"Bottom of the ninth inning, two outs, runners on first and second base—can number nine, Yamazaki Katsumi, do it?"
"In this interleague ga against the Yokohama BayStars at ho, the SoftBank Team, trailing 0-4, launched a desperate coback in the latter half of the ga. Now, they’re just one run away from overturning the score!"
"Yamazaki Katsumi, he only needs to hit a single... In the on-deck circle, Lin Guanglai, the number one batter, is already prepared—if Yamazaki can extend the ga to reset the lineup, the SoftBank Team has a significant chance to stage a coback!"
"Let’s watch this pitch!!!"
With an exclamation from the live comntator, on the mound at Yahoo Do, Yokohama BayStars’ closer Jorge Sosa hurled the ball toward ho plate, and in the batter’s box, Yamazaki Katsumi swung his bat at the incoming baseball.
"Thud—!"
Amid the gasps of tens of thousands of SoftBank fans, Yamazaki Katsumi hit a ground ball towards second base, but its speed was slightly lacking.
This weak grounder posed no challenge for a professional-level infielder, and Yokohama BayStars’ second baseman, Ken Ichiura, effortlessly caught the ball, gently tossing it to the first baseman, thus ending the half-inning and the whole ga.
"Ah—what a pity!" Seeing this scene, the comntator in the broadcast studio uttered in regret, "Since the interleague series began, aside from the two average performances against Hiroshima Toyo, the SoftBank Team has completely regained its form."
"After sweeping the Hanshin Tigers at Koshien, they returned ho for a three-ga winning streak, consecutively defeating Chunichi Dragons and Yokohama BayStars, with each ga being a big win of over 10 points scored."
"For today’s ga, if it weren’t for the early problems from starting pitcher Oonari Kenji, the SoftBank Team would have had a great chance to win..."
Following the post-ga processes and the post-ga greetings with the opposing coach, and after accepting interviews from the ho dia, Akiyama Koji hurriedly left the stadium’s interior, returning to his office—where Daisuke Oishi was holding a dical report sent back from a hospital in Fukuoka City.
The most crucial factor in SoftBank’s loss today was that Oonari Kenji, who started on the mound, gave up 4 runs in the first 2 and a half innings, but that wasn’t his fault—if anyone had to be accountable for today’s loss, Akiyama Koji felt the greatest responsibility lay with himself.
Since entering May, Oonari Kenji had repeatedly reported backaches during training, even to the point of having to cancel his registration on the first team;
Initially, both the team’s dical personnel, the coaching team, and Oonari Kenji himself thought the symptoms might just be fatigue-induced back pain. After all, he participated in the WBC at the start of the year, and his fatigue level was much higher than others, so the symptoms were understandable.
However, before today’s ga started, Oonari Kenji again experienced back discomfort, yet he personally claid it had little impact and insisted on playing; given the tight starting rotation, Akiyama Koji naturally respected his choice, allowing him to pitch despite the discomfort.
Judging from the result of this ga, the discomfort likely impacted Oonari Kenji significantly: his speed and quality of pitches had decreased considerably, not just compared to his peak, but even to his slumps.
"What’s Kenji’s current situation? Is it serious? If he needs to be absent, is there an estimated tifra?"
As soon as he walked through the office door, Akiyama Koji bluntly asked Daisuke Oishi about Oonari Kenji’s injury. The latter didn’t verbally respond, instead handing over the dical report he was holding.
"According to the current reports, Kenji’s condition is not very optimistic. His back pain seems to be more than just ordinary lumbar strain, but rather ’ossification of the yellow ligant.’
"’Ossification of the yellow ligant’? What disease is that?" Akiyama Koji asked as he took the dical report from Daisuke Oishi.
"Simply put, it’s a condition where Kenji’s yellow ligant behind the spine, connecting the lamina, has thickened and ossified, gradually compressing his spinal cord nerves—which explains why he started experiencing frequent back pain in early May, recurring despite long rests."
"So, this ans Kenji will be absent again for so ti?" Flipping through the report page by page, Akiyama Koji’s expression grew increasingly grave.
"It’s not just about so ti ahead—" Daisuke Oishi paused briefly, then continued, "The real question is whether Kenji can even continue his professional career!"
Hearing his partner’s words, Akiyama Koji suddenly looked up in disbelief, staring at him and asking, "Are you serious?"
Daisuke Oishi nodded: "Of course, in Japan’s dical community, ossification of the yellow ligant is considered a difficult-to-treat disease. The ossified yellow ligant compressing the spinal cord can cause symptoms like lower limb numbness and muscle weakness; in severe cases, it may lead to paralysis of the lower limbs and intermittent claudication—Nippon Professional Baseball has had four cases of this disease previously, and the best recovery was a retirent after three years."
"So, you an..." Although he already knew the likely outco, Akiyama Koji still harbored a sliver of hope and didn’t finish his sentence.
But Daisuke Oishi quickly finished the latter half for him: "Yes, according to the hospital, the sooner the lesion is detected and surgery is perford, the better it will aid his future recovery and align with the team’s long-term interests. But if Kenji really undergoes surgery, it ans at least this season is already over for him."
Boom—!!!
When Daisuke Oishi uttered the words "season over," Akiyama Koji felt dizzy, as if struck by lightning right on his forehead.
This season so far has been full of ups and downs for the SoftBank Team; finally, during the interleague series, they managed a long-awaited winning streak, only to have it ended at this critical mont, followed by the news of a key rotation player’s season ending injury.
With the third in the rotation Oonari Kenji out, it ans that now the SoftBank is left with only two pitchers capable of covering innings and securing wins for the team, so who will fill in the gap?
Akiyama Koji wished soone would tell him what to do next...
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