Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 399 - 48: Power Counterattack

Although he knew Toriyama Kei had strong pitch selection abilities and rarely swung at bad balls, after discussing with Hosokawa Kei, Lin Guanglai decided to throw an ambiguous ball to test the waters on the first pitch.

If by any chance the opponent chose to swing, or if this pitch was to the liking of the home plate umpire, perhaps he could seize the strike count advantage and gain an upper hand on the field with this bad ball.

A fastball went high inside, the speed was about 150km/h, and the position where the baseball crossed the plate was quite sensitive, but in the batter’s box, Toriyama Kei remained unmoved, sticking to his judgment, and let the ball pass; the home plate umpire behind Hosokawa Kei also had no reaction.

ball, 0 strikes.

"Just as expected, I have to decide the outcome within the strike zone..." Receiving the ball returned by Hosokawa Kei, Lin Guanglai felt resolved, "If that’s the case, then let’s do it!" 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Standing on the pitcher’s mound at Koshien, Lin Guanglai slightly bent down, shrouding half of his face with his glove, and nodded at the pitch call from Hosokawa Kei.

Gathering power and twisting, as the baseball was snapped off his fingers with the swing of his arm, the target was straight at the center of Toriyama Kei’s strike zone!

The baseball’s speed was extremely fast, and even someone as sharp-eyed as Toriyama Kei couldn’t completely see the fiercely spinning baseball during its flight, yet years of rigorous training came into play at this moment—as his body’s muscle memory prompted, it reacted first, driving his bat towards where the ball was coming.

Surprisingly though, Toriyama Kei’s flat swing did not manage to hit the baseball, it didn’t even contact the ball, merely brushing past it and flying underneath.

"Strike!" Almost simultaneously as the baseball flew into the catcher’s mitt, the home plate umpire raised his right hand, announcing the call on this pitch.

Toriyama Kei gave his bat a few swings in place and squinted his eyes, staring directly at Lin Guanglai on the pitcher’s mound, recalling the process of that last pitch in his mind.

"So, was it the visual rising effect of that pitch that led to me missing my swing..."

Such a pitch also reminded Toriyama Kei of his former teammate, who left the Hanshin Tigers this year to join the Chicago Cubs in Major League Baseball, Kyuji Fujikawa.

Before young talents like Lin Guanglai and Ohtani Shohei, who could throw 160 km/h fastballs as high schoolers emerged, Kyuji Fujikawa was almost synonymous with fastball pitchers in Japan:

His fastball, averaging around 149 km/h at its peak and maxing at 156 km/h, was his strongest weapon; what was more, Fujikawa’s fastball had a peculiar "floating extension feeling" near the plate, giving batters the impression that the baseball was rising—it was such a caliber of baseball that not only struck out batters at a great rate of 12.81 in Nihon Professional Baseball, but also left even historic players like Alex Rodriguez at a loss on the international stage.

In Toriyama Kei’s view, Lin Guanglai’s pitches today already somewhat carried the flavor of peak Fujikawa—considering that he’s only 18 and far from reaching a pitcher’s peak period; just imagining the achievements he might accomplish in the future left Toriyama Kei somewhat at a loss, indeed lamenting at the audacity of youth.

Thus, before Lin Guanglai had fully matured, while his skills were still somewhat suppressible, Toriyama Kei knew he should seize the opportunity now more than ever.

Though he quickly responded with a strike, Lin Guanglai found the at-bat with Toriyama Kei very uncomfortable—even from his own perspective, Toriyama Kei was undoubtedly the most challenging batter he’d faced since joining professional baseball, surpassing even those heavy hitters from other teams who casually hit 30 or 40 home runs.

From a statistical standpoint, pitchers always have a natural advantage in a pitcher-batter duel: After all, any batter with a batting average over .300 is considered a strong hitter, even if they fail 7 out of 10 times.

A pitcher has many ways to create outs against a batter, but the most common method is to disrupt the batter’s hitting rhythm by changing the pitch angle and velocity, which inevitably involves alternating between strikes and balls.

However, facing a batter like Toriyama Kei, who is completely unfazed by deception, many of the enticing balls that effectively work against typical power or contact hitters lose their effect, undoubtedly increasing the difficulty of pitching for Lin Guanglai.

After the count became 1 strike and 1 ball, Lin Guanglai threw several more pitches in succession, with any obviously out-of-zone ball being selected without exception, while as soon as the baseball fell into the zone, Toriyama Kei’s bat would swing out immediately.

Back and forth, the two were locked in a stalemate for six or seven pitches, yet still unable to determine any winner; and throughout this process, the Koshien crowd constantly exerted mental pressure on Lin Guanglai.

To say the least, the Hanshin Tigers fans were indeed energetic—a constant stream of boos, jeers, and songs... since the start of this at-bat, these sounds hadn’t paused even for a second.

The continuous pitcher-batter battles drained both Lin Guanglai and Toriyama Kei considerably, so, after the 10th pitch, both tacitly paused the duel to allow their bodies a bit of a breather.

Although the duel with Toriyama Kei was lengthy and demanding, Lin Guanglai did gain something during this time—at least through the continuous probing, he had roughly grasped the preset strike zone ranges in Toriyama Kei’s and the game’s home plate umpire’s minds, which would certainly benefit his pitching going forward.

After smoothing his breath, Lin Guanglai again focused his gaze at home plate:

At this moment, in his eyes, the space on the right side of Toriyama Kei’s body, above the home plate in the left batter’s box, two square virtual strike zones quietly formed, overlapping together—aiming at the ambiguous positions on the strike zone’s fringes, where the two zones did not intersect, Lin Guanglai took a deep breath and initiated his pitching motion.

Leg lift, power gathering, stride, twist, and arm swing—after a fluent and powerful pitching motion, the baseball came flying from his hand, heading straight for the upper right corner of the strike zone above home plate.

"Pop." Hosokawa Kei caught the ball steadily.

Seeing this, Toriyama Kei just casually tossed his bat to the ground beside him and turned to head toward the first base bag.

However, just at this moment—

"Strike!" Right behind the catcher, the home plate umpire unhesitatingly announced the call for the at-bat: "Batter out, sides switch!"

Toriyama Kei wore a bewildered expression of disbelief on his face, just about to argue with the umpire but was held back in place by his teammates nearby.

The boos in Koshien grew even louder.

The smile on Lin Guanglai’s face grew bigger too.