"This is practically Strikeout Manufacturing Machine!"
Miyuki, who was thinking this in his heart, certainly wouldn't say it so directly.
"What a pity it was a bad ball!"
Miyuki's words were undoubtedly an attempt to conceal the embarrassment of missing the call.
"But you didn't receive it!"
"Ugh!" A heavy hammer blow came right in front of me!
"It's rare to have such a good Changeup, but it's useless in actual combat!"
"That's no excuse for missing a catch, you genius catcher!"
Miyuki really wanted to scratch his head at that moment, but he couldn't show his frantic side in front of this guy.
"If it's a real fight, the fighter can just give up!" Miyuki pretended not to hear and continued, trying to create the impression that the two were not on the same wavelength, and then try to sway the guy in front of him.
"As long as the straight shot is fast enough, the hitter won't have time to judge the Ball Trajectory!"
That was enough; it definitely caused the batter to miss. Besides, I wasn't planning on any real game, and I didn't want to play in a match. This was just an experiment to satisfy my curiosity!
Besides, no matter what, it's a fact that you missed the call!
"This is the catcher's responsibility! Don't shirk it!" Sendou seized on Miyuki's mistake and began to attack him relentlessly.
"I definitely won't miss it next time!"
"My curiosity has been satisfied, I'm not betting on this anymore!" Sendou said willfully.
"Crack!" Miyuki almost strained his back.
"That's too ruthless!" Miyuki realized that this was meant to condemn him to the pillar of shame!
"Shoot one more ball! Give me a chance to start over!... Huh?" Miyuki blurted out in his excitement.
"So you weren't even human before!"
That makes sense!
"What did you figure out?!"
"I'm very interested in a certain type of ball!"
"What?" Miyuki was successfully led astray.
" Changeup!"
" Changeup? Can you even throw that?" By this time, Miyuki had completely forgotten about missing the catch. He was truly shameless and fearless.
"Won't!
During yesterday's game, I saw that Tsundere Prince's hand gesture in the final at-bat, and I wanted to try it out!
"I see the hand shape...!" Every time Miyuki hears this, he questions his existence.
How could he be the only one questioning the meaning of life?
The resentment outside the door was already reaching the heavens...
"I remember it being like this... like this! OK!"
Let's see, those Black-bellied Glasses!
"If you're ready, then let's go!" Miyuki had gotten used to completely following Sendou's lead when talking to him.
"Inhale... um..." Sendou was preparing...
He lifted his leg.
"Puff!"
Step forward, swing your arms!
"Snap!" However, this was not the sound of something entering the glove.
"...!" Miyuki's expression turned a little cute.
"Hahahaha!" Then he clutched his stomach and laughed wildly.
Just like Sawamura in his previous life, the ball landed directly not far from Sendou in the game.
It was as if it had been smashed directly onto the ground.
"My stomach hurts so much!" Miyuki clutched his stomach and rolled around on the ground several times in an exaggerated manner.
"Pfft, pfft, pfft!" There were some noises outside the door, and several people in the group were smiling, including Rei-chan.
However, it was only because Miyuki's laughter covered it up that no one heard it.
Sendou looked at his hands, somewhat puzzled. He had swung his arm fully, without deliberately adding force; it was just a natural swing like a straight ball. He felt it shouldn't be like that.
Then I was particularly annoyed by Miyuki's exaggerated laughter.
"What are you laughing at, you bastard!" Sendou said with a smile, his hand gripping Miyuki's neck.
"Ugh! Your expression is terrifying!" Miyuki struggled frantically, but with his strong shoulders, he was not in a position to exert force, and facing Sendou, whose shoulders were even stronger, it was like being tickled.
Sendou, who was "strongman locking up the man," remained completely unmoved.
Just then, he suddenly noticed the back of his hand.
"I see! My fingers are too long... oh well?" Sendou muttered, looking at his hands.
The power of "Strong Man Locking Man" has also weakened a lot. When Miyuki heard Sendou's mutterings, he wanted to reverse "Strong Man Locking Man" and strangle him to death!
Those long, slender fingers and those large hands are simply a gift from heaven, aren't they?
At this point, Miyuki could understand why Sendou's Fast Forkball had such an exaggerated drop in amplitude and speed compared to Furuya's, and why he could control the fastball so well—it was all thanks to those long, slender fingers.
