Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 542 - 120: Auspicious Start (Part 2)

With two fastballs and two strikes, Lin Guanglai, relying on his personal ability, had already firmly grasped control of the situation in this at-bat. Taking the returned baseball from the catcher, the Softbank team’s pitcher and catcher duo started to maneuver against their opponent in the most stable way possible.

The third and fourth pitches were both vertical breaking balls, one purely deceptive bad ball was avoided by Dai-Kang Yang, while the other, half-real and half-false, almost tricked him into swinging– if it weren’t for his powerful body core stopping his swing trajectory at the last moment, Dai-Kang Yang would likely be on his way back to the bench by now.

With the count at two balls and two strikes, Lin Guanglai didn’t want to keep tangling with his opponent any longer; shaking his head a few times at Takeshima Shinya, he opted for a choice that most tested a pitcher’s personal ability:

Using the most direct weapon, an outside high fastball, to face off against Dai-Kang Yang!

The outside high fastball is definitely one of the pitches that is easiest to lose control over, requiring extremely high accuracy of the pitcher’s release timing and point; even a slight error means the umpire likely won’t call a strike; if there’s a mistake, it could easily be hit for a long ball by the opponent.

But Lin Guanglai seemed to have no such concerns at all; he lifted his leg, swung his arm, and infused strength into the ball, turning the baseball in his hand into a stream of light, piercing straight into the furthest outside high corner of the strike zone!

At that moment, Dai-Kang Yang moved– instead of freezing in place waiting for the ball, he chose to take the initiative! His swing was swift and powerful, aiming to swipe this outside pitch vigorously towards right field, or even possibly deep into opposite center field.

However, just as the bat was about to connect with the ball, Dai-Kang Yang’s pupils shrank slightly: 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

The position of this outside pitch was even more outside and higher than he had anticipated!

And it was this minute difference that caused his full-force swung bat to graze by the whizzing white ball with a slight gap.

"Swoosh!"

This was the clean and neat sound of the air being violently rubbed by the miss-swing.

"Thud!"

This was the dull sound of the baseball falling into the catcher’s mitt afterward.

"Strikeout!" At the same time, the home plate umpire mimicked drawing a bow, indicating the batter was out, "Three outs, side retired!"

The home crowd erupted once again, bursting into thunderous applause to salute their superstar pitcher; Lin Guanglai on the mound remained quite calm.

No celebrations, nor any intense reaction, he just stood in place for a moment before walking slowly off the mound, surrounded by the admiration of his teammates, returning to the dugout as if he had completed a routine task.

It proved that having a pitcher like Lin Guanglai with maximum suppression power anchoring the mound is a huge advantage for the entire team; as the game progressed, the home team Softbank also gradually took the initiative into their own hands.

"To be honest, compared to the late surge of wins during the official matches, the Softbank lineup’s performance today is a bit underwhelming," voiced Tadahito Iguchi in the commentary booth, "Even though they still maintain a lead now, there’s always a break in rhythm when trying to string together key hits– in the climax of a championship series, that’s not a good sign."

Having said that, he paused for a moment before continuing: "If it weren’t for Lin Guanglai almost single-handedly shutting down the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters’ lineup, this game would definitely not look as relaxed as it does now."

"But no matter how strong Lin Guanglai’s suppression ability is, he can only pitch one game; whether the lineup can quickly regain the good form they had in the official matches is still a problem for Manager Akiyama and the Softbank coaching staff to solve."

Indeed, many experts acknowledge the validity of Tadahito Iguchi’s point: Softbank has hit a total of 10 hits today but only scored 3 runs; such performance is certainly below expectations for a team known for its firepower.

But for the passionate Softbank fans, they couldn’t care less; at least for now, the nearly 40,000 home fans in the Yahoo Dome know one thing–

They are only one out away from claiming this victory and expanding their series lead to 2:0!

Thanks to Lin Guanglai’s efficient handling of the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters’ batters, his pitch count in this game was kept within a very reasonable range; because of this, Manager Akiyama didn’t plan on changing to a closer in the ninth inning and instead let Lin Guanglai finish this game.

Just as Lin Guanglai was patting the rosin on his hands, stretching and preparing to deal with the last Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters batter, the stadium’s broadcast sounded at the same time.

"Batting fifth, designated hitter, Ohtani Shohei."

"Batting fifth, designated hitter, Ohtani Shohei."

Seeing his opponent stepping into the left batter’s box, Lin Guanglai’s expression turned a bit more serious, squinting to scrutinize this all too familiar friend and opponent.

Although Ohtani Shohei had improved significantly compared to his rookie season by 2014, he still had obvious weaknesses on the offensive end: