After almost three weeks of having barely any offense to speak of for the Hawks, the last two games have seen SoftBank come to life offensively. In both of those games, SoftBank has scored 10 runs or more. Making their first visit to Sapporo Dome this season, SoftBank wanted to get their series off on the right foot against the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters.
And boy did they ever. The ever-present SoftBank bullpen again cleaned up a mess from the starter, this time Kameron Loe. While the 6'7'' sinkerballer had his troubles, a mix of veterans and youngsters kept the Fighters off the board while SoftBank's offense continued to pour on the pressure.
Again, it started in the first inning for SoftBank, an inning where they have scored consistently so far this season. Kawasaki singled, then Matsunaka was issued a walk from Nippon Ham starter Kaz Tadano. Next up came the white-hot Yuya Hasegawa, and he laced a single to left that scored Kawasaki to put the Hawks ahead early, 1-0.
Loe coughed the lead right up in the bottom half. After getting two quick outs via the ground ball, Loe surrendered a double to Inaba, a single to Sledge that scored Inaba, and a double to Koyano. However, Loe got Shinji Takahashi to fly out to end the threat.
Nippon Ham added two to their run total in their next set of ups, with singles from Tsuruoka and Kensuke Tanaka setting the table. Itoi then hit a double to center that scored both Tsuruoka and Tanaka to put the Fighters up 3-1. It looked like it was going to be a long day for Loe and the Hawks again at Sapporo Dome.
But then something funny happened: SoftBank did not fold like they usually do, they roared right back, matching Nippon Ham's 2-spot in the top of the 3rd. Honda led off with a double to right, and after Kawasaki bunted Honda to third, Matsunaka displayed some opposite-field power, socking his 3rd home run of the season to left field and tying the game up at 3.
Things did not get much better for Loe in the 4th inning, and he was pulled after loading the bases thanks to a pair of singles by Jimenez and Makoto Kaneko, who is now batting an amazing .509 on the season, and always hits well against the Hawks. Tanaka followed with a walk, and by that time, Akiyama-kantoku had seen enough. He went to the bullpen and veteran lefty Kamiuchi. It didn't start well as Kamiuchi gave up a double to Itoi, but then he settled down and got Inaba to foul out to first and struck out Sledge to end the inning.
With the score 5-3, SoftBank again mounted a rally against Tadano. After getting two outs to start the inning, SoftBank then found some two-out lightning, started by reserve third baseman Satoru Morimoto. He singled, and Honda followed with a single of his own. Kawasaki followed those two with a triple to left, going the other way. That tied the score again, and Matsunaka once again got his pitch from Tadano. The result was classic Matsunaka power, as he yanked it into the right-field seats and tagged the former Cleveland Indians prospect with 2 more runs for seven total.
From there, the game settled down as both bullpens were looking to hold the other in check. SoftBank saw the return of diminutive reliever Masahiko Morifuku, filling in for foreign import Brian Falkenborg, as he has been granted paternity leave. Morifuku did not disappoint as he struck out the side in his only inning of work. Akio Mizuta extended his scoreless streak, Tadashi Settsu had a solid 8th, and Yoshiaki Fujioka also worked a scoreless 9th.
SoftBank would add three more runs in the 9th off the bat of Hidenori Tanoue (3-run HR to right) to make the final score 10-5 in favor of the Hawks. Undoubtedly the stars of the game were Matsunaka, who upped his home run total on the season to four (2-for-2 overall with a walk and was hit by a pitch), and Hasegawa, who broke the .400 plateau for batting average by going 2-for-3 with 2 singles and 2 walks.
The Hawks now have won three in a row and go right back to work tomorrow against the Fighters, with DJ Houlton (1-0, 1.35) opposing the 2006 Rookie of the Year, Tomoya Yagi (NR).
Re: Hawks Double Up Fighters, 10-5
[ Author: Guest: Ed | Posted: May 14, 2009 7:02 PM
]
Could you please include a byline in either the headline or at the beginning of the body of your story? It should show the date and place of the action you're reporting on (for example: "(Tokyo, May 13, 2009)". As things stand now your readers lose track of the dates of each of your stories if they just move from story to story using the "Previous Topic" and "Next Topic" buttons at the bottom of your pages such that they have no idea of when the action you're reporting on occurred. Making the correction I've suggested herein would solve that.
