In first game back from quake, Hawks shut out Swallows

There is a time and a place for mourning, and also for fear and caution regarding the Fukushima nuclear plant. However, there are those that agree that baseball would make a nice distraction.

In Fukuoka, almost as far removed as one can get from the disaster in Japan, the Hawks got back to work on their newly-extended exhibition schedule. Tadashi Settsu got the ball as the starter and out-performed Masanori Ishikawa over six innings, as he and three other Hawks relievers shut out the Yakult Swallows, 4-0.

Most of the offensive output came in the middle innings, as the Hawks scored one run each in the 5th through 7th innings. In the 5th and 7th, the runs were driven in by Seiichi Uchikawa, who also drove in a run in the first for a three-RBI day. The other run came off the bat of Matsunaka, who doubled in a run of his own.

Ishikawa went five innings, giving up two runs on seven hits with two strikeouts. The Yakult relief corps gave up two runs in three innings. Takahiko Oshimoto and Kentaro Kyuko each gave up a run on two hits. Kyuko also gave up a walk and balked once.

Settsu was great over six innings, as he struck out six, walked one, and gave up three hits. His relief corps gave up two hits in three innings as Morifuku struck out two of his three batters, Kanazawa gave up a single, and Mahara gave up a hit but also struck out two.

Before the game, the players collected donations for the relief effort. For those who are reading this and want to donate, the Red Cross is always collecting donations.

Recently, the Pacific League has decided to delay the start of the regular season to April 12th. Also, with blackouts practically imminent, a lot of teams are wondering what to do about night games.

No word from the Hawks on what they plan to do with Yahoo! Dome, but I would expect the Hawks to open the dome a bit more often and play a lot more day games, with the only power used being from the retractable roof.

Regarding the power outages, that's only for eastern Japan.

Back when Japan was importing technologies from around the world, an electric outfit in Osaka bought electric generators from General Electric in the U.S., powering western Japan with 60-cycle alternating current. Tokyo Electric got their equipment from Germany, supplying eastern Japan with 50-cycle AC. So splitting the country somewhere around where Mt. Fuji is, east and west are not connected together with the power grid. With two nuclear plants down in eastern Japan, it's only that half of Honshu (the main island) that is being effected.

What that means is that Kyushu (SoftBank), Chugoku (Hiroshima), Kansai (Hanshin and Orix), Chubu (Chunichi) Shikoku (independent league), and Hokkaido (Nippon Ham) have no power shortage, and thus do not have to worry about rescheduling their night games. Kanto (Yokohama, Yakult, Yomiuri, Seibu, and Lotte) and Tohoku (Rakuten - once K-Stadium is operational again) do.