SoftBank's Struggles Continue Against Orix

There are times when, as a baseball team, you're in must-win situations. For the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, the reasons are myriad. First of all, this first week or two after interleague is important because the Hawks are already flying high since they won the competition. Secondly, there isn't much time left before both the All-Star Break and the Beijing Olympics, so naturally you want to go into those with as much momentum as possible. Lastly, you're playing the sad-sack Orix Buffaloes!

Puzzling as it may be, the Buffaloes have given the Hawks problems this year, with a 5-4 record telling the story. The Hawks were seemingly in great shape for this game, as they had lefty ace and stopper Toshiya Sugiuchi taking the mound against Satoshi Komatsu. Sugiuchi is coming off an excellent two months of May and June, what could possibly go wrong?

The answer is almost everything, at least early on. In the first inning, Sugiuchi was tagged for 3 runs on 4 hits, which would be all the offense Orix would need. Singles by Masaski Abe and Alex Cabrera led to Tuffy Rhodes, and whenever his name is mentioned, it's always trouble. Rhodes slammed his 19th home run into the right field seats for a quick 3-0 Orix lead.

On the other side of things, Komatsu ducked in and out of trouble all day. The first inning was gut-wrenching, as Munenori Kawasaki singled, and then Matsunaka and Kokubo both walked to load the bases with 1 down. However, Komatsu bore down and struck out both Naoyuki Ohmura and Yuya Hasegawa to end the threat.

The Hawks would threaten again in the 3rd inning both Kawasaki and Matsunaka reached via single. Once again, the Hawks could not bring anybody in. Kokubo and Ohmura flew out, and then Hasegawa struck out again. This would be the last chance the Hawks would have for a long time.

Meanwhile, Sugiuchi was hitting his stride and working himself out of jams. The lefthander faced a problem in the 4th when, with 1 out, Hamanaka singled and Hidaka doubled to put runners on 2nd and 3rd. Suguichi rose to the challenge, getting Sakaguchi to ground out, and struck out Shimoyama swinging to end the inning.

Orix would tack on another run in the 7th, thanks to a home run from Hamanaka. Sugiuchi's day was finished. He went 6 innings, giving up all four Orix runs on 7 hits, with 3 walks and 2 strikeouts, with his record dropping to 6-5.

Komatsu (5-2) on the other hand, fared much better, as he consistently got out of jams and did not let SoftBank push across any runs. His final line was 7 innings, scattering 5 hits, walking 3 and striking out 5. Tsuyoshi Kikuchihara was brought in to keep the Hawks at bay, but did not start the 8th well, surrendering a home run to Matsunaka, his 13th of the season, which also matches his home run total from all of last season.

However, the Hawks could not muster anything more, as Kikuchihara, while a little rocky, got through his inning without any further damage. Daisuke Kattoh came in to slam the door and he did just that by striking out the side in order in the 9th for his 15th save of the season. Final score: Buffaloes 4, Hawks 1.