Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 452 - 79: Another Blast!!

Standing on the pitcher's mound, even with a distance of nearly 20 meters between them, Tanaka Masahiro could still feel the aura emanating from Lin Guanglai—a spirit of determination that could split mountains and build bridges over water, reaching its peak at this moment.

Clearly, after using a home run in the first at-bat to make a statement against him, Lin Guanglai seemed injected with super-serum like Captain America, with his competitive state reaching its zenith.

Looking at him now, he must be thinking about how to continue impacting the pitcher in this second at-bat, right?

Thinking about this, even Tanaka Masahiro, who is usually emotionally stable, felt his breath becoming heavy. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

What is the fastest way for a talented rookie to become famous and even skyrocket to the top? The answer is clearly right in front of us—

That is to fiercely step over the strongest "old-timers!"

As the most-watched super rookie in Nippon Professional Baseball, if Lin Guanglai can defeat Tanaka Masahiro without controversy in today's major showdown, it is foreseeable that, with Tanaka heading to the United States next season, Nippon Professional Baseball's promotional machine will start to wildly build Lin Guanglai up, pushing him into the spotlight to become the new era's representative.

Tanaka Masahiro is not narrow-minded; he understands that ultimately, professional baseball does this for the promotion and development of the sport in Japan.

Especially in recent years, facing the growing competition from soccer, baseball, inherently weaker in international influence, suffers greatly. Naturally, a superstar with both appearance and skill is something everyone wants to see.

While that may be true, and he understands the reason behind it all—this does not mean Tanaka Masahiro is willing to be the stepping stone in Lin Guanglai's path to stardom.

He doesn't like that feeling.

But after being blasted out in the first at-bat by the opponent, Tanaka Masahiro had no choice but to forcibly suppress these emotions in his heart; pitching with emotion just leads to more impatience, and the more he wants to solve the problem quickly, which is one reason for being blasted in the first at-bat.

Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, he calmed his mind completely and focused his attention entirely on the batter—next second, Tanaka Masahiro abruptly opened his eyes, a sharp gleam bursting in his pupils, while the baseball in his hand hurled towards home plate with his swiftly moving right arm.

This time, Rakuten's pitcher and catcher finally changed their offensive direction, not stubbornly competing with Lin Guanglai over the inside corner, but rather shifting the battlefield to the outside corner.

Fast and fierce, precise and strong—these two words accurately describe the quality of this ball.

The baseball shot straight toward the low outside corner, and Lin Guanglai in the left hitting area only slightly observed the trajectory, then let the baseball go behind home plate, without any other action.

Long before this at-bat began, Lin Guanglai had mentally prepared; he even foresaw that Rakuten's pitcher and catcher would certainly attack his low outside crazily—after all, both Tanaka Masahiro and Shima Keihiro are personal students of Nomura Katsuya, who adheres to the absolute principle of "when in doubt, aim for the low outside."

Having been blasted continuously on inside pitches in the first at-bat, Shima Keihiro predictably paired such a ball:

This pitch, Tanaka Masahiro's ball path pressed very low, baseball almost perfectly wedged into the lower right corner of Lin Guanglai's strike zone; such high-quality outside balls are practically impossible to hit well, and even if hit, they are likely to become weak grounders, or if lifted, merely high but not far fly balls, which is effectively falling into the opponent's trap.

Lin Guanglai was never prepared to swing at such a ball from the start.

His goal for this at-bat is mainly twofold: One is naturally the misplaced red central ball after the opponent's control error, but Tanaka Masahiro is clearly unlikely to make such a mistake;

So, it's the ball in another position that is Lin Guanglai's real offensive target for this at-bat:

High outside ball.

For pitchers like Tanaka Masahiro, typical of Japan, when attacking outside positions, besides fastballs, the likely paired breaking ball is the forkball each Japanese pitcher keeps as a trump card.

Against left-hitter Lin Guanglai, the outside forkball from right-handed Tanaka Masahiro will drop towards the knee area below the right-hitting zone when entering home plate. Even Lin Guanglai, who masters wide-angle hitting techniques, would absolutely only swing air at such a ball.

What Lin Guanglai needs to do is to ensure the opponent's forkball does not drop—achieving this goal premised on continuously pressuring Tanaka Masahiro.

Before the situation reaches two good balls, Lin Guanglai's strategy is to adhere strictly to home plate discipline, swinging only at desired high outside pitches or misplaced red central pitches;

When the count reaches two good balls, he would adopt a more conservative batting strategy, aiming to disrupt any baseball that might lead to a strikeout, especially Tanaka Masahiro's likely decisive forkball.

As a pitcher, Lin Guanglai knows too well the mental and physical impact of the forkball:

By constantly disrupting in such a way, continuously wearing down Tanaka's stamina, tormenting his nerves, surely anyone would feel exhausted, even if he were the undefeated "Divine Son."