[Softbank] 3 losses in 3 opening games since the Nankai era, the first in the team's history at home... Manager Kokubo: "We can't let up 20 runs in 3 games..."

Sports Hochi

2025.3.31(月) 05:00

In the seventh inning, manager Kokubo tells Uesawa (left) that he is leaving the game (camera: Shuji Asada)

◆ Pacific League Softbank 4-7 Lotte (30th, Mizuho PayPay Dome)

Last season's champion Softbank, lost all three games in the opening match for the first time in 37 years since 1988 when they were the Nankai Hawks. This was the first time that this had happened at home. Following on from the 29th, their proud relief pitching did not work, and they suffered three consecutive come-from-behind losses. Manager Kokubo said matter-of-factly, "It's hard to win when you've allowed 20 runs in three games. baseball is all about pitcher." Before the start of the season, he had confidently said, "baseball is pitcher," while pointing out the relief pitchers as a strength, but he ended up using the same phrase in the opposite sense.

Uezawa, who was 1 hit 1 runs until the sixth inning, was replaced at third base with two outs in the seventh. "Overall, I threw in a good rhythm, I'm sorry and frustrated that I left runner," Hernandez said, but back-to-back doble from Polanco and Oka tied the game. In his first start back in the NPB, his first win in 546 days was erased, and in the eighth inning, Sugiyama allowed two consecutive wild pitches from second base with two outs to score the winning run. The scene of the final goal was caught between pitch 's body and the protector of catcher, and the coach smiled wryly, "This is the first time I've seen it, and this is what happens when everything goes wrong." (Osamu Ando)