Rick van den Hurk pitched six shutout innings and claimed his third straight win as the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks beat the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 4-1 on Thursday.
The Dutch right-hander allowed two hits for the Pacific League leaders, effectively mixing his fastball with occasional curveballs. He issued two walks and hit three batters. while striking out six.
"The team set up me with a chance so I did the least asked of me," said Akira Nakamura, who drove in the opening run in the second through a bases-loaded sacrifice fly off Yasunori Kikuchi (3-2) at Kyocera Dome.