The Hanshin Tigers and SoftBank Hawks entered Tuesday with their season-opening streaks intact on Tuesday, when a quartet of struggling hitters from last year’s league champs appeared to have found their rhythm, Masahiro Tanaka looked like his old self and Chris Gittens‘ Japan debut was a brief one.

Ready? Let’s go!

Tuesday’s games

Hawks 6, Buffaloes 3: At Fukuoka Dome, SoftBank lost their starting pitcher, Shuta Ishikawa, after the first inning, rookie Shuto Ogata (1-0), yet another guy who turned pro with the Hawks on a developmental contract, pitched two scoreless innings despite allowing the Buffaloes to load the bases in the second to earn his first win. The win was SoftBank’s eighth straight to start the season.

Ishikawa had poor command from the get-go. With one run in on a Masataka Yoshida double and one out in the first, the game was paused for 6-1/2 minutes while he got treatment after walking the bases loaded. He walked Kotaro Kurebayashi to plate a second run with two outs and was replaced after the first inning.

With two out and two on in the home half of the second, Hawks leadoff man Masaki Mimori put a good swing on an unusually straight fastball from Soichiro Yamasaki (0-1) to plate Freddie Galvis and Kenta Imamiya.

Galvis led off the Hawks’ fourth with his second walk, with a sacrifice and singles from Takuya Kai, Mimori and Tatsuro Yanagimachi making it 5-2.

Continue reading NPB news: April 5, 2022 →