FUKUOKA (Interstat) — Rui Muneyama and Carson McCusker homered as the Rakuten Golden Eagles beat the SoftBank Hawks 6-4 on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026, at Fukuoka Yahuoku! Dome. Takahisa Hayakawa threw seven strong innings to improve to 6-5, allowing two earned runs on six hits while striking out five. Shoma Fujihira tossed a scoreless ninth for his 23rd save.

Rakuten built an early lead on Muneyama’s two-run shot in the first. McCusker added a two-run homer in the fourth, Daisuke Nakashima went deep in the fifth and Hikaru Ohta drove in a run in the seventh. SoftBank answered with Yuki Yanagita’s solo homer in the first, Riku Watanabe’s solo homer in the third and two runs in the eighth, including one on Ryoya Kurihara’s single. Taiga Kamichatani dropped to 7-1 with the loss.

The Golden Eagles collected eight hits, while the Hawks had 11. Rakuten improved to 41-62-1, and SoftBank fell to 66-40-1. The game drew 39,894 and lasted 2:41.