◆ Pacific League Nippon-Ham 9-1 Orix Buffaloes (August 2nd, ES CON FIELD)

Nippon-Ham manager Tsuyoshi Shinjo revealed an exchange he had with pitcher Kota Tatsu, who recently changed his hair color to blonde.

Tatsuya appeared at practice that day with blonde hair. When asked why, he said, "A lot of things happened, so please ask the boss about it."

After the game, manager Shinjo laughed and said, "I did it (laughs). I wanted to put pressure on him. That's how I was when I was young. Back when no one had dyed their hair brown, I was the first to do it, and I figured if I didn't get results I'd get a lot of flak, so I dyed my hair blonde to put pressure on myself, and then I performed well and got a lot of commercials."

When asked about the result, he said, "The eyebrows are a little too dark. I wish they'd adjusted the balance there (laughs). He looks like an actor, doesn't he? I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of pitching he'll do with this."