Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 443 - 74: A Sweeping Victory (Part 2)

And his ace did not disappoint Akiyama Koji’s trust in him:

Fastball, fastball, fastball! Shetsu Shou, who usually relies on breaking balls as his main pitch, uncommonly chose to increase his speed, delivering three consecutive fastballs to cleanly take out Seibu’s number two batter, Hiroyuki Nakagawa — especially the last inside fastball, which left the opponent without even a chance to swing, watching helplessly as the baseball flew into the strike zone.

Facing off again against the third batter, Kuriyama Takashi, Shetsu Shou steadfastly adhered to the idea of fastball confrontation, enticing Kuriyama Takashi to swing at a central fastball, leading to a fly ball towards center field, which experienced Hasegawa Yu securely caught in his glove.

Three outs, switch sides.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh——!!!"

Almost at the moment when the baseball flew into Hasegawa Yu’s glove, Yahoo Dome erupted instantly, with the home team’s fans celebrating their players’ performance at these two at-bats heartily, offering a tide of applause to the players on the field.

Only for Seibu, the feeling wasn’t as pleasant...

Outside the player area, Watanabe Hisashi, who had been clenching his fist, now released it powerlessly, looking at the returned starting players’ regretful expressions, he could only heave a silent sigh, having already accepted such a result at heart—

In this match, their Seibu was overwhelmingly defeated.

Thinking of this, Watanabe Hisashi waved his hand with some powerlessness, saying to the nearby coaching staff: "For the upcoming game, let young players like Daishi and Togame handle the losing situation and accumulate some experience in high-pressure games..."

"For tomorrow’s game, we need to fight the opponent to the end!!!"

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Saitama Seibu Lions replaced today’s starter, Takayuki Kishi, with this year’s 25-year-old pitcher Daishi Tatsuya, a graduate of Waseda University.

During the 2010 draft meeting, Daishi Tatsuya was undoubtedly the top star, overshadowing his teammate Saito Yuuki, being the sole pick by six organizations, a fame unmatched at the time.

However, after being signed by Seibu Lions with the highest standard contract, his development in recent years wasn’t as satisfactory:

As a young relief and closer pitcher highly valued by the organization, Daishi Tatsuya was plagued by competition mindset, often collapsing at some point in the mid-game;

In recent seasons, he averaged just over 20 game appearances, with an ERA soaring to 6.38 this season, and his position in the team was replaced by Safar and Yongjing Xiuzhang.

By putting him on the field now, at some level, Watanabe Hisashi is testing Daishi Tatsuya — if he can achieve good results in this situation against SoftBank’s burning-hot, power-packed batting lineup, it proves he still has hope and just needs some more honing; but if it’s still the same old story, the organization has to consider other options...

Upon confirming the substitution, Daishi Tatsuya, who had already pitched a lot in the Seibu player area bullpen, jogged up the mound, doing his final pre-game warm-up with Suguru Kaneko.

Soon, amid the cheers, singing, and instrumentals generated by the home SoftBank audience, the leadoff hitter in this half-inning, acting as the sixth batter today and having hit a home run, Yanagida Yuuki, stepped into the batter’s box.

A few pitches later—

"Ball! Batter, walk to base!"

Yanagida Yuuki tossed his bat to the ground nearby, removing various protective gear and handing them to his oncoming teammate as he strode forward along the base line, stopping at first base.

Daishi Tatsuya’s condition looked decent, although he started with a walk, but later when facing Honda Yuichi and Nakagawa Akira, he got the outs the team needed — in no time, it turned into a two-out, one-on-first situation on the field.

However, when veteran catcher Hosokawa Kei, initially seen by Seibu as having little offensive threat, hit a single, the entire situation suddenly became sensitive and tense:

A one and two occupied bases situation was still within the acceptable range for Seibu, but the next batter to come up was someone they were rather intimidated by.

In the stands, familiar cheer songs rang out once more; in this match, whenever this melody played, it meant Softbank Team would surely score in the upcoming plays.

Lin Guanglai walked into the batter’s box once again, ready to bat.

Though it was already accepted that their team would lose this game, losing too many points and affecting players’ mindset for tomorrow’s game wouldn’t do either, and as a manager, Watanabe Hisashi wouldn’t be able to explain to the higher-ups and fans.

So, seeing Lin Guanglai preparing to bat in the batter’s box, he promptly stepped out of the player area, signaling Daishi Tatsuya on the mound, indicating to intentionally walk the batter to base.

Although proposals like signaling with hands to intentionally walk the batter to base and thus accelerate game progression exist in recent years, in tradition-respecting Nippon Professional Baseball, short of a walk via four balls still requires the pitcher to throw.

Upon seeing the manager’s hand signal, Daishi Tatsuya initially froze—knowing well that a one-two bases-occupied situation, another walk, would directly result in loaded bases; however, upon seeing Lin Guanglai, his doubts vanished.

Upon confirming to walk the batter, catcher Suguru Kaneko in the catcher’s box stood up instead of remaining in a squat, catching the ball outside the catching area.

One ball, two balls, three balls... Daishi Tatsuya quickly threw three such pitches, undoubtedly all bad balls; Lin Guanglai stood in the batter’s box making no movements, seemingly accepting this reality too.

"It’s fortunate the next batter is Imamiya, second and a tactical position; otherwise, I wouldn’t handle a loaded bases situation; better quickly get the last out and try to hold on for a few more innings..."

On the mound, while catching the returned ball from Suguru Kaneko, Daishi Tatsuya thought, zoning out a bit at this moment.

The next second, theoretically the fourth ball flew from his fingertips towards home plate, but in Lin Guanglai’s eyes, this was practically a golden opportunity!

This ball had deviated too much from the catcher’s requested position route!

Seibu’s side, the first responder, was Suguru Kaneko in the catcher’s box, seeing the ball route, he shouted "Danger", hurriedly reminding his infield teammates to pay attention, and rushed towards the direction of the ball, trying to catch it if possible.

Unfortunately, his reaction was still a step slower: by the time Seibu’s players, alarmed and concerned, tried to focus on this ball, Lin Guanglai had already batted it out of the infield range, landing in no man’s land between center field and right field. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

When the ball was returned to the infield, Yanagida Yuuki on second base had already scored, and Hosokawa Kei at first base had reached third; Lin Guanglai, at the moment, was steadily adjusting his protective gear and equipment on the second base.

The numbers on the Eagle’s Vision scoreboard jumped again, with the numbers belonging to Softbank now reading 6.

Even though Seibu made another pitching change right after this at-bat, replacing with another young player, Takahashi Tomokazu, it did not alter the game situation in the slightest, Softbank’s raging streak of hits just went on for a good while.

...

"This is a massacre, the Seibu pitchers completely lost the stability they were proud of facing Softbank’s powerful batting line-up — The result of the first game of the Pacific League Climax Series, I think it was something a lot of people didn’t expect..."

"11 to 1! The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, ranked second in the regular season, on their home turf, dealt a headshot to Saitama Seibu Lions! And they have now secured the match point in this series — in tomorrow’s second game, as long as they defeat Seibu once more, SoftBank will advance to the Climax Series Finals for the fourth consecutive year!"

"For Seibu, more than a single game defeat, I think Manager Watanabe’s biggest headache now is how he can get the players to recover their spirits and regroup from this crushing defeat!"

"The best player of this match, undoubtedly goes to Lin Guanglai! A thoroughly enjoyable triumph and an outstanding batting performance!"