Powell Power! Hawks Win 3rd Straight

After all the ballyhoo over where Jeremy Powell was going to end up, it seemed only fitting that the two teams vying for his services met for Powell's first start of the 2008 NPB season, as the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks triumphed over the Orix Buffaloes at Kyocera Dome.

The veteran American starter was solid in his first start in a SoftBank Hawks uniform, going 6 innings, giving up 2 runs on 5 hits, stiking out 5 and walking 2.

SoftBank's offense, which has had a hard time kicking into gear in the early going, teed off against the Buffaloes' pitching which stymied them last week at Fukuoka Dome. Nobuhiko Matsunaka and Hiroki Kokubo both hit their second home runs of the season, and the Hawks pounded out 15 hits as a team.

Powell got off to a rough start in the 2nd inning, giving up home runs to Alex Cabrera and Hamanaka. However, that was all Orix could muster until the 8th inning, when the SoftBank bullpen all of a sudden couldn't find the plate.

Four relievers took the mound in the Orix 8th: Kume, Morifuku, Fujioka, and Ogura. Kume gave up a base hit, got two outs, then was replaced by Morifuku, who walked two batters to load the bases. He was lifted for Fujioka, who hit pinch-hitter Furuki to force in a run. Ogura then struck out Mukae to end the inning.

That half of the 8th inning could have been disastarous had SoftBank not scored four runs in the top of the inning. Tamura led off with a single, then one batter later, Kokubo homered to make it 5-2. Then four straight hits from Matsuda, Tanoue, Matoyama, and Kawasaki scored two more runs before Nakazawa struck out to end the inning.