Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 511 - 106: Needle Point vs. Wheat Awn
In this match against Softbank, the Yomiuri Giants have shown considerable seriousness by sending their current pitcher, Sugano Tomoyuki, as the starting pitcher. As a relative of Manager Hara Tatsunori, although he is often jokingly referred to as the "big nephew" by fans of other teams, his personal skills are undeniably great—winning 13 games in his rookie year and averaging more than 6.5 innings per game.
In the top of the first inning, despite Softbank Team relying on a hit by Imamiya Kenta to create a situation with runners on first and third with two outs, Sugano Tomoyuki still showcased his composed personality and suppressive power:
A high fastball, an inside fastball, and a forkball with an impressive downward trajectory altogether took down Nakamura Akira, Yanagida Yuuki, and struck out Nagatagawa Yuuya, thus easily resolving the first half inning.
Every out made by the Giant Team on the field stirred waves of excitement in the stands: fans wearing orange jerseys, like a storm, sang the Giants’ anthem "Injecting Fighting Spirit" while cheering wildly for their favorite team and players, placing a considerable psychological burden on the visiting opponents at Tokyo Dome.
Amidst such an almost fanatical atmosphere, Lin Guanglai stepped onto the pitching mound as the starting pitcher of this game. From the camera angle, it seemed that the fervent atmosphere of the Giant fans didn’t affect him at all; he even had the mood to chat and laugh with Takeshima Shinya.
After symbolically throwing a few warm-up pitches, with the umpire’s signal, the bottom of the first inning quickly commenced.
Why do the Giants maintain their competitiveness in Nippon Professional Baseball? The fundamental reason lies in the personal strength of their players, which is the top tier of all Japan. The saying "the best Japanese players should play for the Giants" has been an unchanging proverb in Japanese baseball for many years.
This is evident from their batting lineup arrangement: although it’s said that Softbank Team’s "1 billion yen lineup" is unrivaled in the Pacific League, the value of the Giants’ batting lineup is comparably high, with the annual salaries almost taking up a third of the team’s budget, totaling over 1.5 billion yen.
Lin Guanglai’s first opponent in this game is the new core of the Giant Team after Abe Shinjiro aged, the shortstop known as the "Night King," Sakamoto Yuuto.
By his second year out of high school, he secured the position of starting shortstop in Japan’s top noble club, averaging 158 hits per season to date, with double-digit home runs for 5 consecutive years. Sakamoto Yuuto is undoubtedly the top infielder in Japan today and is considered the current most likely man to hit 3,000 career hits.
In last season’s interleague play, due to rotation arrangements, Lin Guanglai didn’t face the Giant Team in a game; he only dueled with Sakamoto Yuuto once on the All-Star stage, which hardly counts.
During the pre-game chat, this proud graduate of Koushing Academy humorously declared in front of Lin Guanglai that he intended to avenge his juniors; Lin Guanglai gladly accepted the challenge—he also wanted to experience the prowess of this batter, whom the old Chuunichi star Risouka Wakiyama called "Mr. Doubles."
According to data presented in the pre-game pitchers meeting, Sakamoto Yuuto is an excellent right-handed batter, with most career hits flying towards left-center field.
In other words, Sakamoto Yuuto possesses top-notch ability to pursue inside pitches, and his speed is quite agile, giving him substantial advantages on the bases. On the contrary, Sakamoto Yuuto struggles significantly with tricky outside pitches, and his pitch selection skill has some flaws.
Thus, in this at-bat, Lin Guanglai and Takeshima Shinya mainly prepared to focus the battle on the outside corner of the strike zone, planning to handle him through control and speed variance.
On the mound, Lin Guanglai nodded in the direction of Takeshima Shinya, then completely concealed his throwing hand with his glove. Taking a deep breath, with a keen gaze and a full swing of his arm, a high outside fastball shot out like a cannonball, whistling through the air, clocked by the Tokyo Dome speedometer at 158 km/h.
Sakamoto Yuuto made a slight bodily motion, seeming like he intended to swing, but in the end, he restrained his desire to hit the ball, watching the pitch enter the catcher’s glove.
"Strike!" The umpire raised his right hand, making the corresponding call.
"The first pitch is a decisively high outside fastball! This ball barely scraped the upper edge of Sakamoto’s strike zone, demonstrating Lin Guanglai’s considerable confidence, securing an initial strike count." Watching the pitch, the commentators in the live studio immediately brightened.
Without allowing Sakamoto Yuuto any breathing space, Lin Guanglai quickly made another pitch after a brief adjustment—this time it was a cutter, still to the outside corner.
In Sakamoto Yuuto’s eyes, both the windup and trajectory from Lin Guanglai initially seemed like an unmistakable fastball; however, just before reaching home plate, it vividly darted towards the outer bottom corner. By then, Sakamoto Yuuto’s bat, already swung beyond the halfway point, was clearly impossible to retract.
