On July 4th at 6 PM, the 13th game between Tohoku Rakuten Eagles and Hokkaido Nippon-Ham will be held at Rakuten Eagles Mobile Saikyo Park Miyagi.

[Head-to-head record] Tohoku Rakuten Eagles (6th place) vs. Hokkaido Nippon-Ham (3rd place): 5 wins, 7 losses

[Announced Starting Pitcher]
Tohoku Rakuten Eagles: Kenta Maeda pitcher 7 games, 1 win, 3 losses, 3.52 ERA
Hokkaido Nippon-Ham: Haruki Hosono pitcher 8 games, 2 wins, 4 losses, 3.06 ERA

Tohoku Rakuten Eagles will start pitcher Kenta Maeda. In their previous encounter with Hokkaido Nippon-Ham (May 20th), he had a disappointing result, runs in 2.1 innings. However, in his last start against Saitama Seibu Lions (June 25th), he delivered a masterful pitch, throwing 114 pitches over 7 innings, allowing only 3 hit strike out 6, and giving runs no Hit by Pitch or hit batsmen, earning his first win since returning to NPB. Can he carry that momentum and get his second win?

On the opposing side, Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Yuya Gunji is a player to watch. Gunji started the season with the first team but struggled at the plate and was removed on June 14th. He then joined the farm team, where he posted impressive results in 11 games, hit 14-At Bat-37 with a batting average of .378, earning him a return to the first team on the 3rd. In the previous game, where he was immediately given a starting starting line-up, he got hit in his first at-bat, so expectations are high for this game as well.

Text by Rian Ueno