Wada hands hot Buffaloes playoff-style loss with 4-hitter
The Orix Buffaloes got a taste of what the big boys serve up late in the season.
SoftBank starter Tsuyoshi Wada had to survive a leadoff double in the ninth, but fired a four-hit shutout on Wednesday to slow down the hard-charging Buffaloes as the front-running Hawks rode the lefty to a 3-0 win at Kyocera Dome Osaka.
SoftBank lowered its magic number to win the Pacific League to 12 with its 24th shutout.
Wada didn’t walk a batter and allowed hits to two players -- two singles each by Mitsutaka Goto and Fumihiro Suzuki – and fanned four. It was the second shutout of the season for Wada (13-5), who threw 114 and faced just 29 batters
The Buffaloes saw their winning streak end at five games and are now just three games ahead of the Seibu Lions.
Munenori Kawasaki had three hits and two RBIs, and Yuichi Honda singled three times.
Orix starter Hayato Terahara (11-9) got knocked around for a season-worst 10 hits but managed to keep the Hawks to three runs.
The other four games were wiped out by the havoc-wreaking typhoon that shut down public transportation across pockets of cities nationwide.
Wada hands hot Buffaloes playoff-style loss with 4-hitter
The Orix Buffaloes got a taste of what the big boys serve up late in the season.
SoftBank starter Tsuyoshi Wada had to survive a leadoff double in the ninth, but fired a four-hit shutout on Wednesday to slow down the hard-charging Buffaloes as the front-running Hawks rode the lefty to a 3-0 win at Kyocera Dome Osaka.
SoftBank lowered its magic number to win the Pacific League to 12 with its 24th shutout.
Wada didn’t walk a batter and allowed hits to two players -- two singles each by Mitsutaka Goto and Fumihiro Suzuki – and fanned four. It was the second shutout of the season for Wada (13-5), who threw 114 and faced just 29 batters
The Buffaloes saw their winning streak end at five games and are now just three games ahead of the Seibu Lions.
Munenori Kawasaki had three hits and two RBIs, and Yuichi Honda singled three times.
Orix starter Hayato Terahara (11-9) got knocked around for a season-worst 10 hits but managed to keep the Hawks to three runs.
The other four games were wiped out by the havoc-wreaking typhoon that shut down public transportation across pockets of cities nationwide.