◆ Pacific League Rakuten Eagles Nippon-Ham (May 5th, Rakuten Eagles Mobile Saikyo Park Miyagi)

Nippon-Ham came from behind to win Rakuten Eagles with their signature home run barrage, ending their two-game losing streak. Their lead in the standings is now 11 games. Their team Home Run has increased to 106, the most in both leagues.

Manager Shinjo said, "I'm glad I didn't lose three in a row. We had four consecutive series winning games, and if we lost three, the atmosphere felt heavy. We lost two in a row, but this win was important, and we had to do it with the mindset of winning today. We pitched together. Fukushima-kun's pitching wasn't bad, but walk was a bit like a hit-by-pitch. I thought this would be a bit slippery. Uehara-kun, Tatsu-kun, and then, Shimamoto-kun, Yanagawa-kun, Tanaka-kun. I wasn't thinking about fielder at all today. I was just thinking about the relievers (laughs)." Starter Fukushima gave up 3 runs by the 2nd inning, threw 45 pitches in 2 innings, 4 hit 3 walks, Hit by Pitch 3 runs and was taken out early. After that, he praised the bullpen that lined up with zeros.

He particularly praised Shimamoto, who pitched in the 7th inning closer the cleanup hitters Tatsumi, McCusker, and Murabayashi in order, saying, "I wanted Shimamoto to bat 3rd, 4th, and 5th. I had decided that Shimamoto would be the one we had to be most wary of in that batting batting order. It's all about balance. I mean, ERA is around 0.76? Of course we're going to have him. We also have to raise Shimamoto's salary. If it continues like this, it might go up six times, right? It might even exceed 100 million yen. If it's around 0.4 (laughs)." He gave the left-hander, who has a 0.75 ERA and runs 17 consecutive scoreless games, the highest praise.