Established in 2004, the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles may be making their maiden voyage into the postseason but manager Katsuya Nomura's club has the pieces for a successful run. Primed for a showdown: Toshiya Sugiuchi, one of Japanese baseball's top pitchers, is expected to lead the charge for the Hawks in the first stage of the Climax Series. KYODO PHOTO Pitchers Hisashi Iwakuma and Masahiro Tanaka are the stars on the mound, while Takeshi Yamasaki and Fernando Seguignol are capable of making noise at the plate. The Fukuoka Softbank Hawks have been here before but are stumbling into the playoffs. Pitcher Toshiya Sugiuchi is a clear-cut star but the supporting cast is thin. Combined with a shaky offense, the Hawks may face an uphill battle to knock off the upstart Eagles. Here are five questions ahead of the series: What... [read full story]
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Saturday 17th October, 06:15 PM JST SENDAI — Takeshi Yamasaki hit a three-run homer and Masahiro Tanaka allowed one unearned run in a complete game effort as the Rakuten Eagles beat the Softbank Hawks 4-1 Saturday to win the...
Takeshi Yamasaki hit a three-run homer and Masahiro Tanaka allowed one unearned run in a complete game effort as the Rakuten Eagles beat the Softbank Hawks 4-1 Saturday to win the first stage of the Pacific League Climax Series...
Hisashi Iwakuma carried the load on the mound and his Eagles hit Hawks ace Toshiya Sugiuchi hard and often Friday night in Sendai as Rakuten jumped out to a 1-0 lead in Stage 1 of the Pacific League C...
Sendai D.J. Houlton has been waiting almost two weeks to get back on the mound. Houlton is scheduled to start Game 2 of the first stage of the Pacific League Climax Series against the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles on Saturday...
Rakuten Eagles right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma and Softbank Hawks left-hander Toshiya Sugiuchi, who both helped Japan win the 2009 World Baseball Classic in March, turned in contrasting starts in the opening game of the Pacific...
The Rakuten Eagles stunned Softbank ace Toshiya Sugiuchi with three homers and went on to beat the Hawks 11-4 in Game 1 of the best-of-three Pacific League Climax Series first stage on Friday. Hisashi Iwakuma (1-0) had one bad...
Friday 16th October, 09:49 PM JST SENDAI — The Rakuten Eagles stunned Softbank ace Toshiya Sugiuchi with three homers and went on to beat the Hawks 11-4 in Game 1 of the Pacific League Climax Series first stage on Friday....
The good news in Sendai is the upstart Rakuten Eagles are making their first trip to the postseason in just their fifth year of operation. The bad news is that they are going into Stage 1 of their Pacific League Climax Series...
Friday 16th October, 05:39 AM JST SENDAI — The Rakuten Eagles and the Softbank Hawks meet in the best-of-three first stage of the Pacific League Climax Series beginning Friday night at Kleenex Stadium. In their first playoff...
