Overview
- Rakuten beat Seibu 2-0 on June 25 as Maeda threw seven scoreless innings to earn his first win in Japanese professional baseball since October 2015.
- Relievers Kajiyama and Fujihira closed out the eighth and ninth innings to preserve the shutout and secure the victory.
- The win gave Rakuten a three-game winning streak and completed the club's season-first sweep of the same opponent, a boost for a team trying to recover under new manager Yoshii.
- Maeda described the victory as a very important and special one for him, saying it will be one of the wins he remembers from his baseball career.
- Maeda worked a season-high 114 pitches in the game, a detail that raises short-term workload concerns and makes his next starts and pitch limits a point to watch.