Baseball: A Two-Way Player

Chapter 697 32: Earth Defense War (Part 2)

This evening's high-profile showdown will also be the first direct confrontation between Lin Guanglai and Corey Kluber, the hottest American League Cy Young contenders—prior to this match, due to Kluber's injury and rotation reasons, the two have not faced off directly.

If Kluber continues his outstanding performance and the Indians' lineup can severely dampen Lin Guanglai's momentum, then Kluber will achieve a sweep against all competitors and may complete a comeback reversal later on.

Similarly, if Lin Guanglai can end the Indians' historic winning streak by securing his 20th victory, that epic win will be a crucial asset in his quest for various awards.

For Lin Guanglai, who is determined to create Asian baseball history, this is destined to be a tough game. From the pre-match odds to the direction of media opinion, the New York Yankees are not regarded as the favored side:

Even the New York Times, a local media outlet, expressed despair over the outcome of this series—they even termed it the "Earth Defense War" in describing the series.

In the mouths of these media personalities, the Cleveland Indians are practically a super-spec "cosmic team," and as "Earthlings," all the Yankees can do is muster up all their efforts and resist.

Unlike the despairing New York media, Lin Guanglai himself remains quite optimistic about the game.

Of course, he knows that the Indians are very strong, their lineup performing extraordinarily, and even their substitutes can explode with great form;

But similarly, Lin Guanglai has always held on to this principle: In the world, there's no pitcher who never allows a run, no batter who hits clean at every plate appearance, and no team that wins continuously without fail—since the Indians will lose eventually, why can't he be the one to end their winning streak?

At seven PM Eastern time in the United States, the match between the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Indians kicked off as scheduled at Yankee Stadium. This spotlight match was set for the weekend night and broadcasted nationwide by ESPN and Fox Sports.

Besides the fans of both teams, there were quite a few neutral spectators watching with various motives, turning on their TVs; while at Yankee Stadium, all 51,000 seats had already been sold out.

After Lin Guanglai completed his final warm-up pitches, the umpire waved his hand, announcing the official start of the game.

Even facing Lin Guanglai, one of the top aces in the American League today, the Cleveland Indians' head coach Terry Francona adhered to the strategy of staying unchanged, making no adjustments to the batting order—the Indians sent Francisco Lindor as their lead-off batter, one of their team's star players.

Despite his stature not being as imposing as his teammate Ramirez, based on his excellent wrist strength, Lindor is a mid-long-range hitter capable of frequenting doubles and home runs; additionally, Lindor is a rare switch hitter who maintains balanced stable performance against left and right-handed pitchers.

Nicknamed "Mr. Smile," despite being only 24, Lindor already stands as a recognized candidate for the "best shortstop" across the Major League, especially this season, as he hits the prime of his career and has already blasted 30 home runs, with his form considered superb.

However, hailing from Puerto Rico, Lindor also carries the free-spirited nature typical of South American players, notably shown in his free style of batting: his chase rate for bad balls, strikeout numbers and plate discipline rank ahead among hitters of the same level, with a noticeable shortfall in choosing pitches, largely relying on talent and intuition.

Even though Lindor's recent batting state can be described as scorching hot, quite unfortunately, this type of batter with poor plate discipline happens to be the type that Lin Guanglai can completely restrain and suppress:

To tackle this type of batter, the main battlefield actually lies at the edge of the strike zone, as the biggest issue with these batters is their instability in differentiating between "the edge of the strike zone" and "a ball outside the strike zone," and thus they make rash swings; as long as one can leverage their impatience, guesswork, and obsession with the sweet spot, these batters become targets that pitchers can systematically resolve.

For the first throw, it's still Lin Guanglai's signature 100-mile fastball, except this time, the baseball didn't head towards the inside corner of the batter as usual, but flew toward the lower edge of the strike zone—on this pitch, Lin Guanglai sacrificed a bit of speed and precisely controlled the ball to roughly a ball's distance from the lower edge.

In a game against a strong hexagon batter like Trout, naturally such a pitch would have little effect, equating to a free strike; but if the opponent is a mid-long-range hitter like Lindor who has average pitch selection ability, they tend to self-defeat.

As anticipated by Lin Guanglai, facing this pitch seemingly ambiguous, and even potentially a bad ball, one that most batters might choose to pass on, Lindor in the batter's box still chose to swing his bat—undoubtedly, he naturally hit nothing, gifting Lin Guanglai a free strike count.

The subsequent second pitch, Lin Guanglai continued the same tactic, but this time the target location changed to above the strike zone, still at a ball's distance.

Experiencing the same scenario twice, theoretically batters at the Major League Level should be somewhat wary; yet, facing an almost identical situation, Lindor again chose to swing in response to the incoming ball direction, only to swallow another strike.

Maintaining freedom and spontaneity on the field—it's one of the critical elements that make Lindor a highly popular star, but equally a constraint limiting his further ascent.

With a zero ball and two strikes absolute advantage, standing as one of the top MLB pitchers today, Lin Guanglai wouldn't miss such a chance, paving slightly a ball's space, he seized the first strikeout of today's game from Francisco Lindor.

The second batter for the Indians was originally their main center-fielder Michael Brantley, also currently representing the skills-based batting faction in the Major League, but due to injury has been out for some time;

Replacing Brantley today was his substitute Austin Jackson; though Jackson contributes around 10 home runs per season, his capability and Brantley are incomparable—Lin Guanglai still effortlessly handled him without much trouble.

"Dear viewers in front of the television, if you missed the first two at-bats of this game due to some reasons, please keep your eyes wide open for the upcoming at-bat showdown—today's strongest pitcher Lin Guanglai will be facing off directly against the world's best batter in the past month, Jose Ramirez; will it be Lin Guanglai on the mound with the upper hand, striking out Ramirez to conclude this half-inning; or will Ramirez blast one off Lin Guanglai, continuing the Indians' unbeaten streak?"

As Jose Ramirez headed toward the batter's box, the commentator began heating up the upcoming duel:

The Cleveland Indians managed to create a 22-game winning streak even without three key players, largely due to Ramirez's personal explosion; and now, with the best batter in top form meeting the strongest pitcher—such a confrontation is enough to captivate everyone's attention.