# 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 playoffs, at the hands of the rival Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.

## Regular season
### Standings

2009 Pacific League regular season standings :
| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | L | T | GB | PCT | Home | Away |
| 1 | Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters | 144 | 82 | 60 | 2 | — | .576 | 46–25–1 | 36–35–1 |
| 2 | Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles | 144 | 77 | 66 | 1 | 6.5 | .538 | 39–32–1 | 38–34–0 |
| 3 | Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks | 144 | 74 | 65 | 5 | 3.5 | .531 | 40–28–4 | 34–37–1 |
| 4 | Saitama Seibu Lions | 144 | 70 | 70 | 4 | 9 | .500 | 38–32–2 | 32–38–2 |
| 5 | Chiba Lotte Marines | 144 | 62 | 77 | 5 | 15.5 | .448 | 37–31–4 | 25–46–1 |
| 6 | Orix Buffaloes | 144 | 56 | 86 | 2 | 26 | .396 | 32–40–0 | 24–46–2 |

### Game log

2009 Game Log :
April
#DateOpponentScoreWinLossSaveAttendanceRecord
1April 3Buffaloes8 - 0Wada (1-0)Komatsu (0-1)30,1061-0-0
2April 4Buffaloes2 - 5Kondo (1-0)Oba (0-1)Kato (1)28,8271-1-0
3April 5Buffaloes2 - 1 (10)Kamiuchi (1-0)Kawagoe (0-1)29,5762-1-0
4April 7@Eagles6 - 0Tanaka (1-0)Loe (0-1)17,2812-2-0
5April 8@Eagles0 - 7Houlton (1-0)Asai (0-1)13,3733-2-0
6April 9@Eagles2 - 1Nagai (1-0)Otonari (0-1)Koyama (1)12,4183-3-0
7April 10Fighters1 - 9Darvish (1-1)Wada (1-1)26,9403-4-0
8April 11Fighters0 - 9Fujii (1-1)Takahashi (0-1)28,3063-5-0
9April 12Fighters5 - 4Sugiuchi (1-0)Sweeney (0-1)Mahara (1)28,2964-5-0
10April 14Lions3 - 5Kishi (2-0)Loe (0-2)Graman (3)14,4514-6-0
11April 15Lions2 - 2 (12)Game tied after 12 innings26,4984-6-1
12April 16Lions5 - 12Nishiguchi (2-0)Otonari (0-2)Hirano (1)25,5384-7-1
13April 17@Marines2 - 1 (11)Ogino (1-0)Settsu (0-1)10,3674-8-1
14April 18@Marines4 - 7Kume (1-0)Ito (0-1)Mahara (2)23,2255-8-1
15April 19@Marines5 - 12Sugiuchi (2-0)Kobayashi (0-2)25,5376-8-1
16April 21@Fighters5 - 10Kamiuchi (2-0)Tadano (1-2)17,4867-8-1
17April 22@Fighters2 - 3Houlton (2-0)Tateyama (1-1)Mahara (3)19,1388-8-1
18April 23@Fighters7 - 6Miyanishi (2-0)Settsu (0-2)18,3648-9-1
19April 24Eagles2 - 3Nagai (2-0)Wada (1-2)Gwyn (1)27,5688-10-1
20April 25Eagles5 - 4 (11)Mahara (1-0)Asai (0-3)31,0219-10-1
21April 26Eagles0 - 4Rasner (2-1)Sugiuchi (2-1)Koyama (2)31,7879-11-1
22April 28@Lions5 - 4Kishi (4-0)Loe (0-3)Onodera (1)16,1519-12-1
23April 29@Lions7 - 2Ishii (1-2)Houlton (2-1)28,8559-13-1
24April 30@Lions5 - 8Mizuta (1-0)Doi (1-1)Mahara (4)15,72010-13-1 :
May
#DateOpponentScoreWinLossSaveAttendanceRecord
25May 1Marines6 - 2Wada (2-2)Ono (1-2)26,83011-13-1
26May 2Marines4 - 9Karakawa (2-2)Arakaki (0-1)30,23911-14-1
27May 3Marines7 - 2Sugiuchi (3-1)Naruse (1-1)34,04012-14-1
28May 4@Buffaloes8 - 5Kondo (3-1)Loe (0-4)Kato (6)30,25212-15-1
29May 5@Buffaloes2 - 1Kaneko (3-2)Houlton (2-2)31,63912-16-1
30May 6@Buffaloes1 - 5Otonari (1-2)Yamamoto (2-1)30,96013-16-1
31May 8Lions4 - 3Settsu (1-2)Graman (0-2)29,61114-16-1
32May 9Lions1 - 9Hoashi (1-2)Arakaki (0-2)30,86314-17-1
33May 10Lions8 - 1Sugiuchi (4-1)Nogami (0-2)30,33715-17-1
34May 12Marines1 - 2Naruse (2-1)Houlton (2-3)Ogino (4)25,23115-18-1
35May 13Marines0 - 7Omine (2-1)Otonari (1-3)16,24215-19-1
36May 14Marines5 - 4Falkenborg (1-0)Ogino (1-1)29,67116-19-1
37May 15@Eagles2 - 4Falkenborg (2-0)Koyama (1-2)Mahara (5)11,33817-19-1
38May 16@Eagles1 - 2Iwakuma (5-1)Kamiuchi (2-1)17,76817-20-1
—May 17@EaglesPostponed (rained out)
39May 19Tigers1 - 1 (12)Game tied after 12 innings33,18217-20-2
40May 20Tigers3 - 2 (10)Settsu (2-2)Egusa (2-3)29,25818-20-2
