Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 450 - 78: Boom!

The two old rivals, who could not be more familiar with each other, met once again. Both sides tacitly skipped the symbolic probing phase and started a straightforward and open confrontation—from the beginning of this bat, Tanaka Masahiro and Lin Guanglai engaged in an intense face-off.

During this process, Tanaka Masahiro didn't even glance to his side, not even once, even though standing on the first base was Honda Yuichi, who once served as Softbank Team's leadoff hitter, a typical contact hitter with excellent speed.

Indeed, as the saying goes, a truly strong pitcher mentally and physically will undoubtedly focus only on the spin of the baseball in their hand; besides that, no situation or difficulty can distract them even a little.

On the pitcher's mound, Tanaka Masahiro made his move—after a clean and swift pitching motion, the baseball was thrown towards home plate with great momentum and violent spin. More importantly, the trajectory aimed fiercely at Lin Guanglai's inside corner, almost closely aligning with the leftmost side of his body as it entered the base.

If facing other average pitchers, Lin Guanglai might swing at this pitch; but now standing opposite him was the man with 28 consecutive wins across seasons, undefeated this season, at the pinnacle of both his physiological and psychological career—Tanaka Masahiro. Facing such a level of opponent, Lin Guanglai dared not take any chances, resolutely letting the ball enter the strike zone.

The umpire behind raised his right hand high, counting the ball as a strike; Tanaka Masahiro took the first round, achieving a pretty good start.

Lin Guanglai wasn't affected by the strike; he simply glanced behind him and then refocused on the pitching-batting duel.

Soon, Tanaka Masahiro threw the second ball again, and this time, the baseball still moved towards Lin Guanglai's inside corner.

It was a slider!

As the baseball left Tanaka Masahiro's hand, a confident smile appeared on his face: as one of the most commonly used and highly completed pitches in his arsenal, this slider ranks at the top in Japan, with a swing-and-miss rate of 13.72%, and a forcing-a-dismissal rate close to 25%, almost qualifying as a "definite ace pitch".

But the next second, Tanaka Masahiro's smile froze.

The white little ball shot out from Tanaka Masahiro's hand, tearing through the air with a fierce whistling sound, like a bullet leaving the chamber, rushing aggressively towards home plate.

Facing the incoming ball, Lin Guanglai didn't rush to swing the bat: having faced off against Tanaka Masahiro several times, he knew the opponent's pitch arsenal was quite rich; rashly deciding to swing could easily be deceived by the trajectory at the beginning, hitting weak ground balls or pop flies.

With his gaze firmly locked on the spinning ball, Lin Guanglai waited until the baseball showed a change in trajectory before flying into home plate, ensuring everything was flawless before he chose to swing the bat.

Almost in an instant, his body reacted before the brain nerves transmitted the response, and the power that had been fully accumulated exploded like a torrential flood: twisting his hips, rotating the body, arms firmly sending forward, ensuring the best hitting area of the bat made solid contact with the incoming ball.

At the moment the baseball and bat met, an exquisite, thrilling vibration shot from the base of the fingers straight to the heart, with all the accumulated power in the body completely infused into the incoming ball—that unmistakable sensation, it was the "sweet spot"!

"Thud——!!!"

Accompanied by a crisp and solid giant echo, Miyagi Stadium, previously filled to capacity, fell silent in an instant; the previously fervent red sea nearly piercing the sky now suddenly turned calm.

The Rakuten Team fans seemed as if an invisible hand was choking their throat, wanting to shout something, their voice turned hoarse and unable to make any sound.

Having hit the baseball into the outfield direction, Lin Guanglai did not rush forward; he released the bat and let his gaze follow the ascending white ball—the baseball seemed to break free from the shackles of gravity, continuing to rise, rise, rise, along a beautiful arc, then falling down after passing the highest point, until it crossed Miyagi Stadium's relatively low home run wall, vanishing among the crowd in the stands, leaving no trace.

In the now silent Miyagi Stadium, only the bursts of cheering from the Softbank Team's player area could be heard, along with the subtle momentum created by the few traveling fans in the stands—but none of that mattered anymore!

Lin Guanglai slowly exhaled, a strange, indescribable warm emotion surged, rippling inside his heart, he started running along the baseline, each step solid upon the infield soil, yet the pace felt so light, as if flying near the ground.

He passed first base, passed second base, and when he finally returned to home plate, the lead foot stepping on the home plate changed the game score to 2-0, where Honda Yuichi, who had been waiting at home plate for quite a while, quickly gave him a big hug.

Returning to the dugout, the teammates who had been waiting swarmed around him, one by one constantly patting his helmet, rubbing his hair, surrounding Lin Guanglai in enthusiastic cheers.