Rick van den Hurk gets no-decision in first start after call up

A day after his call up, Rick van den Hurk started vs the Seibu Lions of the Central League.

Rick was flat out dominating in the first four innings striking out six and he took a 1-0 lead (solo homerun by Yuki Yanagita) into the fifth inning. But in the fifth the Lions tied the game on a solo homerun by Ryota Wakiya. In the sixth, Lions’ catcher Ginjiro Sumitani hit a rare single (regarding his batting average of .192). He advanced on a sacrifice bunt laid down by Shogo Akiyama. Hideto Asamura eventually drove in the go-ahead run with a single.
With one out in the eighth, Shogo Akiyama hit a single and scored on a single by Hideto Asamura.

Despite the runs that Rick allowed, he kept on striking out hitters. In the innings after the fourth, he also struck out six, bringing his total of strikeouts in this game to twelve.

Rick left the game after the eighth inning with the Softbank Hawks trailing 3-1. But an offensive outburst in the bottom of the ninth added two runs to their score before Seiichi Uchikawa drove in the game winning (walk off) run with a sacrifice fly to right field.

Rick was saved from being tabbed with the loss and got a no-decision.

In the three games that Rick pitched for the Hawks he struck out 32 hitters and gave up only one walk. After three games, Rick is sporting a 2.57 ERA. All games that he pitched were at the YafuOku Dome, home of the Softbank Hawks.