◆Nippon Life Interleague Series 2026: Hiroshima 2-5 Nippon-Ham extra inning 12 innings) (June 4th, Mazda Stadium)

In a long game played out in heavy rain, Nippon-Ham took the lead extra inning of the 12th inning with two outs and doble on first and second base when infielder Yamagata hit a timely hit, his first hit of the season in his 25th at-bat. They won the hard-fought battle against Hiroshima and reduced their deficit to one game. As Lotte had win, they narrowly avoided the crisis of dropping to fifth place if they hadn't won.

The starter was the 24-year old DRA1 who is a two-sport athlete Leo Shibata. pitcher pitch He gave up a solo shot to Fabian in the 2nd inning, but he gave up 5 hit in the 4th inning and 1 runs in the 4th inning, his most in his professional career, and he gave up 4 struck out. In his first professional at-bat in the 2nd inning, he hit a fly to left field that was just a few meters Home Run away, and in his second at-bat in the 4th inning, he grounded out to second base.

Last season, his first year out of high school, he made four appearances and posted ERA of 2.92. This season in the minor leagues, he has dominated with 7 games (5 of which were starts), 2 wins, ERA of 0.73, and 30 strike out in 24 2/3 innings. He has also played in 39 games as hitter, hitting .170 with 2 Home Run, and was promoted to the first team at the strong request of manager Shinjo.

The team tied the game in the sixth inning with a solo home run by Reyes, his tenth of the season, after trailing 0-1. In the eighth inning, Reyes hit a timely doble to left-center field to take the lead.

In the ninth inning, closer Yanagawa came in but couldn't hold the lead, forcing the game into extra inning innings. After that, Fukutani and Yamamoto kept the score at zero, securing the win. pitcher staff used all eight players on the bench, except for Yazawa, who mainly plays as fielder, in this all-out effort.