◆ Pacific League: Nippon-Ham 2-1 Softbank Hawks (1st, ES CON FIELD)

Nippon-Ham won a close game, marking their third five-game winning streak of the season. In the game against the first-place Softbank Hawks, with the score tied 1-1 in the eighth inning and two outs with a runner on third, substitute Castro hit a game-winning RBI single to center, resulting in a 2-1 win. This brought their record to a season-high 15 games over .500.

Although they gave up the opening run in the first inning, trailing 0-1 in the second, Imagawa, batting fourth, hit a high-arcing fourth home run of the season off Moinelo that landed in the left-field bullpen to tie the game. After that, they were held to just one hit by Gunji, who acted as a closer until the seventh inning, but in the eighth, they capitalized on an opportunity when Nomura reached base on an error.

The starter Yamazaki gave up one run in the first inning on Yanagita's RBI single to center, but pitched well for seven innings allowing only three hits, aided by three double plays. He left the game with the score tied 1-1 and did not earn his sixth win.

Hori, who came on as the second pitcher in the 8th inning and held the opponent to one hit and zero runs as the closer, earned his fourth win.