◆Nippon Life Interleague Series 2026: Hiroshima 2-5 Nippon-Ham (June 4th, Mazda Stadium)

Nippon-Ham came from behind to defeat Hiroshima, reducing their win to one game. With Lotte having win, a loss to Hiroshima would have dropped them to fifth place, but they managed to stay in the lead.

The game was interrupted by rain and didn't end until after 11 p.m. The game lasted 4 hours and 51 minutes. Manager Shinjo was very excited, saying, "It was an amazing game. It all started with Shibata." Shibata, who made his first start of the season as the "number 7 batter and pitcher," threw 88 pitches over 4 innings, giving up 5 hit 1 runs Shinjo said, "He wasn't bad. He set the stage for the game, and I had him throw around 80 pitches." As hitter, he hit a long fly ball to left-center field in his first at-bat in the second inning, and Shinjo praised his batting skills, saying, "I thought he'd had a good at-bat." "When I asked Shibata, 'Were you tired at the end?', he said, 'My uniform was heavy because it was wet from the rain' (laughs). I thought, 'That's the thing!' (catcher). pitcher is a delicate position, so if you start worrying about things like that, it's probably going to bother you a lot. But he pitched really well. Catcher Umabayashi also did a great job leading the team," he said, praising them both. Regarding the future, he envisioned, "It's all about experience. He's pitcher who will improve as he pitches more, so I may not be able to let him pitch that much, but I want to let him pitch while carefully considering the plan (for his use)."