However, he had no strength left to resist, so the matter of strangling Sendou could only take place in a dream! After all, anything could happen in a dream.
After understanding, Sendou fell into deep thought again. After all, if he were to throw another ball as embarrassing as that, even he would be unable to suppress his shame.
"Hey! Can you let go of me! I feel like I'm going to die!"
At that moment, Miyuki's voice came from below.
It turned out that while Sendou was deep in thought, his muscles began to contract without his knowledge, almost strangling Miyuki to death.
"Oh! Sorry!" Sendou quickly let go of his arm.
"Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!... Um! You can't be so careless, I almost died, you know that?" Miyuki protested, panting heavily.
"That's true! Sorry!"
If I strangled you to death, I would be very troubled!
"Right!..." Miyuki was about to say, "Who will hang out with you without me?", he heard Sendou continue.
"I almost had no one to do experiments with."
Upon hearing this, Miyuki's eyebrows twitched. Although he knew he was joking, it was still infuriating.
"Hello!"
"Then let's continue!" Miyuki was about to say something when Sendou interrupted him.
"Have you thought of a solution?" Miyuki immediately forgot about the previous unpleasantness.
In a sense, Miyuki is also a baseball idiot, except that he is obsessed with pitching, catching, and freedom.
"It's not really a solution! It's just a lazy way to do things."
"Alright! Stop beating around the bush and just tell me the result!" Miyuki knew exactly how smart this guy in front of him was, so his attitude was completely different from Double Pitcher.
"Since my fingers are so long that when I throw the ball, I can slam it to the ground like a block, then the upper part of these two fingers should not touch the ball, right?"
That solves the problem, but it's really just a cheating method and has absolutely no practical value!
Never mind! It's just an experiment! I'm coming!
"I see!" After hearing Sendou's explanation, Miyuki understood what was going on, and then put his gloves away.
"Smack!"
This time, the ball landed perfectly in the glove, right in the center.
"I knew it would happen!"
But this can be considered a success for the experiment!
"Success my ass! This is right in the center!"
Just like with a toss and catch, it has absolutely no power, and the Ball Trajectory is incredibly easy to hit!
"But you can't tell it's Slow Ball at all from the swing, can you?" Sendou retorted.
"Uh!" Miyuki found himself speechless again.
Strictly speaking, Miyuki deliberately pointed out the weaknesses of this shot while omitting all the advantages. First of all, as Sendou said, the arm swing did not resemble that of Slow Ball at all, but was exactly the same as that of Fastball.
Secondly, this ball is really slow; Miyuki estimates it to be around 100 to 110 kilometers per hour.
The numbers look ordinary, but the straight ball it's paired with has an average speed of over 150 kilometers per hour!
For a high school level hitter, 150 kilometers per hour means they have to swing earlier.
To illustrate, in the original work, Narumiya Mei's speed limit for advertising in Koshien was 147 kilometers per hour.
In the anime, before Captain Tetsu's beautiful hit in the Eighth Inning, Isashiki chose the batting box with Four Balls. He saw the Slider and stopped swinging at the ball that was clearly about to be hit, but stopped just before it was halfway through the pitch.
Moreover, Narumiya Mei's average speed at the time was definitely not 145 kilometers per hour, and even so, the time that Isashiki to watch the game was still so scarce.
It's fair to say that he had to swing the bat the moment the opponent dropped the ball. Fortunately, Narumiya Mei's fastball wasn't that fast, giving him some time to barely distinguish the type of ball.
When faced with Captain Tetsu Narumiya Mei's all-out fastball, even the best possible Ball Trajectory, Tetsuya swung too late and hit a bad ball.
This also proves the point, namely that high school batters, and such a near-full-speed pitch is not something that pitchers can control and throw at will. Against the Captain Tetsu, most of their fastballs barely exceed 140, and even so, the batters have almost no time to observe the Ball Trajectory.
So what about Hongo, a second-year Hongo? With an average speed of 150 kilometers per hour, a high school batter has to start swinging before the pitcher even releases the ball, which means they have no chance against Hongo's Changeup.
Unless the batter is certain that the opponent will throw Changeup, the batter must swing in advance according to the timing of the fastball.
This also led to Furuya, a second-year high school student, being able to completely shut down the Giants' batting order with just his fastballs without ball control and his Forkball that fell into the Strike Zone once he got into form.
