Break Up the Hawks

Less than two weeks ago, it seemed a forgone conclusion that the Lotte Marines were going to run away in the Pacific League. Despite posting the best record during the inaugural interleague play, winning 25 out of 36, and earning the ¥50 Million first place prize for having the best interleague record, the Marines found themselves only 3.5 games ahead of the Softbank Hawks.

While the Marines were posting the best record in interleague play, the Hawks finished with the second best, only one loss behind. Interleague success was just the beginning as the Hawks won their 12 consecutive game last night, moving ahead of Lotte by 3.5 games. This is their longest winning streak in 40 years. The Hawks are now 31 games over .500 and one primary reason is they are taking care of business by beating the bad teams, with a combined record of 24-3 against Orix, Nippon Ham and Rakuten.

Nobuhiko Matsunaka homered twice and drove in four last night as they downed Orix 6-3. Matsunaka, Kenji Jojima and Julio Zuleta hit consecutive home runs to give the Hawks a 3-0 lead and after Orix tied it at 3, Matsunaka hit his second of the game and league leading 27th of the year to give the Hawks the lead for good. Game boxscore. This was the second time in less than a week that Matsunaka, Jojima and Zuleta went back to back to back, on the 27th of June the Ham Fighters were the lucky recipients.

For more on the Hawks and their offense, see here.

In other news, the Hanshin Tigers made history with the youngest player to appear in a pro game. Sixteen year old Kento Tsujimoto took the mound in a minor league game. Tsujimoto pitched one inning, with his fastball hitting 138KM an hour. You will recall that Tsujimoto made history last November when he was the youngest player ever taken in the draft, then fifteen.