◆ Pacific League Orix Buffaloes 3-6 Softbank Hawks (July 7th, Kyocera Dome Osaka)

The gears that went awry early on never came back to normal. "He seemed to be in a bit of a bad state. Overall, his handling of the ball wasn't good." Orix Buffaloes manager Kishida lamented Jerry's poor performance, as the team suffered three straight losses to league leaders Softbank Hawks, putting them eight games behind, their largest deficit of the season. They have now fallen to fifth place.

The Hawks killer, who had faced them three times before the game and had ERA of 0.50, faltered in the third inning with a one-run lead. Hit by Pitch Masaki, the leadoff batter, with a pitch, and then walked Shuto. A wild pitch put runners on second and third with no outs, and he gave up a go-ahead two-run hit to Kondo. He then walked Kurihara before being replaced. He threw 59 pitches and failed to complete three innings for the second consecutive game.

The early relievers held on with a one-run deficit, but in the seventh inning, fourth pitcher Gonda hit a three-run homer to Yanagida. In the eighth, they scored with a base Walk, and with two outs and bases loaded, pinch hitter Seymour grounded out to shortstop. The struggling slugger struggled with 39 consecutive at-bats without hit. With one out and a runner on second, Ota hit a single to right, and Yamanaka on the runner of second stopped the ball at third. Manager Kishida pointed out, "We were able to get home plate. We'll have him do it to carry it into the next game."

Improving not only pitching and hitting, but also defense and base running awareness is essential for improvement. Simply accepting reality would be disheartening. (Toru Nagata)