The hitter only has time to Ball Trajectory, such as whether it's the outside or inside corner; there's simply no time for anything else. That's the effect of Fastball.
Hongo's overall strength, relying solely on his fastballs and Forkball with an average speed of 145 to 150 km/h in the Four-Quadrant, is comparable to, and even surpasses, Narumiya Mei in some respects, because the number of pitches he can throw with Changeup is limited, and the fastball is his lifeline.
Therefore, the faster the fastball, the more difficult the Changeup, the more of a nightmare it is for the batter.
This concept also applies to the Major League, but it leaves even the top Major League with no time to judge the pitch type. They can only look at the trajectory of the Ball Trajectory and then gamble by guessing the pitch before the pitcher throws it, requiring a speed of 160 or higher.
If the pitch is less than 160, it will give these top hitters about 0.1 seconds to identify the type of ball. So unless it is a magic ball-level Changeup, it is easy to be hit. Even if it is a magic ball-level Changeup, without the assistance of a top-level Fastball, it will not last more than a few rounds.
Otherwise, these top hitters, who earn an average of $50,000 per swing, wouldn't be so valuable.
In modern times, the Fastball isn't like it used to be, where you could simply and brutally defeat any batter with a straight-up fastball. (This refers to the era in anime Major League Baseball where professional baseball players could just rely on brute force with a fastball.)
However, this does not mean that the Fastball's dominance has been shaken. In top-level matches, even a top Fastball without control, plus a few rough ones, as long as they can get into the Strike Zone zone with a Changeup, the top batters can only rely on their guessing skills to defeat the opposing pitcher. However, these batters are not bad at guessing pitches.
This is why Shohei Ohtani is so sought after.
So Sendou's Changeup, or rather, Changeup, is something that can be easily hit as Home Run on its own.
That is, assuming there isn't Fastball that travels at speeds of 150 kilometers per hour or more.
With a ball speed difference of over forty kilometers, unless you're lucky enough to guess the ball correctly, even an easy shot becomes a "magic shot."
Sendou has a deep understanding of psychology, especially micro-expressions and micro-movements. If a batter aims at a certain Ball Trajectory, it will be detected. Therefore, this problem is unsolvable.
"However, I feel that the problem of this ball being easy to hit is not unsolvable!"
Using your thumb and ring finger to control the ball!...
It feels so difficult!
"Then let's practice!"
"Forget it! It's too much trouble! And it's not something I can master in a short time. I'm not a pitcher, I'm just a fielder!"
I'll just have some fun today...
"Uh!" It was only then that Miyuki realized that the guy in front of him really just wanted to satisfy his curiosity, rather than suddenly having figured it out.
" Tetsu! What are you doing?" Just as Sendou was about to finish shooting the remaining balls and go back, they were unaware that something had changed outside the door.
While Jun-san was momentarily stunned, Tian Ran Zhe walked in.
" Tetsu-san?" Miyuki was a little confused when he saw Captain Tetsu come in. There shouldn't be anyone here at this time!
Sendou jolted and instinctively turned around.
His head was buzzing, because the Gossip Tetsu's mouth was never one to hold back!
Because Gossip Tetsu betrayed Kuramochi the night before last. (He said it in front of Sawamura: Kuramochi was very interested in Wakaba!)
"Why are you here? How long have you been here?" Sendou asked cautiously.
I felt like I had been caught off guard and my boat had capsized.
"We saw you two coming over wearing gloves, so we came to check it out!" Gossip Tetsu answered without hesitation.
"So it was the beginning... wait!... them? Who else is there?" Sendou suddenly realized something incredible.
The Gossip Tetsu lived up to his definition of Sendou, betraying his teammates with his very first sentence.
When Captain Tetsu spoke, a group of people outside the door started to panic. Then, the seniors unanimously gave each other a look, signaling Isashiki go out and shut Captain Tetsu up, hoping to dispel Sendou's doubts as well.
Before Sendou could finish speaking, Isashiki walked inside with a helpless expression.
"It's just the two of us!" Jun-san said.
" Jun-san? What are you doing here?" Miyuki also sensed that something was wrong!
"Could this be a trap set by this guy?"
No, that's not right!
"Captain Tetsu wouldn't lie, so it really was just a coincidence?" Sendou looked at Miyuki, pondering to himself.