Houlton Rock-Steady, Hawks Shut Down Marines 3-1

DJ Houlton has had his fair share of ups and downs this season. Thrust into an unfamiliar role as the closer, Houlton was good, but then he melted down and ended up losing the closer's job. Good thing he doesn't have to worry about it anymore, as Houlton seems quite comfortable in a starter's role.

Houlton out-dueled Chiba Lotte Marines starter Naoyuki Shimizu over 7 and 2/3 innings, and nailed down the win as the Hawks won a nail-biter over the Marines, 3-1 at Chiba Marine Stadium.

Both Houlton and Shimizu brought their A-games today as they both were on a roll through the first half of the game, Houlton in particular. In the first inning, he allowed a single to Shuichi Nemoto and then walked catcher Hashimoto, but from then on, Houlton did not allow a baserunner until the 8th inning, retiring an astonishing 20 Marines in a row.

Shimizu, on the other hand, allowed at least one hit in every inning he worked except for the 1st inning, but they were all scattered, and the Hawks were unable to string together the hits until the 6th inning. The closest the Hawks came to scoring was a triple to left by Matsuda in the 4th inning with 2 out, but he was stranded there.

The Hawks drew first blood in this tale of two pitchers in the 6th inning. Kenji Akashi, manning short for Tadaatsu Nakazawa today, led off with the Hawks' second triple of the game. This time Shimizu would not get out of the inning unscathed, as Matsunaka drove in his 74th run of the season on a single to center. Shimizu would escape without further damage, striking out 2 of the next 3 batters, but the damage was done.

The very next inning, SoftBank struck again in the 7th. Hasegawa led off with a walk, was erased on a groundout by Tsuji as he reached. Takaya singled Tsuji over to 3rd, and he scored on a Honda groundout, Honda's 25th RBI of the season. Shimizu finished the 7th inning, and then was done for the day. He threw 7 innings, giving up 2 runs on 7 hits, walking 1 and striking out 7. If Houlton had not been pitching as well, Shimizu would have been in a position to win.

The 8th inning also saw the Hawks scratch another run across. Longtime Pro Yakyu veteran Koji Takagi gave up a single to Matsunaka for his only batter faced. In came Yasutomo Kubo, who was tasked with getting through the 8th inning. Kokubo hit a rocket right back to Kubo, who caught it and then doubled up Matsunaka at 1st. However, a single by Matsuda and a double by Ohmura for his 12th RBI of the season and stake SoftBank to a 3-0 lead.

Houlton's consecutive-batters retired streak was ended at 20 in the bottom of the 8th as Takumi Kobe singled to left. Takeshi Kanazawa singled to right to put 2 on with 2 out. Pinch-hitter Fukuura then split the difference between the first two singles and singled to center to finally put Lotte on the board at 3-1. However, Shinohara snuffed out the Lotte rally, and Mahara recorded his 4th save of the season with a 1-2-3 ninth inning.

DJ Houlton finally pushes above .500 with the win today, he is 4-3, while Nao Shimizu falls to a .500 clip, he is 8-8. There were no home runs today, while on the stolen bases end of the spectrum, Honda stole 2 bases (22, 23) and Nao Ohmura stole one himself (1).

The Hawks continue their 3-game series with the Marines tomorrow, and Hawks fans will see the return of Nagisa Arakaki (0-2, 4.98) to the mound, he makes his first start since June 8th against the Hiroshima Carp. The Marines counter with Shingo Ono (3-3, 6.96).