◆Nippon Life Interleague Series 2026 Rakuten Eagles 0-2 Hiroshima (13th, Rakuten Eagles Mobile Saikyo Park Miyagi)

Rakuten Eagles suffered shutout game loss to Hiroshima, missing out on a three-game winning streak.

Starting pitcher Hayakawa pitched 5 innings, 7 hit 2 runs. The lineup, which wanted to support the left-hander, struggled against Hiroshima's starter Morishita. After Taira hit a right-front hit in the first inning, he went 20 hitter straight outs. In the seventh inning, with two outs, McCuscar hit a hit to left, but it didn't lead to a run. Unable to clear the final stages, they lost shutout game in just 2 hit. Rakuten Eagles acting manager Shiokawa said, "One of the challenges this year is not capturing the good pitcher. I think I gave it a try there. Achieving high accuracy and how much you can return is a major challenge. If you commit a foul by pitcher, you can't break it down. Of course, I did lose, but I can feel their determination to try. If you don't return those with high accuracy, you can't return good pitcher or pitcher with strong balls. That's where I am," he recalled.

One of the things they "tried" against a good pitcher was to attack from first baseman strike. The acting manager said, "Not just with pitcher Morishita, but when you're behind in the count, it's hard to raise your batting average. They did a good job of going for hittable pitches, to a certain extent. The pitches were coming from the side, including the location, so it was a bit tricky, but they did try. However, one of the challenges this year has been that we haven't been able to break down the starting pitchers. Of course, we're trying and discussing it now, but I know that it won't come out immediately. But, as I've said before, how we use this loss to our advantage next time is very important. Reviewing today's game will be crucial."