Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 371 - 21: Making a Strong First Impression

When the Rakuten Team’s lead-off hitter, Seijima Ryosuke, gripped his bat and entered the batter’s box, countless pairs of eyes in the stands of Yahoo Dome, among the reporters, and in front of televisions were fixed on Lin Guanglai on the pitcher’s mound, eager to see how he would perform in his professional baseball debut.

To be an 18-year-old starting pitcher for the opening game is a feat that hasn’t happened in Japan for decades; coupled with Lin Guanglai’s status as a Koshien star, ever since the starter list was officially released yesterday, various forces have been fueling the excitement for this game.

For Lin Guanglai, starting the opening game is both motivation and pressure—if he performs well in this match, praise will not be withheld from both inside the club and the external media; but if his performance is poor, such as being taken off the mound after just one or two innings... professional baseball, a place that doesn’t spare anyone, likely won’t offer him any special treatment, and might even implicate Manager Akiyama who decided to use him.

However, at this moment as Lin Guanglai prepares to pitch, he has no time for such trivial thoughts; all his attention has converged on Seijima Ryosuke, standing about a dozen meters away.

As a lead-off hitter, Seijima Ryosuke’s hitting ability is average, with his batting average hovering around .270; his position as lead-off hitter for Rakuten Team is mainly due to his sharp eye for pitches and rapid foot speed—last season he claimed the Pacific League’s stolen base title with 54 stolen bases, showcasing his speed.

Nonetheless, Lin Guanglai isn’t afraid of him.

Once it was confirmed that he would start the opening game, he, aided by the team’s professional data analysts, worked with his catcher partner Hosokawa Kei to determine a rough pitching strategy—precise and detailed big data analysis makes professional baseball vastly different from amateur events like Koshien.

According to big data analysis, Seijima Ryosuke struggles the most with hitting cutter balls, with a batting average last season of only .136; secondly, forkballs, with a figure of .179 that is far from high; considering his role as a lead-off hitter, a less than .26 average against fastballs is slightly low.

Therefore, facing this fast base-running and significant threat, Lin Guanglai and his catcher Hosokawa Kei decided to go for a strikeout, directly eliminating potential threats from the source.

Taking a deep breath and adjusting himself, Lin Guanglai placed his fingers on the seams of the baseball, and after a brief charge of power, the baseball shot out immediately.

"Bang!"

"Strike!"

As the umpire raised his right hand to call the strike, the Eagle’s Vision in the outfield instantly displayed the speed of the pitch—next to Lin Guanglai’s massive portrait, the speed of 158 km/h was clearly visible; to enhance this atmosphere, bursts of flame erupted on the LCD screen.

"Oh, oh, oh!"

"Amazing!"

"What fierce speed!"

Seeing such explosive speed, the SoftBank fans in the stands were wide-eyed—even the current ace pitcher Shetsu Shou and other starters are generally precise control pitchers from the SoftBank Team, accustomed to seeing resilient pitchers, fans felt somewhat unaccustomed to encountering such a classical power pitcher so suddenly.

"I think SoftBank Team’s fans need to get used to this scene because such pitching speed may become a routine sight at Yahoo Dome in the future!" said Junnei Yohei on the commentator’s desk, voicing their sentiments.

Facing professional-level hitters, Lin Guanglai’s pitching rhythm was fast; especially at the beginning of the game, when hitters haven’t fully adapted to his pitching, a slightly quicker pace can help him dispatch hitters faster.

Receiving the return pitch from Hosokawa Kei, the second ball was swiftly thrown again, still a bold fastball directed toward the inside corner against left-handed Seijima Ryosuke.

When the baseball entered the strike zone, Seijima Ryosuke learned from the previous pitch, facing the incoming ball decisively choosing to swing the bat, successfully making contact with the ball.

However, that clean, pleasant feeling of connecting with the ball did not come; instead, a strong sensation of vibration at the base of the thumb replaced it—the heaviness of the ball was excessive, and Seijima wasn’t a particularly strong hitter, he felt he couldn’t fully exert force.

The baseball ricocheted into the air and landed in the empty space beyond home plate.

Foul ball, 0 balls and 2 strikes.

Even with the absolute advantage of 2 strikes, Lin Guanglai dared not let his guard down:

Of Seijima Ryosuke’s exceptional pitch selection ability, he rarely found himself in a 0-out-2-strike situation, but it has happened—according to available data reports, he has a nearly seventy percent hit rate in such situations.

From Lin Guanglai’s perspective, allowing a hit at a 0-2 count is absolutely unacceptable.

With Hosokawa Kei’s sign indicating the pitch strategy, Lin Guanglai lightly nodded in agreement; quickly, he closed his glove, and his pitching posture launched instantaneously.

He placed the baseball between the index and middle fingers, forcefully exerted the middle finger at the release point, and the baseball was thrown with considerable speed, constantly spinning in the air.

Pushed to the brink, Seijima Ryosuke watched the rapidly approaching baseball, after a moment of hesitation decided to swing—it’s not just Lin Guanglai that studied the opponent, Rakuten players also studied Lin Guanglai, and the impression of Lin Guanglai’s precision control has long been ingrained in their minds.

Eyes fixed on the coming ball, Seijima Ryosuke swung the bat with full speed and force, but didn’t experience that tingling sensation of making contact, instead feeling a sense of missing entirely.

The ball maintained a relatively straight line but as it reached home plate suddenly dropped sharply; this sudden change in trajectory caused Seijima to completely miss with his full swing.

"Swing and miss strikeout! Lin Guanglai! His first career strikeout in professional baseball! This is a landmark moment for this young man!"

Although still a rookie, at this moment, basking in the enthusiastic atmosphere of Yahoo Dome, Lin Guanglai was treated no less than the ace.

The ball from just a moment ago would be handed over to the team’s staff, later presented to Lin Guanglai as a souvenir post-game.

Securing his first career strikeout also significantly boosted Lin Guanglai’s confidence.

Working together with his teammates, the second batter and left-hander Fujita Kazuya was lured by an inside cutter ball he threw, hitting a ground ball toward first base, where foreign player Lahai’er easily fielded it for an out.

The third batter Matsuda Shintaro, a 26-year-old left-hander who broke out last season, secured his main position with Rakuten by becoming adept at hitting breaking balls—against such an opponent, Lin Guanglai chose to go head-to-head.

"Swing and miss strikeout!"

"Three outs!"

"Wow—a new generation’s Heisei monster, a perfect professional debut, could he be bringing the storm he stirred at Koshien to the professional baseball fields?"