◆Nippon Life Interleague Series 2026 Yakult 1-3 Nippon-Ham (May 5th, Jingu Stadium)

Nippon-Ham defeated the Central League League leaders Yakult in extra inning innings, bringing their winning percentage back to .500. In the 11th inning, extra inning 1-1, Mizuno hit a game-winning solo home run to right field off Yakult 's Kihada. Manami then hit an RBI single to extend the lead, and Yamamoto closed out the bottom of the inning without runs.

The previous day, on the 4th, they won a hard-fought 12-inning game against Hiroshima at Mazda Stadium, which was extra inning by rain and lasted 4 hours and 51 minutes. On this day, they traveled to Tokyo by Shinkansen, a journey of about 4 hours. It was a tough game with a lot of travel ahead of it.

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 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, tying the game and sending it into extra inning innings.