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4th place confirmed. On October 1, the Rakuten Eagles faced Lotte. However, the serving and hitting did not come together in this important match and they missed out on the opportunity to advance from behind in the Climax Series. On October 1, Rakuten will face 3rd place Lotte directly, who trails by 4 games. In the first game, Tatsumi and Asamura created a chance with consecutive hits, and Tatsumi survived Lotte’s starting pitcher, Rocky Sasaki, with a wild pitch. He managed to get ahead in an unexpected way. Rakuten’s starting pitcher was Kishi, who scored a scoreless victory against Lotte on his last pitch. And on this day, they pitched with great force, as if to encourage a team that had lost four games in a row, keeping them scoreless until the fourth inning. However, in the 5th inning, a walk and a hit put him in a tight spot with two outs, 2nd and 1st base… Shortstop Murabayashi suddenly threw out what appeared to be a hit. He was too slow to handle the ball and allowed the comeback, and the next batter also hit a timely hit, extending his lead to three runs in the inning. The lineup of batters looking to fight back is Cogo No. 1, who had a chance in the 8th inning with two outs. Boosting his chances with a tenacious header, Obukada is back in the game, scoring in three games in a row and doing well! He was unable to capitalize on the opportunity as he hit the first pitch and grounded out on the second. After this, Rakuten failed to score against Lotte Sasaki. 4th place in the Pacific League was confirmed and their hopes of qualifying for the Climax Series were dashed. Coach Toshiaki Imae: “It’s just unpleasant. However, the fact that we were able to compete this far at this time of year is because the players worked really hard and I’m extremely disappointed that we couldn’t let them win. “This is the standings. Rakuten has lost 5 games in a row and is in 4th place. We have been studying in class B for the third year in a row. Then, on October 1, it was reported that Imae’s further role as manager next season was yet to be determined. Manager Imae became the youngest manager of the 12-team team last season at the age of 40. Despite poor reviews, he led the team to its first interleague win in June. After this they fought well for promotion to Class A, but on 1 October 4th place was confirmed for the third year in a row with 5 games remaining. This season is the first year of coach Imae’s two-year contract, but sources say it is unclear at this point whether he will continue to play next season.