Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 455 - 80: Clash at the Summit (Part 2)

Rakuten Team's home fans regained some momentum and started to enthusiastically support their lineup again; however, they seemed to forget one thing: the person standing on the pitcher's mound right now is precisely the opponent they least wanted to see in this match—

"Lin Guanglai! Struck out looking! That pitch was amazing!" Takeshita Yohei raised his arms high, his whole demeanor extremely excited, "The entry angle of the ball was just too precise, Rakuten's batter couldn't swing or let it go, completely paralyzed!"

"After climbing over the high mountain of Tanaka Masahiro continuously, the new generation's monster rookie has completely entered the state—dear audience, take a moment to relax during the inning change! I have a feeling about this game—"

"What you're going to see next could possibly be the most classic contest you'll witness in the next five, ten, or even dozens of years!"

At the top of the sixth inning, SoftBank Team's offensive continued—last half inning, after being hit by Lin Guanglai, Tanaka Masahiro quickly adjusted his mindset and secured 3 outs consecutively; therefore, in this half inning, SoftBank Team's leadoff hitter was the third batter, Hasegawa Yu.

A moment later—

"My God! Bases loaded! It's actually bases loaded!" After this cheer, Takeshita Yohei in the commentary booth was momentarily speechless, not knowing how to express his feelings for a while.

The same goes for the Rakuten players' area and the home fans in the stands of Miyagi Stadium—they couldn't believe their eyes and couldn't believe that this would be the performance of their undefeated ace.

When Lin Guanglai sounded the charge, SoftBank Team's batting lineup that has been hot since the official match phase also followed his pace: facing the powerful Tanaka, the central batters hit three consecutive hits, quickly filling the bases.

All Rakuten supporters' expressions became extremely serious: with no outs and bases loaded, if it were any other starting pitcher, it would essentially be time to raise their hands in surrender, thinking about how to minimize the damage;

But they still held a glimmer of optimism in their hearts:

After all, standing on the pitcher's mound, is the ace, the number one in all of Japan, the undefeated "Divine Son"—if any pitcher could hold on in this situation, it would definitely be him.

"Come on, Mr. Ma!!! We'll always believe in you! You can definitely do it!"

At first, a Rakuten fan holding Tanaka Masahiro support items in the stands shouted this out; soon, this shout spread like a wave up and down the stands of Miyagi Stadium.

"Come on, Mr. Ma! Strike them out!"

"Mr. Ma will definitely not lose! You are the child favored by the gods!"

The cheer of the home fans seemed to give Tanaka Masahiro some strength, even his increasingly heavy right arm became powerful again; on the mound, he glanced at the stands behind home plate—

There, his wife was praying with tears in her eyes, hands clasped together.

When his wife mentioned wanting to watch the game live before, she insisted on sitting at this position now, rather than the sides of the best viewing spot; when he asked her why she chose this, Tanaka Masahiro still remembers his wife's beautiful smiling face saying:

"Because sitting behind home plate, I can always see your face, Mr. Ma! It's just like we're fighting hand in hand, face to face!"

Gently removing his gaze from the stands, Tanaka Masahiro refocused on the game; in the next second, his eyes sparkled with brilliance, and the baseball tightly held in his hand was thrown.

"Pop!" The powerful and strong baseball flew directly towards Yanagida Yuuki's inner corner, the tremendous force visible to the naked eye causing Yanagida Yuuki's body to instinctively flinch.

"Swinging strikeout!!!"

"Called strikeout!!!"

"He's back, he's back, everything's back—this is Mr. Ma, this is Tohoku Rakuten's Divine Son!"

When Tanaka Masahiro suddenly exploded, striking out both the sixth batter Yanagida Yuuki and the seventh batter Honda Yuichi in a row, Miyagi Stadium's atmosphere soared to another climax: Rakuten fans in the stands felt as if they had narrowly escaped death, expressing their feelings at the moment with unrestrained screams and shouts.

Tanaka Masahiro took another glance at the back of home plate: his wife gave him a thumbs up, smiling at him.

"For Rakuten, the crisis has been greatly alleviated temporarily—from no outs to two outs, it was just a matter of minutes; but SoftBank Team fans need not be discouraged, because the next batter is—"

"Eighth batter, pitcher, Lin Guanglai."

As Miyagi Stadium's broadcast started to announce, the fervent atmosphere on the site instantly cooled down; many fans stood up from their seats, hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder, ready to face the coming peak showdown together.

In Rakuten's player area, although Hoshino Senichi usually required everyone to sit properly in their positions when there's nothing else to do, at such a crucial moment, the players could hardly care about these anymore.

Including Rakuten's coaching team, there was no time to worry about these disciplinary requirements either—they all knew the game had reached its most critical moment:

If Tanaka Masahiro could strike out Lin Guanglai and hold down this half inning, then the momentum of the game might instantly reverse, making a comeback not impossible;

But if Tanaka Masahiro were to be hit by Lin Guanglai again, or even...as Rakuten's coach, Hoshino Senichi absolutely didn't want to see such a scene.

Standing beside Hoshino Senichi, Ninamura Tetsu's whole emotion was also extremely tense, after carefully considering in his mind, he proposed such a suggestion to his own coach beside him:

"Coach, how about... we just let Mr. Ma choose to intentionally walk him? After all, it's only 3 points now, even if we walk him and lose 1 point, we would just..."

"Ninamura!!!" Hoshino Senichi interrupted Ninamura Tetsu's words with unprecedented sternness, "Do you still not understand the current situation? Are these the words you as the head coach should say?"

"I won't talk about what a 4-point gap means in a climactic match, just letting Mr. Ma choose to walk him, do you know what would happen if I did?"

Saying this, Hoshino Senichi also felt his attitude was too harsh, he slightly softened his tone to explain to his assistant:

"The great success we achieved this season, our biggest reliance is Mr. Ma; it's his record of 24 wins and 0 losses that established a psychological advantage, allowing the entire team to play extraordinarily well—Rakuten doesn't have a long history, we don't have famous legends, Mr. Ma is our everything!"

"Now you are asking me to tell my ace 'you can't beat this 18-year-old kid, just let him walk'—let me ask you, if you were my player, what would you think? They would feel that Coach Hoshino is scared, even the undefeated Tanaka would have to bow to the opponent, they'd start to think 'did we get here by luck'!"

"Then not only would the team's morale completely collapse, but it would also leave a permanent thorn in Mr. Ma and the entire first team's hearts, even affecting the subsequent games."

"Let Mr. Ma and Lin face off directly—this way, even if we lose, at least it would be after giving it our all, without regret, and the team's backbone won't be easily broken; furthermore, Mr. Ma can lay down the burden and face the following games better."

"I have faith that my best player can handle the toughest situation—if even Mr. Ma can't resolve it, then this is our destiny."

Saying so, Hoshino Senichi simply called a time-out and walked directly up to the pitcher's mound.

With his powerful hands, he firmly pressed on Tanaka Masahiro's shoulder, his eyes projected absolute trust for his ace.

"Mr. Ma, promise me, take him down—this task needs you to do it, and only you can do it!"

Feeling the absolute trust coming from his coach, the last trace of concern in Tanaka Masahiro's heart vanished:

"Don't worry, Coach, definitely!!!"