Hawks Bullpen to the Rescue

On a wild day at Yahoo! Dome, the SoftBank Hawks came away with a hard-fought win over the Saitama Seibu Lions thanks in no small part to veteran infielder Hiroki Kokubo. Kokubo hit his first home run of the season in the 7th inning, a three-run shot that gave the Hawks the lead as former Los Angeles Dodger DJ Houlton notched his first save in Japan for an 8-5 win.

Golden Rookie Ohba's struggles continued against Seibu, going only 5 and 2/3 innings before being lifted in the 6th. The move paid off, as another SoftBank bullpen rookie, Shinsuke Ogura, was credited with the win, the first of his career. Ohba gave up all five runs that Seibu would score in the game on eight hits, walking two and striking out five. Ohba also gave up three home runs, two of which came in a rocky first inning.

In the first inning, Kuriyama singled, then Nakajima and Craig Brazell socked back-to-back home runs to give Seibu a quick 3-0 lead. After GG Satoh grounded out for the 2nd out of the inning, Nakamura walked, Ohshima singled, and Hosokawa singled to load the bases, but the 9th and final batter of the inning was Akada, and he struck out swinging.

The Hawks answered back in the 3rd inning off of Seibu starter Kazuhisa Ishii when Tamura walked, Matsuda reached on an error, then back-to-back singles by Tanoue and Ide scored two runs.

The Hawks Lucky 7 was indicative of the entire day for both teams. Shortstop Munenori Kawasaki reached on a dropped 3rd strike, then Nakazawa singled to set up Kokubo's 3-run homer to put SoftBank ahead for good.

The Lions 6th was their last gasp for the day offensively, as Nakamura tripled to center and then Hosokawa clubbed the 3rd home run of the day off of Ohba to give the Lions a 5-4 lead. The only offense that Seibu could muster the rest of the day was a harmless single by Brazell off of Ogura.