Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 409 - 57: Super Slugger

The top three batters of the Yakult Swallows display impressive cohesion, with American power hitter Lastings Milledge taking the lead-off position, "Mr. Clutch" Morioka Yoshiaki at the second strategic spot, and the third batter being the seasoned Akinori Iwamura, whose abilities may have waned with age but who, at his peak, hit over 40 home runs in Nippon Professional Baseball.

Although Milledge was struck out first, the subsequent batters were also evidently tough opponents:

Second batter Morioka Yoshiaki didn’t manage to get a hit off Lin Guanglai, yet his tenacious batting style was a thorn in Lin’s side. He fouled off 7 pitches before Lin finally got him to fly out to the outfield.

Perhaps influenced by the previous at-bat, Lin Guanglai later faced the experienced third batter, Akinori Iwamura, and gave up his first walk of the game, allowing Iwamura to reach first base.

As Lin Guanglai prepared to pitch again, his next opponent had already taken his place by home plate, warming up his bat with vigorous swings in the batter’s box.

Vladimir Balentien, known for his powerful arm during his Major League Baseball career, was said to rival Ichiro Suzuki, known for his laser throws in the Seattle Mariners, for the title of the strongest arm. After joining the Yakult Swallows and coming to Shengong Stadium, Balentien astonishingly hit over 30 home runs in consecutive seasons, instilling fear in countless Central League pitchers.

Especially this season, with his current form, Balentien might be on the brink of a career year:

Due to an adductor injury sustained in the opening game against Cuba while representing Holland in the WBC at the start of the year, Balentien’s initial games of the new season were spent in rehab in the minor leagues, and he was only reinstated to the major league roster in mid-April.

In his first two games post-return, his performance was underwhelming: in two games against the Yomiuri Giants, Balentien stepped up to the plate eight times but failed to get a single hit;

But starting from the Yakult home game against the Chunichi Dragons on April 16, where Balentien hit two home runs in one game, he began a hot streak that continues unabated—since that game until today, less than 30 games later, Balentien has hammered 16 home runs, averaging a home run every two games.

Currently on the Central League’s home run leaderboard, he trails only Tony Blanco of the Yokohama BayStars by five home runs—an astonishing level of productivity considering he played over half a month fewer matches due to injury.

In essence, Balentien is currently at the pinnacle of his baseball career, and dueling against him at this juncture means immense pressure on Lin Guanglai.

The moment the at-bat began, Lin Guanglai felt the pressure brought on by this formidable batter:

He delivered a fastball clocking over 155 km/h to the inside corner of the strike zone, which would have been undisputedly called a strike by most local Japanese batters or average foreign players;

Yet for Balentien, this pitch was still well within his striking ability: confronting Lin Guanglai’s powerful inside fastball, Balentien merely adjusted his batting stance slightly before swiftly swinging his bat.

"Crack!"

The crisp sound of the bat connecting with the ball resonated, as the baseball soared high above Shengong Stadium, speeding rapidly towards the outfield—a murmur of disappointment swept through the home crowd as the ball narrowly grazed the left side of the left-field foul pole, landing in the outfield stands.

Though this foul ball allowed Lin Guanglai to secure a favorable count, it certainly gave him a scare.

After receiving the ball returned by Hosokawa Kei, Lin Guanglai adjusted his pitching rhythm slightly; once his emotions had settled from the recent fright, he nodded at the signs given by Hosokawa, who was signaling from behind the plate, and sent the ball towards home.

"Strike."

This was a breaking ball, which Balentien did not swing at.

According to the SoftBank Team’s pre-game scouting report, while possessing exceptional power for long-distance hits and well-practiced batting technique, the primary reason hindering Balentien’s success in Major League Baseball was his struggle to handle breaking balls.

Data indicates that in his three seasons in the MLB, Balentien’s strikeout rate was a staggering 25.7%, with significant deficiencies in batting consistency; even though this issue improved somewhat after arriving in Japan, it remains a key obstacle to his further development.

Especially in Japan, where every pitcher can throw at least four different breaking balls, this weakness is more easily exploited—this explains why, despite hitting over 30 home runs each season, his batting average barely broke .200 in his first two years in Nippon Professional Baseball.

Following this reasoning, Lin Guanglai and Hosokawa Kei, as pitcher and catcher, increased the frequency of breaking balls in their pitch selection, logically securing a two-strike count ahead of the batter.

After several breaking balls, catcher Hosokawa Kei felt it was time to crank up the speed and catch the opponent off guard. Lin Guanglai nodded in agreement to the signs issued from Hosokawa’s fingertips.