2009 Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks season

The 2009 Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks season featured the Hawks quest to win their first Pacific League title since 2003. For the first time since 1994, the Hawks had a new manager in Koji Akiyama, who replaced the legendary Sadaharu Oh.

SoftBank absorbed more injuries from Opening Day starter Tsuyoshi Wada, but saw the continued dominance of Toshiya Sugiuchi, and the emergence of foreign pitchers D.J. Houlton and Justin Germano, who stabilized the starting rotation. More foreign help came in the person of 201 cm-tall reliever Brian Falkenborg. Together with Rookie of the Year Tadashi Settsu and closer Takahiro Mahara, the Hawks had one of the most reliable bullpens in the league.

The Hawks had one of the older offenses in the league, still anchored by Nobuhiko Matsunaka and Hiroki Kokubo. Yuya Hasegawa had a breakout season (.312, 7HR, 44RBI) after suffering injuries in the previous two seasons. Hitoshi Tamura came back in mid-May and hit .283 with 17 home runs, which helped to make up for a disappointing season from Munenori Kawasaki, who batted a career-low .259 despite career highs in games played (143) and stolen bases (44).

For the second year in a row, the Hawks won the Interleague tournament. However, the team could not sustain their success as they stumbled in September, finishing 3rd and exiting in the first round of the play offs, at the hands of the rival Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.

Regular season

Standings

Pacific League	G	W	L	T	Win%	GB
Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters	144	82	60	2	.577	—
Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles	144	77	66	1	.538	5½
Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks	144	74	65	5	.532	6½
Saitama Seibu Lions	144	70	70	4	.500	11
Chiba Lotte Marines	144	62	77	5	.446	18½
Orix Buffaloes	144	56	86	2	.394	26

Game log

2009 Game Log

April

#	Date	Opponent	Score	Win	Loss	Save	Attendance	Record
1	April 3	Buffaloes	8 - 0	Wada (1-0)	Komatsu (0-1)		30,106	1-0-0
2	April 4	Buffaloes	2 - 5	Kondo (1-0)	Oba (0-1)	Kato (1)	28,827	1-1-0
3	April 5	Buffaloes	2 - 1 (10)	Kamiuchi (1-0)	Kawagoe (0-1)		29,576	2-1-0
4	April 7	@Eagles	6 - 0	Tanaka (1-0)	Loe (0-1)		17,281	2-2-0
5	April 8	@Eagles	0 - 7	Houlton (1-0)	Asai (0-1)		13,373	3-2-0
6	April 9	@Eagles	2 - 1	Nagai (1-0)	Otonari (0-1)	Koyama (1)	12,418	3-3-0
7	April 10	Fighters	1 - 9	Darvish (1-1)	Wada (1-1)		26,940	3-4-0
8	April 11	Fighters	0 - 9	Fujii (1-1)	Takahashi (0-1)		28,306	3-5-0
9	April 12	Fighters	5 - 4	Sugiuchi (1-0)	Sweeney (0-1)	Mahara (1)	28,296	4-5-0
10	April 14	Lions	3 - 5	Kishi (2-0)	Loe (0-2)	Graman (3)	14,451	4-6-0
11	April 15	Lions	2 - 2 (12)	Game tied after 12 innings			26,498	4-6-1
12	April 16	Lions	5 - 12	Nishiguchi (2-0)	Otonari (0-2)	Hirano (1)	25,538	4-7-1
13	April 17	@Marines	2 - 1 (11)	Ogino (1-0)	Settsu (0-1)		10,367	4-8-1
14	April 18	@Marines	4 - 7	Kume (1-0)	Ito (0-1)	Mahara (2)	23,225	5-8-1
15	April 19	@Marines	5 - 12	Sugiuchi (2-0)	Kobayashi (0-2)		25,537	6-8-1
16	April 21	@Fighters	5 - 10	Kamiuchi (2-0)	Tadano (1-2)		17,486	7-8-1
17	April 22	@Fighters	2 - 3	Houlton (2-0)	Tateyama (1-1)	Mahara (3)	19,138	8-8-1
18	April 23	@Fighters	7 - 6	Miyanishi (2-0)	Settsu (0-2)		18,364	8-9-1
19	April 24	Eagles	2 - 3	Nagai (2-0)	Wada (1-2)	Gwyn (1)	27,568	8-10-1
20	April 25	Eagles	5 - 4 (11)	Mahara (1-0)	Asai (0-3)		31,021	9-10-1
21	April 26	Eagles	0 - 4	Rasner (2-1)	Sugiuchi (2-1)	Koyama (2)	31,787	9-11-1
22	April 28	@Lions	5 - 4	Kishi (4-0)	Loe (0-3)	Onodera (1)	16,151	9-12-1
23	April 29	@Lions	7 - 2	Ishii (1-2)	Houlton (2-1)		28,855	9-13-1
24	April 30	@Lions	5 - 8	Mizuta (1-0)	Doi (1-1)	Mahara (4)	15,720	10-13-1

