◆ Pacific League Rakuten Eagles Orix Buffaloes (November 11, Rakuten Eagles Mobile Saikyo Park Miyagi)

Rakuten Eagles suffered a come-from-behind loss to Orix Buffaloes. This was their second consecutive loss, putting them at their worst deficit of the season at 23 games below .500.

The game changed in one go. In the fourth inning, with both teams scoreless, Nakajima led off with a solo home run, his third of the season, off Kuri, breaking the deadlock. However, in the fifth inning, with one out and a runner on first, Shoji gave up a go-ahead two-run homer to Noguchi. Shoji pitched a strong game, allowing six hit and two runs in seven innings. But he still couldn't get the win. Manager Yoshii commented on the right-hander, saying, "I'd seen him working hard this past week, so I wondered how it would go, but he did his best."

The relief pitchers struggled. In the 8th inning, trailing by one run, second pitcher Shibata gave sacrifice bunt a single to right field to the leadoff batter Yamanaka, followed by a sacrifice hit to first base by Nishikawa. first baseman Watanabe catch the ball but threw bad throw to Murabayashi, who was covering first base. The situation escalated to runners on first and third with no outs. He then hit Ota with a Hit by Pitch, loading the bases with one bases loaded, before giving up sweep doble Kurebayashi. In the 9th inning, Contreras gave up four runs. The relief pitchers collapsed in the late innings.

The manager pointed out Shibata's weaknesses. "He seems to be struggling with his money pitches, the ones that finish the job, and he tried again today, but it didn't work. Ultimately, he relies on his fastball, so when count gets deeper, it becomes easier for the batter to target it. It's no surprise that he gets results like that. So Shibata needs to raise that level by another couple of steps, otherwise it will be difficult in close games like that." He expressed his hope that Shibata would improve his finishing pitch.

The offense managed only one run, a solo home run off Kuri. The manager emphasized, "Our strategy was to raise the strike zone and attack, but even so, they were hitting a lot of fly balls off the slower pitches. We need to take much more thorough measures to counter this."