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

Softbank Hawks In the fourth inning with no outs, Ryoya Kurihara hit a high fastball from full count, sending it into the right-field stands for his 20th home run of the season—his first solo shot in eight games.This marks the first time in 21 years for the team since Nobuhiko Matsunaka in 2005, and he became the fourth player—following Katsuya Nomura in 1957, 1961, and 1962, and Hiromitsu Kadota in 1988—to reach 20 home runs faster than any other player in either league.

He wore eye blue stickers under his eyes, saying, "It's a play on words, combining Father's Day and Samurai Blue." Speaking about his father, Kazuhiro, he said with a wry smile, "He's still a strict dad. He seems to have his own way of batting, and I might have to do that too."

"I was really curious about it," he recalled, referring to the Japan national football team's match against Tunisia, which kicked off at the same time as the first pitch of the game. Live updates of the match were displayed on the right field of the stadium, and he said, "They scored a goal really early on, so I was a little late going to the next inning. I was thinking they were strong," and it also served as a celebratory salute for the Japan national team's decisive victory in the second match.