◆ Pacific League Rakuten Eagles 0-5 Lotte (August 1st, Koriyama)

Rakuten Eagles lost to Lotte, suffering their third consecutive defeat.

They lost control of the game from the start. In the third inning, with both teams scoreless, Rakuten Eagles 's starting pitcher Takinaka, who had been pitching well, hit Yamaguchi with Hit by Pitch with two outs, and then gave up a two-run homer to Sato to right field. He gave up another home run to Lotte's cleanup hitter, who had hit bases loaded slam the previous day. They conceded a painful early lead.

Then, in the sixth inning with one out and runners on second and third, Teraji's at-bat was out, and after Takinaka's breaking ball slipped out, Horiuchi on catcher couldn't catch (passed out), allowing runner to score on third. He gave up a painful extra run. He then gave up consecutive RBI hits to Terachi and Tomosugi to runs. Starting Takinaka was 8-hit 5 runs in the middle of the sixth inning. Regarding the right-hander, Manager Yoshii said, "I think we did our best. When we were substituted, we made a misjudgment, so it ended up like that."

The lineup struggled against Lotte's starter Kawamura. He hit 6 hit through the 7th inning but was held scoreless. He couldn't break down the relievers and lost shutout game. "Kawamura pitcher was good too. But even so, we have to break them down. We'll come up with countermeasures and start over," he emphasized.

Sato, who was in starting line-up lineup as the leadoff hitter and right fielder, was substituted out in the fifth inning. Manager Yoshii explained that Sato was "not in good condition, so we're removing him from defense for now."

This season, their record against Lotte is 3 wins and 9 losses. They are struggling.