Rick van den Hurk has clinched his fourth victory

Last Friday, July 24, Rick van den Hurk pitched his sixth game for the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks of the Japanese highest
baseball league, the NPB. Due to my vacation I didn’t notice.

Even though it is old news, the way Rick, currently the best Dutch export “product” to Japan, kept the Orix Buffaloes in check is worth mentioning.

Rick started the game by giving up a single to Esteban German. After retiring Gunta Shoto, who struck out looking, Ryoichi Adachi flew out into an unassited double play at second base.

The Softbank Hawks scored two runs on a single by Shuhei Fukuda with runners on third and second base. This seemed to be just enough to give Rick van den Hurk the win, as the Dutchman gave up a solo homerun in the fourth inning to Hiroyuki Nakajima.

For the rest of the game Rick kept the Buffaloes in check rather well, allowing only five hits and fanning nine.
Thanks to this outing Rick improved his record in the Pacific League to 4-0 and he lowered his ERA to 2.31.
Rick raised his number of strikeouts to 52.

Rick was pulled after the seventh inning in favour of Ryota Igarashi, who limited the Buffaloes to one hit in one inning for the hold. Dennis Sarfate earned the save as he kept Orix hitless by striking out the side.

Tomorrow, the Hawks do not have a game scheduled, so it is very likely that Van den Hurk will start Friday’s road game vs the Seibu Lions.