◆ Pacific League Nippon-Ham 4-0 Lotte (23rd, ES CON FIELD)

Lotte, who had been on a three-game winning streak, suffered their ninth shutout loss of the season, managing only three hit no runs, thus missing out on a fourth consecutive win. Japan allowed Kitayama, who had not started, win a three-hit shutout game and were unable to even reach second base.

Starting pitcher Hiroike gave up a solo home run to Reyes in the first inning (his 16th of the season) and another solo home run to Shindo in the third inning (his 2nd of the season), allowing two runs in total. He struggled on pitch, giving up hit in every inning, but managed to hold on for six innings, giving up three runs, fulfilling the minimum requirement for a starting pitcher.

The batting lineup was unable to provide run support for the tenacious 23-year-old right-hander. Ueda reached base with a hit in the third inning with one out, and Ogawa did the same in the sixth with two outs, but neither was followed by another baserunner. In the eighth inning, trailing by four runs, leadoff hitter Yamaguchi hit a single to right field hit, but the next batter, pinch hitter Yasuda, was retired on a groundout to second double play.

They suffered a shutout loss, unable to even reach second base. Manager Saburo admitted defeat, saying, "We were beaten. I wish they could have hit against a good pitcher." Regarding the batting lineup, he calmly reflected, "What's been good recently is that they've been hitting the fastballs well, but they weren't hitting the fastballs well this time. I don't know if they were letting them go or if they just couldn't get a swing at them, but I wanted them to be more aggressive. I wanted them to be aggressive from the first pitch, but I think there were a lot of bad habits on the batters' part, like letting the fastballs go by and then swinging and missing at breaking ball."