Three Up, Three Down

Outside pitch—was he trying to pull it across the plate? But wasn't it too far inside?

The principle of pulling across the plate was to deceive the batter's judgment of the strike zone, making him mistake a strike for a ball and letting the pitcher steal a strike without a swing. But Ogata's pitch had not landed precisely on the corner; it had drifted slightly up and to the left.

A control mistake?

But that was not Carlos's concern. He was already down two strikes, which meant he had to swing if the other side threw a strike. And this pitch had a very high chance of being a strike, so if he did not want to strike out, he had to swing.

But why did this pitch feel much slower than the previous two?

Oh no! It wasn't a Fastball!

After Carlos swung, the baseball began to break down toward the lower right.

A Slider!

Just as Kamizu felt victory was in his grasp and began thinking about Inashiro's second batter, he saw a bat suddenly appear in front of his glove and knock away the baseball that should have entered it.

"Foul!"

Kamizu could not help looking at Carlos. Carlos had just pulled back his bat, and his gaze happened to shift onto Kamizu as well.

Their eyes met, but Kamizu was the first to look away.

Hmph, what a troublesome batter.

Kamizu could not help glancing at Carlos again. Carlos had already settled into his stance and was waiting for the next pitch.

In that case, while the impression left by the Slider was still fresh in the batter's mind—

After seeing Kamizu's signal, Ogata's eyes sharpened. He nodded, stepped forward, and fired the baseball straight out.

The moment Carlos saw the pitch, his pupils dilated.

Right down the middle!

How could he throw it right down the middle? Was it another Slider?

While Carlos hesitated, the baseball had already reached him. It really was a Fastball! Only a Fastball could have that kind of speed.

Carlos swung in a panic, but it was already too late. The baseball grazed past the bat and entered the catcher's glove.

"Strike Out!"

Before leaving the batter's box, Carlos looked at Kamizu once more. Unfortunately, Kamizu did not pay him any attention. He merely raised his right index finger and celebrated with his teammates.

This catcher...

As Carlos passed Shirakawa, he hurriedly told him:

"Watch out for that catcher."

The catcher? Shirakawa was rather confused. From the On-deck Circle, he had not been able to see much. He only knew that Carlos had struck out. So Carlos's strikeout might have been caused by that catcher? Interesting.

Kamizu looked at Shirakawa, who had stepped directly into the batter's box, and the relevant information immediately surfaced in his mind.

Shirakawa was Inashiro's best executor of tactics. His overall batting ability was average, without any other notable traits. Still, although his batting was not as good as the previous leadoff batter's, he could not be underestimated. Kamizu would not make the same mistake as Shin Kō's catcher.

Come on, Ogata-senpai. Take him down fair and square!

Like Carlos, Shirakawa was not the kind of batter who liked swinging at the first pitch. He watched the baseball enter the catcher's glove.

"Strike!"

This was hard to hit. Shirakawa stepped out of the batter's box, tightened his batting gloves, and began thinking about how to deal with Ogata's Fastball, but after thinking for a long time, he still could not come up with a good solution.

That was simply how high-speed Fastballs worked. If you could hit them, you could hit them; if you could not, then you still could not. It came down to your own ability.

But there was still one tiny thing he could do.

Kamizu looked at Shirakawa, who had returned to the batter's box, but found nothing unusual. So he did not dwell on it and called for the next pitch.

Just as Ogata had entered his pitching motion, Kamizu suddenly noticed that Shirakawa had somehow choked up on the bat.

Was he going to bunt? No, damn it!

Choking up on the bat could speed up the swing. It was something Shirakawa's coach had taught him when he had first started playing baseball.

With the faster swing, Shirakawa successfully got the bat on the ball, but—

So heavy!

Choking up on the bat could indeed increase swing speed, but it also reduced the power of the swing compared to gripping the bat lower. Using this method to chase a high-velocity Fastball was not a particularly good approach.

Because pitches with high velocity often had high spin rates as well, meaning they had stronger late movement.

After barely knocking the ball out, Shirakawa threw down his bat and ran. Unfortunately, he was still forced out at first by the shortstop's throw.

At home plate, Kamizu picked up the helmet he had thrown onto the ground in his excitement and put it back on. That had been close. He had nearly been hit for real and had been saved by the defense.

As Shirakawa passed Yoshizawa, he gave him the same warning:

"The pitcher's Pitching Power is pretty good, and his velocity is fast. You have to give it everything you've got."

"Don't worry, leave it to me!"

Yoshizawa patted his chest and promised confidently.

Shirakawa was not worried that Yoshizawa would make contact but fail to drive the ball out like he had, because Yoshizawa was Inashiro's famously powerful batter.

But when Carlos had warned him earlier, he seemed to have said something about watching out for the catcher. Yet Shirakawa had not seen anything special about the catcher.

"Strike! Strike! Strike Out!"

Kamizu watched Yoshizawa, who was so angry he nearly slammed his bat down, and smiled happily. He liked this kind of power batter who did not think much.

Inashiro's Rest Area.

"Su Su! Stop spacing out! It's time to take the field!"

"Ah! Coming!"

Su Qing had not been spacing out. He had simply picked up the Live Stream System, which he had long forgotten in a corner. But he was not checking the comments. Although the comments were lively, more than half of them were accusing him of ignoring the viewers and threatening to unsubscribe.

But when he checked the subscriber list, it was still the same group of people. Then there was nothing to worry about.

The reason he had opened the Live Stream System was that he had suddenly remembered that when the Livestream had upgraded earlier, it seemed to have given him an SC System.

He had actually forgotten to use such a divine tool all this time! What a sin, what a sin! Su Qing hurriedly picked it up. As for the viewers, they could keep making a fuss. They would not donate to him anyway, so what was the point of pleasing viewers like that?

Besides, the check-in system alone was already enough. The Live Stream System required him to cater to the viewers' emotions too, which was far too troublesome.

From now on, whether he streamed or not would depend entirely on his mood. If he was in a good mood, there would be a stream. If he was not, he would shut it off directly!

As Su Qing fiddled with the SC System, Inashiro's first three batters had all been retired. That was way too fast. Was Yamamori really that strong?

When he had checked with the SC System earlier, he had felt that Yamamori's ace-level velocity was not particularly fast. His spin rate was barely over 2,000 rpm, and the Trajectory Synchronization of his Slider was far from that of his Fastball. Could they really be fooled by that?

It seemed Inashiro's batting still had a long way to go.

After sighing over it, Su Qing grabbed his glove and ran onto the field. Before setting off, he did not forget to replace his chewing gum with a fresh piece.