Spencer Howard of the Rakuten Eagles pitches during an NPB game against the Nippon Ham Fighters at Es Con Field Hokkaido in Hokkaido on Sept. 23, 2025. (Kyodo)
KITAHIROSHIMA, Hokkaido (Kyodo) — The Nippon Ham Fighters were blanked 7-0 by the Rakuten Eagles on Tuesday, meaning the magic number for the SoftBank Hawks to clinch the Pacific League pennant fell to five.
Eagles starter Spencer Howard (5-0) shut out the second-place Fighters over 6-1/3 innings, giving up two hits and a walk while striking out five at Es Con Field Hokkaido to continue his strong season.
Sun Yilei (0-2) got chased after two innings for the home team, giving up three runs on three hits, including a Fumiya Kurokawa two-run home run in the first, and two walks. Kurokawa hit three more singles in the game to go 4-for-4 as he also scored three runs.
The Fighters’ 40-year-old reliever Naoki Miyanishi faced two batters in the fifth to become the fourth Nippon Professional Baseball player to pitch in 900 games, following in the footsteps of Hitoki Iwase (1,002), Tetsuya Yoneda (949) and Masaichi Kaneda (944).
The Hawks were swept by the Orix Buffaloes in their four-game series, falling 1-0 to lose by a run in each of those games.
AloJapan.com