◆ Pacific League Rakuten Eagles Orix Buffaloes 14th, Rakuten Eagles Mobile Saikyo Park Miyagi)

Orix Buffaloes pitcher Raiku Katayama will make his first start of the season in the game Rakuten Eagles on the 15th (at Rakuten Eagles Mobile Saikyo Park Miyagi). In his second year as a professional, he appeared in 13 games, all as a reliever. Due to the team's shortage of starting pitchers, he has been entrusted with mound for the second time in his career.

In the farm league game against Softbank Hawks on the 9th (at Mizuho PayPay Dome), he started and runs three scoreless innings, throwing 33 pitches. On this day, he checked his condition in bullpen. "Although I'm starting, I want to stay focused on doing what I need to do and do it properly," he said, looking straight ahead.

The opposing starting pitcher is Kenta Maeda. "I don't think I'm taking the mound with the future in mind. It's just one hitter at a time. I'm not going to think about anything that I can't do anything about. With that mindset, I'm just going to throw as many of my pitches as I can," he said calmly.