[NPB NOTEBOOK] SoftBank Hawks Dominating the Pacific League with a Supercharged Batting Order

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The NPB season is not even two months old and the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks are starting to run away in the Pacific League standings.

The Hawks are coming off a two-game series against the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles on May 21 and 22 in which they scored a combined 33 runs and gave up none.

As of Thursday, May 23, the Fukuoka-based team has a record of 29 wins, 10 losses and two ties for a .744 winning percentage and a six-game lead over the second-place Hokkaido Nipponham Fighters.

For the Hawks, it all starts with a powerful, star-studded offense.

Ukyo Shuto, Kensuke Kondoh, Yuki Yanagita, Ryoya Kurihara and Hotaka Yamakawa headline a batting that will strike fear in the opposition pitchers on any team. 

On Tuesday, May 21, Kurihara went 4-for-6 with six RBIs, including two homers, to lead the Hawks to a 21-0 thrashing of the Eagles at Mizuho PayPay Dome in Fukuoka.

As if that wasn't enough, Yamakawa led the way the next night to hit his league-leading 11th and 12th homers while driving in five runs to power SoftBank to a 12-0 win over Rakuten at Kyocera Dome in Osaka for its sixth straight win.

SoftBank Hawks Mainstay Wada Improves to 2-0

Ageless veteran Tsuyoshi Wada picked up the win in the 12-0 shutout on Wednesday when he struck out four and gave up just three hits with no walks on 102 pitches over seven scoreless innings.

"That was his best performance this season," said SoftBank manager Hiroki Kokubo. "I was able to stay relaxed while watching him."

The 43-year-old Wada is 2-0 with a 3.00 ERA in two starts this season. Impressive for a guy who began his career with the Hawks way back in 2007.

Top RBI Leaders for the SoftBank Hawks

The top four RBI leaders in the Pacific League are all Hawks batters ― Yamakawa (44), Yanagita (33), Kurihara (25) and Kondoh (23), who is tied with Chusei Mannami of the Fighters.

Kondoh (.336) and Yanagita (.327) are 1-2 in PL batting average rankings. 

On Sunday, May 19, Kondoh capped a two-run ninth-inning rally with an RBI double in a 2-1 walk-off win over the Saitama Seibu Lions. It was SoftBank's fourth straight win.

Trailing 1-0 in the ninth at home, the fleet-footed Shuto singled, stole second and scored the tying run on Yanagita's one-out single.

With one out and a runner on first and second, Kondoh sent the fans home happy with an RBI double. Kondoh's clutch hit came a day after he smacked a two-run homer in the eighth to lift the Hawks to a 3-2 win over Seibu.

"Ukyo got on and Yuki tied it, so I just wanted to get this game over  with," Kondoh said of the May 19 win, according to Kyodo News. "Compared with yesterday, I was quite relaxed."

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Author: Jim Armstrong

The author is a longtime journalist who has covered sports in Japan for over 25 years. You can find his articles on SportsLook.