"So, what’s up, what’s up? How did the Seibu vs. Rakuten ga turn out?"
The SoftBank locker room was buzzing with excitent—just minutes ago, they had wrapped up a make-up ga against Orix, but it seed to have no effect on their spirits.
Nakagawa Seiichi, surrounded by his teammates, was continually refreshing his phone screen, eager to find out the result of the ga at Miyagi Stadium, happening miles away.
"Captain, don’t you think it’s ti to replace that phone of yours? How co it’s taking so long to refresh..." Yanagida Yuuki giggled, leaning half of his body on Lin Guanglai, teasing Nakagawa Seiichi, who was still using an older smartphone.
Feeling embarrassed by the comnt, Nakagawa Seiichi shot back, "Yuuki, shut up! It’s almost out, why the rush?"
As the Nippon Professional Baseball website gradually updated on the small LCD screen, the result of the Rakuten vs. Seibu ga was soon revealed:
The ho team Saitama Seibu Lions narrowly defeated the Pacific League champion Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 6-4, securing an eight-ga winning streak at the end of the season, keeping up the pressure on the SoftBank Team.
"Ah—I knew it, I knew the climax battle wouldn’t be that simple; now we still have to rely on tomorrow’s result, huh?"
As soon as they saw the score, the SoftBank players, who had been huddled together, quickly dispersed, many of them lying down in front of their lockers, complaining about their rivals’ resilience.
It’s no wonder the SoftBank players were feeling this way; according to the current rankings and win-loss gaps, if Seibu Team had lost today’s ga, the second-ranked Pacific League team, SoftBank, could have benefited greatly. Then, in the remaining four gas, they would only need to win one to secure a spot in the climax series and have a high chance of finishing second with ho advantage in the first round of the climax series.
Seeing the disappointed look on his teammates’ faces, Nakagawa Seiichi and Matsuda Naohiro, the team’s nominal captains, clapped their hands to comfort everyone while expressing a viewpoint of continued fighting spirit:
"Alright, alright, a little complaining is fine about things like this; truth is, we’re still in control, with four gas left this season, and two against Seibu—winning tomorrow’s head-to-head will an we advance to the climax series."
"Sure, Seibu’s eight-ga winning streak is impressive, but haven’t we, SoftBank, won 9 out of the last 10 as well? When it cos down to it, other teams might get scared, but not us!"
"So, tidy up quickly and get back to rest well. Early the day after tomorrow, we’ll be flying to Saitama Prefecture—with tomorrow’s ga, let’s draw a relatively perfect end to this roller-coaster season!"
"Yes, Captain!!!" The entire main squad of players responded with an energetic shout.
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"Yuuji, Taiyuan, get Guanglai ward up in the bullpen—once the eighth inning is over, I want him to pinch-hit in the top of the ninth and then close the ga as the finisher!"
Akiyama Koji was staring intently, with a serious expression, at the Seibu Do, observing the ever-changing situation, and after a mont of thought, issued this order to Guo Taiyuan beside him.
In the previous innings, amidst the cheers of over 30,000 ho fans, the Seibu Lions’ batters were the first to break the deadlock in the bottom of the third—the second batter, Kataoka Jidai, hit a key double, sending runners ho for the crucial first run, despite a tough 2-and-2 ball-strike count situation.
If this ga ends with this score in favor of Seibu Lions, they will narrow their gap with SoftBank to just 0.5 gas; considering both teams have another direct matchup at Seibu Do tomorrow, Seibu can seize an early advantage.
Luckily, the SoftBank players didn’t just give up; instead, they launched a fierce counterattack and managed to tie the ga in the top half of the sixth inning:
Today, Nakamura Akira, leading off, hit a double right at the start, and then, with the help of a high fly sacrifice by Imamiya Kenta, advanced to third base;
With one out and a runner on third, even though Kuriyama Takashi caught Hasegawa Yu’s high fly ball, it didn’t stop Nakamura Akira from using the opportunity to score from third base.
Now, on the field in the center of Seibu Do, this crucial positioning ga between SoftBank and Seibu has already entered the eighth inning; both coaches are making adjustnts to the personnel on the field.
On the Seibu side, in the eighth, they sent out their ace closer Dennis Sarfate to pitch and preserve the tied score.
anwhile, warming up in the ho team’s bullpen is Seibu’s forr ace and Eiji Sawamura level pitcher, Yongjing Xiuzhang—due to the "Bunshun Cannon" incident earlier this season, Yangjing was demoted for a period, and after returning to the main squad, he wasn’t in top form; by mid-season, he transitioned directly to the closer role.
Similarly, to win this ga, SoftBank is also deploying their best: the pitcher in the bottom of the eighth will be the foreign player Falkenberg, with Lin Guanglai entrusted by Akiyama Koji to co on as the closer in the relief role.
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