Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 388 - 37: The Strongest Native Pressure

"Is this really Miyagi Stadium? This is my first time playing here!"

Standing in the infield of Miyagi Stadium, the home field of the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles located in Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture, Lin Guanglai expressed his sentiments.

Lately, although the SoftBank Team’s performance has been fluctuating without any major changes, Lin Guanglai’s personal form has been quite outstanding:

As a pitcher, last week against the Chiba Lotte Marines, although due to his teammates’ poor batting form, he got his first season loss, as a pitcher, he had a quality start with 7 innings pitched, 8 strikeouts, and 1 run allowed, firmly securing his spot in SoftBank’s starting rotation;

And as a hitter, ever since his consecutive 10-strikeout performance at the Sapporo Dome, Lin Guanglai’s touch can be described with one word: "red-hot." In the past two series of the week, his batting average was as high as .570, with 2 home runs and 10 RBIs, making him SoftBank Team’s "triple crown" batter during this period.

Thanks to this, he has been further promoted by Manager Akiyama, replacing Honda Yuichi, who had been in poor batting form, and moving from the sixth to the leadoff hitter, officially entering the top part of the batting order.

Lin Guanglai has been looking forward to today’s game against the Rakuten Golden Eagles for a long time.

The reason is simple: in this game against the SoftBank Team, the ace of the Rakuten Golden Eagles, the top pitcher in all of Japan, the "Divine Son" Tanaka Masahiro, will finally take the mound!

If today’s Japanese baseball fans were asked to choose the "strongest local pitcher," the name Tanaka Masahiro, even if not the first, would certainly be among the top names.

This person is like a "walking male lead from an inspirational story"—two Koshien championships and one runner-up in his three years of high school; became Rakuten’s starting pitcher in his first year in professional baseball and soon was promoted to ace; at 22, became a millionaire and married a beautiful actress; in the last two seasons, his ERA has been terrifyingly maintained at 1.

There are rumors that Tanaka Masahiro, who will turn 25 at the end of this year, might announce his challenge to the Major League next year, meaning this season could be the last chance for Lin Guanglai to face him.

With his recent good form, Lin Guanglai is eager to experience the strength of the current "number one pitcher in Nippon Professional Baseball"!

With some time left before the official start of the game, this period is usually left for players from both teams to deal with personal matters—catching up with friends on the opposing team is a popular choice.

"You’re Lin, right? Nice to meet you!"

Just as Lin Guanglai was standing in front of his team’s dugout, idly kicking the soft dirt beneath his feet, a rough hand suddenly appeared in front of him.

Looking up at the person in front of him, Lin Guanglai was taken aback and hurriedly bowed forward, extending his hand toward the person.

"Senior Tanaka, hello—nice to meet you, and please take care of me."

After performing the proper etiquette as a junior, Lin Guanglai raised his head again and started to scrutinize the person standing in front of him:

To be honest, compared to Lin Guanglai’s striking appearance, Tanaka Masahiro has a rather ordinary face that could blend into any crowd unnoticed—if it’s the first time seeing him, it’s hard to believe just from his looks that he is currently Japan’s best local pitcher, if not the best.

After a brief chat, Tanaka Masahiro didn’t say much more. After a few routine exchanges, he turned to leave—but before he did, he patted Lin Guanglai on the shoulder, saying:

"Welcome to Miyagi Stadium, Lin—I’ll make sure to take good care of you in this game as a senior in high school baseball!"

Although his tone remained gentle, Lin Guanglai couldn’t help but feel a chill run down his spine.

Perhaps this is what they call the "pressure of being the strongest local player"?

"Ah—you’re in trouble, Guanglai, you’ve caught the attention of the ’Divine Son.’ It’s hard to say if this is good or bad..." After Tanaka Masahiro left, Yanagida Yuuki, who had witnessed the whole encounter, sidled up to Lin Guanglai and remarked.

"Brother Yuuki, what do you mean by that?" Lin Guanglai asked, puzzled.

Seeing Lin Guanglai’s bewildered face, Yanagida Yuuki, who loved to stir things up, showed a peculiar smile:

"I think you don’t get it at all—Guanglai, the ’Divine Son’ has set his sights on you! You’re in trouble in this game!"

At that moment, Lin Guanglai didn’t know what Yanagida Yuuki meant by "you’re in trouble," but he soon found out—

"Strikeout swinging!!!"

"Tanaka Masahiro, truly the ace of the Rakuten Golden Eagles and an undefeated super ace this season! Against the hot-hitting SoftBank leadoff batter Lin Guanglai, his 142 km/h fast forkball precisely hit the lower strike zone!"

"His condition today is extraordinarily good!"

The home crowd’s cheers were deafening. If Miyagi Stadium weren’t an open-air venue without a roof, it might have already been blown open—a gaping hole by now. Even though the Rakuten is the youngest of the 12 Nippon Professional Baseball teams, having been established in 2004, its fans are among the most passionate.

Returning to his team’s dugout with his bat and receiving comfort from Manager Akiyama, Lin Guanglai sat down, propping his chin in reflection.

There was nothing to defend in that at-bat; it was solely Tanaka Masahiro’s experience and solid strength at work—since he began using the fast forkball instead of the big forkball two years ago, his dominance on the mound has become even more stable.

Averaging 148 km/h and reaching up to 158 km/h fastballs, paired with fast forkballs averaging around 140 km/h, supplemented by 134-135 km/h big sliders, these three pitches make up 80% of his total pitch count, also the key elements that earned him the Eiji Sawamura Award in 2011.

In the previous at-bat, Lin Guanglai mistook the fast forkball for a fastball. Caught off guard by its subtle movement, he ended up swinging and missing.

The outcome of one at-bat doesn’t matter much since the game has just started, and there will be many more opportunities for direct confrontations;

Disclaimer: These translations are for demonstration and entertainment purposes, created based on hypothetical scenarios. For reading full Chinese novels in English, please visit legitimate providers or purchase authorized translations.