◆ Pacific League Nippon-Ham 0-8 Softbank Hawks (21st, ES CON FIELD)

Nippon-Ham suffered consecutive losses to Softbank Hawks, failing to win the series. Their lead in the standings dropped to six games, and the gap between them and league leaders Seibu Lions, who win games, widened to 6.5 games. This brings their record against Softbank Hawks this season to 1 win and 10 losses.

Starting pitcher Shibata was forced to leave the game after 2 1/3 innings, having thrown 45 pitches, given up 2 hit 1 run, due to an runs in the third inning when a batted ball hit the back of his right hand. In an unexpected turn of events, third pitcher Kanemura took the mound in the fourth inning, but he couldn't hold on, giving up 7 hit and 5 runs in 3 innings, including a solo home run to Kurihara, who was the leadoff batter. His teammates also struggled defensively, with third baseman Nomura and right fielder Manami committing errors, and second baseman Castro making fielder’s choice defense Last season, runs in 25 games against Softbank Hawks. This season, they have already given up 86 runs in 11 games. In all 10 games they have lost, they have given up 6 or more runs, showing that they are unable closer the SoftBank offense.

The batting lineup was shut down by the SoftBank pitcher staff, managing only 5 hits and no hit in 7 innings against opposing starter Yu Maeda.