SBM shuts down opposition again

As shaky as the SBM trio have been at times this season, the Hawks' bullpen revolves around these three pitchers. Without them, the Hawks bullpen would be much worse than it is. Settsu and Falkenborg recorded their 23rd and 21st holds today, respectively, and Mahara recorded his 17th save in support of starter Tsuyoshi Wada (W, 10-4), who pitched six innings in a 2-1 victory.

In a day where there was very little offense to speak of, the Hawks' big part of the lineup ended up getting all of the offense the visitors needed in the second inning off Rakuten starter Satoshi Nagai (L, 4-5).

With one out, Petagine drew a walk and Hasegawa doubled for runners on 2nd and 3rd. Both Ortiz and Hiroshi Shibahara followed with RBI singles for a 2-0 lead.

In the bottom of the 3rd, Wada gave one back and almost gave up more. Akihisa Makida started the inning with a walk, and was doubled home by Nao Watanabe, but he was doubled off when Ryo Hijirisawa popped out on an attempted sacrifice bunt.

Undeterred and with the bases now empty, Motohiro Shima singled his way on and took second on a wild pitch. The speedy Teppei then legged out an infield single, but with a golden opportunity, Nori Nakamura flew out to center to end the threat.

Neither team would really threaten for the rest of the game, and Wada left after six innings, giving up only one run on five hits, striking out four and walking two, with a wild pitch. Falkenborg and Mahara both struck out the side in the 8th and 9th to end the game.

Nagai also did not face many threats after the second, but he did take the hard-luck loss, giving up two runs on seven hits, with three strikeouts and two walks.

SoftBank goes for the sweep tomorrow when they send Sho Iwasaki (0-1, 7.00) to the mound against Takashi Kawai (1-0, 0.00).