◆ Pacific League Lotte 4-5 Seibu Lions (August 2nd, ZOZO Marine Stadium)

Lotte lost to Seibu Lions in a row. The debt swelled to 4, and the last place escape was deposited. Haruya Tanaka pitcher, a fourth-year professional right-hander who started, was unable to closer the Leo batting line with 7 hit 5 runs (3 earned) in 6 innings. I cried even with two bullets and one shot. fastball itself is a painful pitch that requires 110 pitches and the number of pitches while running. He suffered his third loss.

After the game, manager Saburo gave Tanaka, who was the starting pitcher, some harsh words, saying, "He wasn't good at all. He made a lot of mistakes. I thought he was a little better last time (in Kagoshima), but he didn't have that same feeling today," urging him to improve.

"I think we did our best, but if we hadn't made any mistakes, we might have been able closer the number of runs conceded to a minimum," he said, also mentioning defense lapses in the backline. Tanaka seemed to be overexerting himself trying to cover for defense mistakes, and he summarized by saying, "That's just his personality (he has a strong sense of responsibility). It was a little too much. But the backline has to defend properly. If you make mistakes, you can't win. It would be fine if everyone covered for each other, but it seems like that wasn't possible today."

The batting lineup managed 10 hit, more than their opponent, and narrowed the gap to one run, but ultimately fell short. "The batting lineup was better than yesterday, but we were just one step away from victory. I think that's how it is when you lose. You think, 'If only we had gotten one more hit,' or 'If only we had made contact,' and so on. But today, all of that backfired, and it ended up disrupting our momentum. It was a real shame," he said.

Regarding the substitution of Ryusei Terachi, starting line-up started as the third batter and third baseman, in the sixth inning, he said, "He didn't seem like he could hit at all (laughs). He seemed troubled about something, so I tried replacing him with the more decisive Ikeda (Raito)...that's about it," indicating that it wasn't due to an accident.