Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 430 - 68: Who Is the True Hero?

To be honest, after watching the entire game from below, Lin Guanglai truly felt a bit tired; glancing at Hasegawa Yu, who was still warming up for the next hit in the on-deck circle not far away, he silently made up his mind in his heart—

"This ball, I’m determined to hit the baseball into the stands!!"

On the pitcher’s mound, Keyan Yangpei swung his arm, and the red-and-white baseball flew vigorously towards Lin Guanglai at home plate, the ball’s speed charging fiercely towards Lin Guanglai’s inside corner, clearly indicating that the pitcher intended to use such a forceful pitch to narrow the batter’s swing space.

But as the current fourth in home runs within the Softbank Team and sixth in the Pacific League, Lin Guanglai wouldn’t be easily intimidated by such a pitch; his gaze remained steadily locked on the ball, and as his body, holding the bat, began to gather strength backwards, he didn’t rush to swing. Instead, he waited for the baseball to come in, ensuring there would be no further transformation, and then he swung his bat fiercely.

"Ping—!!!"

When the crisp and loud sound of the hit echoed through the Sapporo Dome ceiling, the result of this ball was already without suspense; after rounding the bases and returning to home plate, Lin Guanglai didn’t even have time to celebrate before being completely engulfed by a wave of black uniforms.

Outside the crowd, Akiyama Koji was also excitedly clenching his fists; watching his disciples celebrating passionately, he knew that this time, he had won his bet!

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The match between Softbank and the Ham Team, which lasted a total of 6 hours and 21 minutes, has become the hottest topic in the entire Nippon Professional Baseball recently—by comparison, even the Yomiuri Giants’ consecutive two-year defense of the Central League victory and Rakuten Golden Eagles being just 2 games away from claiming their first Pacific League victory in 9 years of team history weren’t as appealing.

[A life-and-death struggle across night and day, Softbank’s Lin Guanglai, walk-off home run seals the win!]

[The fierce battle in the Pacific League, Rakuten remains unchallenged, Seibu, Softbank, and Lotte Team vie for supremacy, climax series becoming more and more unpredictable]

[Victory is the reward for the brave, Manager Akiyama’s bold decisions paid off]

[Nippon Ham’s Ohtani Shohai, 5 innings, 5 Ks, 2 hits, quality performance, but is lack of control still a problem?]

By the morning after the game, with the arrival of a new day, a myriad of expert reviews dissecting the game itself, both managers, coaches, and players from various angles bombarded the airwaves, to the point that even the most die-hard fans of Nippon Professional Baseball found the sight overwhelming.

After all, besides setting a series of new records in Nippon Professional Baseball and the Pacific League, there were indeed many aspects to discuss: the coaching adjustments, the intensely contested offense and defense, Ohtani Shohai’s outstanding starting performance, and of course, Lin Guanglai’s walk-off home run as a pinch hitter in the bottom of the 11th inning...

No matter how you look at it, the Softbank Team succeeded—they indeed secured a victory against the Ham Team at the Sapporo Dome with a partially main lineup, even though it came at the cost of burning through 10 pitchers; but a win is a win, isn’t it?

Considering the players’ exhaustion from yesterday’s game, Akiyama Koji specially delayed the training start time the next day; but when he arrived at the training ground exactly on the new schedule, he found that the first-team players had already arrived at the field, and had even started voluntary practice according to the previous schedule.

Even though their faces still bore visible fatigue from the last night’s game, from their bright eyes and active training input, as this team’s manager, Akiyama Koji could distinctly feel that the Softbank Team had undoubtedly undergone a qualitative change after the game against the Ham Team.

While the specific nature of this change needs to be tested in the upcoming matches, there is one thing Akiyama Koji can be sure of, and that is that this team is definitely developing in a positive direction, and he firmly believes this.

Soon, the Softbank players also used their actual performance in games to prove the correctness of their manager’s feeling.

After the series against the Ham Team, the Softbank players hurried to the Chiba Marine Stadium and faced their main rival for a climax series berth, the Chiba Lotte Team; and in this series, the Softbank Team delivered a blow to their competitor with solid defense and rapid offense.

In the first game of the triple-header, Lin Guanglai pitched for 7 innings, striking out 8, allowing only 3 hits, successfully concluded with a scoreless performance; following him, his teammates also delivered outstanding performances, firmly maintaining the slim lead against the aggressive Lotte batting lineup, all the way to the end—the one-point difference, like a chasm, separated the Softbank Team and Lotte Team on two shores; only this side is called the postseason, the other side is for fishing at home.

In the second game of the triple-header, this time it’s the batters’ turn to explode: during the game, the Softbank team, using a pitcher rotation strategy, once faced a massive 2-8 deficit, but their batting lineup persisted in responding—during the final stages of the game, the Softbank team scored 10 points in three innings, turning the score around at once and laying the foundation for this game, as well as the series victory.

In the last game of the triple-header, Softbank sent out their other ace, Shetsu Shou. After nine innings, the final score was 5-3, with Softbank winning the series trifecta against Lotte on the road, reversing their ranking over their opponent on the Pacific League standings—from trailing by 2 games before the series to leading by 1 game. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"The Pacific League situation is now very clear: including the make-up games at the beginning of next month, we still have about 15 official games left in the season—Rakuten has already secured the victory, their sole goal now seems to be helping Tanaka break the undefeated record, predicted to go all out in the series against Lotte, which is good news for us."

"The series against Orix is a must-win for us, and we should strive to achieve a 3-0 sweep—if everything goes well, by the make-up games early next month, we can approach the final stretch with a lead of about 3-5 games."

"Among the games postponed due to weather, requiring make-ups, there’s one against Rakuten, one against Orix, two against the Ham Team, and most importantly, three head-to-heads against Seibu, one at the Yahoo Dome, and two away at the Seibu Dome—Seibu’s recently on a four-game winning streak and is in excellent form; these three games are battles we must go all out for!"

In the Yahoo Dome’s players’ meeting room, facing his players who were all intently watching him, Akiyama Koji gave them a detailed analysis of the current situation; on the electronic screen behind him, the current standings of each team in the Pacific League were displayed.

After discussing the current situation, Akiyama Koji didn’t forget to motivationally tease his players: "As your manager, ever since I took over at Softbank, I’ve never ended a season with a B-Grade finish—don’t break my golden body, you bunch of rascals!"

As the 2013 season enters its final stage, various suspense from both major leagues have essentially been revealed:

In the Central League, the Yomiuri Giants and Hanshin Tigers have locked in the top two spots, with Hiroshima Toyo Carp leading the fourth-placed Chunichi Dragons by 5 games, although theoretically not completely locking in the third Climax Series spot, it’s only a matter of time;

Compared to the suspense-free Central League, the Pacific League is much more thrilling: with a stellar second half of the season, Rakuten Golden Eagles claimed the 2013 Pacific League victory, with their ace pitcher Tanaka Masahiro boasting a 22-0 record, embodying divine prowess.

The remaining two postseason spots will emerge between the Softbank, Seibu, and Lotte teams: Softbank currently holds second place, but they only lead the third-placed Seibu by 0.5 games; chasing behind them is Lotte, trailing by 2 games.

With more than 10 games left in the season, anything is possible.

But this time, Akiyama Koji firmly believes that the ultimate winner of this life-and-death struggle will undoubtedly be his team!