◆パ・リーグ　ロッテ２―３日本ハム（１２日・ＺＯＺＯマリン）

Last-place Lotte suffered a close defeat due to a pitching change error. They lost the first game of their fourth consecutive series, putting them at their worst deficit of the season at eight games below .500.

Nippon-Ham Ito struggled to get a hit against the starter, and the score was 0-2 until the 5th inning. Nevertheless, Sato's timely hit to right in the 6th inning brought home a run, and with two outs and a chance to go to bases loaded Teraji flied out to left, but Ueda's No. 2 solo shot in the 7th inning tied the game.

Starter Jackson gave up his fifth solo home run to Reyes in the fourth inning, but pitched 4 hit 2 runs through the seventh. In the eighth inning, he gave the leadoff hitter Mizuno a Hit by Pitch, creating a one-out, runner-on-third crisis between stolen base and infield grounders. Leadoff hitter Castro swung and missed with a straightforward 156 km/h fastball struck out The total number of pitches reached 113, but the balls were still running. Even so, the bench chose to pitch in relief. He brought in left-hander Suzuki to replace pinch hitter Asama, but with Walk to Asama, two outs and runners on first and third. Next, Yukio Kiyomiya threw an inside fastball from the full count on the sixth pitch to the third shortstop and became the game-winning RBI single to left.

Manager Saburo explained the pitching change, saying, "He ended up throwing nearly 120 pitches, so I changed him there. The reason was the number of pitches." He added, "This is entirely my fault. I am quite careful about the number of pitches. Especially Jackson, who needs to be a key pitcher, so I would like him to push himself, but it's not the right time for that yet." When asked if he had considered bringing in Suzuki from the start of the 8th inning, he replied, "I considered that too, but Jackson himself wanted to go. However, it was a half-hearted decision. I think I should have encouraged him."