Offense galore for SoftBank in 17-2 whipping

SoftBank seems to have the Carp's number in second meetings this year. Yesterday, Tadashi Settsu notched his first career complete game victory in a 1-0 nail-biter. Today, in the last game of the season between the Hawks and Carp, the Hawks number-one offense fired on all cylinders and buried the home team, 17-3.

This one wasn't even close from the beginning. Eight of the nine starters got a hit, the only one without one was Hitoshi Tamura, who was 0-for-2 with two walks.

It hardly mattered, as eight different players had at least one run batted in. Nobuhiro Matsuda had five RBI's, with a two-run home run, a two-run double, and an RBI groundout. Hiroki Kokubo got all three of his RBI's in one fell swoop, as he homered off the 202nd different pitcher in his career.

Other offensive stars were Shuhei Fukuda, (2-for-2, 2 3B, RBI) , Toru Hosokawa (1-for-3, 2RBI, 2BB), and even starting pitcher Hiroki Yamada got in on the fun with an RBI single of his own.

Speaking of Yamada (W, 6-2, 1.96), he turned in another excellent start, going seven innings and giving up one run on three hits, with three walks and a strikeout. It was yet another excellent start from the Hawks starting pitching, which has been rivaled only by Nippon Ham recently.

Hiroshima starter Yuya Fukui (L, 2-2, 3.40) was far less effective in his start, as he got knocked around for five runs on seven hits with three walks and two strikeouts. However, his wasn't the worst outing of the day for the Carp.

Instead, that dubious honor went to reliever Takeru Imamura, who was completely ineffective in his outing. He got through one and one-third innings, but not before the Hawks got to him for eight runs on seven hits with a wild pitch and two walks. It truly was a day to forget for the Carp.

SoftBank now heads back home to face the Yomiuri Giants for the second time this year. SoftBank looks to keep up their sterling record in the interleague competition, as the team's record stands at 13-1-2.