May

#	Date	Opponent	Score	Win	Loss	Save	Attendance	Record
25	May 1	Marines	6 - 2	Wada (2-2)	Ono (1-2)		26,830	11-13-1
26	May 2	Marines	4 - 9	Karakawa (2-2)	Arakaki (0-1)		30,239	11-14-1
27	May 3	Marines	7 - 2	Sugiuchi (3-1)	Naruse (1-1)		34,040	12-14-1
28	May 4	@Buffaloes	8 - 5	Kondo (3-1)	Loe (0-4)	Kato (6)	30,252	12-15-1
29	May 5	@Buffaloes	2 - 1	Kaneko (3-2)	Houlton (2-2)		31,639	12-16-1
30	May 6	@Buffaloes	1 - 5	Otonari (1-2)	Yamamoto (2-1)		30,960	13-16-1
31	May 8	Lions	4 - 3	Settsu (1-2)	Graman (0-2)		29,611	14-16-1
32	May 9	Lions	1 - 9	Hoashi (1-2)	Arakaki (0-2)		30,863	14-17-1
33	May 10	Lions	8 - 1	Sugiuchi (4-1)	Nogami (0-2)		30,337	15-17-1
34	May 12	Marines	1 - 2	Naruse (2-1)	Houlton (2-3)	Ogino (4)	25,231	15-18-1
35	May 13	Marines	0 - 7	Omine (2-1)	Otonari (1-3)		16,242	15-19-1
36	May 14	Marines	5 - 4	Falkenborg (1-0)	Ogino (1-1)		29,671	16-19-1
37	May 15	@Eagles	2 - 4	Falkenborg (2-0)	Koyama (1-2)	Mahara (5)	11,338	17-19-1
38	May 16	@Eagles	1 - 2	Iwakuma (5-1)	Kamiuchi (2-1)		17,768	17-20-1
—	May 17	@Eagles	Postponed (rained out)
39	May 19	Tigers	1 - 1 (12)	Game tied after 12 innings			33,182	17-20-2
40	May 20	Tigers	3 - 2 (10)	Settsu (2-2)	Egusa (2-3)		29,258	18-20-2
41	May 22	Carp	6 - 3	Wada (3-2)	Lewis (2-2)	Mahara (6)	29,327	19-20-2
42	May 23	Carp	5 - 4	Mizuta (2-0)	Saito (2-3)	Mahara (7)	32,221	20-20-2
43	May 24	@Swallows	5 - 8	Otonari (2-3)	Kawashima (3-3)		16,518	21-20-2
44	May 25	@Swallows	2 - 3	Sugiuchi (5-1)	Ishikawa (6-2)	Mahara (8)	15,555	22-20-2
45	May 27	@Giants	3 - 5	Houlton (3-3)	Greisinger (5-4)	Mahara (9)	43,050	23-20-2
46	May 28	@Giants	8 - 2	Gonzalez (5-0)	Wada (3-3)		42,218	23-21-2
47	May 30	Dragons	9 - 5	Satō (1-0)	Nagamine (1-1)		30,387	24-21-2
48	May 31	Dragons	5 - 4	Falkenborg (3-0)	Takahashi (1-2)		33,231	25-21-2

