■Professional baseball: DeNA 2-3 Giants (25th, Hard Off Niigata)

DeNA lost to the Giants by one point. In the bottom of the 5th inning, with DeNA trailing by one point, No. 6 Toshiro Miyazaki (35) hit a timely hit to bring the game back to square one. However, in the top of the 7th inning, No. 2 Torahiro Nakagawa (24) gave up a timely hit to Iori Yamazaki (25) to take the lead, making the score 2-1. In the top of the 9th inning, No. 4 Yuya Sakamoto (26) gave up a timely hit to pinch hitter Hisayoshi Nagano (39), widening the lead to 3-1. In the bottom of the 9th inning, with DeNA trailing by two points, No. 3 Austin (32) hit a timely hit against Baldonado (31), bringing the score to within one point, but the counterattack was not enough.

Hamaguchi started off by getting the leadoff hitter, Yoshihiro Maru (35), to hit a fly ball to left field and striking out the second batter, Shunsuke Sasaki (24). With two outs, he got the third batter, Hernandez (27), to hit a grounder to third base, retiring all three batters.

The next inning, the Giants’ starting pitcher, Yamazaki Ii, hit a grounder to the pitcher, and the first batter, Sekine Taiki (28), got 2 hits.
No. 1 batter Takaki Watarai (21) struck out swinging. No. 3 batter Austin hit a fly ball to right field, and no runners were allowed to reach base.

In the middle of the fourth inning, the team walked Hernandez, who was leading off the inning, and then with one out and a runner on first base, No. 5 Takuzo Oshiro (31) hit a timely double to right field, giving the team the lead.

Trailing by one point, with no outs and no runners on base, No. 4 Hideto Maki (26) hit a double to left field and reached base with one out.
From second base, No. 6 Miyazaki hit a timely hit to center field, tying the score.

Hamaguchi threw 83 pitches in the 6th inning, giving up 4 hits, 7 strikeouts and 1 run, and handed the game over to Tora Nakagawa, the second pitcher. In the top of the 7th inning, Tora Nakagawa allowed the first batter, No. 7 Kishida Yukinori (27), to reach base with a left-handed hit, and then No. 8 Kadowaki bunted, putting the runner on second with one out. No. 9 Yamazaki’s hit was a timely hit to center field, allowing the team to take the lead.

In the top of the 8th inning, the third pitcher, Souma Tokuyama (25), pitched a scoreless inning. In the top of the 9th inning, the fourth pitcher, Sakamoto, pitched, but gave up a left-handed hit to the first batter, No. 8 Makoto Kadowaki (23), and then a timely hit to center fielder Nagano, widening the lead to 3-1.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, with the Giants trailing by one point, pinch hitter Masashi Kuwahara (30) got on base with a left-handed hit against the Giants’ second pitcher Baldonado. The next pinch hitter Yudai Yamamoto (25) struck out, but No. 2 Watarai followed with a left-handed hit, putting runners on first and second with one out. No. 3 Austin then hit a timely hit to left field, putting the team one point behind. However, No. 4 Maki struck out swinging, leaving two outs. No. 5 Yoshitomo Tsutsugo (32) hit a fly ball to left field, ending the game. The counterattack was not enough, and the lead was back to zero.