Not Again! Lions and Hawks Don't Solve Bullpens

After 114 games, the Hawks have now not only tied one game, but two, and in a row! The game was set up to be a pitcher's duel as DJ Houlton for the Hawks squared off against Kazuyuki Hoashi for the Lions. Neither pitcher put up a good showing in their last outing, so both were looking for some redemption. They both got it, but only numbers-wise.

Both Houlton and Hoashi came out firing, with Houlton's junkballing ways matching Hoashi's fireballing pitch-for-pitch. The first mistake of the game came on a hanging curve by Houlton that 3rd baseman Takeya Nakamura, aka "Okawari-kun crushed into the left field seats for his whopping 35th home run of the season. However, all that did was make Houlton mad. He struck out the next four batters en route to a 9-strikeout day over 7 and 1/3 innings in which he gave up 2 runs on 7 hits, walking two.

While Houlton dominated by striking out batters left and right, Hoashi only had one strikeout through 3 innings before he turned up the heat. After Nakamura's home run, the next inning saw SoftBank strike back, and possibly have a chance to break the game open. Arakane doubled to center to start the inning, and after he was bunted to 3rd by Takaya, Yuichi Honda rapped a single back up the middle to drive in Arakane.

After Morimoto singled, the Hawks had excellent speed on the basepaths and Matsunaka up, but unfortnately for him, he grounded right into the shift to erase Morimoto at 2nd. Matsunaka hustled down the line and beat the throw to put runners on the corners with 2 down. After Kokubo fought off some tough pitches to draw a walk, the red-hot Matsuda came up with a chance to break the game open, but he grounded out to 2nd to end the inning and let Hoashi off the hook.

That would prove to be the last best chance the Hawks would have all day, as Hoashi bore down and only allowed 5 hits the rest of the day. He allowed 9 hits and 2 runs total over 9 innings, walking 1 and striking out 9.

The rest of the day was a battle of the bullpens as the Hawks and Lions matched wits for the second straight day. And for the second straight day, neither team was able to generate enough for a win. The Seibu bullpen worked three perfect innings, while the SoftBank bullpen worked 4 and 2/3 innings of 1-hit ball, with Makoto Satoh going 2 perfect innings and the revived Akio Mizuta working 1 and 2/3 innings.

Both teams had chances to take the lead. Seibu had a few themselves, but Houlton worked around doubles in the 5th, 6th, and 7th innings, with the 6th inning double coming from the leadoff man Yasushi Ishii.

Hoashi also wiggled out of jams of his own, working around an error and a base hit in the 7th to keep the game at 2-1, and also rendering an 8th inning double irrelevant as he worked out of that jam. He was not so lucky in the 6th though, as Kokubo doubled, and then Matsuda singled him in to give SoftBank the 2-1 lead.

Seibu struck back in the 8th, though. Kataoka led off with a single, and after Kuriyama flew out, Houlton walked Nakajima. His day was done and Shinohara came in to try and get pinch-hitter Hirao. Instead of getting out of the jam, Hirao drilled a single back from whence it came to knock in the game-tying run.

The Hawks now trail Seibu by 8 games and finish their 3-game weekend series against the Lions tonight at Yahoo Dome. The Hawks send Olympian Tsuyoshi Wada (8-4, 3.78) to the mound for his first start since the Olympics against Takayuki Kishi (10-4, 3.94).