Hawks Solve Kinney, Win Series with Lions

As sparkling an outing that Matthew Kinney had against the Hawks last weekend, he came back down to earth against SoftBank on Sunday. However, the real hero was 2nd baseman Tadaatsu Nakazawa who notched SoftBank's 4th sayonara victory of the season on a double to left that scored catcher Hidenori Tanoue.

Matthew Kinney only allowed one run in his previous start March 30th against SoftBank, but it didn't take long for the Hawks to break through against the American this time. A single and a sacrifice put shortstop Kawasaki into scoring position, and he was singled home by a resurgent Nobuhiko Matsunaka for a quick 1-0 Hawks lead.

Tsuyoshi Wada, in only his second start of the season after having bone chips removed from his left (throwing) elbow, was solid through three innngs, but was touched up for three runs in the top of the 4th. Craig Brazell, who is proving to be a Hawks' nemesis singled home one run, then GG Sato doubled home two more. Wada surrendered the tying run in the 7th when Kataoka singled home Etoh. Other than his tough 4th inning, Wada was solid, giving up 4 runs on 7 hits, striking out 7 and walking 2 over 6 and 2/3 innings.

Kinney however, was shaky throughout his outing, especially in the 5th and 6th innings. Kinney gave up a 2-run home run to Hitoshi Tamura in the 5th, then the Hawks added another in the 6th.

The normally shaky SoftBank bullpen has been steadied as of late, with rookies Ogura and Kume combining to shut down the Lions for the remaining 2 and 1/3 innings that Wada did not finish. With Nakazawa's sayonara hit, Kume notched his 3rd win of the season with his 1 and 1/3 innings of work. Koji Ohnuma took the loss.