■Professional baseball: Lotte 4-1 Rakuten (26th, Zozo Marine Stadium)

Lotte recorded their second straight win against Rakuten. In the first inning, No. 3 hitter Polanco (32) hit his eighth two-run home run to give Lotte the lead. In the bottom of the third inning, Polanco hit his ninth two-run home run in two consecutive at-bats to extend the lead. Although they gave up one run in the top of the fifth inning, they managed to hold on to their three-run lead. Starting pitcher Shunsuke Nakamori (22) pitched well, allowing only one run in the middle of the sixth inning, to grab their first win of the season. Naoya Masuda (34) also recorded a new team record of 228 saves.

In the previous day’s game, Soto (35) hit a timely hit to take the lead in the first inning, and Katsuya Kakunaka (37) hit his second two-run home run, and the team continued to score points after that, leading to a 10-2 victory. Nakamori, the starting pitcher for this game, was pitching for the second time this season.

Nakamori started off by getting the leadoff batter, Hiroya Ogō (27), to fly out to right field, and the second batter, Kazuki Murabayashi (26), and the third batter, Ryosuke Tatsumi (27), to ground out to second base, retiring all three batters.

In the bottom of the inning, Rakuten’s starting pitcher, Takayuki Kishi (39), was hit by leadoff hitter Taikai Oka (32) who hit a double down the left field line to get on base. No. 2 hitter Katsuya Kakunaka struck out swinging, but No. 3 hitter Polanco swung at the second pitch from Kishi and sent it into the right field stands. The two-run home run gave the team a leadoff run.

In the bottom of the third inning, No. 2 hitter Kakunaka, who was also the leadoff hitter, got on base with a single to left field, and No. 3 hitter Polanco followed with a two-run home run to left-center field for the second consecutive at-bat, putting the team ahead 4-0.

In the middle of the fifth inning, the team allowed hits to No. 7 Franco (31) and No. 9 Hikari Ota (27), putting the team in a pinch with runners on first and third and one out, and then No. 1 hitter Ogō hit a sacrifice fly to left field to score one run.

Nakamori pitched 89 pitches through the sixth inning, allowing only five hits and one run. After that, the second pitcher, Koshiro Sakamoto (29), and the third pitcher, Tenyu Nishimura (31), took to the mound in the top of the seventh inning to hold down the Rakuten batting lineup.

In the top of the eighth inning, the fourth pitcher, Shota Suzuki (25), took to the mound and struck out the second batter, Murabayashi, and the third batter, Tatsumi, in succession, allowing no runs with his characteristic pitching ability. He showed good pitching, maintaining his ERA of 0.00.

With the score at 3 points, the fifth pitcher Masuda took to the mound in the top of the ninth inning and kept the score at zero to end the game. Masuda set a new club record with 228 saves, giving Lotte their second consecutive win against Rakuten.