◆Pacific League: Rakuten Eagles 2-5 Nippon-Ham (5th, Rakuten Mobile Park Miyagi)

After finishing their 121st game of the season with 47 wins, 73 losses, and 1 draw, the Rakuten Eagles are 26 games below .500, and their possibility of advancing to the Climax Series (CS) has been completely eliminated.

The momentum of the game shifted to the opponent in the third inning. Hayakawa gave up consecutive hits to the leadoff batters Narama and Hosokawa, creating a crisis with runners on first and third and no outs, before a double steal was attempted during Shindo's next at-bat. While Ota made a throw to second base, the third-base runner Narama crossed the plate, giving up the opening run.

Furthermore, with two outs and runners on first and second, he gave up a three-run home run to Reyes that was driven into right-center field.

Trailing 0-4 with two outs in the fifth inning, he gave up a solo home run to Gunji into the left-center stands, resulting in a five-run deficit.

The lineup, looking to fight back, repeatedly put runners in scoring position in the first, fourth, and sixth innings, but failed to get the timely hit. Later, they scored a run on Nakajima's grounder to second from a one-out, second-and-third opportunity in the seventh. They added another run in the eighth via YG Yasuda's RBI single, but were unable to complete the comeback.

This season, former manager Hajime Miki took a leave of absence on June 10. Head coach Tatsuya Shiokawa became the acting manager. One week later, on the 17th, Masato Yoshii was appointed as manager. Although he was entrusted with the rebuilding of the team, the difficult struggle continued.

From now on, it is expected that they will shift their focus toward developing young players with an eye on next season.

The season ended with 22 games still remaining. A cold autumn wind blew through the City of Trees.