◆ Pacific League: Lotte vs. Softbank Hawks (2nd, ZOZO Marine)

Softbank Hawks pitcher Yugo Maeda (21) made his final regular-season appearance in a game against Lotte. After giving up a game-tying solo home run to Inoue in the 4th inning while leading 1-0, he continued to pitch powerfully, trusting in his teammates' support. However, with two outs and a runner on first in the 8th inning—his longest inning pitched to date—he surrendered a painful go-ahead two-run homer to Sato. He was then pulled from the mound in frustration after issuing a Walk to the next batter, Inoue. He threw a career-high 122 pitches. He failed to reach his 13th win, which would have tied for the league lead, and also missed out on the title for the highest winning percentage, which required at least 13 wins.

This was Yu Maeda's first appearance since suffering his first loss of the season on September 19th against the Rakuten Eagles (Rakuten Mobile), where he allowed 5 runs in less than 5 innings.