Hawks Dive-Bombing Towards Last Place

This was not what Oh-kantoku had in mind when he said that this was going to be his last season as manager of the SoftBank Hawks. Since 1995, Oh has had to deal with all kinds of teams, good and bad, but this 2008 SoftBank Hawks team could be the biggest group of frauds ever seen.

With 5 straight losses, the Hawks are doing nothing well, and nothing consistently. Sure they've been hurt most of the season, but now the team is playing with a lack of both urgency and heart, the latter something that the Hawks have been seriously lacking since the beginning of the season. Maybe they used it all up then.

Yesterday, the Hawks finished up a crucial series with the Chiba Lotte Marines, trying to salvage at least one game of the 3-game series on Respect For the Aged Day. It didn't happen.

Neither starter for both the Marines and the Hawks was very good, with Marines rookie Yuki Karakawa was touched up for 3 runs on 9 hits in 3 and 1/3 innings, and Hawks starter Rick Guttormson giving up 6 runs on 8 hits, walking 3 and striking out 4 in 5 and 2/3 innings. Neither factored into the decision.

Both teams started fast, with the Hawks rapping out three straight singles from Tamura, Matsunaka, and Ohmura to score their first run of the game. The Marines struck back about as fast as physically possible, with Nishioka socking another leadoff home run to right field to tie the game at 1.

All was quiet until the 4th inning, when the Hawks' bats, seemingly dormant against everybody except Lotte, came to life again. The red-hot Nobuhiro Matsuda singled, and he came all the way around from first to score on Yusuke Kosai's double. Kosai, who has speed comparable to many of the Hawks young outfielders, scored on Yuichi Honda's single to put SoftBank up, 3-1.

Of course, no lead is safe for the Hawks, and the Marines showed it yet again in this series. Hard-hitting backup catcher Tasuku Hashimoto clubbed his 9th home run of the season to cut SoftBank's lead to 3-2. Then, Guttormson exacerbated the problem by walking Julio Zuleta, allowing a double to Shoitsu Ohmatsu, and then Saburo scored both of them with a single to put the Marines back in the lead, 4-3.

Lotte poured on the pressure in the 6th inning, scoring two more runs courtesy of back-to-back doubles by Zuleta and Ohmatsu, and Kazuya Fukuura singled home another run to expand Lotte's lead to 6-3.

In the Hawks Lucky 7, they finally got some more offense. They scored 2 runs, the first of which coming on the same trio that scored the game's first run: Tamura, Matsunaka, and Ohmura. Matsuda continued to swing his hot stick by doubling in another run to pull the Hawks to within one run, 6-5.

However, the Marines scored in their half of the 7th as well, and it proved to be a huge run later. Jose Ortiz singled, and Hashimoto doubled, but that wasn't enough to score Ortiz. Zuleta, who has absolutely killed the Hawks in these past two series, lifted a sacrifice fly to center field that scored Ortiz.

However, the Hawks weren't dead yet. Hidenori Tanoue came on to pinch-hit to lead off the top of the 8th inning, and he led off with a single for a good start. Honda added a single of his own, and then Satoru Morimoto was called on for a sacrifice bunt. He pulled it off, and the Hawks had runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 down. Next up was Tamura, and he completed a 4-for-5 day by doubling in two runs to tie the score at 7.

However, Lotte has had a knack for giving the Hawks hope, and then putting a dagger in their collective hearts. It happened again in this game. With Akihiro Yanase pitching, he gave up a leadoff walk to Hashimoto, Zuleta doubled, and Akira Ohtsuka singled in Hashimoto for the sayonara victory. Lotte had done it to the Hawks again, 8-7.

Trying to recover from another debilitating sweep like that is almost impossible, and it didn't help that the Hawks had to face the red-hot Orix Buffaloes today. Nagisa Arakaki was tasked with being the stopper against Hawks-killer Satoshi Komatsu.

Komatsu was once again brilliant against the Hawks, spinning 6 brilliant innings of 3-hit ball, walking 2 and striking out 6. Coming into the game, Komatsu was 4-1 with a 2.37 ERA against the Hawks.

Arakaki was nowhere near as effective. He again had trouble with the walks, walking 3 and hitting 2 batters in 5-plus innings to go with 6 strikeouts. He also gave up 4 runs (3 earned) on 5 hits. The Buffaloes were the beneficiaries of Arakaki's wildness in the 3rd. After a leadoff single by Hidaka, Kenji Ohbiki sacrificed Hidaka over to 2nd. Hiroyuki Oze was then hit with a pitch, and then Tomotaka Sakaguchi walked to load the bases. With trouble looming, Arakaki got out of the jam with only a sacrifice fly against him by Shinji Shimoyama.

Meanwhile, Komatsu was brilliant. At one point, Komatsu retired 9 in a row, including striking out 5 out of 6 batters in the 4th and 5th innings. SoftBank had a golden opportunity in the 6th. Morimoto doubled, and then Komatsu walked Ohmatsu and Matsunaka to load the bases with 2 down. However, Matsuda popped out to the 2nd baseman Gotoh to end the inning.

As if almost on cue, the Buffaloes succeeded where the Hawks failed in the 6th inning. Alex Cabrera singled, Tuffy Rhodes was hit with a pitch, and then the floodgates opened. Gotoh and Kitagawa singled to score 2 runs, and then Hidaka doubled in another to make it 4-0. That would end Arakaki's day.

Mise and Satoh pitched 2/3 of an inning, each without incident, and the long-banished CJ Nitkowski made a triumphant return, going 1 and 2/3 innings while striking out 2. Welcome back, Nico-chan.

Five Buffaloes relievers came out of the bullpen in the 7th and 8th innings, and the only one who gave up a run was Akio Shimizu, who faced four batters and only retired one. Honda, Morimoto, and Ohmura rapped out three straight singles, which scored one run and set up another opportunity for the Hawks, but neither Matsunaka nor Matsuda could deliver, as Tsuyoshi Kikuchihara and Ryota Katsuki got their men out. Daisuke Katoh recorded his 33rd save of the season, and his 7th of the season against SoftBank.

The Hawks are now 11.5 games out of first place, and are four games ahead of the last-place Rakuten Eagles. The Hawks need to turn it around and at least win some games before going someplace they haven't been to since 1996. The playoffs are be a bit of a pipe dream at this point, given the lack of effort the Hawks seem to be giving.