◆ Pacific League Softbank Hawks 11-0 Seibu Lions (August 1st, Mizuho PayPay Dome)

Softbank Hawks defeated Seibu Lions 11-0, maintaining their lead in the standings. infielder Rintaro Sasaki (Stanford University), the team's first-round draft pick last fall, was in attendance at the game. Starting pitcher Yugo Yugo Maeda, who, along with Sasaki, was known as one of the "Four Heavenly Kings of High School Baseball," pitched seven runs innings. He earned his sixth win without a loss, becoming pitcher in his first three years out of high school to do so since Shohei Ohtani of Nippon-Ham in 2015, who achieved seven consecutive wins.

The offense exploded in front of Sasaki. In the first inning, Masaki started the rally with a leadoff hitter run, and with one out and a runner on first, Kurihara followed with a career-high 22nd home run, a two-run shot. In the fifth inning, Yanagida hit his 9th solo home run, and in the sixth inning, Kondo hit his 18th solo home run. They scored 11 runs on 11 hit, including 7 Home Run 4 of which were home runs.

Entering the three-game series against Seibu Lions just one game behind in second place, the team faced off against the league leaders. In the first game the previous night, on the 30th, Uwasawa pitched six runs innings to earn his fifth win of the season, his first since May 1st, and the team rose to first place for the first time in 70 days, since April 21st. On this day, they continued their winning streak in the best possible way, closing the gap to just one game over second-place Seibu Lions. With one draw in between, they extended their winning streak to four games, and their lead in the standings has grown to a season-high of 15 games.