Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 453 - 79: Another Blast!!

Until Tanaka Masahiro was utterly exhausted, pitching the ball Lin Guanglai had dreamed of, it was his lethal moment to send the ball out once again.

And now what he had to do was to wait patiently for the opportunity to arise, just like a cobra hunting in the desert.

The first outside pitch just now was called a strike by the home plate umpire, and the on-site Rakuten fans expressed their support for their own ace with a tidal wave of applause, while also trying to put some pressure on Lin Guanglai.

But to be honest, from Lin Guanglai's perspective, this kind of intensity was still a bit too mild; at least, compared to the tiger fans at Koshien, it was more of a light touch, hardly enough to truly affect him.

Keeping a close eye on the white ball in Tanaka Masahiro's hand, Lin Guanglai did not dare to relax for a moment—Tanaka Masahiro's capability had long surpassed what Nippon Professional Baseball could offer, and even if he went to the Major League, he would likely find his footing quickly; facing a pitcher of this caliber, even a slight distraction could make his meticulous plan crumble completely.

Soon, the target of the second pitch was still the lower outside corner, and the trajectory was even lower than the first pitch.

The baseball seemed to be flying straight towards home plate, but Lin Guanglai's body stayed still; sure enough, just before entering the home plate area, the ball's trajectory suddenly plummeted, and it was caught by Shima Keihiro almost at ground level.

Undoubtedly, it was a bad pitch; the count was now 1 ball and 1 strike.

Soon after, the third pitch was thrown in the same manner—evidently, under Tanaka Masahiro's powerful control, Rakuten's pitcher-catcher tandem wanted to take Lin Guanglai by surprise and force him to swing at the outside pitches.

However, in the left batter's box on the right side of home plate, Lin Guanglai remained unmoved, even when the ball was caught by Shima Keihiro, bringing the count to 1 ball and 2 strikes, with the batter in a favorable position.

The previous at-bat was quite aggressive, yet this one seemed to have suddenly become passive, with three consecutive pitches without swinging, leaving Rakuten's pitcher and catcher confused and worried about whether this was some kind of tactic by Lin Guanglai.

Not being able to figure it out, Rakuten's pitcher-catcher duo ultimately decided to follow their routine—after all, as long as the basic plan for pitching and catching was sound, dealing with Lin Guanglai shouldn't be too hard with the current count advantage.

With this in mind, under Shima Keihiro's direction, Tanaka Masahiro threw his first inside pitch of this at-bat—an obviously high inside bad pitch, which Lin Guanglai easily let go.

2 balls, 2 strikes.

This recent inside bad pitch seemed meaningless, risking a possible hit-by-pitch and wasting a good situation, yielding only a ball count, making it more than worthless.

But baseball should not be viewed in isolation; one must experience the pitcher's and catcher's intention from a broader, overarching perspective.

After attacking Lin Guanglai's low outer position three times in a row, both Tanaka Masahiro and Shima Keihiro were aware that, with the opponent's shown dynamic vision, he had likely quickly adapted to the ball's trajectory.

The aim of this pitch was partly to show Lin Guanglai that they weren't afraid to attack his inside, forcing him to develop respect and making it difficult for him to hit inside pitches without restraint;

On the other hand, after the opponent had adapted to the low outside trajectory, suddenly throwing a high inside bad pitch could greatly disrupt the virtual strike zone the opponent had established, further messing up his hitting rhythm.

And most importantly, it was to set up for the decisive pitch that Tanaka Masahiro was about to throw—yes, Tanaka Masahiro's choice for the most crucial pitch remained the outside low forkball!

"Indeed, that is the beauty of baseball as a sport—dear spectators, how lucky we are to witness such an ultimate pitching and batting duel!"

As experienced insiders, Takeshita Yohei and the other two guests naturally understood the intricacies; with their descriptive commentary, viewers watching the game on television could also better appreciate the spectacular duel.

Clearly, everyone realized that the duel had now reached its most critical moment—the contest in this at-bat could undoubtedly be recorded in the Nippon Professional Baseball's annual records, as both the pitcher-catcher team and the batter had almost done their best possible efforts.

As to who can win next, it depends on who can perform better in specific execution...

Nodding towards his partner behind home plate, Tanaka Masahiro made a gesture of pitching the baseball—the baseball slipped from his split fingers and fingertips, unlike other types of pitches, the forkball hardly relied on additional spin applied by the fingers.

As the ball left the hand, the baseball's initial speed was fast, with a trajectory seemingly no different from a typical fastball—generally, there are not many batters who can resist swinging at such a ball when trailing in the count, let alone a batter who had recently hit a home run and was in hot form.

And indeed, Lin Guanglai swung, but the way he swung wasn't quite what Tanaka Masahiro and Rakuten's fans expected.

"Foul ball!" declared the home plate umpire emphatically, as the baseball that began to drop two or three meters before the home plate was scooped by Lin Guanglai toward the first base side.

This was only the beginning.

"Foul ball."

"Foul ball."

"Foul!"

"Foul!"

"Foul..."

"Still a foul ball...!!!"

Every single pitch thrown by Tanaka Masahiro that might threaten his strike zone was thwarted by Lin Guanglai using his bat to send it out of bounds.

Throughout this process, both the pitcher and the batter endured great physical strain:

Tanaka Masahiro threw a large number of outside pitches, needing both to ensure the ball's power and its precise control, not to mention occasionally tossing forkballs—indeed, he managed to drag the duel to this point; an average pitcher would have long walked the batter, or simply been hit by Lin Guanglai.

Lin Guanglai wasn't having it easy either; continuously swinging, continually disrupting the opponent pitcher's good pitches was also energy-consuming for him; especially as he had to ensure the ball was sent foul while avoiding any fair hits, a true testament to his bat control skills.

Both sides were a bit exhausted, but neither gave up or simply threw in the towel; at this point, the pitching-batting duel had long surpassed its ordinary meaning, turning into a battle of wills for both players, even carrying weight that could influence the normal progression of the game.

Feeling some discomfort in his right arm, Tanaka Masahiro rejected his partner's suggestion to intentionally walk and focused his gaze on the batter once more—in the next second, the baseball again shot out between his two fingers, with the target still heading towards the outside.

It was just that as he released this pitch, Tanaka Masahiro's temples suddenly throbbed intensely:

"Oh no!"

Focusing intently on the rapidly spinning ball with visible red stitches as it flew toward home plate, Lin Guanglai's face broke into a satisfied smile.

He had been waiting for just this moment!

Now, the lurking cobra, it was time to strike!

With a sudden roar, accompanied by the twist of his body and a fierce swing of the bat, this baseball, which landed on the outside high position of the strike zone, was precisely hit by Lin Guanglai, who was mentally prepared long ago.

Just like before, after hitting the baseball out, Lin Guanglai didn't rush to run the bases, instead standing there watching the ball fly into the left field stands of Miyagi Stadium.

The red sea receded once more, leaving the vast stadium silent, with numerous home team fans plastered with expressions of disbelief.

Against this backdrop, Lin Guanglai's smile was so radiant.