◆ Pacific League Nippon-Ham 1-12 Seibu Lions (December 12, ES CON FIELD)

Nippon-Ham suffered a crushing 12-runs defeat against Seibu Lions on the 12th (at Escon Stadium), failing to move up to second place for the first time since April 11th. The gap between them and first-place Softbank Hawks widened to four games. Starting pitcher Ren Fukushima (23) gave up 7 hit and 6 runs in the middle of the 5th inning, suffering his third loss of the season and being sent down to the minor leagues for further adjustment.

Fukushima went back to the bench, bit his lip, and covered his face with a towel. In the first inning, Nevin's sacrifice fly and An-Ko Lin two-run homers gave up three runs, and in the fourth, he gave up another home run to An-Ko Lin. He gave up two more runs in the fifth inning, and in the middle of the inning, he left the mound. "He wasn't producing enough power and simply lacked strength," he said, declaring that every fastball topping out at 153 km/h was deflected. Coach pitcher Kato reflected, "He was starting to get a bit tired. He probably just lacked the strength on the baseboard."

Manager Shinjo stated in a stern tone that Fukushima would be sent to the minor leagues for further adjustments, saying, "I'll have him do some running drills, and work on getting his outside fastball to stop sinking and coming in. I'll have him train again so he can throw strike low in the zone." Fukushima added, "I think there are some mechanics issues as well, so I want to watch the video and fix those." He will reassess himself in Kamagaya and will surely rise again. (Haruki Kawakami)