Winning the final ga against the Ham Team with a score of 3-0, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks’ season record ultimately settled at 77 wins, 65 losses, and 2 draws.
This record lags 5.5 gas behind this year’s Pacific League champions, the Rakuten Golden Eagles, and is 2 gas ahead of the third-ranked Saitama Seibu Lions. Although they couldn’t achieve the winning goal set at the beginning of the season, considering the various unexpected situations that occurred this season, it’s indeed remarkable that the SoftBank Team completed the official season gas with such a record.
With the standings confird, the groupings for the climax series were freshly unveiled:
On the Pacific League side, SoftBank and Seibu, who secured second and third positions in the official gas, will face each other in the first round of the climax series. They need to play a best-of-three series, with the winner advancing to the next round for a chance to challenge the Rakuten Team. As the higher-ranked side, the SoftBank Team will have the entire ho-field advantage in this series, with all three gas arranged at the Fukuoka Yahoo Do;
anwhile, the champion of the Pacific League, the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, can stay comfortably in the lead, not only advancing directly to the second round as champions but also securing the entire ho-field advantage and the crucial 1-ga win according to the rules.
In other words, if Lin Guanglai and the SoftBank Team can defeat Seibu and progress to the second round, they would essentially be starting the entire series with a 0:1 disadvantage in the big gas, needing to beat their opponents 4 tis in 6 gas to compete as the second-ranked team in the official gas for Japan’s number one.
This is why, to most Nippon Professional Baseball fans, winning within the league during the official gas is often more prestigious and appealing than the "Japan’s Number One" title:
After all, compared to the highly random climax series and Japan Series, which might see entire series outcos driven by individual brilliance, the long official season more accurately reflects a team’s true strength—it’s worth noting that before the unified baseball league system in 2007, there was no climax series, and the champions of the two leagues directly played in the Japan Series.
The journeys of the four teams that could not enter the climax series end here; the SoftBank First Team will take a brief break after so adjustnts, with players resting before starting their winter training.
For the players of the SoftBank Team, who entered the playoffs, they are actually busier now: the last ga against the Ham Team was on October 5th, and in less than a week, on October 12th, the first round of the climax series is set to begin. The players of the SoftBank First Team are actively and tensely preparing, while the coaching staff is pondering the player assignnts for the climax series.
Arrangents for others are straightforward, simply ranking based on strength; however, for Lin Guanglai, Akiyama Koji faces a dilemma:
Unlike the long, stable official gas with ample room for error and even allowing strategic forfeits of individual matches, the climax series is a whole different scenario—every ga, every at-bat, even every pitch is crucial. A small mistake might cost the entire season’s efforts.
Therefore, under the climax series format, all tactics and decisions need to be based on winning the most gas at the least cost.
During the official gas, Akiyama Koji could use his "Pseudo-Two Swords Style" thod allowing Lin Guanglai a day off before and after his starting rotation to recuperate; however, such arrangents are clearly unworkable in the climax series:
The best-of-three against Seibu must be completed in three days, and if progressing to the second round against Rakuten, they would face six consecutive away gas.
The climax series pitching rotation generally follows the "5-day interval" principle, and more extrely, even a "3-day interval" might be used—yet Lin Guanglai also has batting duties, and using him in this way would an the SoftBank Team loses a crucial powerhouse in the batting lineup, which is clearly a disadvantage.
Considering all, Akiyama Koji eventually made his decision: without considering the series against Rakuten for now, at least in the best-of-three against Seibu, he plans to prioritize deploying Lin Guanglai as a batter.
After all, most of the short-term best-two-out-of-three series still rely on batting line explosiveness to decide the outco. If Lin Guanglai is added to the starting lineup, then the SoftBank Team essentially has five players with a single-season batting average over .280, each hitting 15 or more ho runs—such an advantage is undoubtedly enough for them to take the lead in the series.
If the team can resolve the matches against Seibu in just two gas and advance to the next round, Lin Guanglai can then serve as the starting lineup’s mainstay in the next series and even gain more rest ti; and if after the first two gas, the SoftBank Hawks and Seibu Lions are tied 1-1, then having Lin Guanglai start pitching in the do-or-die third ga would add another layer of security for the team.
Having temporarily solved the rotation-related issues, Akiyama Koji was in high spirits, humming a tune as he called Mr. Oishi, who was in charge of leading the players’ training.
"Mr. Oishi, the training should almost be over by now, right? Yes, could you please ask Guanglai to co to my office? I have so matters regarding the climax series arrangent that I need to explain to him..."
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