June

#	Date	Opponent	Score	Win	Loss	Save	Record
49	June 2	BayStars	7-3	Houlton (4-3)	Mastny (0-2)		26-21-2
50	June 3	BayStars	3-0	Fujioka (1-0)	Walrond (3-4)	Mahara (10)	27-21-2
51	June 5	@Carp	4-1	Mori (1-0)	Ohba (0-2)	Schultz (1)	27-22-2
52	June 6	@Carp	1-11 (6)	Germano (1-0)	Ohtake (5-2)		28-22-2
53	June 7	@Tigers	4-3	Williams (1-0)	Mahara (1-1)		28-23-2
54	June 8	@Tigers	1-8	Houlton (5-3)	Kubo (1-4)		29-23-2
55	June 10	Swallows	4-2	Fujioka	Yoshinori (2-4)	Mahara (11)	30-23-2
56	June 11	Swallows	3-6	Tateyama	Satō	Lim	30-24-2
57	June 13	Giants	3-1	Germano	Utsumi	Mahara (12)	31-24-2
58	June 14	Giants	5-1	Sugiuchi	Tohno		32-24-2
59	June 16	@Dragons	3-4 (10)	Mahara	Iwase	Falkenborg	33-24-2
60	June 17	@Dragons	3-1	Ogasawara	Fujioka	Iwase	33-25-2
61	June 20	@BayStars	7-11	Germano	Glynn		36-25-2
62	June 21	@BayStars	5-0	Sugiuchi	Miura		37-25-2
63	June 26	@Lions	10-4	Wakui	Fujioka		37-26-2
64	June 27	@Lions	3-10	Sugiuchi	Ishii		38-26-2
65	June 28	@Lions	5-7	Falkenborg	Mitsui	Mahara	39-26-2
66	June 30	Buffaloes	13-2	Ohtonari	Kondoh		40-26-2

July

#	Date	Opponent	Score
—	July 1	Buffaloes	Postponed (rained out)
67	July 2	Buffaloes
68	July 4	@Fighters
69	July 5	@Fighters
70	July 7	@Buffaloes
71	July 8	@Buffaloes
72	July 9	@Buffaloes
73	July 10	Eagles
74	July 11	Eagles
75	July 12	Eagles
76	July 14	Fighters
77	July 15	Fighters
78	July 16	Fighters
79	July 17	@Marines
80	July 18	@Marines
81	July 19	@Marines
82	July 20	Eagles
83	July 21	Eagles
84	July 22	Eagles
85	July 28	Buffaloes
86	July 29	Buffaloes
87	July 30	Buffaloes
88	July 31	@Fighters

August

#	Date	Opponent
89	August 1	@Fighters
90	August 2	@Fighters
91	August 4	Marines
92	August 5	Marines
93	August 6	Marines
94	August 7	@Lions
95	August 8	@Lions
96	August 9	@Lions
97	August 11	@Eagles
98	August 12	@Eagles
99	August 13	@Eagles
100	August 14	@Buffaloes
101	August 15	@Buffaloes
102	August 16	@Buffaloes
103	August 18	Lions
104	August 19	Lions
105	August 20	Lions
106	August 21	Fighters
107	August 22	Fighters
108	August 23	Fighters
109	August 25	@Marines
110	August 26	@Marines
111	August 27	@Marines
112	August 28	@Fighters
113	August 29	@Fighters
114	August 30	@Fighters

September

#	Date	Opponent
115	September 1	Buffaloes
116	September 2	Buffaloes
117	September 3	Buffaloes
118	September 4	Lions
119	September 5	Lions
120	September 6	Lions
121	September 8	@Marines
122	September 9	@Marines
123	September 10	@Marines
124	September 11	Eagles
125	September 12	Eagles
126	September 13	Eagles
127	September 15	@Buffaloes
128	September 16	@Buffaloes
129	September 17	@Buffaloes
130	September 18	@Lions
131	September 19	@Lions
132	September 20	@Lions
133	September 21	Marines
134	September 22	Marines
135	September 23	Marines
136	September 25	Fighters
137	September 26	Fighters
138	September 27	Fighters
139	September 29	@Eagles
140	September 30	@Eagles

October

#	Date	Opponent	Score
141	October 1	@Eagles
—	October 2	@Eagles	Postponed (rained out)
142	October 4	@Fighters
143	October 6	Buffaloes
144	October 11	@Eagles
PLCS Game 1	October 16	@Eagles
PLCS Game 2	October 17	@Eagles

Player stats

Batting

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI	SB

Pitching

Player	G	GS	IP	W	L	SV	ERA	SO

References

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2009 Nippon Professional Baseball season
Central League	Chunichi Dragons Hanshin Tigers Hiroshima Toyo Carp Tokyo Yakult Swallows Yokohama BayStars Yomiuri Giants
Pacific League	Chiba Lotte Marines Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters Orix Buffaloes Saitama Seibu Lions Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles
2009 All-Star Series 2009 Japan Series 2009 Asia Series