Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 408 - 56: An Ideal Start

"Hello, professional baseball fans, good evening! Welcome to Meiji Jingu Stadium!"

"The games earlier today have concluded, and the Pacific League has won both matches with great victories!"

"Tohoku Rakuten took a 2-1 victory against Hiroshima Toyo at Mazda Zoom-Zoom Stadium Hiroshima, with young rookie Zeben earning his fourth win of the season;"

"Players from Yokohama DeNa and Chiba Lotte gave us an exciting fireworks display, with both teams hitting two home runs each. The visiting Lotte Team won by a five-point margin—it’s worth mentioning that Yokohama DeNa’s player Tony Blanco hit his 21st home run of the season in this match. In less than two months since the season started, this pace might even challenge King-san’s single-season record of 55 home runs."

"And the upcoming match at Shengong Stadium is also worth looking forward to—SoftBank’s starting pitcher tonight is the scorching hot superstar rookie Lin Guanglai, who will face one of Central League’s strongest hitters, Vladimir Balentien. This showdown between a star pitcher and batter is truly exciting!"

The commentator’s remarks received agreement from the guest commentator beside him, as this indeed resonated with the sentiments of fans choosing to watch the game—the crowd at the scene wasn’t particularly large, just about enough to half-fill Shengong Stadium.

After all, in the city of Tokyo, Yakult Swallows are ultimately just a sideshow; whenever there is a Yomiuri Giants match at the same time, most people would choose to watch at Tokyo Dome instead.

In other words, gaining such considerable popularity under Giant Team’s "shadow" is already a testament to Yakult Swallows’ upper management skillfully running operations.

As SoftBank players walked into Shengong Stadium’s interior, waiting for the game to start, an unexpected guest awaited outside the visiting team’s resting area—

Yakult Swallows’ mascot, the most popular among the 12 Nippon Professional Baseball teams, "Yankuro," who looks like a penguin despite being a swallow, stood there animatedly interacting with SoftBank’s "Harry the Hawk."

Upon seeing the visiting team’s players enter, Yankuro gleefully trotted over to SoftBank players, cheekily revealing his iconic handmade sign—with small densely written text in black on white paper, mostly little jabs at SoftBank players.

Even Lin Guanglai, who was visiting Shengong Stadium as a professional player and an away team member for the first time, received Yankuro’s "warm greetings."

After giving the visiting players a taste of local humor, Yankuro moved to the stands under the home crowd, attempting to warm up the atmosphere.

Near the stands, Yankuro once again performed his signature act "Helmet Toss": raising his helmet high, hoping it would land back on his head, but it ultimately fell to the ground with a "clang," prompting bursts of laughter from the audience.

Since Yankuro’s image first emerged in 1994, "Helmet Toss" has been an indispensable part of Shengong Stadium’s game days—even if it often fails, each retry invariably brings laughter from the crowd.

Yankuro is the first mascot among Nippon Professional Baseball’s 12 teams to reach 1,000 consecutive home games, and the first in history to exercise free agent rights—his bold personality, humor, and quirky antics make him a beloved mascot admired by all baseball fans.

As seconds tick by, when the clock strikes 6 PM, the game between SoftBank Team and Yakult Swallows officially begins.

In the game, visiting SoftBank Team attacks first while home team Yakult Swallows defends.

Yakult’s starting pitcher today is Taichi Ogawa, a ready-to-play university pitcher picked with the second selection in last year’s nomination meeting, who became an official first-team member due to his outstanding preseason performance.

Taichi Ogawa uses an overhand pitching style, with a well-rounded and versatile arsenal:

In addition to an average fastball speed of about 141 km/h and a peak of 151 km/h, he also throws various breaking balls, including a high-speed cutter around 130 km/h, a slider on the slower end of 120 km/h, a forkball near 130 km/h, and a changeup around the middle of 120 km/h.

Because his pitching mechanics closely resemble legendary pitcher Nolan Ryan, Taichi Ogawa also bears the nickname "Japanese Ryan"—comparing him to such a historically top-tier pitcher shows how highly Yakult Swallows’ fans regard his talent.

But despite being a highly talented player, today he got strategized by SoftBank Team’s batters right at the start of the game—in the first half of the first inning, the visiting SoftBank Team took the lead. The lineup continued its recent strong performance, opening the game right away:

Leadoff batter Nakamura Akira kicked things off with a double, sending the ball deep into the left-field boundary area of Shengong Stadium, setting a great start for his team.

Second batter Fukumoto Atsushi executed his tactical task perfectly, advancing Nakamura Akira to third base with a bunt toward the pitcher’s mound; third batter Nakagawa Seiichi followed with a sacrifice fly to central field, allowing Nakamura Akira to return to home plate and earn the first score.

Fourth batter Lahai’er was struck out, but this did not affect the joyous mood of SoftBank players: their team opened the game with early success in offense, and Lin Guanglai—their most stable player this season—was set to play. Though the match had only progressed half an inning, SoftBank players already seemed to see another victory approaching; after all, whenever SoftBank Team secured an early lead this season, Lin Guanglai had yet to lose a match!

"Guanglai, go for it!"

"Guanglai, it’s all on you!"

"Take care of today’s game!"

As they passed Lin Guanglai, SoftBank batters walking off the field patted his shoulder one by one to encourage this junior.

To have support from his own lineup right at the start is indeed a pleasant situation for a pitcher; Lin Guanglai was able to ascend the pitcher’s mound with a relatively relaxed mindset.

Guided by Hosokawa Kei, Lin Guanglai threw a few practice pitches on the mound, and his condition seemed decent; he managed to carry this good form into the official game:

Against Yakult’s foreign slugger Lastings Milledge, Lin Guanglai struck him out with ease, opening the game on a positive note.

In the dugout, Akiyama Koji nodded with a smile, clearly considering it an ideal kickoff for the match.