◆ Pacific League Rakuten Eagles Seibu Lions (25th, Rakuten Eagles Mobile Saikyo Park Miyagi)

Rakuten Eagles win Seibu Lions, securing their third consecutive win. This victory against league leaders Seibu Lions marks their first three-game sweep against the same opponent this season. It also marked manager Masato Yoshii's 200th career win.

Starting pitcher Kenta Maeda delivered a superb performance, allowing only three hit and no runs over seven innings. He threw a season-high 114 pitches and earned his first win of the season. Manager Yoshii praised him, saying, "He was really fired up. I think it was a truly impressive pitching performance."

The manager decided to entrust the game to Kenta Maeda seven times. "I was thinking he would throw around 100 pitches, but that was a crucial inning, and his first win in Japan was on the line, so I thought it would be better to let Maeda take on the challenge. It ended up being a bit more than that, but he did a great job," he said excitedly.

On this day, Nakajima, who had been promoted to the first team, was put in starting line-up. He delivered a crucial timely hit. Manager Yoshii was pleased, saying, "From the perspective of the opposing team, he's a really talented and good hitter, so I was wondering what happened to his performance this year, but today he swung well from his first at-bat."