(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo Henk Seppen)
  Van den Hurk earns first win; Balentien plays first game
Nederlands
  BUNKYO / SHINJUKU, Tokyo (Japan) -
Rick van den Hurk earned his first victory of the Japanese season last Saturday (April 2).
His first start of the season, on Mach 26, ended in a 3-3 tie in 12 innings.
The Dutch righthander made his second start on Saturday for Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and then threw seven innings against Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in the Tokyo Dome in Bunkyo, one of the 23 special wards in Tokyo.
Van den Hurk struckout five batters and gave up only four basehits.
He left the mound with the Hawks leading 4-1.
In the bottom of the eighth, Edison Barrios took over and gave up three hits and two runs which made it a 4-3 score.
Dennis Sarfate then threw the ninth inning and retired the side, closing with two strikeouts.
With that, Sarfate earned a save, while Van den Hurk was the winning pitcher.
The Hawks opened with two runs in the first inning.
Yuya Hasegawa led off with a single and later scored on a 2-out homerun by Seiichi Uchikawa.
The team doubled its lead in the third inning.
Kenta Imamiya then singled and scored on an error.
Uchikawa, who reached on the error, scored the fourth run on a sacrifice fly by Akira Nakamura.
...Wladimir Balentien is back with the Swallows...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Van den Hurk gave up the first run to the Fighters in the fifth inning when Haruki Nishikawa homered with two outs.
The win was the third for Fukuoka, which is currently in fifth place in the Pacific League.
Last year, the team won the championship in Nippon Professional Baseball.
Wladimir Balentien played his first game of the season on Sunday (April 3).
Due to a slight injury, the outfielder began the season in the Farm Team of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows.
There, he played in two games in the Eastern League and was 0-for-5 with two walks.
Balentien promoted back to the main squad on Sunday and later on the day, he played in his first game of the season in the Central League.
The Swallows then played at home against Chunichi Dragons and lost 3-2.
The game was played at Meiji Jingu Stadium in Shinjuku, which also is a special ward (or special municipalities) in Tokyo.
Balentien played in leftfield and batted 1-for-4, while striking out twice.
This is the sixth season, Balentien plays for the Swallows in Japan.
The basehit he registered last Sunday was the 471st in his Japanese career.
Amongst those hits are 154 homeruns, including a record 60 in 2013.
In 2007-2009, Balentien played in 170 Major League-games for the Seattle Mariners (2007-2009) and the Cincinnati Reds (2009).
(April 4)
Related Article:
 First start Van den Hurk ends in tie. (March 31, 2016)
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