SAPPORO (Interstat)—The Orix Buffaloes will visit the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters on Monday, Sept. 21, 2026, at Sapporo Dome in Sapporo, Japan. Orix enters the game with a 63-70-2 record. Nippon-Ham is 73-59-3.

Orix has won the first two games of the current series, beating Nippon-Ham 9-6 on Sunday and 7-4 on Saturday, both at Sapporo Dome. Nippon-Ham has won six of the last 10 meetings between the teams. In Sunday’s game, Ryoma Nishikawa went 2-for-5 with one home run and three RBIs, Yuma Mune went 2-for-4 with one home run and three RBIs, and Andres Machado pitched one scoreless inning with one walk and one strikeout. Nippon-Ham received two home runs and two RBIs from Kotaro Kiyomiya, while Seigi Tanaka pitched two scoreless innings and Naoki Miyanishi added one scoreless inning.

Mune is a player to watch for Orix. He went 2-for-4 with one home run and three RBIs Sunday and 1-for-2 with one home run and two RBIs Saturday. He had three hits Sept. 17 against SoftBank. Mune also went 2-for-4 against Rakuten on Sept. 12, 1-for-2 with one RBI against Seibu on Sept. 11, and 2-for-4 with two RBIs against Seibu on Sept. 10. He had one hit Sept. 9 against Seibu.

Kiyomiya is a player to watch for Nippon-Ham. He went 2-for-2 with two home runs and two RBIs Sunday. He had two hits and one RBI against Seibu on Sept. 17. He went 2-for-4 with one home run and one RBI at Seibu on Sept. 13 and 1-for-2 with one RBI at Seibu on Sept. 12. Kiyomiya also went 1-for-4 with one home run and one RBI at SoftBank on Sept. 9 and 2-for-4 with one home run and three RBIs at Rakuten on Sept. 6.

Orix recently lost three straight to SoftBank before wins over Rakuten and Seibu. Orix also lost 4-0 in 10 innings to SoftBank on Sept. 16 and 5-3 to SoftBank on Sept. 15. Nippon-Ham beat Seibu 4-2 on Sept. 17 after a 7-6 loss to Lotte on Sept. 15. Nippon-Ham won at Seibu 7-1 on Sept. 13 and tied Seibu 3-3 on Sept. 12. Orix next plays at Chiba Lotte Marines on Tuesday. Nippon-Ham hosts Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles on Tuesday to begin a three-game series.

Interstat’s game simulator projects Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters 1, Orix Buffaloes 0. Interstat’s ELO system gives Nippon-Ham a 63.2 percent probability to win. Nippon-Ham is installed as a pregame favorite with a spread of minus 1.5. The over/under is 7.5.