"Three outs, sides retired!"
The pace of the inning changes was clearly picking up, the game being tugged back and forth in the palms of the two pitchers.
"That was so fast. It was only a moment, and there were already three outs again." The spectators felt it most keenly. Before they could even start anticipating anything, the sides had switched.
"It's completely turned into a pitchers' duel!"
"But I really didn't expect Seido's pitcher to hold on this long. He looked like he was about to get crushed right from the start."
"Even if he got crushed, they still had their ace to back him up."
But in truth, during this deadlocked tug-of-war between the two sides, everyone had the same sense: Seido's stability and chaos were separated by only a layer of ice as thin as paper.
"Crack—" In the Bottom of the Sixth Inning, Carlos added another hit. With Inashiro's top order coming up next, there were faint signs that Seido's defense was about to be torn apart. Even Furuya, normally so slow to react, felt as though someone had seized him by the throat.
On first base, the runner took a huge lead, blatantly stimulating the pitcher's nerves.
"Smack—"
"Safe!" Another pickoff attempt, yet the runner's lead did not shrink at all.
Instead, it was the pitcher whose composure began to crumble. What should I do? Will they take me out? He used pickoff attempts to stretch out the interval between pitches, giving himself room to catch his breath.
"Smack—" Another pickoff attempt.
"Tch." Carlos was growing impatient. Pickoff or no pickoff, I'm stealing second soon anyway!
Miyuki frowned, then rose to his feet. "Time!" When the pitcher was not in the right state, they absolutely could not overlook it just because they were in a