The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks will try to strike first, scoring runs early, so they can play their own brand of ball in the 2017 Japan Series.
Before Saturday's Game 1 of the NPB championship series, Hawks hitting coach Hiroshi Fujimoto said that the Hawks would focus on getting on the board before the Yokohama BayStars.
"We want to score some runs to startle (the BayStars)," Fujimoto said. "Their first couple of hitters in the lineup don't have much power. But we do. And we have (Seiichi) Uchikawa, who's in top form right now, in the cleanup spot. We want to go aggressively from early (on), because they change their pitchers a lot."
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