Hanshin Shuts Out Hawks, 3-0

Offense has been somewhat hard to come by for the Hawks three games into the preseason. After eking out some wins while scoring less than five runs, the home team couldn't get anyone to cross the plate today.

The Tigers ended up putting the Hawks through a gauntlet of their best pitchers today, as evidenced by who threw.

Atsushi Nohmi, coming back from a bad shoulder last season, was excellent in his four innings of scoreless ball, giving up three hits and walking one with two strikeouts. Minoru Iwata, another of Hanshin's walking wounded last season, threw three scoreless innings of his own while striking out two and giving up three hits. Takashi Toritani and Craig Brazell each had a run batted in.

Hanshin got some help from the SoftBank defense in scoring one of their three runs off starter Shinsuke Ogura, and a wild pitch helped set up another. In all, the Hawks unsung lefty from last season also went four innings, but gave up three runs (two earned) on four hits with two walks, one strikeout, and a hit batsman. This might not look good on him as he looks to try and secure a rotation spot on Opening Day.

The Hawks' bullpen was perfect the rest of the way, though. Juan DeLeon worked two perfect innings with two strikeouts, and Soichi Fujita, Teruaki Yoshikawa, and Shota Ohba each worked an inning with a strikeout each.

For the Hawks' offense, the hitless drought ended for Seiichi Uchikawa, who rapped out a single in his first at-bat. The only other offensive producers were Cabrera and Matsuda, who were both 2-for-3. Cabrera had a pair of singles, Matsuda had a double and a single.

SoftBank's next exhibition game comes less than 24 hours later, as they take on the Tigers again at 1PM at Yahoo! Dome.