On October 4th, the 25th game between the Chiba Lotte Marines and Tohoku Rakuten Eagles at Zozo Marine Stadium ended in a 3-2 win for the Chiba Lotte Marines.

The Chiba Lotte Marines starter was Kazuya Ojima pitcher. In the first inning, he faced a crisis with no outs and runner on 2nd and 3rd due to a doble by Rui Muneyama and others, and gave up one run on a sacrifice fly by Itsuki Murabayashi. From the second inning onwards, despite allowing runner, he tightened up in key moments and did not allow any additional runs. In the top of the 7th, he faced a crisis with 1 out and runner on 1st and 2nd, but retired the following batters, leaving the mound after 7 innings, 119 pitches, 6 hit, 2 Walk, 5 strike out, and 1 runs.

The lineup succeeded in turning the game around in the bottom of the 4th when the lead-off Misho Nishikawa reached base with a hit, followed by a 36th 2-run Home Run by Koki Yamaguchi. Furthermore, in the bottom of the 6th, Yamaguchi hit his 37th solo Home Run in consecutive at-bats to extend the lead.

As for the relief squad, in the top of the 8th, Shunsuke Nakamori pitcher gave up one run on a timely hit by McCusker, but in the top of the 9th, Rikuto Yokoyama pitcher held them to no runs as the closer, and the game ended 3-2. In the win for the Chiba Lotte Marines, Ojima earned his 6th win, and Yokoyama recorded his 35th save, tying for the league lead. In the lineup, Yamaguchi hit Home Run in two consecutive at-bats, reaching 37 Home Run for the season. He broke the club record for most Home Run since moving to Chiba (35) by two.

Tohoku Rakuten Eagles had Hayakawa pitcher go 6 innings, 88 pitches, 5 hit, 1 Walk, 6 strike out, and 3 runs. The lineup closed the gap to one run in the final stages, but fell just short.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Total
E 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2
M 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 X 3

E ●Takahisa Hayakawa-Ren Kajiya-Sota Fujiwara
M ○Kazuya Ojima-Shunsuke Nakamori-S Rikuto Yokoyama

Text by Kanako Fukushima