Seibu wins first interleague game, defeats Hanshin 1-0, achieves highest winning percentage ever

○Seibu 1-0 Hanshin● (16th, Koshien, Seibu wins first interleague game)

It was rumored that the match would be decided based on goal difference, but Seibu clinched the championship. They defeated all six teams in the Central League and reached the top for the first time with 14 wins, 3 losses, and 1 draw, the highest winning percentage in the history of interleague games.

In the end, they defeated Hanshin with a typical fighting style. In the fifth inning, No. 1 Masashi Kuwabara took the lead with one out and a timely hit from second base that stubbornly beat the second baseman. Starting pitcher Natsuki Takeuchi pitched 6 innings with no runs allowed, and the three players who followed him pitched 0's to protect Toranoko's 1 point. It was a game that symbolized the fighting style of this season's interleague games, where many close games were won.

Although Tatsuya Imai (Astros), who won 10 games last season, was absent, the team's strong starting lineup including Kaiba Taira, who had the No. 1 ERA, and Mitsunari Takahashi, who had 7 wins, as well as the activation of the batting lineup supported the team's rapid progress. Kuwabara, who scored the only RBI of the day, and free agent transfer players such as former Nippon Ham player Kazunari Ishii raised the quality of the batting lineup. Furthermore, young players such as Shinya Hasegawa, who competed to be the top batter in interleague games, and Natsuo Takizawa, who recorded a record of getting on base in 32 consecutive games, were active. The strong performance of second-year helper Nevin was also a big factor.

Hasegawa summed up the interleague game by saying, ``The big thing was that we didn't lose,'' and said, ``I want to keep hitting in the league game.'' Rivals Softbank and Nippon Ham have almost the same winning percentage in interleague games, and there is not a big difference. After finishing the interleague games in which they did not lose, there are still league games in which they cannot lose. [Yuhi Yoshikawa]