◆ Pacific League Nippon-Ham 8-2 Seibu Lions (13th, ES CON FIELD)

Second-placed Seibu Lions were aiming for their first three-game sweep against the same opponent since June, but their offense and defense were disjointed, resulting in a crushing defeat. The gap between them and third-placed Nippon-Ham has once again narrowed to zero games.

In the first inning, with two outs and runners on first and third, count to fifth batter Gunji. On the third pitch from 1-1, first base runner Castro got the start catcher Yu Koga throw to second base without paying attention to third. Taking advantage of that opening, third baseman runner Mizuno dashed home and made a double steal, giving the lead to the lead.

In the second inning, with one out and runners on first and second base, trailing by three runs, Yamamura, runner on second base, started running after Genda's hit to right field. After rounding third base, he slowed down once, then accelerated again, but was tagged out at home plate and was unable to score.

In his first appearance in a first-team game in about a month, pitcher Allan Winans was hit hard, giving up 8 runs in 4 2/3 innings, resulting in his fourth loss. In the first inning, after giving up the first run on a double steal, he surrendered a two-run homer to Gunji that landed in the right-field stands. In the fifth inning, with his teammates having narrowed the gap to one run, sacrifice fly to Mizuno with the bases loaded loaded and one out, and then consecutive RBI hits to Reyes and Castro with runners on first and third with two outs, before being pulled from the game after giving up five or more runs for the third consecutive game.

In the fifth inning, with two outs and runners on Walk and third base, reliever Kuroda took over, but walked the leadoff batter to load the bases with two bases loaded. He then gave up an RBI single to Yoshida to left field, which left fielder Hirasawa misplayed. The runner on third base also scored, and as a result, in the fifth inning alone, hitter were hit by a barrage of attacks from 10 batters, giving up a total of 5 runs and falling far behind.