◆ Pacific League Seibu Lions 7-3 Lotte (15th, Belluna Dome)

Seibu Lions won a close game thanks to a stellar performance infielder Kazunari Ishii, who went 1-At Bat hit 2 with 3 RBI, securing their first three-game winning streak in July and their second consecutive series win. This narrowed the gap with league leaders Softbank Hawks who had already finished their games, to just two games.

Trailing by one run in the 7th inning, the batting lineup capitalized on two opponent errors—hit—to create a prime scoring opportunity with no outs bases loaded. Just as the first pitch was thrown to pinch hitter Sotozaki, the opposing team’s pitcher Castillo was suddenly removed from the game.Tonozaki was called looking by the reliever Sawada struck out, but with one out bases loaded, Nevin hit a game-tying single to right field sacrifice fly, and with two outs and runners on second and third, Ishii delivered a two-run single to right field, putting his team ahead. In the 8th inning, Nishikawa’s two-run homer triple sealed the victory.

The game was tense from the start. In the first inning, with one out and the bases loaded, Ishii hit sacrifice fly to right field to score the first run. In the third inning, with the score tied, Hirasawa hit a timely double over right fielder 's head with one out and doble on first base to give his team the lead temporarily.

On May 23, starting pitcher Sou Sato pitcher made his first first-team appearance since the Orix Buffaloes game (same game), showing tenacious pitch. In the first inning, with two outs and runners on first and second, he put in danger, but started with Ueda swinging struck out and no runs. In the third inning with two outs and a runner on third, Yamaguchi hit a timely single to center field to tie the game, but in the fifth inning, with one out and a runner on first, he got Nishikawa out on a grounder to shortstop and double play to get through the game. In the fifth inning, with 3 hit 1 runs, he entrusted mound to the bullpen. Although the next hitter was tied and he missed out on his second professional win, he fought hard to make the game clear.

The team has already matched win total (49 wins) from 2024, a year in which it suffered 91 losses, after 87 games.