Hawks Win Interleague, Then Return to Earth

Numerous times I have written about the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks and how they have shown a lack of grit and determination. Interleague was a time to step it up, and the Hawks responded. An exciting race led to a situation where Hanshin, Nippon Ham, and Softbank all could win the interleague championship. Softbank needed to win at Tokyo Dome against the Giants and Nippon Ham needed to lose for the Hawks to clinch Interleague. Nippon Ham lost to Hanshin, giving Softbank the opening they needed. An infield hit by Takeshi Tsuji followed by 2 sacrifice bunts put the go-ahead run 90 feet away. On a ground ball to 2nd and with the infield drawn in, Tsuji scored by a matter of inches to give the Hawks the 3-2 lead.

The revolving door of closers came to both the resurgent Akihiro Yanase. He got the first 2 outs, and then with a lefty coming up, Nitkowski was brought in with interleague on the line. Said Nitkowski, "After throwing 2 strikes I got the lefty pinch hitter to roll over on a cutter and hit a ground ball to our second baseman." The Hawks were interleague champions by virtue of a tiebreaker that relies on last year's record in interleague. The Hawks' interleague record was better than the Tigers, giving the Hawks the interleague championship, and the 50 million yen prize money.

After the three days off, the Hawks played a 3-game series, starting in Kita-Kyushu against their tormentors, the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. In the first game, Nitkowski was once again in the spotlight. Coming into a bases loaded, nobody out situation in the 8th inning, with the game tied 2-2, Nitkowski slammed the door shut against the Eagles. More importantly, Nitkowski seemed to have gotten over his troubles at Kita-Kyushu (IP, H, K, 5BB, 3R (2ER) in 2007).

The Hawks immediately regressed after coming home to Yahoo! Dome. Last year's Rookie of the Year, Masahiro Tanaka, pitched 9 innings, but the game went to the limit of 12. Arime took over for the final three and stymied the Hawks, striking out four batters. This game also marked the return of Golden Rookie Shota Ohba, and he didn't pitch as bad as he did before he was dropped for readjustment. Six other pitchers marched to the Yahoo Dome mound, but the one that cracked was Nitkowski.

A day after working 2 shutout innings, he was called upon again to get another inning done, but he showed signs of fatigue, hitting his first batter, walking another, and a single drove in the go-ahead run. Takeoka surrendered another run in the 12th for the final score of 4-2.

The final game of the series was all Eagles, as they ganged up on the normally reliable Hawks starter Tsuyoshi Wada. He gave up 10 runs on 13 hits in four-plus innings, capped off by 5 straight hits. Takeshi Yamazaki led the way offensively for the Eagles, blasting 2 home runs and a double in a 3-for-4 day. Nishiyama gave up 5 runs in 2 innings of work, leading to the final score of 15-2. Iwakuma started for the Eagles and he shut down the Hawks over 7 innings, lowering his ERA to 1.76.

The Hawks are currently 39-36, 3.5 games behind the Saitama Seibu Lions for 1st place in the Pacific League, but they lead Rakuten by only 1/2 game for the 3rd and final playoff spot in the PL. The Hawks next 3 games are against the Orix Buffaloes at Kyocera Dome.