◆ Pacific League Rakuten Eagles Nippon-Ham (3rd, Rakuten Eagles Mobile Saikyo Park Miyagi)

Nippon-Ham 's starting pitcher, Hiromi Ito, kept a low pitch count and kept the game at a good pace, but he was hit hard in the later innings, giving up 11 hit 6 runs in the middle of the 8th inning. He suffered his fourth loss of the season, and the team's winning streak came to an end at 5 games.

In particular, he gave up a go-ahead solo home run to McCusker, the opposing team's cleanup hitter, in the second inning, and then allowed two more RBI hits, going 4-At Bat-4 RBI hit

Manager Shinjo said, "I'll ask him what went wrong. When McCusker hits Boccuscar like that, well (laughs). The next time we face him, if there's runner on second baseman and McCusker comes up to bat, we'll have to walk him because his timing was perfect. I'll have Ito study him," expressing his expectations for how he'll handle things in the future.

Ito expressed his frustration, saying, “I’m really sorry for disrupting the team’s momentum. I do feel I might have focused too much on the zone.” Regarding McCusker, he said, “I knew he was in good form, and at the start, with a 3-ball-1 strike, I was a bit walk hesitant, and after he hit one shot, I let him get even more into his rhythm. I think that’s something I need to reflect on as well.”