Ohtonari takes one for the team as Hawks lose nine-game winning streak

There's a lot that can be said for what Kenji Ohtonari did out there today. What happened had to have been a bullpen-saving measure made by Akiyama-kantoku, and it's something that no pitcher ever wants to have happen.

Despite having a five-run third inning, Ohtonari was left out there, and he didn't give up any runs the rest of the way as he managed to complete seven innings while giving up seven runs on nine hits, with no walks an nine strikeouts.

This is a case where Ohtonari was probably too fine with his pitches, given how he was pounded early on. Old man Takeshi Yamasaki once again flashed his power hitting ability, as he crushed a 2-run blast (19) after Takasu led off the game with a single and took second on a sacrifice.

The third inning was where it all fell apart. Ino reached on a single and was sacrificed to second by Takasu. It proved to not be needed as the Eagles truly put their hitting shoes on. Uchimura singled and Teppei drove in Takasu with a single of his own. With two men on, Norihiro Nakamura crushed a three-run home run (11) to truly put the nail in the coffin at 6-0. Rakuten would add more with the very next batter as Randy Ruiz cranked a solo blast of his own (6).

On the other side was Satoshi Nagai, who has utterly owned the Hawks in his career. Despite being 0-2 against them going into today, he fired on all cylinders today with an eight-inning performance that only saw him give up one run when he was tiring in the 8th. That run came off the bat of Nobuhiro Matsuda, who smacked his 11th home run of the season to make it 8-1 at the time.

Before that, errors victimized the SoftBank relief corps. Morifuku was called on to help end a nightmarish game, but he gave up a run thanks to a pair of errors. Akio Mizuta, pitching in his first game since April 29th, ended the game with a scoreless inning.

Against Kenta Satake in the 9th, Matsuda hit a RBI single that drove in Fukuda to run the score to 8-2, and that was where it would end.

The Saitama Seibu Lions won today, pulling themselves back to within half a game of the Hawks for first place in the Pacific League. SoftBank opens up an important series with the third-place Chiba Lotte Marines at Chiba Marine Stadium. The Marines sit one and a half games in back of the Hawks, and that deficit could easily be erased if the Hawks play poorly this weekend.

Hiroki Yamada (1-2, 5.48) will get the ball to open the series tomorrow morning. The Marines counter with Yoshihisa Naruse (8-8, 3.42).