Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 614 - 155: Superstar Moment
"Indeed, it's still too difficult for the lineup in the first round to hit a base hit against Lin Guanglai..." Outside the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters bench on the third base side, their manager Kuriyama Hideki thought to himself with his arms crossed in front of his chest.
Just as he had envisioned before the start of the game, Lin Guanglai demonstrated extraordinary dominance against the first-round lineup, eliminating the hitters of the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters one by one with minimal effort, without giving any chance for a base hit;
Fortunately, Ohtani Shohei, who started on the mound today, also performed brilliantly. Although his dominance is not on par with Lin Guanglai, allowing only 2 hits in 3 innings without conceding a run is satisfactory enough.
On the Eagle's Vision above the outfield stands of Yahoo Dome, the score remains 0-0 at this moment—whether it is the home-playing SoftBank or the visiting Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, neither team could find any flaw in their opponent in a short period, and the game has thus fallen into a deadlock. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚
In this battle of titans where ace pitchers compete in peak form, it's normal for the first-round lineup to score no points. Hence, besides the fans supporting both teams, neither their managers nor their players were too anxious—everyone knew this game wouldn't be easy, and it's very likely that the winner would only be decided at the middle or even the final stage.
As the manager of the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, Kuriyama Hideki was pleased to see this situation and even wished the game would drag on as long as possible.
This is because the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, as the challengers who had been chasing from behind throughout the season, faced relatively less pressure since they positioned themselves as challengers from the beginning. Even if they don't win the championship in the end, they would only feel regret.
SoftBank, however, was in a completely different situation:
Firstly, they had defended the championship for two consecutive seasons, and achieving a third consecutive championship was their greatest drive this season but had also brought about immense expectations and endless pressure;
Secondly, no one could accept the fact that, after leading for more than six months, they might be overturned by their opponent in the last game of the season, losing the championship. If that were to happen, all their names would be engraved on the pillar of shame, and their form in the subsequent matches would be greatly affected.
The differing predicaments of the two clubs resulted in inherently unequal pressure on the two teams: the longer the game dragged on, the more the scale of victory would tilt toward the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters;
In fact, it's possible that they might not even need to make a move themselves; SoftBank's players could be crushed by the mounting pressure and concede victory through errors.
"Moreover..." Kuriyama Hideki cast a glance at Lin Guanglai, preparing to pitch in the center of the field, and thought to himself, "With a considerable probability of achieving the miraculous feat of a sub-1.00 ERA in a single season, Lin Guanglai as a pitcher, no matter how much he claims not to care about this record, will inevitably have some psychological hints, and some distractions will inevitably arise..."
And such distractions might become the key to determining the outcome of the game once his stamina declines in the later stages of the match!
With these thoughts in mind, outside the visitors' bench, Kuriyama Hideki gave a big wave, signaling the second round of the lineup to adopt a carousel strategy to wear down Lin Guanglai by increasing his pitch count as much as possible, to possibly cause him to experience physical problems, or better yet, force him off the mound.
For these professional hitters of the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, hitting a base hit off Lin Guanglai might not be that easy, but if the goal is simply to wear down his pitch count, it's much easier—after all, even standing there and watching three strikes go by requires the opponent to throw at least three pitches; and if they disrupt a few balls more on this basis, Lin Guanglai's pitch count will quickly soar.
Starting from the fourth inning with a reset lineup, Lin Guanglai could clearly feel the increased intensity of the match: different from the first round lineup's probing and aggressive attack strategy, the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters adopted a more conservative approach in the second round of offense.
"Looks like they're preparing to engage me in a war of attrition..." Seeing his opponent's stance, Lin Guanglai understood, but such a strategy only increased the game's difficulty from "easy" to "normal" for him.
The SoftBank battery communicated briefly, and the baseball was quickly thrown by Lin Guanglai. The powerful pitching continued to be too much for Nishikawa Haruki, facing Lin Guanglai for the second time, to resist—it was not due to a lack of opponent's strength, but simply because the gap between pitching and hitting was too large.
With personal physique strengthening, skill maturation, and a wider array of pitches, at least in the current Nippon Professional Baseball, the threat of traditional hitters, who heavily depend on technique, to Lin Guanglai is diminishing; there are probably no more than two hands' worth of hitters in all of Japan who can hit a decisive long ball off Lin Guanglai in a head-to-head confrontation.
The top half of the fourth inning ended quickly, much faster than Kuriyama Hideki had initially anticipated:
First batter, Nishikawa Haruki, struck out watching three consecutive strikes;
Second batter, Kondo Kensuke, persevered until the fourth pitch but was lured by Lin Guanglai's forkball and struck out swinging;
Third batter, Ohtani Shohei, once again faced four pitches, and despite paying close attention to Lin Guanglai's deadly forkballs and forked fastballs, Ohtani Shohei was deceived by an unexpected changeup from Lin Guanglai, swinging and missing, thus striking out.
