On May 27, the second round of the 'Nippon Life Central-Pacific League Interleague 2026' between Tokyo Yakult and Saitama Seibu Lions held in Jingu Stadium ended in a 2-2 draw.

In the top of the second inning, the Saitama Seibu Lions lineup hit a safety bunt by leadoff Shinya Hasegawa and a sacrifice bunt of Yutaro Watanabe pitcher with two outs and a runner on second, then Canario scored a timely hit to take the lead. In the top of the sixth, Nevin hit his solo home run for the eighth, extending the lead to two runs.

Starting pitcher pitcher Watanabe carried inning runner every inning from the first through the fourth inning but did not allow any runs. From the fifth inning onward, he closer hit, pitching 108 pitches in 7 innings, 4 hit 2 Walk 7 strike out runs empty, and retired from mound. In the bottom of the eighth with a two-run lead, Hibiki Shinohara pitcher gave up Santana's 10th-run two-run homer. In the bottom of the ninth, Taishi Mameda pitcher hit a series of hits and Walk to make it one out bases loaded, but Ryuusei Takeoka was hit double play to closer, pushing the game into extra inning.

In the bottom of the 10th, Hakua Iwaki pitcher connected with no runs, and in the top of the 11th, two errors by Yuto Koga player hit and the opponent's pitcher created a no-outs bases loaded opportunity, but no runs were scored. Masaya Kuroda pitcher in the bottom of the 11th and Mikato Aoyama pitcher in the bottom of the 12th, closer with no runs, ending the game in a 2-2 tie. Canario has been performing well with 3 hit RBI and Natsuo Takizawa with 3 hit.

123456789 10 11 12 total
West 010001000 0 0 0 2
Ya 000000020 0 0 0 2

Yutaro Yutaro Watanabe-Hibiki Shinohara-Taishi Mameda Hakua Iwaki Masaya Kuroda-Mikato Aoyama
Ya: Keiji Takahashi, Satoshi Ozawa, Kosuke Sakaguchi, Kihada, Noboru Shimizu, Yu Hirosawa, Shota Maruyama

Written by Aoi Nishijima