After winning four straight, Hawks lose third straight

Ah, the ebbs and flows of the baseball season. SoftBank came into the recently completed Lotte series having won three of their last four, and reeled off their fourth straight win, but lost the next two. Today they lost their third straight against the Orix Buffaloes, a team that has tormented the Hawks the last few years.

Starting pitching once again let the Hawks down, as their patchwork rotation is certainly starting to look like just that. JD Durbin, after picking up his first win in Japan, lost his first start today. "The Real Deal" was battered for five runs on six hits in six innings with four walks and four strikeouts (L, 1-1, 4.50).

Just like each of the last two days, one big inning sunk the home team again. This time, it was the second inning, as the Buffaloes chalked up four runs. Shogo Akada hit a two-run single after Koji Yamasaki and Tomotaka Sakaguchi doubled. Alex Cabrera added insult to injury when he smacked a two-run home run (13) to give the Buffs a 5-0 lead.

SoftBank would get two back in the bottom of the inning, as Roberto Petagine smacked a two-run home run (4) off Orix starter Shogo Yamamoto (W, 7-4, 5.00) after the red-hot Tamura doubled to lead off the inning.

Once again, the offense could not get to the opposing bullpen, as Takashi Kamoshida, Shuichi Furukawa, and former starters Yoshihisa Hirano and Mamoru Kishida (S, 3) were unflappable, as the four only gave up one hit combined.

On the other side, it was more of the same in mop-up duty for the Hawks, although the bullpen did keep it close. Between Kanazawa, Kattoh, and Settsu, the Buffaloes also could only muster one hit over the last three innings, with Settsu striking out the side in the 9th.

Between the loss and another win for Lotte over first-place Seibu (which was a missed opportunity to pull a game closer), the Hawks lost another game on the Marines. They stand two games in back of second place, and three in back of the first-place Lions.

The men from Fukuoka look to turn their fortunes around tomorrow against Hawks-killer Satoshi Komatsu (4-3, 2.98). SoftBank counters with Tsuyoshi Wada (10-4, 3.39).