Hawks Split With Rakuten, Next is Lotte

The perpetually pesky Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles were once again visitors at Yahoo! Dome this weekend for a 2-game series. The Hawks came back from a 4-day break looking to build on the momentum that they gained against the Orix Buffaloes when they won that series.

The first game saw Rakuten ace Hisashi Iwakuma go up against SoftBank southpaw Kenji Ohtonari. Iwakuma had dominated the Hawks so far this season, with a 3-0 record and a microscopic 0.32 ERA (1 earned run in 28 innings) against the Hawks. He continued this trend as he again stifled the Hawks for 1 unearned run in 7 innings, walking 1 and striking out 6, giving up 4 hits in that span as well. The one run came after Nakanishi walked, Takaya reached on an error, and after a strikeout of Honda and a flyout by Nakazawa, Matsunaka singled home Nakanishi to cut into Rakuten's lead, 3-1. However, Iwakuma was still able to get the win and improve his record to 15-3.

Ohtonari made one mistake, but it was costly. In the top of the 4th inning, Rick led off the inning with a single, Fernandez singled himself, and then Takeshi Yamazaki, the MVP of All-Star Series Game 1, rocked his 16th of the season, to put the Golden Eagles up 3-0 at the time.

Other than that one bad inning, Ohtonari went 6 and 2/3 solid innings, giving up 3 earned runs on 6 hits, walking 4 and striking out 3, but he still took the loss, dropping his record to 10-8.

Hideaki Takahashi came in to get the Hawks through the 7th inning, and he did just that. But with 2 down in the 8th, Takahashi imploded, giving Rakuten the insurance runs that would prove to be game-breaking. The Eagles scored 2 runs to make it 5-1 going into the 9th.

Marcus Gwyn was brought in to mop up, and he did well for the first two outs. However, just like Takahashi, all of a sudden he imploded on himself. Nakanishi singled, Akashi was hit with a pitch, and Takaya singled in Nakanishi to pull the Hawks within 5-2. Honda then singled to make it 5-3, and that was the end of the line for Gwyn. He was replaced with Satake, who faced only one batter: Matsunaka.

He ended up walking, and the stage was set for Hiroki Kokubo to deliver the hit that would tie the game and send it into extra innings. Satake was out and replaced with Kitani, who induced a grounder to the shortstop Nao Watanabe. Rally over, game over, Eagles win 5-4.

In the second game of this 2-game set, the Hawks turned it around against the Eagles. Long-time Hawk Junji Hoshino was called upon to make his his first start since 2005. He was effective, even though he only went 4 innings. Kohei Hasebe was also called upon to make an impromptu start, although he fared much worse.

The first inning would be all that SoftBank needed in terms of offense. Hasebe was almost totally ineffective, giving up 3 runs on 2 hits, walking 3 and striking out 1 in 2/3 of an inning.

Honda walked to start the bottom of the 1st, then Nakazawa struck out, and Matsunaka flew to center for 2 outs. Continuing a trend for some pitchers this series, Hasebe melted down with 2 outs (not again!), giving up a double to Kokubo, then walking Matsuda and Nakanishi to not only force a run in, but also load the bases. Tsuji then came up and chased Hasebe with a single to center that scored 2 and put SoftBank up 3-0. Hasebe took the loss, falling to 0-4.

In the 3rd inning, SoftBank extended their lead, courtesy of Nobuhiro Matsuda. The 3rd baseman crushed his 12th home run of the season off of Eagles reliever Koyama to left field and put the Hawks on top 4-0.

After 3 solid innings, Hoshino finall cracked in the 4th, when a double by Rick Short and a single by Jose Fernandez put Rakuten on the board, 4-1. Hoshino tired further in the 5th after he walked Nakashima and gave up a single to Fujii. Hoshino's valiant effort was over, and the beleagured Mise came in to stem the tide. Mise's only batter singled to load the bases.

In came Makoto Satoh, who was tasked with a bases-loaded no out situation, with the tying run at the plate. The only runner who scored was Nakashima, and that was on a groundout to first. Satoh had succeeded, and the Hawks still had a 4-1 lead. In the end, Satoh was effective over 2 and 1/3 innings, giving up 3 hits in that span. He recorded the win, his 1st of the season, to even his record at 1-1.

The Hawks scored one run each in the 6th and 7th innings. In the 6th Tsuji tripled to center, then later scored on a sacrifice fly by Arakane to extend the Hawks lead to 5-2, then a trifecta of singles from Nakazawa, Matsunaka, and Matsuda put the Hawks at a 6-2 clip, which was how the game ended.

The Hawks, with the win, jumped the idle Nippon Ham in the standings to take 2nd place in the Pacific League, 6.5 games behind Seibu for 1st place. Next for the Hawks is the Chiba Lotte Marines, who are 2.5 games behind Nippon Ham for the last playoff spot in the Pacific League.