On June 3, in the second round of the 'Nippon Life Central-Pacific Interleague 2026' between The Giants and Orix Buffaloes held in Tokyo Dome, Orix Buffaloes lost 4-5.

Orix Buffaloes Ryuhei Sotani pitcher started with a stunning strike out show from the very first inning. He recorded strike out every inning up to five innings, keeping the opposing lineup at a hit pitch. In the bottom of the sixth, he retired all three batters in order with a pitch to get a hit. In the bottom of the seventh, he gave up his ninth solo home run off Darbek, but finished with a minimum runs.

In the top of the 6th inning, the lineup hit consecutive hits by Yuma Mune and Ryoma Nishikawa, and with runners on first and third with no outs, Keita Nakagawa hit a timely hit to take the lead. If bases loaded is no outs with Kotaro Kobayashi player hit, then Ryoma Yamanaka player sacrifice fly adds a run. The push-out Walk also played a role, and he scored a total of 3 runs in this inning.

Immediately after giving up one run, in the top of the eighth, Tomoya Noguchi hit his second solo homer. However, in the bottom of the eighth inning with the score tied 4-1, the second pitcher Ren Mukunoki pitcher gave up his second bases loaded home run to Yoshihiro Maru with one out and bases loaded, allowing the team to take the lead. In the top of the ninth, trailing by one run, pinch hitter Ryo Ota got a doble and put a runner on second with no outs, but three batters in the line went down and the game ended as it was.

Although Orix Buffaloes lost, starting pitcher pitcher Soya pitched 99 pitches over 7 innings, 2 hit 1 Walk 10 strike out 1 runs. This marked the first double-digit strike out since July 11, 2025. The lineup scored 7 hit 4 runs, took the lead with a concentrated hit in the top of the 6th, and in the top of the 8th, Noguchi hit a single home run despite coming in as a substitute.

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Ryuhei Sotani- ● Ren Mukunoki-Kaito Iriyama
Giants: Togo Shosei - Morita Shunya - Takanashi Yuhei - ○ Horita Kenshin - S Martinez

Written by Ao Yokoyama