Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 379 - 28: The Wolf Has Arrived

"Fly, fly—to the faraway dreams~"

"Go, Yo Dai-Kang, set sail now!"

When Ham Team’s leadoff batter Yo Dai-Kang stepped into the batter’s box, the personal support song of the player echoed throughout the stands of Sapporo Dome.

Born in Taiwan, China, and having grown up in Japan, Yo Dai-Kang was the first draft pick of the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters in the 2005 draft conference. Since securing the position of the main outfielder in the major leagues in 2010, due to his tall stature and outstanding appearance, he has been one of the most popular players within the Ham Team.

Moreover, it is worth mentioning that his elder brother, Yo Yao-Hsun, is also a professional baseball player, now playing in the second team for SoftBank.

As the main center fielder for the Ham Team, Yo Dai-Kang covers a wide area in defense and can accurately judge the landing point of high fly balls. Coupled with extremely quick reactions and a powerful throwing arm over 110 meters, in terms of defensive ability, he should be one of the best centerfielders currently in Nippon Professional Baseball;

Compared to his extremely excellent defense, Yo Dai-Kang’s batting ability is average, and he is quite prone to striking out. He relies more on his speed to advance bases—according to data from SoftBank, in any season where Yo Dai-Kang meets the required number of plate appearances, his batting average has never exceeded .300, and he averages at least 120 strikeouts per season.

Faced with such a defensively strong but offensively weak batter, Lin Guanglai naturally wouldn’t give the opponent any chance to make waves: under the guidance of Hosokawa Kei’s signal calling, Lin Guanglai quickly gained the upper hand with two strikes.

The decisive final pitch, after Hosokawa Kei delivered the pitch signal, he moved a small step towards the inside corner of Yo Dai-Kang’s side, and the intuitive Lin Guanglai quickly threw the ball:

A sinking cutter towards the inside corner of the right-handed batter, with the placement controlled perfectly, the baseball just skimmed under Yo Dai-Kang’s swinging bat and flew securely into the catcher’s mitt.

The first out of the entire match was quickly secured, using only four pitches—for Lin Guanglai, this at-bat process was easy, and the pace was to his liking.

The second batter of the Ham Team is Nishikawa Haruki, who was the second pick in 2010 and was promoted last season by Kuriyama Hideki to become the main second baseman for the Ham Team—his main traits are his speed and strong stealing ability; according to veteran catcher Hosokawa, putting this guy on base is almost equivalent to gifting a double, showing how powerful his running is.

In terms of hitting, Nishikawa Haruki’s most outstanding attribute is his batting eye, rarely swinging at bad balls—because of this, pitchers with average control often have a hard time against him.

But is Lin Guanglai that type of player? Clearly, he is not!

Against such batters with strong selecting ability, pitchers should have the resolve to resolve the battle by confronting the opponent directly within the strike zone, and that’s exactly what Lin Guanglai did.

"Strike!"

"Strike!"

"Strike!"

The home plate umpire behind the plate made three rapid and forceful calls, and Nishikawa Haruki, who had just stepped into the batter’s box, was struck out by Lin Guanglai.

Especially when facing a 0-2 count, he even switched from his standard stance to a contact-first swing mode, yet he still couldn’t connect with the fastball Lin Guanglai threw at the end.

After sending off the second batter Nishikawa Haruki, Lin Guanglai received the ball returned by Hosokawa Kei and quickly focused on the next batter.

In today’s game, he only felt that he was in excellent form, particularly in terms of control, which has been the best since he started fine-tuning his pitching mechanics in spring training. Many breaking ball placements could be accurately controlled on the edges of the strike zone—for him, it was the first time he had this feeling since entering professional baseball.

He was already eager to continue facing the next batters!

In the unfavorable situation of two outs, all the pressure of the Ham Team’s offense in this inning fell on the upcoming third batter, Kotono Eiichi.

Kotono Eiichi, who joined in 2002, is one of the representatives of the "Matsuzaka Generation." Having been in the team for over 10 years, he is an experienced mid-range hitter, and is a typical "clutch player" known for his ability to handle the ball in crucial moments.

Although he likes to directly confront opposing batters, Lin Guanglai is not a simple-minded individual. Facing such experienced and adaptable batters, he wouldn’t foolishly keep throwing strikes into the strike zone for the opponent to hit.

As mentioned before, after experiencing a five-game losing streak, everyone in the SoftBank team hoped to end the losing streak in this series against the Ham Team and get back on track. For this reason, during the pre-game pitcher meeting, the two pitching coaches brought the pitchers who would play in this series to thoroughly study the lineup of the Ham Team, including their past season statistics, hitting habits, and even their different hitting habits given different counts were taken into consideration.

In terms of hitting, Kotono Eiichi has almost no weaknesses. His technique and strength allow him to handle the outside low pitches that are generally passed by NPB hitters; however, he has his own weaknesses, which is poor plate discipline with room for improvement in his ball selection ability.

Especially in recent years, as he has aged, Kotono Eiichi’s swing rate on bad balls has exceeded 20% for several consecutive seasons, which is indeed too high for a clearing hitter on a team.

And the pitcher-catcher duo of Lin Guanglai and Hosokawa Kei seized on this characteristic to execute a precise assault on Kotono Eiichi.

Lift leg, gather strength, twist, swing arm!

After the smooth pitching motion, the baseball was powerfully thrown by Lin Guanglai towards the home plate.

Outside low, inside high, outside high, inside low—during this at-bat, Hosokawa Kei strictly followed the diagonal pitching principle. Coinciding with Lin Guanglai’s exceptional control feel today, the balls directed to the corners of the strike zone were highly deceptive, and after this series of pitches, Kotono Eiichi indeed fell into the trap.

"Swing and a miss! Lin Guanglai, 11 pitches, a commendable three consecutive strikeouts!"

"His control feel today is excellent, and the batters of the Ham Team seem to have no way against him!"

"In his second start of the season, the Heisei Monster maintained his strong dominance! There’s not the slightest trace of a high schooler in him, he seamlessly transitions into professional baseball!"

"Whether it’s the Pacific League or the Central League, let the batters of other teams watch out—"

"The wolf is really coming!"