Dutch right-hander Rick van den Hurk allowed two runs over seven innings, while striking out 13 and was rewarded by a late comeback from his team as the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks beat the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters 4-2 on Sunday.

“I focus on executing one pitch at a time, and that’s what happens, I’m not looking for the strikeouts. (I intend to) attack the strike zone, keeping my focus on the next pitch and I was able to do that well today,” said van den Hurk, following his second win in as many games.

Kenji Akashi’s RBI single off Michael Crotta (1-1) made it 2-1 in the eighth, before Seiichi Uchikawa lined a double to center off a good pitch from Naoki Miyanishi with the bases loaded and one out to give the Pacific League leaders a 4-2 lead.

“I wanted the team to win as the captain, and was determined to do the job as the cleanup man,” said Uchikawa. “Vandy did such a great job for seven innings, so I wanted to get it done for him, too. I just wanted to hit it where there were no fielders.”

Van den Hurk gave up five hits and issued his only walk to open the game, and that helped the Fighters to their first run.

In the first inning, Nippon Ham’s Kensuke Tanaka fouled off five two-strike pitches before van den Hurk missed over the plate. Tanaka flared it into shallow left for an opposite-field RBI double.

The Fighters doubled their lead in the fifth on three singles, Takuya Nakashima batting in a run on a one-out grounder to short.

Luis Mendoza started for Nippon Ham, but came out of the game apparently with a blister on his right index finger. He allowed two hits, two walks and hit a batter, and left after walking the leadoff man in the fourth. Keisuke Tanimoto came on and pitched out of trouble for two innings before giving way to Crotta in the sixth.

The Hawks stretched their lead over the Fighters to 2½ games after completing a three-game sweep of the top-of-the-table series.

Eagles 5, Marines 0

At QVC Marine Field, Yasunori Kikuchi (3-0) allowed four hits and a walk over seven innings and two relievers completed the six-hit shutout as Tohoku Rakuten completed a three-game sweep of Chiba Lotte. The Eagles took the early lead on solo homers by Akihisa Makida and Wily Mo Pena.

Lions 8, Buffaloes 0

At Kyocera Dome, Ernesto Mejia drove in five runs on two home runs, and Yusei Kikuchi (4-2) threw seven innings as Seibu shutout Orix for the second straight game. Takeya Nakamura hit his 20th home run for the Lions, tying him with Hokkaido Nippon Ham’s Sho Nakata for the league lead. Buffaloes ace Chihiro Kaneko (2-2) allowed four runs in six innings to take the loss.

CENTRAL LEAGUE

Dragons 4, Giants 3

At Tokyo Dome, two solo shots in succession from Kazuhiro Wada and Anderson Hernandez off Scott Mathieson (1-4) in the eighth put Chunichi in front after starter Daisuke Yamai (3-6) had surrendered three runs to Yomiuri in the seventh.

Tigers 4, Swallows 2

At Koshien Stadium, Kosuke Fukudome’s solo shot in the sixth off Nagisa Arakaki (2-5) tied the game 2-2 before Keisuke Kano’s pinch-hit double off reliever Ryo Akiyoshi drove in two runs. Hanshin’s Shintaro Fujinami (5-4) earned the win after striking out seven in six innings against Tokyo Yakult.

Carp at BayStars — ppd.