◆Pre-season game: Hanshin Tigers 1-0 Softbank Hawks (7th, Koshien)

Softbank Hawks suffered his second consecutive shutout game loss. The first Yuki Yanagita outfielder inning started off with a hit to right, but the rest of the lineup couldn't get going, and former colleague Kotaro Otake pitcher shut them down until the third inning. 5 hit runs were scored in the bottom of the inning, as there were few good hits against pitcher the second and later batters.

This was a rematch of last year's Japan Series. Softbank Hawks, who won the Japan Series with a record of 4 wins and 1 loss, also won three straight games at Koshien, but have not had many highlights in the matches since then. Starting pitcher Shuto Ogata was the first pick in the 2017 development draft. He pitched against pitcher Otake Kotaro, who was the fourth pick in the same draft and now plays for Hanshin Tigers, and said, "We've been practicing together for a long time. Shuto (who was second in the same draft) was also with us, and it was a very emotional match."