9th Inning Rally Leads to SoftBank Win Over Buffs

In my All-Star Break review of the Hawks, I said that the team lacked heart and needed to find it. They showed some today at Kyocera Dome, breaking a 2-2 tie to triumph over one of their nemeses this season, the Orix Buffaloes, by a score of 4-2. What is more impressive is that the Hawks were missing super shortstop Munenori Kawasaki, as he is with the Japanese National Team, warming up for the Beijing Olympics. Instead, Tadaatsu Nakazawa got the start at short.

Southpaw Kenji Ohtonari got the nod today for the Hawks against Orix right-hander Chihiro Kaneko. Both Ohtonari and Kaneko both pitched very well today, with both starters evenly matched.

The Hawks drew first blood off Kaneko in the 2nd inning. After Kokubo lined out to begin the inning, 3B Nobuhiro Matsuda tripled to dead center field, then Naoyuki Ohmura doubled to right to knock in Matsuda and put SoftBank on the board first, 1-0. It could have been much worse for Orix, as Ohmura was advanced to 3rd on a groundout from Hasegawa, then Kaneko walked Nakanishi to put runners on the corners. However, Takaya struck out for the first of three times today to end the inning.

Ohtonari had his only bad inning in the 3rd. The Buffaloes struck back for two runs, as Sakaguchi doubled to right, stole 3rd, then was driven home by Masaki Abe to tie SotBank. Big, bad Alex Cabrera then came up and socked a double to score Abe all the way from 1st base to vault Orix into the lead, 2-1. He continues to kill the Hawks, as he is batting .333 with 5 HR and 9 RBI against them.

SoftBank scratched another run across in the very next half-inning. The tandem of Matsuda and Ohmura, who got the Hawks their first run of the day, combined once again to tie the game. The duo singled to put runners on 1st and 2nd. Up came Hasegawa, who bunted Ohmura and Matsuda to 2nd and 3rd, respectively. Kenta Nakanishi then grounded out to 2nd, but with the hit-and-run on, Matsuda was home quickly, and SoftBank tied the game, 2-2.

From there on, both pitchers scattered hits, but neither team could generate much offensively. Ohtonari retired 10 in a row at one point, and Kaneko struck out four of seven batters he faced at one point.

However, Kaneko's pitch count was rising like a thermometer in the heat of the day, and so was Ohtonari's. After 8 innings and 130 pitches, Ohtonari was done. He gave up only 2 runs on 8 hits, walking 1 and striking out 7. He gave way to Takehiro Mahara, who came on to close out what became a 4-2 Hawks lead.

Unlike Ohtonari, the Buffaloes decided to let Kaneko try and go the distance. It turned out to not be the best of ideas for Orix.

Hasegawa started the inning by singling, then was sacrificed to 2nd by Nakanishi. Takaya popped out to 2nd, and as it seemed Kaneko would duck out of trouble once again, the Hawks pulled it out of the hat.

Yuichi Honda, with Hasegawa still on 2nd, tripled to center field to score Hasegawa easily and give the Hawks the lead, 3-2. The carnage wasn't over. Nakazawa and Matsunaka both singled, with Nakazawa's hit plating Honda.

That was all Mahara needed in the 9th, as the Buffaloes went quietly, 1-2-3. Final score: Hawks 4, Buffaloes 2.

The winning pitcher was Ohtonari, he crosses the 10-win plateau, improving his record to 10-7. Chihiro Kaneko took the loss, he falls to 7-7. Takahiro Mahara got the save, his second of the season.

There were no home runs today, stolen bases were: for the Hawks, Yuya Hasegawa (1), and for the Buffaloes, Tomotaka Sakaguchi (9), and Makoto Moriyama (3).

Tomorrow the Hawks close out the 2nd of a brief 2-game series at Kyocera Dome. DJ Houlton (3-3, 4.29) will take the mound against Shogo Yamamoto (7-2, 3.05). The game begins at 6:00 PM, Japan Standard Time.