◆パ・リーグ　オリックス０―２日本ハム（１０日・京セラドーム大阪）

Nippon-Ham defeated league leaders Orix Buffaloes, reducing their deficit to two games and narrowing the gap with the leader to five games. This was their first series win in two series and their first two-game winning streak since the 1st.

After the game, manager Shinjo praised Kitayama, who earned his third win of the season with eight hit runs, allowing only seven hits, saying, "He was perfect. Absolutely perfect. Nothing more to say." He added, "His release point is stable, he has good balance, and his tempo is good too," commending Kitayama's pitch performance, which included only one Walk over eight innings.

He also mentioned the change in catcher from Tamiya to Shindo in the fifth defense. There were concerns about Tamiya's injury, but he said, "We started with Tamiya, and Shindo wasn't getting the timing right with (the opposing starting pitcher) Espinosa, so I envisioned having Tamiya get one or two hits, scoring first, and then (hit him to Shindo) for shutout game. And that's exactly what happened." Kitayama had pitched with Shindo in his previous start on the 3rd (against Orix Buffaloes 's Escon) and achieved shutout game win, and he revealed that he had considered the compatibility with the opposing starting pitcher from the beginning, and had planned to use Tamiya in the starting starting line-up and leave it to Shindo in the later innings. Tamiya went 2 At Bat-2 at the hit, and Shindo showed stable defense from the fifth inning, and the manager's strategy worked perfectly.