◆ Pacific League Nippon-Ham 1-0 Rakuten Eagles (September 9th, ES CON FIELD)

Nippon-Ham broke the deadlock with a rare "Shinjo Special" and won pitcher duel.

The batting lineup was Rakuten Eagles and was closer perfectly through the sixth inning by starting pitcher Kosha. However, in the seventh inning, leadoff hitter Igoman reached base with a single, the team's first hit to right field. Mizuno then rolled a bunt to third base, and Igoman, who had just started, didn't slow down at all, circled to second base, and quickly scored third. At this point, Mannami hit a timely infield hit that dropped behind the second base as the opponent set up a forward defense, ending the win with that one run.

Manager Shinjo reflected on the bunt-and-run in the 7th inning, saying, "I'd been thinking about this strategy since last night. With Koja-kun pitcher left-handed, first baseman figured Kaneko-kun would be up to bat at first base. He's not used to playing there, so I thought throw might be slow. first baseman-kun did a fantastic job and it worked perfectly. If it wasn't Kaneko-kun playing first base, we wouldn't have done it. I considered squeeze by Manami-kun (with one out and a runner on third), but I decided to trust this play. I was so happy that it was a perfect hit and a hit (laughs)." He revealed that the strategy was based on the assumption that Rakuten Eagles 's first baseman would be a rookie with little experience playing in the first team.

He also explained that hitter is not a run-and-bunt that would be missed if the ball is a run-and-bunt, but a bunt and run done with the ball, saying, "It's basically the same as squeeze. Just let the third catch. At worst, Koja-kun's right. If you catch near the third and spin to throw, the third will return, so the best is for the third to catch and Kosha-kun to be late." Mizuno's bunt caught by third baseman was exactly as intended.

With no hit coming from Koja, he put into practice the small ball tactics he'd been honing since spring training. "We've added four new signs. It would be a shame not to reduce them a bit (laughs). We'd been practicing them since spring training. There were only a few runner on first baseman base, like Isobata, Yazawa, and Mizuno, so there was plenty of room. If we did it too often, they'd figure it out. The fact that he nailed it in one go was perfect," he said, reflecting with satisfaction.