Where Eagles Dare A Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles Fansite

Eagles vs Hawks Game 23 Preview

Photo © www.rakuteneagles.jp

Game 3 of the battle for second place takes place tonight in Sendai, and the topic of the day is numbers.

• 3 - Rakuten's "Magic Number", or the amount of wins (or Seibu losses) needed to qualify for the playoffs.
• 0.5 - Softbank's slim lead over Rakuten for second place in the Pacific League.
• 4 - The number of Softbank errors so far in this series.
• 4 - The number of Hawks games remaining.
• 9 - The number of Eagles games remaining.
• 6 - The amount of Eagles home games remaining.

Photo © Yahoo! Japan

Pitching Matchup

The Eagles will send Hiromichi Fujiwara (4-4, 3.86) to the mound tonight to face D.J. Houlton (11-7, 2.74).  Fujiwara is 2-1 in his last three starts, but both victories came at the expense of the cellar dwelling Orix Buffaloes.  Versus Softbank this season Fujiwara is 1-1 with a 3.09 ERA.  While the Rakuten faithful are hoping that the 24-year old rookie can continue his strong pitching of late, it will be interesting to see how he deals with this kind of pressure.

D.J. Houlton has pitched very well against Rakuten this year (2-1, 1.29).  He'll do doubt be hoping to avenge his September 12th loss against the Eagles last month.  The ex-Dodger is second on the club in wins, innings pitched (164.1), and strikeouts (133).

Who's Hot

Leadoff batter Masato Nakamura is hitting .600 (1 HR, 2 RBI, 2 R) in this series.  He also showed his resolve last night, coming through with a clutch hit after making a baserunning mistake earlier in the game.  The right fielder is batting .300 on the season with runners in scoring position.

Who's Cold

The 3-4 spot in the lineup are not hitting well.  NPB-leading hitter Teppei Tsuchiya (.327 BA) has hit a bit of a rough patch recently, collecting only 4 hits in his last 23 at-bats.  DH Takeshi Yamasaki continues what is now a full blown slump, batting .094 (3 for 32) over the past nine games.  Yamasaki-sama, okite kudasai!

Related posts:

1. Eagles vs Hawks Game 24 Preview
2. Eagles vs Hawks Game 24 Preview
3. Eagles vs Hawks Game 21 Preview
4. Eagles vs Hawks Game 22 Preview
5. Eagles vs Hawks Climax Series Game 2 Preview

About Andrew

Andrew has lived in Japan since 2006, spending time exploring the Tohoku region. He frequently attends Rakuten Eagles games in Sendai. You'll find him sitting along the 3rd base line drinking Guinness wearing a #46 Teppei jersey, next to a Japanese girl in a #5 Seguignol jersey.          You can follow him on Twitter if that makes you happy.