Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 499 - 100: Challenging the Impossible

Watching Lin Guanglai show off in front of him, Yanagida Yuuki really wanted to say something else; but thinking about this match, Lin Guanglai had already hit two home runs, and from Kaneko Chiharu, such a great pitcher, in consecutive at-bats, he simply gave up and didn’t say more.

However, from Lin Guanglai’s perspective, Yanagida Yuuki’s face, flushed red, indeed made him want to laugh a little.

The two continued to bicker for a while until Manager Akiyama in front of them scolded them a couple of times, and they quieted down, turning their attention back to the game.

From Lin Guanglai’s point of view, any pitcher allowing two home runs from the same batter in one game would at least go through a relative slump period, or even be directly replaced, and it would be understandable.

But Kaneko Chiharu wasn’t like that; on the contrary, his adjustment speed far exceeded SoftBank’s expectations.

Perhaps because he was plagued by right elbow injuries early in his career and always had fluctuating status within the Orix team, such experiences forged Kaneko Chiharu’s incredibly strong inner self—under the current crisis, this Nippon Professional Baseball renowned pitcher finally began to unleash.

Second batter Imamiya Kenta, a grounder to third base, is out; third batter Nakagawa Seiichi, a fly ball to right field, is out; fourth batter Lee Dae-ho, struck out on a low forkball—after Lin Guanglai hit a two-run homer, Kaneko Chiharu and Ito Mitsuo decided to pick up the pace, securing the required outs swiftly and decisively to end this half inning.

In the latter half of the fourth inning, Kaneko Chiharu further demonstrated his prowess; Hasegawa Yu, Matsuda Naohiro, Yanagida Yuuki, three powerful hitters fell before him, tormented to death by his precise pitches like electronic instruments—strikeout, strikeout, strikeout... Kaneko Chiharu simply used a perfect inning to announce his comeback.

Yanagida Yuuki returned to the dugout from the batter’s box, showing a rather discontented expression: 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

In that previous at-bat, he tangled with Kaneko Chiharu for a full eight pitches. He had several chances to hit the ball properly but missed them due to his cautiousness; the final decision to swing at the tempting high fastball was due to his fear of Kaneko Chiharu’s formidable control, which also led to the swing and miss.

Reflecting on his performance in the previous at-bat and then seeing how Lin Guanglai faced senior Kaneko, Yanagida Yuuki felt a tinge of dissatisfaction:

Compared to the junior before him, he, as a senior, was far inferior!

As Kaneko Chiharu’s condition improved, Orix’s defense also returned to their usual form, making it difficult for the SoftBank batters to break through the opponent’s defense in a short time; fortunately, Okajima Hideki, who started today, was performing outstandingly, repeatedly preventing the Orix batters from reaching home plate.

When the first half of the fifth inning ended, the score remained unchanged: the home team SoftBank led the visiting Orix 4-1, thanks to Lin Guanglai’s two home runs and Yanagida Yuuki’s go-ahead run.

In the latter half of the fifth inning, when Lin Guanglai came up to bat again, this time, Kaneko Chiharu didn’t give him a chance to swing: Orix’s catcher Ito Mitsuo stood up from the ground and, after catching four consecutive bad balls, walked Lin Guanglai intentionally.

The consequence of this decision was changing the situation on the field from one out, one man on base, to a position with runners on first and second base.

Clearly, Orix’s Manager Moriwaki Koji would rather have Kaneko Chiharu face SoftBank’s heart of the order rather than give Lin Guanglai another chance to bat.

Lin Guanglai could only take it in stride with this treatment: he tossed the bat to the side of the field, slowly headed toward first base while taking off his various protective gear.

Thankfully, his teammates did not let Orix’s plan succeed:

With one out and runners on first and second, second batter Imamiya Kenta hit a timely single, filling the bases; following him, Nakagawa Seiichi drove the ball deep into right field, giving Nakamura Akira and Lin Guanglai ample time and space to advance, bringing in two more runs for SoftBank.

The score further widened with SoftBank leading 6-1.

In the Orix dugout, Moriwaki Koji sighed at Takayama Yuuji by his side, "As expected, it’s too much to handle, huh—we still have quite some distance from matching SoftBank..."

For this game, Orix came to Fukuoka with great determination: to this end, Moriwaki Koji made significant adjustments to the planned pitching rotation to try to defeat SoftBank and end their unbeaten streak.

After all, Orix had been languishing for too long; the players urgently needed to find ways to boost their confidence and reclaim the feeling of victory—and what could be more morale-boosting than defeating the Galaxy Battleship head-on?

But from today’s situation, changing the starting rotation and letting the ace pitch not only failed to help the team win the game, but it might also lead to lingering adverse effects: if team ace Kaneko Chiharu’s condition deteriorates later, it could spell disaster for Orix.