Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 462 - 84: Maddux Game

Standing on the pitcher’s mound at Miyagi Stadium, Lin Guanglai was in no hurry to pitch. Instead, after completing the warm-up throws before the official start of the game, he stretched his shoulders a bit more.

Although, on the surface, he had only rested for less than four days, thanks to his outstanding performance at bat in the first game which turned the match into garbage time early, his actual exhaustion was far less than Rakuten imagined. Not to mention in the subsequent two games, Lin Guanglai didn’t play in one and was substituted out in the other once the score widened.

However, considering the manager’s intention to protect the pitcher today by giving him a 100-pitch limit, how to allocate these 100 pitches wisely, making each one count, was something that Lin Guanglai needed to think about carefully.

Given the current weak pitching reserve of the SoftBank Team, naturally, the more innings Lin Guanglai can stay on the field, the better the team’s victory is secured. If he can complete the game with a win, key bullpen players like Sho Iwasaki and Chika Huangda can save enough energy for tomorrow’s game.

Therefore, from the very beginning, Lin Guanglai’s goal was clear: regardless of whether he can ultimately achieve it, his aim for this game was to pitch a "Maddux game."

For a starting pitcher, achieving a "Maddux game" is an extremely rare and respectable feat. The term is named after legendary pitcher Greg Maddux, referring to a starting pitcher throwing a complete game under 100 pitches and winning.

As a Hall of Fame inductee, nicknamed "The Professor," Maddux is renowned for his incredible control and exceptional baseball IQ, accurately targeting the four corners of the strike zone, inducing weak grounders or fly balls from batters to quickly gather outs. He is one of the few Hall of Famers who didn’t rely on fastballs.

Throughout his career, he achieved 13 such complete games, leading fans and the media to name this highly efficient pitching performance after him.

Especially considering that with the increasing specialization of pitching roles in modern baseball, starting pitchers are strictly limited in their pitch counts, starting pitchers being able to pitch a full 9 innings have become rare, thus increasing the prestige of a "Maddux game."

Extreme efficiency, extraordinary control, solid defense, batter cooperation... the birth of a "Maddux game" is undoubtedly the result of a combination of time, location, and human harmony.

Lin Guanglai can’t control the opponent’s performance, but he is confident in his pitching and his teammates’ defense. As a tactical Lin Guanglai, the 100-pitch limit forced him to slightly shift his pitching strategy, aiming not to spend over five pitches pursuing a strikeout, but to resolve batters in three pitches or less.

With this mindset, Lin Guanglai took a deep breath, adjusted his condition, and began his pitching.

Holding the huge lead advantage, the Rakuten Team made no adjustments to the lineup, maintaining arrangements from previous games, with Gou Oakshima as the leadoff hitter.

In the series’ first game, Lin Guanglai broke a new bat of the opponent. For Oakshima, who has an annual salary of only 8 million, this was not a small cost, and Rakuten, unlike the rich SoftBank, could only let the player bear this loss.

Not only on-field actions, off-field factors sometimes become the key point affecting the balance of duels: facing Oakshima again, Lin Guanglai immediately attacked his inner corner, sending a forceful, sharply spinning baseball directly into the strike zone. The speed of the ball was so intimidating that just witnessing it deterred any thought of swinging.

The outcome was naturally expected, a strike was earned.

Normally, Lin Guanglai would likely continue to increase speed, further suppressing the batter’s inner corner to set up for a second strike or subsequent strikeout. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

But today, with the premise of conserving pitch count, the second pitch was uncharacteristically different: he lifted his front leg high, his right arm swinging through with his body’s forward pressure, and the baseball flew off his fingertips.

In Oakshima’s eyes at the batting zone, the ball was heading toward his low outer corner, at an impressive speed, and seemed like a strike. Knowing the consequences of letting Lin Guanglai gain a 0-2 advantage, it was inconceivable to let this pitch pass.

Just as the brain was finishing its judgment, the body instantly reacted, with the bat held close to the body, the new bat was sent toward the incoming baseball.

Good news, Oakshima hit the ball!

Bad news, it was a two-seam fastball.

As he felt the unusual sensation transmitted through his hands, Oakshima’s heart sank hard, just like the ball dropping below the lower edge of the strike zone.

All his strength was futile, as the baseball was gently tapped by the bat’s tip and then slowly rolled towards second base—