Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 438 - 72: Fireworks Festival

At exactly one in the afternoon, amidst the tremendous cheers of the home crowd, Shetsu Shou, today’s starting pitcher, stepped onto the pitcher’s mound at the Yahoo Dome, marking the official start of the first game of the three-match series between SoftBank and Seibu. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

The first batter, Esteban Geman, swung at the inside cutter thrown by Shetsu Shou and hit a ground ball towards shortstop—such a hit posed no difficulty for Imamiya Kenta, who received the ball and sent it steadily to first base.

The second batter, Kataoka Yasuyuki, once won the Pacific League’s base-stealing title for four consecutive years, able to run 50 meters in 5.8 seconds and reach first base in just 4.06 seconds. Along with his extensive experience, stealing 50 bases in a single season was effortless for him during his peak; however, in recent years, with increasing age and injuries, he missed many games and mostly took on the second batter’s role, which is often a strategic sacrifice position.

After a brief standoff, Shetsu Shou used a high fastball to induce a swing from him, and the ground ball toward second base was also caught by Honda Yuichi, who sent it to first base to secure the second out.

For the third batter, Seibu arranged for the veteran Kuriyama Takashi, who experienced a career resurgence this season, setting new highs in multiple stats—Shetsu Shou, remaining quite relaxed, continued to target the batter’s inside, and Kuriyama Takashi eventually couldn’t resist, hitting a fly ball to central field caught by Hasegawa Yu.

In the high-stakes first round of a three-match series, the outcome of the first game is highly important: losing the first game means dancing on a tightrope in every subsequent game.

Shetsu Shou, worthy of his status as an ace pitcher who has participated in major events including Japan’s Number One and the WBC, was not pressured at all by this game;

Facing the formidable top three batters of Seibu Lions, he fully demonstrated his composure and leisure, calmly exchanging strategies with the opponents, using his extremely precise control and combination of pitch variations to steadily solve the opponents.

When the ball hit by Kuriyama Takashi was sent to the outfield and was securely caught by Hasegawa Yu, a previously quiet Yahoo Dome erupted in loud cheers.

The SoftBank players on the field ran back to their dugout, starting to don their batting gear and protective equipment—as for Lin Guanglai, as the designated hitter with no defensive duties, he had long been ready, warming up by swinging his bat in the on-deck circle, observing the opposing pitcher’s rhythm.

Once Takayuki Kishi on the pitcher’s mound finished warming up and the umpire signaled that Lin Guanglai could enter the batter’s box, he left the small area of the on-deck circle.

As Lin Guanglai walked toward home plate with his bat, his exclusive cheer song began playing on all fours sides of the Yahoo Dome’s stands:

"On the field where dreams bloom—the curtain of legend is being raised..."

"Guanglai! Guanglai! Guanglai! The glow of victory will eventually shine!"

Almost simultaneously as Lin Guanglai stepped into the right side of the batter’s box, the three commentators in the broadcast studio perked up, and viewers in front of their televisions put aside other activities, eyes fixed on the screen, afraid to miss any exciting moment with a mere blink.

After Kohkubo Yuuki ignited all spectators’ enthusiasm with his interesting record and heightened everyone’s expectations, people couldn’t wait to see if this top talent, transcending generations, could continue to extend his miraculous record in this game.

Of course, Lin Guanglai in the batter’s box didn’t know what was happening outside the field, nor did he have the time or interest to pay attention to those things; at this moment, in his eyes, there was only one person, Takayuki Kishi standing on the pitcher’s mound not far away.

Just as Ito Kei mentioned before the game, Takayuki Kishi has at least three main pitches that rank among the top in Nippon Professional Baseball; besides, whether it’s a fastball or a breaking ball, Takayuki Kishi’s pitching motion is the same trajectory, with virtually no difference—which is quite difficult for a batter facing him.

Patience is crucial when facing this type of pitcher; as a batter, one must constantly apply high-intensity pressure on him, forcing him to make control errors or become mentally unstable during fierce contests, and seize the subsequent opportunities to strike a blow.

For this reason, almost as soon as Lin Guanglai stepped into the batter’s box, he quickly crouched close to the home plate, continuously squeezing and eroding the inside pitching space of the battery pair, Takayuki Kishi and Ginjiro Sumitani.

This stance also allows Lin Guanglai to cover the outside pitches better and handle the outside breaking balls thrown by Takayuki Kishi better, turning those previously hard-to-hit or solidly-hit balls into sweet spot balls in the middle zone.

At the same time, this is a pressure tactic he uses against pitchers: standing so close to the home plate and so aggressively, Lin Guanglai, being a top-notch hitter himself, understands what this means for a pitcher—it’s almost the equivalent of a batter pointing at a pitcher’s nose and telling him, your inside pitch poses no threat to me at all; I only need to deal with your outside pitch, which is undoubtedly a massive provocation.