Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 459 - 82: Unrivaled Spotlight (Part 2)

"Not to mention, the opponent Lin Guanglai defeated is Tanaka, who has already conquered Japan and is confirmed to challenge the Major League at the end of this season—so can I consider that after Tanaka Masahiro leaves Japan to challenge the Major League, a new generation of young talents, led by Lin Guanglai, will take up the mantle of professional baseball in the coming years?"

"24 wins, 0 losses—this record, considered a ’monster’ in modern baseball history, was brought to an end tonight by a stronger and more law-defying ’monster.’ On this night in Miyagi, one legend ended while another perhaps is just beginning..."

If it were any other time, if Yamamoto saw a Tokyo local newspaper praising a player from another team so much, no matter how reasonable, as a die-hard fan of the Giant Team, he might sneer dismissively and reply, "Is that it?";

But Lin Guanglai is different.

Although he is now a professional baseball player for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, Yamamoto’s most vivid impression of him is from his days in Takayama, and he is even a fan of the player—regarding such a young player he likes, Yamamoto finds it hard to harbor any resentment.

"Moreover, he’s the biological son of our Minister Lin! Even out of appreciation for Minister Lin’s care and guidance towards me, I, Yamamoto, couldn’t do such a thing..."

Thinking of this, a picture formed in Yamamoto’s mind—guessing that during today’s lunch break, Minister Lin would talk to us baseball fans about his son again...

"The train is about to arrive at XX Station. Passengers who are getting off, please prepare..." Seeing that the train had reached the destination, Yamamoto pretended to put the newspaper into his briefcase.

"Really envy Minister Lin. If only my son could be as talented as Lin someday... Sigh, talking about this makes me miss my wife and child. I wonder if Yushin is practicing baseball seriously at home? It would be great if he could join the Giant Team in the future..." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Following the crowded flow of people, he slowly moved toward the station exit.

-----------------

In the visitors’ locker room at Miyagi Stadium, there’s still some time before today’s pre-game training begins. Thanks to yesterday’s big win, the SoftBank Team’s players are in good spirits and even have the energy to read yesterday’s news coverage.

Yanagida Yuuki sat in the center of the locker room seat, holding his phone, and began loudly reading the headlines for yesterday’s game from various media outlets—

"Let me see... The first one, reported by the Asahi Shimbun—"

"[The undefeated Tanaka crumbles under the full bases, completely defeated by the monster batter!]"

"Next, Hochi Sports reported—"

"[A major shock!!! Tanaka’s 27-game winning streak ends! Monster battle, Divine Son suffers!] "

"And our local Fukuoka report—"

"[Three consecutive home runs, the new hero who shattered the ace!]"

"[The undefeated, withers under full bases. The new star, shines brightly here.]"

"[Tanaka’s legend comes to a halt! The main character of the new era is born! The Heisei monster, boldly debuts!]"

If he were just reading plainly, it would be fine, but due to Yanagida Yuuki’s playful personality, while reading, he started imitating a TV news anchor with a serious tone, which indeed amused other teammates in the locker room.

"Tsk tsk, now these sports media journalists, each one more exaggerated than the last, look at these headlines..." In the corner, watching Yanagida Yuuki gesticulating in the center of the locker room and his fellow smiling teammates, Akiyama Koji, the Softbank team’s manager, just commented on this topic to Daijiro Ohishi beside him.

If it weren’t for the joy he couldn’t hide on his face, Daijiro Ohishi might have taken his words seriously and sternly walked in to scold the players, playing his usual role of the good cop.

Yesterday afternoon, in the decisive round against the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, the SoftBank Team won the first game of the series 8-0, thanks to Lin Guanglai’s excellent performance as the starting pitcher and his historic three consecutive home runs. They brought the score back to a 1:1 tie—both teams returned to the same starting line.

Considering the SoftBank Team defeated the other team’s ace, Tanaka Masahiro, who maintained a god-like performance throughout the season, the significance of this victory is even greater.

For Rakuten, Tanaka Masahiro is not just an ace but an "undefeated" symbol, a spiritual totem giving his teammates the belief that "as long as he’s there, we can win," even in desperate situations.

However, Lin Guanglai used the miracle of three consecutive home runs to deliver the biggest defeat of Tanaka’s professional career to date to the king of the Rakuten Team.

The collapse of this totem is bound to have a significant blow to Rakuten Team’s morale; the atmosphere of the entire team probably dropped to freezing point after this loss—this, as a fellow manager, Akiyama Koji knows full well.

The only regret he has is that after Tanaka Masahiro left the game after the sixth inning, Rakuten’s manager, Hoshino Senichi, decisively chose to cut his losses and did not use their bullpen’s main force. Instead, he directly deployed young players and fringe players for defeat-management.

Perhaps the highly respected Hoshino Senichi can barely rally the team once more with his qualifications, but he only has one chance—

Tonight’s game has undeniably become a direct showdown, an ultimate do-or-die battle of two teams determining the survival of the series:

For Rakuten, they urgently need a win to regain the feeling of victory from regular games and inject immense spiritual strength into the team, helping them recover from a heavy blow, while also regaining control of the series’ rhythm;

If they lose this game, Rakuten’s morale may completely collapse, leading to an irreversible defeat—even if Hoshino Senichi is charismatic, he won’t be able to turn things around.

And it’s the same for SoftBank.

Don’t be fooled by the players’ relaxed appearance now; all this is premised on them winning the game.

Compared to Rakuten, the SoftBank Team’s starting pitcher reserve does not hold any advantage this season: Lin Guanglai already pitched in yesterday’s game; normally, he would need at least five days to recover sufficiently. Among the remaining pitchers, only Shetsu Shou can take on the major responsibility.

So, with Shetsu Shou set to play tonight, this is equally a must-win game for the SoftBank Team—they cannot afford to lose the second game or let the game drag into a long war of attrition; they must bet everything on this game; otherwise, the morale buildup will vanish, and their lack of pitching depth will become a fatal weakness.

If they can win tonight’s battle, the SoftBank Team will overtake with a score of 2:1—and tomorrow, when Lin Guanglai is ready to rejoin the batting rotation, SoftBank’s lineup, breaking over 120 home runs, will regroup; by then, they might even hand Rakuten a bitter four-loss sweep.

While Akiyama Koji imagined the most perfect scenario, on the other side of the not-so-distant main team locker room at Miyagi Stadium, the atmosphere was far from as grim as he pictured.

Looking at the players in front of him with calm expressions, Hoshino Senichi’s face showed a smile of appreciation:

"Very good, seeing you like this lets me know, this year’s Japan’s Number One will surely be our Rakuten!"

"I think our opponents must believe that we are still sad about yesterday’s loss, or even unable to accept it—let them think so!"

"Forget about 24 wins, 0 losses—from now on, we are 0 wins, 0 losses! Forget about those damn records; we are merely on the same starting line with our opponents again—from now on, every game, every inning, and every at-bat is a brand-new battle!"

"Each of you is a warrior I personally discovered and promoted! Today’s goal is one—show our opponents our determination and demonstrate our Rakuten Golden Eagles’ spirit to the home fans!"