Pitching Roles Rearranged, Hawks Edge Eagles 5-4

When it comes to pitching, things are usually pretty set in Pro Yakyu. The roles are all clearly defined, and not much moving around takes place. Not so with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks today. Those who were once relievers were starters, and those who were starters were relievers, and all sorts of other wackiness.

Case in point: three of the four Hawks pitchers who took the mound today at K-Stadium Miyagi had started at least once this season. Two of the four had relieved starters. Things really were topsy-turvy.

On paper, this was a mismatch for the ages. The young phenom Masahiro "Ma-Kun" Tanaka for Rakuten against former Los Angeles Dodgers prospect DJ Houlton for SoftBank. Tanaka is seeing no "sophomore slump," while Houlton started the season as the Hawks' closer, only to lose his confidence closing and be re-assigned as a starter.

Both Houlton and Tanaka started the game well. Until the 4th inning, both teams combined for 3 hits, with Rakuten getting 2 of them. The Hawks drew first blood in the 4th off of Tanaka. Kawasaki, who has been on fire as of late, led off the inning with a single. After Matsuda became one of Ma-kun's 10 strikeout victims, Matsunaka and Kokubo both walked to load the bases. Restovich struck out for the 2nd time in as many at-bats, but then the light-hitting Yuya Hasegawa roped a triple over Masato Nakamura's head in center to clean the bases and put the Hawks on top, 3-0.

Rakuten got one back in the bottom of the inning. Yosuke Takasu led off with a walk, and after Jose Fernandez flied out, super-gaijin Rick Short singled to left. Daisuke Kusano then came up and ripped another base hit up the middle to cut into SoftBank's lead, 3-1.

The Eagles finally got to Houlton in the 6th inning. Houlton was roughed up for 3 straight hits, a double by Takasu, a single by Fernandez, and a single by Rick. That resulted in a tied score, as the Hawks mirror bullpen started.

Hisashi Takahashi, who pitched 5 and 1/3 innings 2 days ago in an emergency start after Rick Guttormson went down with a groin injury, went 1/3 of an inning, and then Koji Mise, who has struggled mightily this year, went the remaining 2/3 of the 6th inning. Houlton's final line was 5-plus innings, scattering 6 hits, giving up 3 runs, walking 2 and striking out 4 over only 88 pitches. He got a no-decision

Meanwhile, Tanaka went on cruise control after the rough 4th inning. He wiggled out of a jam in the 5th after a walk and an error, but only gave up only one hit in his final 3 innings of work. His final line was 7 innings, giving up 3 runs on 4 hits, walking 4 and striking out 10 in 123 pitches. It was up to the bullpen to get the Eagles the win, as Tanaka did not factor in the decision like his counterpart, Houlton.

In the 7th inning, who took the mound but Hawks southpaw Kenji Ohtonari! He had been starting all year, but made his first appearance of the season in relief. He did well, but in the 8th inning surrendered the go-ahead home run to Rick. With the score 4-3 in favor of the Eagles, the Hawks had to dig deep and find something.

In the top of the 9th, the Hawks got Ohtonari off the hook. Pinch-hitter Ohmura singled to get the inning started, then was run for by Kaneko. Arakane reached on a fielder's choice, and then Takaya sacrificed Kaneko and Arakane to 2nd and 3rd, respectively. With 1 out, Yuichi Honda came up, and lifted a sacrifice fly to left, scoring Kaneko and tying the game. It was up to Kawasaki to give SoftBank the lead. He delivered, roping a single to left to score Arakane and give the Hawks the 5-4 lead.

That was all Ohtonari needed for the Eagles half of the 9th. Ohtonari struck out pinch-hitters Toshiya Nakashima, Akihito Fujii, and got catcher Motohiro Shima to ground out to end it. Ohtonari went 3 crucial innings, giving up the Rick home run as his only run and hit while striking out 3.

The Hawks close the weekend series with the Eagles tomorrow at K-Stadium Miyagi, with Tsuyoshi Wada taking the mound against Hisashi Iwakuma. The Hawks are 3 and 1/2 games behind the Seibu Lions for 1st place in the Pacific League, and are 1 game behind the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters for 2nd place.