Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 454 - 80: Clash at the Summit

"Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhh——!!!"

"Another — home! run! Lin Guanglai, he's simply, he's simply... he's simply unstoppable!"

When Lin Guanglai sent the baseball over the home run wall for the second time in the game, Takeshita Yohei and Kohkubo Yuuki in the studio went wild — even though Lin Guanglai's performance was impressive in the series against Seibu, clearly this game brought them an even greater shock.

No joke, who are the pitchers of Seibu, and who is the ace of Rakuten? Don't even mention Takayuki Kishi or Makita Kazuhiko, even Seibu's current new ace Kikuchi Yuusei, or in their prime Yongjing Xiuzhang, are at least a level below Tanaka Masahiro.

"This season, Tanaka reached a peak with a miraculous 24 wins and 0 losses, a cross-season streak of 28 victories — over the entire season, he pitched 28 times, threw 212 innings, and allowed 168 hits..."

Takeshita Yohei paused here, continued flipping through the documents in his hand, and then spoke with an even more incredulous tone:

"Out of those 168 hits, only 6 were home runs; even in the Divine Son's 7-year career in Nippon Professional Baseball, only 2 seasons had more than 10 home runs hit off him — but in today's game, Lin Guanglai, he alone hit 2! And it was back-to-back home run innings!"

"I just don't even know how to describe this..."

Looking at his two colleagues beside him who were emotional and chattering, Nomura Katsuya at the far left of the commentary booth felt a bit lonely and sighed.

If the previous pitch was due to Shima Keihiro's guidance issues as a catcher, then there was nothing much to say about this one — purely in the showdown between hitter and pitcher, Lin Guanglai emerged victorious through his strategic thinking and consistent pressure on the pitcher.

Due to Lin Guanglai's statement of challenging "Dual Swordsmanship" in professional baseball, Nomura Katsuya's first impression of him wasn't great, thinking the kid was trying to do something unrealistic with some talent; but watching this duel in person, even the usually critical Nomura had to admit that perhaps Lin Guanglai really could turn the impossible into possible.

What's the biggest issue with young players? With years of coaching experience and having developed many famous players, Nomura Katsuya knew best: particularly among many high school graduates who are talented but have a shallow understanding of the game, focusing mainly on the outcome of individual duels and lacking strategic thinking and adaptability;

But Lin Guanglai was completely different: even though he only played one season of professional baseball, his thinking had fully adapted to the professional game's mode, even matching some seasoned players in terms of game understanding — this rate of progress was unheard of, even for Nomura Katsuya.

Just like the recent at-bat, fans who are just watching for fun might think Lin Guanglai was just lucky, catching a missed pitch from Tanaka Masahiro to send the ball out of the park; but those who understand the game know that the result was all due to Lin Guanglai's execution of his hitting strategy and consistently pressuring the pitcher.

To possess such keen insight into the game at just under 20 years old means this player is destined to become a dazzling superstar, it's impossible for him not to succeed!

"Are young people today all this terrifying..." Nomura Katsuya glanced at Tanaka Masahiro in the center of the field, the disciple he personally cultivated, who seemed a bit lost at this moment;

After Lin Guanglai's consecutive back-to-back home runs, the momentum on the field was clearly shifting: the "momentum" of the game was gradually leaning towards the SoftBank Team.

In other words, Rakuten Team was in danger!

Even though it was an exciting moment after hitting a home run, Miyagi Stadium fell into a strange silence —

Apart from some SoftBank fans who had traveled to the away game still cheering, the other home team fans in the stands had vacant expressions, dumbfoundedly watching Lin Guanglai sprinting back to home plate.

"No... this must be fake, how can this be possible?" some Rakuten fans murmured, unable to accept reality and realizing they might really face a loss, "No, we have to believe in Mr. Ma! He... he can't fail this season, he absolutely won't lose, absolutely won't..."

Rakuten fans could only comfort themselves with such words — they dared not treat Lin Guanglai the way the die-hard Kansai fans did, after all, the Hanshin Tigers debacle was still fresh in memory, and Rakuten fans were unwilling to repeat the same mistake.

Even though Tanaka Masahiro gave up 2 home runs, outside of those, his performance was still commendable; the current score is only 0 to 3, and in baseball, such a score is far from overwhelming — thinking this revitalized Rakuten fans after a brief adjustment.

"Come on batters, you have to support Mr. Ma and share the burden — let's try to turn the score around in half an inning, and we can still win!"