Lotte's Yuki Karakawa made his first appearance and start of the season against Hanshin Tigers on the 30th, but he threw 74 pitches over 5 innings, hit 5 hits, strike out 4, BB 1, and allowing 4 runs, resulting in him being lose pitcher.

In the first inning, he got leadoff Takumu Nakano on a 2-ball, 2-strike curveball grounder to first, then hit Shota Morishita swinging with a curveball struck out to get two outs. He also easily pressed third batter Teruaki Sato, but after 2 balls and 2 strike, the seventh pitch, cutter, was carried to the right-field stands and he gave up the opening run.

In the second inning with the score tied 0-1, he allowed a single Naonori Yasuda home run to tie the game, and immediately after, in the top of the third, he let Seishiro Sakamoto lead, struck out with an outside cutter. He wanted to keep up the momentum, but infield hit to Keiyu Kumagai, and then Takumu Nakano swung and missed at change-up, struck out Shota Morishita hit the cutter on the first pitch to the left field stands, giving up a go-ahead two-run homer.

He closer the 4th inning with no runs, but in the 5th, with no two outs and no runner, Morishita gave up his second home run of the day, and after throwing that inning, he was taken out of the game.

Karakawa reflected, "I only had home run, but even among those home run, there were home run that I didn't need, so I don't know if it's the right word to say it was a waste... I just wasn't good enough," and expressed his frustration, saying, "In the first inning, I had adrenaline flowing and couldn't control myself at all, and I felt like I couldn't control myself until the end."