I realize the posting date shows up in this view (i.e. when posting a comment to a story) but it doesn't when you're just viewing the original blog page (such as here: http://www.japanesebaseball.com/blogs/thread.jsp?blogid=1152&thread=58358).
Re: Hawks Double Up Fighters, 10-5
[ Author:
westbaystars | Posted: May 20, 2009 4:35 PM
| Posts: 35252
| From: Yokohama, Japan
| YBS Fan
| Registered: Aug, 2001
]
The missing date is my fault. I hope to fix the layout of posts this coming weekend.
Previous Topic
And boy did they ever. The ever-present SoftBank bullpen again cleaned up a mess from the starter, this time Kameron Loe. While the 6'7'' sinkerballer had his troubles, a mix of veterans and youngsters kept the Fighters off the board while SoftBank's offense continued to pour on the pressure.
Again, it started in the first inning for SoftBank, an inning where they have scored consistently so far this season. Kawasaki singled, then Matsunaka was issued a walk from Nippon Ham starter Kaz Tadano. Next up came the white-hot Yuya Hasegawa, and he laced a single to left that scored Kawasaki to put the Hawks ahead early, 1-0.
Loe coughed the lead right up in the bottom half. After getting two quick outs via the ground ball, Loe surrendered a double to Inaba, a single to Sledge that scored Inaba, and a double to Koyano. However, Loe got Shinji Takahashi to fly out to end the threat.
Nippon Ham added two to their run total in their next set of ups, with singles from Tsuruoka and Kensuke Tanaka setting the table. Itoi then hit a double to center that scored both Tsuruoka and Tanaka to put the Fighters up 3-1. It looked like it was going to be a long day for Loe and the Hawks again at Sapporo Dome.
But then something funny happened: SoftBank did not fold like they usually do, they roared right back, matching Nippon Ham's 2-spot in the top of the 3rd. Honda led off with a double to right, and after Kawasaki bunted Honda to third, Matsunaka displayed some opposite-field power, socking his 3rd home run of the season to left field and tying the game up at 3.
Things did not get much better for Loe in the 4th inning, and he was pulled after loading the bases thanks to a pair of singles by Jimenez and Makoto Kaneko, who is now batting an amazing .509 on the season, and always hits well against the Hawks. Tanaka followed with a walk, and by that time, Akiyama-kantoku had seen enough. He went to the bullpen and veteran lefty Kamiuchi. It didn't start well as Kamiuchi gave up a double to Itoi, but then he settled down and got Inaba to foul out to first and struck out Sledge to end the inning.
With the score 5-3, SoftBank again mounted a rally against Tadano. After getting two outs to start the inning, SoftBank then found some two-out lightning, started by reserve third baseman Satoru Morimoto. He singled, and Honda followed with a single of his own. Kawasaki followed those two with a triple to left, going the other way. That tied the score again, and Matsunaka once again got his pitch from Tadano. The result was classic Matsunaka power, as he yanked it into the right-field seats and tagged the former Cleveland Indians prospect with 2 more runs for seven total.
From there, the game settled down as both bullpens were looking to hold the other in check. SoftBank saw the return of diminutive reliever Masahiko Morifuku, filling in for foreign import Brian Falkenborg, as he has been granted paternity leave. Morifuku did not disappoint as he struck out the side in his only inning of work. Akio Mizuta extended his scoreless streak, Tadashi Settsu had a solid 8th, and Yoshiaki Fujioka also worked a scoreless 9th.
SoftBank would add three more runs in the 9th off the bat of Hidenori Tanoue (3-run HR to right) to make the final score 10-5 in favor of the Hawks. Undoubtedly the stars of the game were Matsunaka, who upped his home run total on the season to four (2-for-2 overall with a walk and was hit by a pitch), and Hasegawa, who broke the .400 plateau for batting average by going 2-for-3 with 2 singles and 2 walks.
The Hawks now have won three in a row and go right back to work tomorrow against the Fighters, with DJ Houlton (1-0, 1.35) opposing the 2006 Rookie of the Year, Tomoya Yagi (NR).