered. Guttormson was only able to complete 4 and 1/3 innings, giving up 6 runs on as many hits, walking three and striking out two. Seibu ace Hideaki Wakui took the mound and was good enough for Seibu over 7 innings, giving up 4 runs on 6 hits.

Offensively for SoftBank, the fourth inning was where the Hawks first struck. Three straight singles by Matsunaka, Kokubo, and Shibahara led to one run. American pinch hitter Michael Restovich clubbed a three-run home run in the 7th to give SoftBank the rest of their offense for the day.

Seibu's offense was just better, though. From the third through 7th innings, the Lions scored in all those innings. GG Satoh and Hiram Bocachica led the attack, each with two home runs. Satoh raised his average to .335, Bocachica raised his to .305, and the two of them combined for all but three of Seibu's runs today.

The Hawks close out their three-game series against the Lions tomorrow at Yahoo! Dome.