On 21 March, the opening match between The Giants and Chiba Lotte in Tokyo Dome ended in a 2-6 loss for Chiba Lotte.

​Chiba Lotte starter Kazuya Ojima pitcher loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the second inning with hit and Walk on and gave up four runs on an RBI single by Reito Nakayama and a three-run single by Takuya Kai. In the bottom of the third inning, he was hit by an RBI single to make the score 5-0. He closer with no runs in the bottom of the fourth and left after 56 pitches in the fourth inning hit 2 Walk 1 strike out 5 runs.

In the top of the fifth, the leadoff hitter Yudai Fujioka singled to load the bases on a grounder to Walk and infield. With two outs and the bases loaded, Hiromi Oka hit an RBI single to bring home one run. Katsuya Kakunaka connected on a hit and scored the second run on Polanco's RBI single.

In the fifth, Atsuya Hirohata pitcher and Shota Suzuki pitcher each retired closer three batters in the first inning. Guerrero pitcher, who was fourth, took a hit in the first hitter, but fought off the rest of the field with three riders to runs the field. However, in the bottom of the eighth, Naoya Masuda pitcher gave up one run on back-to-back singles with two outs. In the top of the ninth inning, Kyuto Ueda and Eito Takabe had a good chance to put runners on first and second with two outs on hit, but they couldn't get one out and the game ended 6-2.

Starter pitcher Kojima went five runs in four innings, but he looked forward to the start of the season in a week's time, saying, "I kind of know what I need to do and why I was hit, so I hope I can correct that." The offense had a total of 10 hit, including two hit by Toshiya Sato and substitute Takabe, but they were unable to connect and scored only two runs.

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-Kazuya Ojima-Atsuya Hirohata-Shota Suzuki- Guerrero -Naoya Masuda
Giant ○Togo Shosei-Izumi Keisuke-Hirauchi Ryuta-Takanashi Yuhei-Funasako Taiga-Baldonado-Martinez

Text by Rihoko Niwa

・ Match details/video