Hawks win in sloppy performance all around

One thing that the Hawks have had this season is a lot of big innings that lead to the Hawks winning games. Today was no exception as the Hawks put together an eight-run third inning en route to a 14-5 win for SoftBank.

It took three Marine pitchers to get through the inning, as the Hawks rapped out seven hits and the Marines committed an error in the game-setting inning. The only starter who failed to register a hit was Hasegawa, who was 0-for-3 with three walks.

It started with the error, and the Hawks got RBI's from Kokubo, Tamura, Matsuda, Tanoue, Kawasaki, and Honda, all of them singles with the exception of RBI doubles from Tanoue and Kawasaki.

When starter Yuji Yoshimi (3-5, 5.86) could get only one out in the third, Nishimura-kantoku went to his bullpen, with Tomohisa Ohtani the first man out, but he couldn't stop the bleeding as he gave up three runs on as many hits, while getting only one out. Koudai Matsumoto managed to get out of the inning, but also gave up three runs (two earned) in two and one-third innings.

The Hawks were able to use the offense to support their starter, Toshiya Sugiuchi (13-4, 3.19), who ran his record against the Marines to a perfect 4-0 this season. He only gave up two runs (one earned) on four hits in seven innings, with nine strikeouts and two walks. One run came across thanks to yet another error from Tanoue on a dropped third strike, and the other was off the bat of Tomoya Satozaki, who cracked his 10th home run of the season.

Three more runs in the fifth came across thanks to RBI singles from Kokubo and Matsuda, and a sacrifice fly from Tamura. Two more in the sixth came across thanks to a fielding error from Matsumoto that allowed Shibahara to reach first and that allowed one run to score. Yesterday's insurance man, Kidokoro, singled in another run of his own to complete SoftBank's scoring for the day.

In the 9th, with the game well out of reach at 14-2 the Hawks got sloppy. Having committed two errors already, a third one by mop-up man Akio Mizuta with the bases loaded let Imae reach and scored one run. Iguchi hit a sacrifice fly and Fukuura got an RBI groundout to pull the Marines to 14-5.

Thanks to a loss by the Seibu Lions today to the Fighters at 9-7, the Hawks gained another game over Seibu. The Hawks now lead Seibu by two games in the Pacific League. SoftBank goes for the sweep today against the Marines as Shinsuke Ogura (4-5, 4.09) takes the mound against Ryoji Katsuki (1-1, 9.82).