◆Nippon Life Interleague Series 2026 Rakuten Eagles 0-7 The Giants (10th, Rakuten Eagles Mobile Saikyo Park Miyagi)

Rakuten Eagles lost to The Giants, suffering their fifth consecutive defeat.

The team announced that day that manager Hajime Miki would be taking a leave of absence. The decision was made after discussions between the club and the manager, and head coach Tatsuya Shiokawa took over as acting manager from that day's game The Giants. His first game as manager lose. Acting manager Shiokawa reflected, "We've had a series of games that I'm sorry to the fans for. We have to struggle and really break through, otherwise we'll just keep sliding downhill. We have to accept what has happened and think about what to do about it. We really can't let this loss go to waste, we have to use it as motivation."

In the 59th game of the season, their chances of winning the championship on their own were eliminated. Acting manager Shiokawa said, "We accept this. But there's no point in looking back. Instead of relying on momentum, we need to work with the coaches to come up with clear strategies to move forward, and communicate them clearly and simply to the players. We need to get results from that, so we have to do our part properly."

His debut was plagued by accidents from the very beginning. Starting pitcher Kosha gave up a run in the first inning and was pulled after the first inning due to condition issues. With the starter urgently pulled out, the second pitcher, Fujiwara, gave up a run-scoring single to left field to Sasaki with no outs and a runner on third in the third inning, allowing additional runs. In the fourth inning, Shibata, who had moved up to mound as the third pitcher, threw out on a steal and runs. The gap widened to three runs.

The batting lineup struggled against The Giants' starting pitcher Togoh. They couldn't even create scoring opportunities as they wanted.

lose an unusual "showdown between interim managers" against The Giants' interim manager, Hashigami.