Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 424 - 65: Joyful Finals

Facing Sakamoto Yuuto, he changed his usual straightforward approach and, under Takeshima Shinya’s guidance, threw a dazzling array of breaking balls, including some he would never usually use.

Amidst the audience’s collective gasps and sighs, Sakamoto Yuuto, entangled with six or seven pitches, was tempted by Lin Guanglai’s final inside slider and swung, resulting in a strikeout that eliminated him.

Following a ground ball that took out Hanshin’s second baseman Nishikawa Gou, Lin Guanglai once again faced Valentin on the All-Star stage—a player who had caused him significant trouble in the past and had overtaken Blanco in the home run rankings with 27 homers to lead the Central League.

Their renewed showdown was another clash of thunder and fire—after four pitches, Lin Guanglai and Valentin were equally matched, each with 2 balls and 2 strikes; just as Valentin in the batter’s box was ready to take advantage of his excellent form to ride the tide, Lin Guanglai made a pitch that surprised everyone:

In front of over 18,000 spectators, Lin Guanglai didn’t throw the ball with his usual clean, swift arm motion; instead, he barely used the lower half of his body, relying solely on his arm to toss a super slow curveball with a high arc—according to the electronic speedometer on site, the pitch was under 90 km/h.

Valentin, well-prepared and wary of Lin Guanglai’s fastball, was caught off guard by the super slow curveball. Used to hitting balls over 150 km/h, he was stunned by the 70 km/h speed differential and watched the ball sail into the strike zone without reacting.

The audience, finally realizing what had happened, erupted in laughter, which spread to the dugout on both sides of home plate, with many players joining in the jeering; even Valentin in the batter’s box, seeing himself struck out by such a pitch, shook his head at Lin Guanglai with a smile.

With the goal of entertaining the audience achieved, in the following second half-inning, Lin Guanglai showcased his prowess as the rising star to the Little League, high school players, and professional baseball fans from Fukushima Prefecture:

Facing the Central League’s central batters, the star players from various teams, Lin Guanglai accelerated, firing fastballs over 160 km/h that stirred up roaring cheers and applause with each pitch.

After 2½ innings, with 5 strikeouts and no runs allowed—Lin Guanglai concluded his first All-Star appearance with such a performance.

After two innings, he was substituted by the Pacific League’s head coach Kuriyama Hideki; before leaving the field, Lin Guanglai received cheers from fans across the stadium while on the pitcher’s mound.

His excellent performance set a good start for the Pacific League batters: in the bottom of the eighth inning, with the score tied at 1-1, his teammate Nakagawa Seiichi hit a double that opened the door to victory.

Eventually, the game ended with Pacific League 3:1 Central League, with both teams achieving 1 win, 1 draw, and 1 loss across the three games, with equal scores and runs allowed.

With such a grand finale, the 2013 All-Star Game perfectly concluded.