Fighters Narrowly Avoid Sweep, Walk Off With Win

This series between the Hawks and Fighters has been well-played (not exactly well-pitched), one of the best series the Hawks have played in some time. SoftBank could have won this game, too, but alas, things don't always go the way one plans them.

As I said yesterday, today was a match-up of the junkballing lefties. Masaru Takeda, who terrorized the Hawks last season, opposed Kenji Ohtonari. Neither pitched well today, despite their best efforts.

Ohtonari was roughed up for 5 runs (4 earned) on 6 hits in 6-plus innings, walking 4 and striking out 4, a sign that maybe Ohtonari is finding himself, but he may not be completely healthy yet.

Takeda wasn't much better. Over 6 and 2/3 innings, Takeda got slammed for 6 runs on 11 hits walking 2 and striking out 6. It seems that SoftBank may have solved Takeda today, but time will tell.

Both pitchers matched each other through the first three innings, then both teams put their hitting shoes on. SoftBank struck first in the top of the 4th with a 2-run home run from Matsunaka, his 3rd of the series and 5th on the campaign.

Nippon Ham struck back in the bottom of the inning. After Sledge drew a walk and Nioka singled, Jimeniz, who has been clutch in this series, drilled a three-run home run to left to pole vault Nippon Ham into the lead, 3-2.

SoftBank took that body blow from Nippon Ham and threw one of their own in the top of the 5th. The Hawks manufactured a run first, getting a double from Shibahara, then Ide bunted him over to third. Satoru Morimoto singled in Shibahara to tie the game up. Honda rapped a single through the left side to keep the rally going. After Kawasaki grounded out to put the rally in jeopardy, Matsunaka was issued an intentional walk. Needing a hit to put the Hawks ahead, Kokubo doubled to center to plate two more runs and put SoftBank ahead, 5-3.

The pace settled down a bit in the next few innings, but the Fighters pulled even again in their Lucky 7. Here is where I questioned some of Akiyama-kantoku's judgement.

Ohtonari, who was tiring to begin with, started the 7th with a walk to the speedy Hichori Morimoto. Understandably, Ohtonari was pulled, but for Morifuku, who had worked each of the previous two days. He walked his first man in Inaba, then induced a flyout off the bat of Sledge. Morifuku was then replaced with Kume, who hadn't seen any action in the series at all, and was fresh. He issued a walk to Koyano to load the bases, and then he gave up a 2-run single to pinch-hitter Tsuboi that tied the game up again at 5.

Kume then settled down and retired two more batters and also retired the side in order in the 8th. The Hawks did not have many good chances in the 7th through the 9th innings, and the Fighters also were shut down in the 8th.

Again, Akiyama went to the bullpen, and again he went with another pitcher who ended up pitching all three games in this series: Tadashi Settsu. This also marked the 4th time in the last 5 days that Settsu had worked in a game. A move that would have been better would have been to bring in Akio Mizuta, or maybe even Fujioka or Mahara. The second batter Settsu faced was Terrmel Sledge, and he ended the game with a towering sayonara home run to right field.

Both the Hawks and Fighters faced adversity in this series, and while the Hawks lost the opportunity of a sweep, they did finally show some backbone with some impressive comebacks and offense. A good sign is that the offense has been sustained over the last week.

Miyanishi got the win in relief, he improves to 2-0 on the season. Settsu takes the loss, he falls to 0-2.

Home runs on the day are as follows:

SOFTBANK
Nobuhiko Matsunaka (5)
Hidenori Tanoue (2)

NIPPON HAM
Luis Jimeniz (3)
Terrmel Sledge (4)

The Hawks now head to K-Stadium Miyagi for a weekend series against the Rakuten Eagles. SoftBank is lucky enough to duck Ma-kun this series, as he pitched today and threw yet another complete game to lower his ERA on the season to 0.33.

Game 1 takes place tomorrow at K-Stadium Miyagi, with the Eagles sending Satoshi Nagai (1-0, 2.31) to the mound. SoftBank will counter with Tsuyoshi Wada (1-1, 2.05).