Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 562 - 130: On the Brink

At lunchtime, the player restaurant in Yahoo Dome was lively and bustling.

The players from SoftBank First Team sat around the tables in small groups, chatting about the various recent events in life while eating, with not a hint of tension for the upcoming big game.

Such behavior was completely understandable: after all, if your team was currently leading your opponent 3-0 in the Japan Series, just one step away from winning the championship, you probably wouldn't be feeling any nerves either—this was precisely the situation for the SoftBank players now.

After Lin Guanglai's magnificent performance with three home runs and 21 strikeouts destroyed the opponent, Hanshin Tigers' players obviously couldn't recover from the loss in the first game:

In the second game at Koshien, although Hanshin's starting pitcher Atsushi Nomi delivered a quality start with 7 innings, 6 strikeouts, and 2 earned runs, his teammates couldn't support him offensively.

Facing SoftBank's pitching lineup led by Oonari Kenji, Hanshin Tigers' bats only scored 1 run in the bottom of the sixth inning, the rest of the time completely silenced; such performance had them defeated 1-2 by SoftBank, suffering two losses at their home ground.

The day after the second game, the two teams moved from Hyogo to Fukuoka.

After a day of rest, the home-playing SoftBank Hawks, with the support of forty-five thousand home fans at Yahoo Dome, defeated Hanshin Tigers 5-1, expanding the total score to 3-0 while clinching the championship point of Japan's Number One.

In this match, facing Fujinami Jintaro's start, Lin Guanglai, who returned from rest, hit a three-run shot again in the bottom of the sixth inning against him, making an outstanding contribution to the victory.

Unless Hanshin Tigers can achieve an epic comeback in the following games, Lin Guanglai has almost secured the MVP title for this season's Japan Series with such a performance.

If this scenario truly comes true, then Lin Guanglai will surpass the legendary player Iwao Kazuhiko at the age of 19 years and 258 days, becoming the youngest MVP recipient in the history of Japan Series—it's worth mentioning that the latter achieved this in the 1958 Japan Series with 5 starts, 4 complete games, 26 consecutive scoreless innings, and personally hitting a walk-off home run, leading Nishitetsu Lions to the first and only "three rebound four" reversal in history.

"Hmm hmm hmm hmm~" As Lin Guanglai hummed a cheerful tune and walked into the restaurant with a tray filled with various food, he noticed the team's former ace, Shetsu Shou, sulking alone at a corner seat, fiddling with the phone screen beside him while eating.

If Yanagida Yuuki did this, Lin Guanglai wouldn't be surprised at all, after all, that's just the kind of person he is; but if it's Shetsu Shou doing it, he would have to pay more attention—after all, his senior had never had such a habit, rarely even using social media, and most interactions with teammates are still done the traditional way.

Moving closer to Shetsu Shou, Lin Guanglai finally saw that the content on the screen was the analysis of the habits and data of Hanshin's starting batters provided by Softbank Team's data group to the pitching roster.

Staring intently at the screen, Shetsu Shou even forgot he was eating; though his mouth was empty, he kept on chewing.

Ever since joining the SoftBank Team, in Lin Guanglai's impression, Senior Shetsu Shou always looked calm and collected, he never saw him so tense; however, considering his experiences this season, Lin Guanglai felt it was somewhat understandable.

Since entering professional baseball, Shetsu Shou's career could truly be described with the term "late bloomer":

Starting as an overlooked older rookie, to gaining the best middle reliever and fastest billion-yen player titles, then receiving the Eiji Sawamura Award and entering Japan National Team, though his path started late, he walked each step solidly.

Even if his ace status was shaken after Lin Guanglai joined the team, he was still one of the most trusted pitchers of the whole SoftBank team.

But as time reached 2014, Shetsu Shou's career seemed to head towards another fork in the road—

Since the opening game with 4 scores lost over 7 innings, the now 32-year-old Shetsu Shou horrifyingly realized that his usual sense of stability on the pitcher's mound had disappeared.

Though he managed to keep a double-digit win season for four consecutive years by the end, whether it was the earned run average, walks, strikeouts, or innings pitched, they all marked his lowest since turning a starter; frequently getting hit toward the end, placing him amongst the league leaders in runs allowed; even in June, he was demoted for a period due to elbow injury.

The game against Ham Team where he was blown up was almost a reflection of Shetsu Shou's entire season this year: consecutive poor starts dealt a significant blow to the former Eiji Sawamura Award pitcher's confidence.

Perhaps considering similar reasons, in the Japan Series's first few games, Akiyama Koji, the team's coach, didn't choose to have Shetsu Shou start pitching, even though he still nominally remained the team's second ace.