On September 21st from 14:00, the 24th round match between Hokkaido Nippon-Ham and Orix Buffaloes will be held at ES CON FIELD.

【Head-to-head record】Hokkaido Nippon-Ham (3rd) vs Orix Buffaloes (4th) 14 wins, 9 losses

【Probable Starters】
Hokkaido Nippon-Ham: Takayuki Kato pitcher 19 games, 11 wins, 3 losses (tied for 3rd), ERA 2.81
Orix Buffaloes: Leo Yamaguchi pitcher 2 games, 0 wins, 0 losses, ERA 7.27

For Hokkaido Nippon-Ham, pitcher Takayuki Kato will start. He has appeared in 4 games against Orix Buffaloes this season, showing outstanding compatibility with 4 wins, 0 losses, and an ERA of 0.95. In the lineup, pay attention to Leo Shibata, who continues to appear as the DH. In this series, he hit his first professional Home Run in the first game and has recorded RBI in two consecutive games; will he be the catalyst in this game as well?

On the other hand, for Orix Buffaloes, pitcher Leo Yamaguchi will make his third first-team appearance of the season. In his previous appearance (11th, vs Seibu Lions), he gave up two Home Run and finished with 4.2 innings, 6 hit, 5 Walk, and 4 runs. He wants to show a corrected performance in this game. Also, Ryoma Nishikawa recorded 2 hit and 3 RBI in the previous game, including a Home Run for the second consecutive game. With 149 hit, he is tied with Hokkaido Nippon-Ham's Reyes, who is competing for the most hit.

Text by Aoi Nishijima