Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 385 - 34: Career Home Run No. 2

"...Guanglai! Guanglai! Guanglai! — The light of victory! Shines for you!"

All around the Yahoo Dome stands, the home fans of the SoftBank Team are singing loudly, wholeheartedly supporting their players — and the one they are cheering for is Lin Guanglai, who is stepping up next after Yanagida Yuuki.

In this game against Orix, Lin Guanglai replaced the struggling foreign power hitter Pena in the original starting lineup, stepping up as the designated hitter in the seventh spot.

Through this resounding song, Lin Guanglai could sense the overwhelming enthusiasm from the home fans, as well as their preference for him — at this moment, standing in the batter’s box, he felt he should do something to give back to these passionate fans.

After making a secret resolve in his heart, Lin Guanglai also had an idea about what to do in this at-bat; raising the bat in his hands high, he assumed his batting stance.

Orix’s starting pitcher today, Mai Sideli, had once served as a closer in an independent league and took on roles both as a starter and a long reliever after joining Orix.

Apart from his 142km/h average speed and fastest 153km/h fastball, the main reason Mai Sideli secured a main position was his highly effective forkball and slider.

The so-called "forkball" is a variant of the four-seam fastball, where after the pitch is released, the baseball curves rapidly towards the pitcher’s non-dominant hand — because the pitch initially appears similar to a fastball, batters often misjudge it, thinking it’s a fastball and swing, often hitting the end of the bat handle, causing infield groundouts or foul balls, effectively accumulating strikes for the pitcher, making it a popular pitch widely used by ace pitchers in Japan.

Moreover, when combined with a highly effective slider, the changeup can also yield outstanding results: pitchers can use the forkball to hold back batters on the same hand side; once gaining strikes, they can then employ reverse-bending slider pitches to attack the outside, expanding their control of the strike zone and easily resolving batters, and vice versa.

At first glance, a pitcher like Mai Sideli, with excellent physical attributes and possessing a fastball, forkball, and slider, might seem difficult to handle, but he’s not without weaknesses:

Pitchers who rely on the forkball as their main pitch are often more prone to encountering the "natural spin" issue when throwing fastballs — if a pitcher, intending to throw a fastball, inadvertently creates a spinning action due to misaligned release points, the baseball pitched will neither have the strong tail force of a fastball nor the lateral movement of a forkball, often accompanying serious control issues.

Especially when a pitcher aims for a diagonally thrown fastball and unintentionally creates a natural spin, the baseball often flies directly into the sweet spot of the strike zone, offering the opposing batter a perfect hitting opportunity.

And in this at-bat, Lin Guanglai’s batting strategy was to force Mai Sideli into committing such an error, thereby creating an excellent opportunity for a long hit.

Of course, for professional-level pitchers, it’s difficult for them to make mistakes under normal circumstances, and this is even more true for foreign pitchers who have secured a spot in Nippon Professional Baseball — precisely for this reason, to force Mai Sideli into a "natural spin" mistake, he must be continuously pressured, forcing him to experience control issues in a high-pressure environment.

And this requires not only the efforts of Lin Guanglai alone; LaHair, who hit a home run off Mai Sideli in the first at-bat, Yanagida Yuuki presently near first base, and even the nearly 40,000 spectators on Yahoo Dome’s stands can all play crucial roles in this process.

Lin Guanglai gazed over at Yanagida Yuuki at first base, whose hand constantly swung and explored, successfully transmitting a stealing signal to Lin Guanglai; standing at home plate, Lin Guanglai gently touched the brim of his batting helmet to indicate understanding.

Mai Sideli swung his arm, and the baseball flew directly towards home plate, but Lin Guanglai, standing in the batter’s box, remained motionless;

At the same time as Mai Sideli’s pitching started, Yanagida Yuuki from first base had already taken off running towards second — although he’s a large-framed batter, his explosive speed is second to none, as evidenced by a 5.55-second 50-meter dash he clocked during pre-season testing.

Though Orix’s catcher, Ito Mitsuo, was quick in sending the ball to second base, he was still a step behind Yanagida Yuuki — at the cost of Lin Guanglai taking a strike, SoftBank advanced the runner to scoring position.

Having completed his tactical task, Lin Guanglai narrowed his eyes, focusing all his attention on the baseball in Mai Sideli’s hand on the pitcher’s mound.

"Foul ball!"

"Foul ball!"

"Ball!"

"Ball!"

"Foul ball!"

"Ball!"

After his teammates completed their task of advancing and further pressuring the opposing pitcher, Lin Guanglai in the batter’s box showcased his patience and aggressiveness: facing the baseball pitched by Mai Sideli, he relied on his keen eye and hitting skills, fouling off 3 pitches and selecting 3 balls, continuously wearing down the opponent’s pitch count, while bringing the situation to a 3 balls 2 strikes count.

For Mai Sideli on the pitcher’s mound, the current situation is very troublesome:

He knows that SoftBank’s number 44 is right behind him, but due to facing away from the opponent, he cannot see any of their actions;

With a full count, the outcome of the next pitch could trigger a variety of chain reactions: a decisive pitch in the strike zone might be hit for a base hit by the opponent, and more foul ball battles could lead to unexpected outcomes; then, what about using a ball to lure the opponent to swing? To be honest, at least after witnessing Lin Guanglai’s pitch selection ability in this at-bat, Mai Sideli doesn’t dare to bet that way.

Additionally, the massive noise created by the over 30,000 SoftBank fans at the scene made the already slightly off-going Mai Sideli feel even more annoyed.

After a brief rest, Mai Sideli agreed with Ito Mitsuo’s pitch-calling strategy for a decisive pitch, nodded towards him, and began his throw.

This was supposed to be a fastball, but as Mai Sideli released the ball, the peculiar feeling in his hand made him sense something was amiss — 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

"This is the pitch I was waiting for!!!"

As he watched the ball fly towards the red center of his strike zone, devoid of speed or angle, Lin Guanglai’s pupils suddenly shot out a brilliant light.

The next second, locking his gaze on the incoming ball, the bat in his hand swung out naturally, sticking close to his body, and even after hitting the baseball, he continued pushing forward.

Under the tremendous kinetic energy, the baseball pitched by Mai Sideli was sent soaring by Lin Guanglai, landing a few seconds later in front of Eagle’s Vision, sparking a scramble among the fans in the stands.

"Lin Guanglai! It’s him again — Career home run No. 2! Two-run dinger!"

"The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, their score gap is now just 2 runs!!!"