41May 22Carp6 - 3Wada (3-2)Lewis (2-2)Mahara (6)29,32719-20-2
42May 23Carp5 - 4Mizuta (2-0)Saito (2-3)Mahara (7)32,22120-20-2
43May 24@Swallows5 - 8Otonari (2-3)Kawashima (3-3)16,51821-20-2
44May 25@Swallows2 - 3Sugiuchi (5-1)Ishikawa (6-2)Mahara (8)15,55522-20-2
45May 27@Giants3 - 5Houlton (3-3)Greisinger (5-4)Mahara (9)43,05023-20-2
46May 28@Giants8 - 2Gonzalez (5-0)Wada (3-3)42,21823-21-2
47May 30Dragons9 - 5Satō (1-0)Nagamine (1-1)30,38724-21-2
48May 31Dragons5 - 4Falkenborg (3-0)Takahashi (1-2)33,23125-21-2 :
June
#DateOpponentScoreWinLossSaveAttendanceRecord
49June 2BayStars7-3Houlton (4-3)Mastny (0-2)26-21-2
50June 3BayStars3-0Fujioka (1-0)Walrond (3-4)Mahara (10)27-21-2
51June 5@Carp4-1Mori (1-0)Ohba (0-2)Schultz (1)27-22-2
52June 6@Carp1-11 (6)Germano (1-0)Ohtake (5-2)28-22-2
53June 7@Tigers4-3Williams (1-0)Mahara (1-1)28-23-2
54June 8@Tigers1-8Houlton (5-3)Kubo (1-4)29-23-2
55June 10Swallows4-2FujiokaYoshinori (2-4)Mahara (11)30-23-2
56June 11Swallows3-6TateyamaSatōLim30-24-2
57June 13Giants3-1GermanoUtsumiMahara (12)31-24-2
58June 14Giants5-1SugiuchiTohno32-24-2
59June 16@Dragons3-4 (10)MaharaIwaseFalkenborg33-24-2
60June 17@Dragons3-1OgasawaraFujiokaIwase33-25-2
61June 20@BayStars7-11GermanoGlynn36-25-2
62June 21@BayStars5-0SugiuchiMiura37-25-2
63June 26@Lions10-4WakuiFujioka37-26-2
64June 27@Lions3-10SugiuchiIshii38-26-2
65June 28@Lions5-7FalkenborgMitsuiMahara39-26-2
66June 30Buffaloes13-2OhtonariKondoh40-26-2 :
July
#DateOpponentScoreWinLossSaveAttendanceRecord
—July 1BuffaloesPostponed (rained out)
67July 2Buffaloes
68July 4@Fighters
69July 5@Fighters
70July 7@Buffaloes
71July 8@Buffaloes
72July 9@Buffaloes
73July 10Eagles
74July 11Eagles
75July 12Eagles
76July 14Fighters
77July 15Fighters
78July 16Fighters
79July 17@Marines
80July 18@Marines
81July 19@Marines
82July 20Eagles
83July 21Eagles
84July 22Eagles
85July 28Buffaloes
86July 29Buffaloes
87July 30Buffaloes
88July 31@Fighters :
August
#DateOpponentScoreWinLossSaveAttendanceRecord
89August 1@Fighters
90August 2@Fighters
91August 4Marines
92August 5Marines
93August 6Marines
94August 7@Lions
95August 8@Lions
96August 9@Lions
97August 11@Eagles
98August 12@Eagles
99August 13@Eagles
100August 14@Buffaloes
101August 15@Buffaloes
102August 16@Buffaloes
103August 18Lions
104August 19Lions
105August 20Lions
106August 21Fighters
107August 22Fighters
108August 23Fighters
109August 25@Marines
110August 26@Marines
111August 27@Marines
112August 28@Fighters
113August 29@Fighters
114August 30@Fighters :
September
#DateOpponentScoreWinLossSaveAttendanceRecord
115September 1Buffaloes
116September 2Buffaloes
117September 3Buffaloes
118September 4Lions
119September 5Lions
120September 6Lions
121September 8@Marines
122September 9@Marines
123September 10@Marines
124September 11Eagles
125September 12Eagles
126September 13Eagles
127September 15@Buffaloes
128September 16@Buffaloes
129September 17@Buffaloes
130September 18@Lions
131September 19@Lions
132September 20@Lions
133September 21Marines
134September 22Marines
135September 23Marines
136September 25Fighters
137September 26Fighters
138September 27Fighters
139September 29@Eagles
140September 30@Eagles :
October
#DateOpponentScoreWinLossSaveAttendanceRecord
141October 1@Eagles
—October 2@EaglesPostponed (rained out)
142October 4@Fighters
143October 6Buffaloes
144October 11@Eagles
PLCS Game 1October 16@Eagles
PLCS Game 2October 17@Eagles :

## Player stats
### Batting

| Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR | RBI | SB |

### Pitching

| Player | G | GS | IP | W | L | SV | ERA | SO |