11th Hour Yields 12th Inning Win for SoftBank
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Lost in the bullpen battle were the starters. Seibu ace Hideaki Wakui took the mound and delivered 7 and 1/3 solid innings, giving up 2 runs on 8 hits, striking out 7 and walking 3. Hideaki Takahashi started for SoftBank, and gave 5 and 1/3 solid innings, surrendering 3 runs on 5 hits, walking 4, hitting one batter, and striking out 7 of his own. Neither pitcher factored in the decision.
Takahashi walked 3 men in the first inning alone, but got out of the jam by striking out Takeya Nakamura to end the inning. The first four innings had hits and walks, but neither team could push a run across.
That all changed during the 5th inning, when the Hawks drew first blood off of Wakui. After Hasegawa grounded out to begin the inning, Takaya hit a solo home run to right to make it 1-0.
However, in the top of the 6th inning, Takahashi imploded. The Lions sent all 9 men to the plate, scoring 5 runs. It started with Hiroyuki Nakajima singling to center. After Hawks-killer Craig Brazell grounded to 2nd, G.G. Satoh singled back to the pitcher's box and ended up reaching.
After Takahashi hit Nakamura, pinch-hitter Hirao singled to load up the bases. Taketoshi Gotoh finally broke through for Seibu, as he hit a double to vault Seibu into the lead, 2-1. With 1 down and Yao-Shun Yan pitching, Sumitani hit a sacrifice fly to extend Seibu's lead to 3-1, then Kataoka tacked on another run by singling in Gotoh, this hit coming off of Yuki Kume. Kume then got Kuriyama to fly out to left, finally ending the nightmare inning.
Still down 5-1 in the 8th and needing a rally, the Hawks dug deep and got one. Super shortstop Kawasaki tripled to begin the inning, then Matsuda singled him in to cut the Seibu lead to 5-2. However, the real rally came in the 9th inning for SoftBank.
Alex Graman came into slam the door shut on the Hawks, but instead of folding like they have most of the year, the Hawks bust through for 3 runs to tie the game. Kenta Nakanishi, pinch-hitting for Yuya Hasegawa, singled to get the rally going. Takaya then singled himself, followed by a 3rd consecutive single by Honda to cut the deficit to 5-3.
A pair of groundouts put the Hawks rally on the ropes, and after an intentional walk to Matsunaka loaded the bases, it was up to the injury-plagued Naoyuki Ohmura to re-ignite the Hawks rally. Ohmura delivered, singling to center to drive in the tying runs. Graman then walked Kaneko to load the bases again. He was taken out in favor of Shinya Okamoto, who had to stop the Hawks from getting the winning run across. He struck out Arakane swinging to end the 9th inning, but the battle was only beginning.
In extra innings, the bullpen battle was just beginning. The Hawks used 8 pitchers total in the game, but the two who manned the mound in the extra frames, Nitkowski and the surprising Koji Mise, held fast, allowing just 2 hits between them in the 10th through 12th innings.
The only action in extra innings was when it mattered the most for SoftBank: the bottom of the 12th inning. With Tomoki Hoshino on the mound for his 2nd inning of work, he walked Ohmura to lead off the inning. Hoshino was relieved by Chikara Onodera, and a sacrifice bunt by Kaneko got Ohmura to 2nd. With a chance to win the game, the hot-hitting Arakane was called out on strikes.
With one out to go to salvage the draw, it was up to Nakanishi, who legged out an infield single to put runners on the corners with 2 down. That brought up Takaya, who knocked in the sayonara base hit.
The Hawks are now 44-43, in 3rd place, four games behind the Lions for 1st place and swept another 2-game series against the Lions. After a day off, the Hawks go to K-Stadium Miyagi to square off in a weekend series against their arch-nemeses, the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in a battle for the 3rd and final playoff spot in the Pacific League.