On June 12th at 18:00, Kyocera Dome Osaka will host the first round of the 'Nippon Life Central vs. League-Pacific Interleague 2026' between Orix Buffaloes and Hanshin Tigers.

[Last Season's Head-to-Head Record] Orix Buffaloes vs Hanshin Tigers 0 wins, 3 losses

[Announced Starting Lineup]
Orix Buffaloes: Perdomo pitcher 8 matches, 1 win, 2 losses, ERA 14.14
Hanshin Tigers: Shoki Murakami pitcher 11 games, 5 wins, 3 losses, ERA 1.78

Orix Buffaloes achieved three consecutive wins against Tokyo Yakult. The last opponent in the interleague games held at home was Hanshin Tigers, who suffered three straight losses last year.

The announced starting pitcher was Perdomo pitcher. In his fourth year in Japan, he started for the first time. This season, he has already appeared in 8 reliever games, but after several runs in 3 games, he was removed from the roof on April 19. After joining the farm team, he started three times in the farm regular season, with his most recent appearance being on June 5 in the Hanshin Tigers game. He threw 5 innings with 3 hit 2 Walk 2 strike out, and runs closer only to solo home runs. We want to carefully craft our games so that the Central League leaders, Teruaki Sato and Shota Morishita, who lead in batting average and Home Run, don't use them in clutch moments.

In the batting lineup, player Ryu Sugisawa, who had been diagnosed with a distal fracture of the right ulna on April 14, returned to the first team. On the 11th, against Tokyo Yakult, he recorded his first starting line-up since returning as the eighth batter center fielder, and in his second at-bat, he hit a hit to right field that led to the opening run. He should be able to show his performance before leaving again.

Text by Ayako Kikuchi