Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 543 - 120: Auspicious Start (Part 3)
Regarding the weakness in covering the four corners of the strike zone, especially the high outside and high inside positions, the batting average hovers around .200; moreover, with a significant sample size, Ohtani Shohei has a weak response to forkballs and changeups, with batting averages of just .167 and .154 respectively.
As the Ham Team’s superstar rookie, Ohtani Shohei’s pitching and hitting data have long been thoroughly analyzed by the SoftBank’s data team. Which balls he struggles to hit, which positions are his cold zones for hitting—this data has been deeply engraved in Lin Guanglai’s mind, integrated into actual gameplay.
Takeshima Shinya squatted at a low outside position, signaling Lin Guanglai for a fastball low and outside—this pitch was mainly to observe Ohtani Shohei’s reaction to balls in the corner positions where he is not proficient.
Lin Guanglai nodded slightly, then swiftly hurled a 155 km/h fastball straight to the low outside corner, while Ohtani Shohei remained motionless, watching the ball sail into the strike zone.
"Ball." With two outs in the top of the ninth inning, the umpire’s control over the strike zone became even stricter than before.
Seeing he didn’t choose to swing at the low outside pitch, the SoftBank pitcher and catcher immediately shifted to the high inside, a 159 km/h fastball was released, aiming to seize the count while suppressing Ohtani Shohei’s batting range; Ohtani Shohei kept a close eye on the ball, but still did not swing.
After two consecutive fastballs, Takeshima Shinya gestured to Lin Guanglai for a changeup, which instantly came low and outside. Faced with the sharply dropping speed, Ohtani Shohei’s swing was evidently searching for a fastball’s rhythm; although his powerful core allowed him to foul the ball off, he remained behind in the count.
The atmosphere at the scene became intense, the eyes of the pitcher and batter converged in the air. Both Lin Guanglai on the pitcher’s mound and Ohtani Shohei in the batter’s box understood that the next pitch would be the decisive moment.
Ohtani Shohei’s mind was racing; to him, the next pitch surely would be Lin Guanglai’s signature forkball to clinch the game. Slightly shifting his body weight back, Ohtani Shohei was already prepared for a low-angle breaking ball—his next move would be to send that baseball, which had struck out countless strong hitters, flying out!
On the pitcher’s mound, Lin Guanglai made his move, and as his arm swung, the white ball turned into a blur shooting straight toward the plate: it wasn’t a divine forkball, but a bold, counterintuitive inside fastball!
Ohtani Shohei had prepared for all sorts of scenarios, but he never expected it would be a precise fastball aimed at his inside weak spot—his swing was squeezed, his body already in motion for hitting couldn’t exert force smoothly, barely making contact with the ball.
"Thud!" A dull, un-solid sound, the baseball hit the bat’s handle, forming a weak, slow grounder toward shortstop.
The ball slowly rolled towards Imamiya Kenta, who effortlessly stepped forward to pick it up, hardly needing any preparatory actions, directly making a steady throw to first base.
"Three outs, game over!" Almost at the instant Ohtani Shohei was put out, the local commentators from West Tokyo TV Station clapped in celebration, "With Lin Guanglai’s complete game shutout, SoftBank Hawks, the champions of Formula Series, secured victory in the first bout of the climax series, achieving a winning start!"
"Now, the score has reached 2-0, and we have reason to believe this year belongs to the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, to Kyushu baseball—Japan’s Number One goal is right in front of us, let’s keep moving forward!"
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Note 1: BB/K, Base on Balls per Strikeout, the walk-strikeout ratio. This data applies to both pitchers and hitters; generally, the higher the BB/K for a hitter, the tougher they are to face, the lower for a pitcher, the stronger they are.
