Ma-kun Fires 4-Hitter as Eagles Remain Undefeated

Masahiro Tanaka has always been considered the real deal, and nowhere is this more apparent than in his outings with the SoftBank Hawks. If memory serves, Ma-kun has not lost to the Hawks in his career, and that is a feat.

Tanaka continued his mastery over the Hawks today, firing a 4-hit shutout as Hawks batters three through nine did not reach base. Over 9 innings, Tanaka struck out 9 and walked 2 Hawks. The only offensive contributor for SoftBank was Yuichi Honda, who went 3-for-3 with three singles and was hit with a pitch. He is now batting .471 on the young season.

However, that was the only true bright spot for the Hawks. Former Texas Ranger Kameron Loe made his first start in a Hawks uniform, and while he ate innings, the 6'7'' sinkerballer may have pitched to contact a little too much.

Rakuten struck first in the 2nd inning, thanks to a pair of walks issued by Loe, and Yokogawa drove in big free-agent acquisition Nori Nakamura to put Rakuten up in the early going, 1-0.

The blows that put the Golden Eagles ahead to stay were in the very next inning. Loe labored in this inning, first surrendering a double to foreign superstar Rick Short. After Rick was bunted to 3rd, Loe walked former Fighter Fernando Seguignol. Nakamura then came up and made Loe pay by roping a double to right that scored Rick. With Nakamura on 2nd and Seguignol on 3rd, veteran slugger Takeshi Yamasaki singled home both runners to extend Rakuten's lead to 4-0.

Loe would surrender two more runs in the 7th inning, but neither of them were earned as an error by Hiroki Kokubo kept both runs off the record. After Koji Mise could not retire his man, new foreign import Brian Falkenbourg came in and got through the 7th. Loe's final line for his first Japanese start was 6 and 1/3 innings, giving up 6 runs (4 earned) on 6 hits, walking 4 and striking out 2 over 101 pitches. Falkenbourg and second-year man Yuki Kume kept the Eagles off the board. Final score was Eagles 6, Hawks 0.

After this loss, the Hawks return to .500 with a 2-2 record, while the Eagles are 4-0. SoftBank sends DJ Houlton to the mound, while Rakuten counters with Hideki Asai.