On September 30th from 18:00, the 24th game between the Rakuten Eagles and the Chiba Lotte Marines will be held at Rakuten Mobile Saikyo Park Miyagi.

【Head-to-head record】Rakuten Eagles (6th) vs. Chiba Lotte Marines (5th) 8 wins, 15 losses

【Probable starters】
Rakuten Eagles: Kosei Shoji pitcher 24 games 8 wins 9 losses, ERA 3.64
Chiba Lotte Marines: Lucchesi pitcher 4 games 1 win 1 loss, ERA 2.86

The starter for the Rakuten Eagles is pitcher Kosei Shoji, who currently leads the league with 163 strike out, and a strike out rate of 9.72. In the previous matchup on the 16th, he recorded his first professional complete game and first shutout game with 125 pitches, 6 hit, no walks or Hit by Pitch, and 7 strike out. He has been in good form in September, throwing a total of 28 inning across 4 games and allowing 4 runs. Can he strike out as many struck out as possible toward winning his first title?

On the other hand, the Chiba Lotte Marines will start pitcher Lucchesi, who pitched well in his previous outing (the 23rd against the Orix Buffaloes) with 7 inning, 3 hit, no walks or Hit by Pitch, 7 strike out, and no runs, although he did not get the win. In this game as well, he would like to throw as many inning as possible and earn his second win since coming to Japan. Also, Ryusei Terachi recorded 3 hit in the previous matchup against Kosei Shoji pitcher. In recent games, he has been in good form with hit in 4 consecutive games, including multiple hit in 2 of those games.