Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 522 - 111: Sprint, Sprint!
"Leadoff hitter, designated hitter, Lin Guanglai."
"Leadoff hitter, designated hitter, Lin Guanglai."
As Lin Guanglai’s face appeared on the big screen of the Eagle’s Vision, the fully-seated Yahoo Dome stands erupted, with the crowd standing up and applauding the young player who had led the team forward.
The game had reached the bottom of the eighth inning, and the home team, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, and the visiting Chiba Lotte Marines were tied at 3-3; in the previous at-bats, the SoftBank team had used small ball tactics to advance runners to third base at the cost of two outs.
In the home bullpen, the team’s closer, Sarfate, who had already secured double-digit saves this season, was warming up, giving SoftBank fans reasons to believe that if Lin Guanglai could drive in the go-ahead run, they would secure victory in this game.
At first glance, this match seemed like an ordinary, uneventful league game, but considering the current Pacific League standings, the implications were significant:
Before the start of interleague play, the SoftBank team was trailing the league-leading Orix Buffaloes by 1.5 games, sitting in second place.
Throughout the nearly month-long interleague games, SoftBank achieved a remarkable record of 14 wins, 8 losses, and 2 ties. Although they narrowly lost to the Yomiuri Giants by one game and failed to win the interleague championship, their outstanding performance helped them close the gap with the Orix Buffaloes.
Before today’s game began, they were only half a game behind Orix—a subtle difference that meant one thing:
If SoftBank could defeat the Chiba Lotte Marines at home today, and if Orix lost to the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in Sapporo, they would regain first place in the Pacific League, returning to the top after over a month!
As Lin Guanglai stepped out of the on-deck circle and walked quickly towards home plate, SoftBank’s dugout erupted as their head coach, Ogawa Shu, shouted in joy:
"Manager, the Ham Fighters won!!! Orix’s record is now tied with ours!" 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖
News from the Sapporo Dome had delivered the message SoftBank eagerly anticipated: the home team, the Nippon-Ham Fighters, had fielded their best players, delivering an impressive 10-hit performance to defeat the Orix Buffaloes with a 5-3 victory—SoftBank was just one win away from reclaiming the top position!
Upon hearing this news, Akiyama Koji quickly stood up from his seat and hurriedly stepped onto the field outside the player area, gesturing towards Lin Guanglai at home plate.
First, he touched his belt, then gestured energetically, touching his shoulder, elbow, and wrist in a dizzying series of signals that were hard to fathom. After this elaborate code, the instructions were clear.
This was SoftBank’s unique in-game communication method, with only one or two pieces of actual information among the flurry of gestures, aiming to deliver tactical instructions without the opponent deciphering them.
Akiyama Koji’s message was simple: Lin Guanglai could decide how to attack this at-bat, but if he fell behind in the count, he needed to, at the very least, ensure that the runner on third base could score the go-ahead run.
Tapping his helmet, Lin Guanglai provided a decisive response; he then stepped into the batter’s box, raising his bat high and pointing it towards the outfield, inciting cheers from the dome and putting immense pressure on the opposing pitcher.
The Lotte Team had brought in a left-handed setup pitcher named Nakagawa Yuhei for the eighth inning, a highly unique pitcher with an extraordinary style: capable of seamlessly shifting from a high-pressure delivery to a three-quarters and even sidearm throw, earning the nickname "Thousand-Handed Avalokitesvara."
As for his primary arsenal, it was quite predictable. According to data, even though Nakagawa Yuhei had mastered several breaking balls, his most frequent and powerful pitch was the slider, accounting for over 80% of his deliveries.
On the pitcher’s mound, Lotte’s "Japanese Monster," with his unpredictable style, glared at the batter’s box. (Note: The term "Monster" here refers to Hall of Fame pitcher Randy Johnson.)
For the first pitch of this at-bat, Nakagawa Yuhei chose a near sidearm delivery, his left arm snapping like a snake hidden in the blind spot, and the baseball shot out of his hand.
The outer low slider viciously cut across the edge of the strike zone, but the protagonist in the batter’s box remained unfazed, watching the baseball sail into the zone.
The umpire raised his hand, the count moving to 0 balls and 1 strike.
The second pitch was another slider, another attempt to entice Lin Guanglai to swing, with a more cunning trajectory than the first pitch—Lin Guanglai’s bat twitched slightly, but ultimately stayed firmly in place.
Clearly, the umpire’s interpretation of the strike zone differed from his own, ruling another strike, and the 0 balls, 2 strikes count cast a serious mood over the audience at Yahoo Dome.
Though theoretically, they still had half an inning to overturn the score, who wouldn’t want to end the suspense a minute earlier?
Receiving the ball back from the catcher, Nakagawa Yuhei’s lips curled slightly under his cap: the previous two pitches had perfectly fulfilled his task, placing him at a significant advantage; next, he intended to capitalize on this momentum and strike out Lin Guanglai without delay.
