Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 500 - 100: Challenging the Impossible (Part 2)

As the manager, Moriwaki Koji cannot escape the blame.

With his hands folded in front of his chest, Moriwaki Koji continued to discuss seriously with Takayama Yuuji for a moment, then issued the order, "Let the young pitchers in the bullpen handle the loss, it’s time to replace Kaneko and let him rest well."

Takayama Yuuji responded with a simple "Yes" and turned away.

Although Kaneko Chiharu was still struggling on the pitcher’s mound, Moriwaki Koji on the sidelines already knew — this game, Orix’s fate is sealed!

At the bottom of the sixth inning, Orix decided to change pitchers, substituting today’s starter Kaneko Chiharu with the 22-year-old Tsukahara Souhei.

In this game, Kaneko Chiharu started for five innings, conceding six runs, including two home runs hit by Lin Guanglai; such a painful experience is rare in his entire career.

Seeing that the opponent decided to concede, SoftBank’s Akiyama Koji understood the principle of "don’t chase a cornered enemy," deciding to capitalize on this advantage, "Once this half-inning is over, replace those who need replacing, let the young players see the world, and gain some game experience."

But the manager’s thoughts are one thing, the players’ thoughts are another; at least the SoftBank batters preparing to hit had no intention of holding back.

Led by the sixth batter Matsuda Naohiro’s hit, SoftBank’s batters taught Orix’s young pitcher a lesson.

In the scoring position on second and third bases, SoftBank’s two baserunners were primed to go; Tsukahara Souhei stood on the pitcher’s mound, tense and trembling, while Lin Guanglai in the batter’s box looked eager to strike.

Waving the bat a few times in front of his chest, Lin Guanglai pointed his bat-holding right hand towards the outfield; under his deliberate guidance, the home crowd exploded with massive screams and cheers.

Despite having launched two home runs so far in the game, Lin Guanglai was not satisfied; on the contrary, he craved much more — he wanted to use this game’s unbeatable performance to completely silence those who doubted him!

The first pitch, led by Ito Mitsuo as the catcher, was an outside low fastball by Tsukahara Souhei, intended to seize the strike advantage.

Lin Guanglai restrained his impulse, watching the ball into the strike zone.

"Strike!" The umpire’s voice was crisp and clear, changing the count to 0 balls, 1 strike; as the batter, Lin Guanglai was temporarily behind.

The quickly arriving second pitch was a forkball, plunging down sharply before reaching the plate. Lin Guanglai’s eyes locked onto the ball, his body moved slightly, but he forcibly stopped before swinging.

"Ball!" The count was 1 ball, 1 strike.

As the batter facing the opponent directly, Lin Guanglai could keenly sense that Orix’s pitcher-catcher combination was not keen on a direct confrontation with him; they tried to tempt him with borderline pitches to induce grounders or pop flies due to his eagerness to swing.

At this moment, what he needed to do was maintain patience and look for a better opportunity.

The third pitch came quickly, an inside high fastball with astonishing speed, cutting through the air with a swoosh; Tsukahara Souhei placed it with precision, aiming almost at the edge of the strike zone.

Lin Guanglai hesitated momentarily, but his instinct as a batter told him that it was not yet the best time to swing.

Once again, he retracted his nearly activating body, and the "Ball" call that immediately followed the pitch relaxed him further; the count advanced to 2 balls, 1 strike, with the batter gaining the upper hand.

Lin Guanglai knew that the result of the next pitch would be critical: no pitcher wants to push themselves to the brink of a 3-ball count, Tsukahara Souhei needed a strike to tilt the balance of the game back; similarly, this was also Lin Guanglai’s perfect hitting opportunity.

Taking a deep breath, he focused all his attention on the baseball in the pitcher’s hand. Tsukahara Souhei’s windup was swift, his arm swing nearly indistinguishable from a fastball, but at the moment of release, Lin Guanglai’s sharp eyesight detected the subtle motion of the opponent’s right hand—

It was a curveball!

The baseball flew out from the mound, arcing across the sky like a rainbow, targeting the center of the strike zone; as the ball reached the front of the plate, descending from its apex to waist-high, Lin Guanglai promptly activated.

His body, fully loaded with power like a drawn bow, unleashed his accumulated strength instantly, channeling it through his rotating waist and abdomen to his arms, ultimately infusing it all into the bat, where two previously unrelated lines intersected perfectly in front of the plate.

"Crack——!!!"

The crisp and loud sound of the bat hitting the ball resonated throughout the stadium, sending chills down the spines of everyone present; the rapidly ascending baseball carried an unstoppable momentum, and the colossal cheers began to rise like a tsunami—as the ball soared over the tall home run wall of Yahoo Dome for the third time this game, once more plunging into the throngs in the stands.

Standing in place to appreciate for a moment, confirming the ball had left the park, Lin Guanglai tossed aside his bat and began to round the bases with slow yet determined and forceful strides; while traversing between bases, he waved his fist at the home crowd, each swing inciting roars from tens of thousands in the stadium.

By now, no one cared about the score of the game, because after this home run, everyone’s attention was on one thing—

In this game, Lin Guanglai had launched home runs worth one run, two runs, and three runs, and if he could hit a grand slam in his next at-bat, he would achieve something that had never been done in the history of the sport: a complete home run cycle!

Unlike the complete game accomplishment, where one could entirely control their destiny, the so-called complete home run cycle required a perfect convergence of timing, location, and people.

Not to mention whether the player himself could send the ball out of the park, the chance of encountering situations with one player on base, two players on base, and bases loaded all in the same game is one in a hundred.

Moreover, Lin Guanglai served as the leadoff hitter in the SoftBank lineup; which meant if he wanted to accomplish this feat, his teammates in the back half of the lineup had to perform.

If a complete game accomplishment is the "crown jewel" testing a batter’s all-around ability, then a complete home run cycle should be seen as an ultimate fantasy, often considered utterly impossible.

However, this type of achievement deemed impossible by "common sense" actually happened on the Yahoo Dome field today!

The spectators in attendance, supporters of both the home team SoftBank and the visiting Orix, had all risen from their seats, feeling extremely fortunate to be present today; regardless of whether Lin Guanglai achieved this feat in the end, they at least had a chance to witness history, didn’t they?

"Coach, should we still make a substitution now?" SoftBank’s head coach Ogawa Shu tentatively asked.

Akiyama Koji’s face showed a stunned expression, shaking his head with a smile, "Now, even if I asked him to step down, he wouldn’t choose to come off... Let’s forget it, it’s the last chance at bat anyway, let him continue hitting—I’d imagine, as professionals, there’s no one who can refuse to witness the birth of new history in one game, right?"

The waiting time always feels so long, even though the battle on the field continues, it seems so dull in the eyes of the audience—until the bottom of the eighth inning, when the atmosphere reignited.

In the last offensive half-inning of the entire game for SoftBank, batting started with the sixth batter Matsuda Naohiro, at least from this arrangement, the prerequisites were set.

Next, it was a matter of what fate would decide.