Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 394 - 43: The Interleague Showdown Arrives

When mid-May arrived, the interleague games between the Central League and Pacific League commenced.

Before 2005, although Nippon Professional Baseball was nominally a whole, the states of the Central League and Pacific League were more akin to two independent leagues; except for the Japanese Series at the end of each season, all other match stages were conducted independently by the two leagues.

This led to the emergence of a phenomenon:

Since the popular Yomiuri Giants and Hanshin Tigers were both Central League teams, for broadcast ratings considerations, many local TV stations only chose to broadcast Central League games.

Even though the Pacific League teams had gradually risen since the mid-1980s and maintained a dominant record against Central League teams in the Japanese Series, this extreme disparity in popularity had not improved—many players before entering professional baseball didn’t even know about the existence of the Pacific League.

Over time, a huge broadcasting revenue gap emerged between the Central League and the Pacific League, with the Giant Team unwilling to sacrifice its interests and the Pacific League teams fed up with such unequal treatment, eventually leading to the Pacific League strike event in 2004.

As a result, from 2005 onwards, the Nippon Professional Baseball official decided to hold interleague games mid-season, where all participating teams would face each other, and the wins, losses, and individual performances would count towards their respective league’s official season records. The final rankings of the interleague games would determine the "Interleague Champion" among the 12 teams.

For the teams, the mid-season interleague games were a great opportunity to test the team’s status. Over the years, many teams with mediocre starts used the interleague games to improve their state, gaining momentum from victory in the interleague games, climbing all the way into the climax series, and winning the league championship.

For the current SoftBank Hawks, Akiyama Koji especially valued the team’s performance in the upcoming interleague games:

After a hellish five-game losing streak, the SoftBank Team, which finally saw a warm-up in status and once climbed to first place in the Pacific League, started to falter again recently: 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

After the game on May 3 when Lin Guanglai started and pitched a complete shutout against Seibu Lions, the SoftBank Team, with a five-game win streak, hosted Chiba Lotte Marines at home—the result being the second five-game losing streak since early April, with their ranking quickly dropping from first to Group B.

The problem of losing games was still the same as before, except for Lin Guanglai and Shetsu Shou, the only two starters useful to the team, the others were just ticking time bombs that could explode anytime; even the bullpen, which had been relatively stable, seemed to be affected recently, continually failing in setup or closure situations.

During these 5 games of consecutive losses, almost every time after the initial innings, SoftBank Team faced a deficit of more than 3 runs. The batting lineup worked hard to claw back some runs, only for the relief pitchers to soon lose them again – if not for Lin Guanglai and Shetsu Shou returning in time, this losing streak’s number might have been even larger.

Compared to the decline in results, Akiyama Koji was more concerned about the atmosphere in the locker room now:

The continual defeat was a huge blow to the players’ confidence, especially those pitchers whose condition was not originally great – if this continued, it would likely lead to a vicious cycle, the worse the losses, the worse the condition, ultimately dragging the whole team into the abyss.

Fortunately, at this point, the interleague games arrived!

The opponents in the interleague games were all Central League teams, for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks belonging to the Pacific League, these opponents would only meet a few times a whole season, normally both teams paid little attention to studying the technical characteristics of each other’s players;

In contrast, under such circumstances, SoftBank’s pitchers, who were "highly flammable and explosive" against Pacific League teams, might take advantage of the unfamiliarity of the opposing Central League teams to pitch more innings, get more outs, and gradually regain their pitching confidence.

Although occasional scoring droughts could occur, the batting lineup’s firepower of the SoftBank Team was second to none in the entire Pacific League; as long as these pitchers can find their rhythm in the interleague games again, Akiyama Koji has reason to believe his team can replicate its past winning streak performance.

"How about setting a higher goal for the interleague games?"

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On May 13, 2013, transfer day.

Sitting on the Shinkansen heading to Hiroshima, SoftBank players were either taking a nap or fiddling with various gadgets in their hands, except for Yanagida Yuuki next to Lin Guanglai, who seemed particularly energetic.

Or in other words, ever since the interleague game schedule came out and SoftBank Team confirmed that its first round series would be away against Hiroshima Carp, Yanagida Yuuki’s spirits had been high.

The reason, which was well known to his very close friend Lin Guanglai:

Born and raised in Hiroshima, Yanagida Yuuki often watched Hiroshima Carp’s games of the Jimoto team since childhood, and playing in Mazda Zoom-Zoom Stadium Hiroshima was once his dream.

But last season, he was only brought up to the primary team in the latter half, by then the interleague games were over, and Yanagida Yuuki couldn’t fulfill his dream, leaving a small regret.

And just tomorrow, that little childhood dream was finally going to come true—so how could Yanagida Yuuki not feel jubilant?

The mere thought of himself hitting in Mazda Zoom-Zoom Stadium Hiroshima tomorrow made Yanagida Yuuki’s heart bubble with joy.

"Tap tap." Manager Akiyama sitting in the front suddenly stood up, signaling for his players to look his way.

"Regarding this interleague game, what do you think our goal should be?" Facing the puzzled players, Akiyama Koji posed the question.

A moment of silence was his response—if it was during the previous winning streak phase, the players would undoubtedly set the goal as victory without hesitation; but after the recent losing streak, SoftBank players were feeling a bit unsure inside.

"Since no one’s speaking, I’ll set the goal for everyone then—"

"The team’s condition hasn’t been particularly great lately. I know everyone doesn’t have much confidence, but I hope no matter what, everyone remembers why we gathered together."

"Our Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks have only one goal—"

"In this interleague game, I hope we will be the ultimate winners!"