(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen)
 Rick van den Hurk in Japan Series with Fukuoka Hawks
Nederlands
 FUKUOKA (Japan) -
Dutch professional pitcher Rick van den Hurk has reached the Japan Series with Fukuoka SoftbBank Hawks.
On Sunday (October 22), the team won the Pacific League Climax Series Final Stage when it shutout Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, 7-0, to become the Pacific League Champion.
The Japan Series begins coming Saturday in Fukuoka.
Fukuoka Hawks finished in first place of the Pacific League in the regular season with a 94-49 record.
With that, the team automatically qualified for the Final Stage (second round) of the Climax Series.
Saitama Seibu Lions finished in second place (79-61 and 3 ties), followed by the Golden Eagles (77-63 and 3 ties).
That meant that the Lions and Golden Eagles would meet in the First Stage to determine who would face the Hawks in the Final.
In the Central League, Hiroshima Toyo Carp finished in first place with an 88-51 record and four ties to reach the Final Stage.
In the First Stage, second-placed Hanshin Tigers (78-61, 4 ties) and third-placed Yokohama DeNA BayStars (73-65, 5 ties) met each other.
...Rick van den Hurk pitching for the Netherlands during the...
...World Baseball Classic in March of this year...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
32-year old righthanded pitcher Rick van den Hurk is in his third season with Fukuoka with whom he won the Japan Series in 2015.
Before coming to Japan, Van den Hurk won the title twice with Samsung Lions in the professional Korean Baseball Organization in 2013 and 2014.
In 2007, Van den Hurk made his Major League-debut when he played for Florida Marlins.
He also pitched for the team at the highest level in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
In July 2010, the pitcher was traded to Baltimore Orioles for whom he pitched in the Majors in 2010-2011.
Van den Hurk was released in February 2012, then signed the same month with Toronto Blue Jays, but was waived shortly thereafter.
In March 2012, he was claimed by Cleveland Indians.
There, he also had a brief stay, as he designated for assignment eight days later and assigned to Triple-A early April.
Van den Hurk became a Free Agent and signed seven days later with Pittsburgh Pirates for whom he pitched in the Major League in September 2012.
This season, Rick van den Hurk appeared in 25 games (all starts) and was 13-7 with a 3.24 ERA.
He threw 153 innings in which he struckout 162 hitters, walked 47 and gave up 127 basehits.
The Climax Series was created in 2007 after the two leagues both had their own Play-Off format.
The First Stage is a best-of-three Series, which is played entirely at the site of the second-placed team.
The winners advance to the Final Stage, which is a series of six games and will be played entirely in the stadium of the regular season-champion.
The champion not only qualifies automatically for this Stage, but also starts it with an one-win advantage, meaning it needs to win three games to win this Series.
The winner of the Final is the League Champion and advances to the Japan Series.
The First Stage began on Saturday, October 14.
In the Pacific League, the Golden Eagles were shutout 10-0 in the opener against the Lions at the Seibu Prince Dome.
On the next two days, the Golden Eagles won 4-1 and 5-2 to move to the Final Stage.
In the Central League, it was Yokohoma that began with a 2-0 loss against Hanshin at Koshien Stadium.
Hereafter, Yokohoma won 13-6 and 6-1 to reach the next round.
The Final Stage went underway last Wednesday (October 18).
At the Fukuoka Yahuoku! Dome, Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles began very well against Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks by winning the first two games.
On Wednesday, the Golden Eagles opened with a 3-2 win, then won 2-1 on Thursday.
With that, the team from Sendai led the Series 2-1, as Fukuoka started with a 'bonus-win'.
Hereafter, Fukuoka recovered and won the next three games to win the Series, 4-2, and reach the Japan Series.
Fukuoka won 7-5 on Friday, nipped the Golden Eagles 4-3 on Saturday and recorded a 7-0 shutout on Sunday.
In the opener, there was a bench-clearing in the fifth inning when Cuban Alfredo Despaigne was hit in his face during a tag from first baseman Shintaro Masuda after he grounded out.
Despaigne was 0-for-4 and struckout three times.
Despaigne is a teammate of Rick van den Hurk in the Fukuoka-squad and a longtime player of the National Team of Cuba.
In the third game, Fukuoka trailed 3-2 in the third inning, but then scored three runs.
The Golden Eagles came alongside in the fifth, but Fukuoka decided the game by scoring twice in the eighth at bat when Akira Nakamura hit a 2-run homerun.
...Alfredo Despaigne hitting for Cuba in...
...the 2013 World Baseball Classic...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
On Saturday, Fukuoka trailed again, this time 3-2 halfway the sixth inning.
The home-team then scored twice to take a 4-3 lead and hold onto it in the remainder of the game.
Fukuoka initially took a 2-0 lead by scoring a run in the second inning on a double by Yuya Hasegawa and another one in the third when Alfredo Despaigne homered.
In the sixth, Fukuoka re-took the lead when Seiichi Uchikawa and Akira Nakamura hit back-to-back homeruns.
Rick van den Hurk started the game, but had a no-decision.
The righthander threw 4 2/3 inning in which he struckout five and walked four.
Van den Hurk gave up four hits, including a homerun, and three runs.
He was relieved after the Golden Eagles took a 3-2 lead in the top of the fifth inning on a double by Zelous Wheeler.
On Sunday, Fukuoka collected eleven basehits, including three by Akira Nakamura and Nobuhiro Matsuda.
The latter doubled, homered and batted in four runs, while Nakamura scored three runs.
In the Central League, season-winner Hiroshima Toyo Carp began with an one-win advantage.
The team opened the Final Stage on Wednesday with a 3-0 win, but then lost twice to Yokohama DeNA BayStars, which won 6-2 on Thursday and 1-0 on Friday.
With that, the Series was now tied at 2-2.
On Saturday and Sunday, the games rained out at Mazda Stadium in Hiroshima.
The Series resumes on Monday to decided who will become the second team to reach the Japan Series.
The first game of the Central League Final Stage also was bothered by rain.
In the bottom of the fifth, Hiroshima broke a scoreless tie by scoring three runs on singles by Kosuke Tanaka and Ryosuke Kikuchi.
After completion of the fifth inning, a 36 minute rain delay followed.
Thereafter, the game was definitively called and was declared valid.
(October 22)
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