◆Open game Nippon-Ham and Seibu (5th, ESCON)

Nippon-Ham pitcher Fukuya Yamazaki started the game, giving up four hit and two runs in four innings. He gave up runs on an infield hit and sacrifice fly fly, but his fastball, which he had been focusing on, showed its power throughout the game, reaching a maximum speed of 143 km/h in the fourth inning.

In the 3rd inning, 2 Walk and infield hit led to a pinch hit bases loaded with one out, and the ball hit Nishikawa's stopped bat and went infield hit to third base. It was timely infield hit and allowed the first run to score. However, Watabe got out of the inning with the fewest runs by hitting a Yugoro double play.

In the 4th inning, with Walk and Canario's left field line doble, they faced a pinch with no outs on second and third base. Murata then finished off with a struck out swing, but allowed a middle sacrifice fly to Tsuge and lost the second goal. The follow-up was cut off, 4 hit 2 runs 4 innings, 3 Walk 2 strike out. He went down mound on 59 pitches.

Yamazaki reflected, "I wanted to throw faster today, so that was good. My speed didn't drop until the end, and I think my average pitch speed increased, but that meant there was a bit of inconsistency. I'd like to be able to match my control and speed, or at least work together."

He also had occasion to strike out Sotozaki with a 140 km/h struck out, and expressed his satisfaction, saying, "Last year, I never got any strikeouts on high fastballs.Today, there were quite a few, so I was simply happy about that."

His new screwball pitch was good, striking out Hasegawa with a foul fly in the first inning, but Canario, who pitched it too softly, hit doble the left field line. "I thought it was bad to pitch it too high, but on the other hand, when I hit it in the right spot, it made the batter lose his composure. Now it's just a matter of being able to throw the ball well. I think it's dangerous to pitch it too softly," he said, pointing out this as an issue for the future.