(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
 Yokohama hands Fukuoka another loss in Japan Series
Nederlands
 YOKOHAMA (Japan) -
Yokohama DeNA BayStars recorded its second win on Thursday (November 2) in the best-of-seven Nippon Series to narrow the lead of Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks to 3-2.
In Game 5, Yokohama nipped Fukuoka 5-4 after the team had avoided a sweep by winning 6-0 on Wednesday.
The Series now returns back to Fukuoka, where Game 6 will be played on Saturday.
Fukuoka had won the first three games of the Series.
The team opened last Saturday with a convincing 10-1 score.
The next two wins were much smaller.
On Sunday, the Hawks won 4-3, then on Tuesday, a 3-2 win followed.
It has happened only three times before that a team erased a 3-0 deficit to win the title.
The last team to do so was Yomiuri Tokyo Giants in 1989.
At Yokohama Stadium, Dutch pitcher Rick van den Hurk started for Fukuoka and started well.
The righthander retired the first eleven batters he faced, seven of them with a strikeout, but then gave up two runs in the fourth.
He was relieved with one out in the 6th inning, having struckout eight batters and walking only one.
Van den Hurk had a no-decision in this game.
Fukuoka opened the score in the top of the first inning.
Kenta Imamiya singled and stole second base, then scored on a double by Seiichi Uchikawa.
...Rick van den Hurk pitching for the Netherlands during the...
...World Baseball Classic in March of this year...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
After having retired eleven batters in a row, Van den Hurk gave up a 2-out double to José López, which was followed by a homerun from Yoshitomo Tsutsugo that gave Yokohama a 2-1 lead.
Fukuoka re-took the lead in the top of the fifth inning, scoring three runs.
The team came alongside on a sacrifice fly by Alfredo Despaigne, then took a 4-2 lead when Akira Nakamura homered.
The lead was shortlived, as the home-playing BayStars answered with three runs in the sixth at bat.
Masayuki Kuwahara led off with a single and stole second base.
He was unable to advance when Van den Hurk made a nice play on a comeback-grounder by Tatsuhiro Shibata, retiring the hittter and keeping the runner on second base.
Hereafter, Van den Hurk walked José López and was relieved by Liván Moinelo, who would become the losing pitcher.
Moinelo was greeted with a runscoring double by Yoshitomo Tsutsugo, then the tying run was scored on a single by Toshiro Miyazaki.
Yokohama then took a 5-4 lead when a grounder by pinch-hitter Hiroki Minei ended in an error.
In both the eighth and ninth inning, Fukuoka got a chance to do some scoring again, but was held scoreless.
In the top of the eighth, the team had two runners on base and two outs when closer Yasuaki Yamasaki was inserted to close the game.
It was the first time in the entire season, that Yamasaki threw more than one inning.
He was successful in the eighth, but he got the bases loaded in the ninth.
Thanks to singles by Kenta Imamiya, Seiichi Uchikawa and Nobuhiro Matsuda, Fukuoka had the bases loaded with two outs.
But a grounder ended the inning and the game.
(November 2)
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