There, Honda Yuichi had already prepared himself, slightly bending his knees and waist to catch the ball with his glove, then throwing it towards first base not far away.
After using 2 balls, the SoftBank Team got the first out of the ga.
The second batter, Fujita Kazuya, according to the information from the SoftBank data team, has very poor pitch selection ability, often swinging at bad balls; however, at the sa ti, he has first-class bunting skills in Nippon Professional Baseball, rarely striking out or whiffing—such technical characteristics perfectly matched Lin Guanglai’s tactical strategy for today.
In the first matchup of this at-bat, Lin Guanglai directly replicated the last ball that eliminated Okajima Goro, still an outside two-seam fastball, this ti adding more spin to the ball.
Like Okajima Goro before, Fujita Kazuya naturally chose to swing the bat, and also hit the baseball, even the direction of the ground ball was the sa, towards second base.
The result, of course, was the sa: Honda Yuichi easily received the incoming ball, completing the putout by throwing to first base.
Soon, the third batter, Akaikei Ginzou, stepped into the left batter’s box, and he is also the most difficult to deal with in Rakuten’s starting lineup:
Ginzou’s signature skill when batting is his hitting technique, deliberately crowding the inside corner; in addition, he has a low whiff rate, active swinging, and a low number of strikeouts and walks are his strengths; most importantly, when facing two-strike scenarios, his batting average of .298 leads all players in Nippon Professional Baseball, which shows his big heart and stable form.
What’s the best way to deal with a batter with outstanding hitting technique? That is to not give him a chance to even touch the ball!
The pitches saved in the first two at-bats ca into play here: against Ginzou, Lin Guanglai did not use the control style to deceive the opponent into swinging as in the previous two at-bats but instead chose to speed up abruptly, responding in the most fierce and direct way:
In almost the blink of an eye, three pitches with speeds over 155 km/h were thrown by Lin Guanglai towards the ho plate, each carrying intense rotation.
Under the absolute power suppression, no matter how skillful Ginzou’s batting technique was, he could only barely take the ball out of bounds.
After spending a little effort, Lin Guanglai used 4 pitches to achieve his first strikeout of the ga.
If Lin Guanglai were playing a ga right now, a real-ti task list would surely appear in front of him, recording his progress in this ga:
Pitch count: 7/100; Ga progress: 3/27.
It was as if they were locked in a duel with Rakuten, in the bottom of the inning, Lin Guanglai also helped SoftBank to respond with an identical three-up-three-down.
However, as he ca down from the pitcher’s mound, there was not much smile in his eyes—Lin Guanglai cast his gaze towards the Rakuten bench: there, Andrew Jones, who had been in the on-deck circle, had just finished his warm-up.
He knew that the real test had just begun...
Both sides had completed the field change once again, and the top half of the second inning followed closely—after the urgency and random swinging seen in the top half of the first inning, SoftBank’s batters were harshly reprimanded by Manager Akiyama; in this half-inning, their discipline at the plate was notably better.
Leading off in this half-inning, Nakagawa Seiichi used his sharp eye for pitch selection to quickly draw four balls and get a walk, and Matsuda Naohiro, who ca on after him, hit a single, creating a favorable situation of runners on first and third with no outs.
But as for Rakuten, Shinzima’s condition was also quite good today: faced with this situation with nowhere to retreat, he did not panic.
After calling a tiout to adjust his pitching rhythm and mindset, Shinzima first used a high fastball to lure Yanagida Yuuki into a swing, delivering the first strikeout; then made the seventh batter, Egawa Tomoaki, hit a ground ball towards second base for a putout—had it not been for Nakagawa Seiichi putting pressure on Rakuten’s fielders near third base, this play could have resulted in a double play, directly ending this half-inning.
With two outs and runners on second and third, SoftBank finally didn’t let the great opportunity slip away: Honda Yuichi, SoftBank’s forr leadoff batter, after a largely sluggish season, finally awakened at a critical mont.
At 0 balls and 1 strike, facing Shinzima’s full-force outside forkball, Honda Yuichi kept his eye on the incoming ball, sending it to the open space in front of left field with a swing, successfully bringing Nakagawa Seiichi from third base back ho—the score of 1-0 was also the final result of the top half of the second inning.
When SoftBank’s batters returned to the dugout, they were clearly not satisfied with their performance: with no outs and runners on first and third, they only got 1 run from the opponent, a result Rakuten could easily accept.
At this mont, it was still Lin Guanglai who stood up to comfort his teammates, and his way of comforting was simple, just one sentence—
"Don’t worry, everyone, for today’s ga—1 point is enough!!!"
As soon as he finished speaking, he grabbed his pitcher’s glove and called his teammates to play defense.
After contributing an excellent performance throughout the season, Lin Guanglai’s position in this team has also risen day by day; after all, in professional baseball, it all cos down to personal ability. Lin Guanglai’s strength is enough to conquer his teammates, his character is quite good, too, and it’s only natural that he enjoys such a right to speak in the SoftBank Team.
Watching him leave, Akiyama Koji also nodded repeatedly, with thoughts in his heart growing ever firr: Given so more ti, Lin Guanglai undoubtedly has the ability to beco the cornerstone of this team.
For Lin Guanglai, the bottom half of the second inning should be the hardest half-inning at the initial stage: the strength of Rakuten’s core lineup is absolutely among the best in the league, especially the foreign duo of Jones and McCarthy, having hit a total of 54 ho runs, with OPS all above .850, no one in the Pacific League can match their explosive power.
When dealing with such foreign batters known for their outstanding power, Lin Guanglai couldn’t afford to save pitch count deliberately, he started this half-inning with full firepower.
Old Jones indeed has strong explosive power, but his biggest problem is that, as his prized physical fitness declines with age, so of the bad batting habits he’s developed in his youth can easily beco a liability.
Compared to the season opener when they faced each other, after a season of professional play, Lin Guanglai’s strength has significantly improved:
Sharp inside pitches, precise outside pitches, rapid pitch speeds, intense spins... At least in Andrew Jones’ view, the level of ability exhibited by the 18-year-old Lin Guanglai in pitching is definitely good enough to hold a place in the Major League.
In a 0 balls, 2 strikes count, after exchanging a glance with Hosokawa Kei, Lin Guanglai’s baseball was thrown towards ho plate in the next second.
Facing that seemingly speedy white ball head-on, Andrew Jones wasn’t polite either, decisively swinging his bat towards the oncoming ball; however, the next second, the baseball, seemingly abruptly drained of all power as it flew over the plate, suddenly slowed down, then rapidly dropped.
Jones’s bat had already swung in front, only to slash through thin air, driving his body into a futile spin; anwhile, the baseball cleverly avoided the batter’s swing, landing heavily with a "pop" into the catcher’s glove.
The plate umpire imdiately extended his arm, announcing the final result of this at-bat:
"Swing and miss, strikeout! The batter is out!"
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