◆Nippon Life Interleague Series 2026 Yakult vs. Nippon-Ham (May 5th, Jingu Stadium)

Nippon-Ham went into extra inning innings for the second consecutive game. The previous day, on the 4th, they won a hard-fought 12-extra inning game against Hiroshima at Mazda Stadium, which was interrupted by rain and lasted 4 hours and 51 minutes. On this day, they traveled to Tokyo by Shinkansen for about 4 hours, making it a tough game with a lot of travel.

Starting pitcher Fukushima gave up an RBI single to Akabane in the first inning, allowing the opposing team to score the first run. However, he then held the opponent scoreless for the rest of the game, pitching seven innings, throwing 112 pitches, allowing only five hit and one runs.

The batting lineup had been closer to just one hit by Yakult starting pitcher Yamano through six innings, but in the seventh inning with one out, Reyes hit a massive 11th home run of the season to left field, his second in as many games, to tie the game.

After that, neither team scored, and the game went into extra inning innings. This was Shinjo Ham's second consecutive game in extra inning innings.