Van den Hurk in the win column again

Yesterday, the Softbank Hawks hosted the Orix Buffaloes. Rick van den Hurk was the starter for the Hawks and guided them to a win vs the lowly Buffaloes.

Rick pitched six shutout innings and needed 110 pitches to do so. In those six innings, Rick gave up two hits, walked two and struck out three. He faced 22 batters.

The two hits Rick gave up were the only ones the Buffaloes collected as the relief pitchers Yuito Mori, Sho Iwasaki and Shuta Ishikawa pitched a perfect inning each.

Rick got plenty of run support as the Softbank Hawks scored seven runs on twelve hits.
The Hawks took a one-run lead when Alfredo Despaigne scored from third base on a sac fly to right field, hit by Seiji Uebayashi. A double to right field by Seiichi Uchikawa and home runs by Alfredo Despaigne and Nobuhiro Matsuda in the seventh inning drove in six additional runs.

With this outing, Rick lowered his ERA from 3.03 to 2.52 and clinched his second consecutive victory as he improved to 3 wins and two losses.

The Softbank Hawks are trailing the Rakuten Golden Eagles by 2.5 games in the Pacific League.