Baseball: A Two-Way Player

Chapter 707 37: Song of Victory

"A fly ball to the right-field direction, extremely deep!" ESPN's studio at Yankee Stadium, Aaron Boone couldn't contain his inner excitement, shouting out in a loss of composure.

His gaze followed the baseball all the way until he confirmed with his own eyes that the ball indeed landed in the right-field stands before he exhaled deeply, then spoke excitedly:

"The New York Yankees' Lin, in his first playoff game at the Major League, hits a home run in his first at-bat. This is a three-run home run, and the Yankees have opened a bloody gap against the Minnesota Twins and Irvin Santana!"

After rounding the bases to complete the score for his team, Lin Guanglai jumped up excitedly to celebrate with Gardner and Judge; and when he returned to the dugout, his teammates surrounded him in mock reporter poses—this was the Yankees' new celebration move this year, simulating an "interview" every time a teammate hits a home run upon returning to the dugout.

While the Yankees players and home fans celebrated wildly, over on the third base side for the Minnesota Twins, their head coach Paul Molitor had already started calling the pitching coach to bring the relief pitchers to warm up.

Originally thinking their ace could at least withstand a round of the lineup, who would have thought he'd allow hits immediately and get hammered on the head by Lin Guanglai.

If this was just an accident, that would be fine, but judging from the contents of the previous at-bats, Irvin Santana still hasn't entered game mode, especially having major problems with control, making Molitor feel quite troubled—

Just as various professional media analyzed before the game, Santana's endurance ability is rather average, able to withstand only a round of lineup in such intense games;

Molitor's initial idea was to use the second starter Jose Berrios as long relief, but the Yankees clearly anticipated this and sent out 6 left-handed hitters in today's nine-man lineup—he can only hope Santana can hold on for a while longer to give the bullpen's relief pitchers more warm-up time.

Following Lin Guanglai in the lineup was Gary Sanchez, who hit 33 home runs and posted career-high numbers across the board this season, being the Yankees' third power point—however, this time, in a tangle with Irvin Santana for 4 balls, at a count of 1 ball, 2 strikes, Gary Sanchez hit a fly ball behind the back of the home plate that was caught before landing, unable to make it on base.

The sound in the Bronx slightly quieted down, but soon, the fifth batter Didi Gregorius made the stadium boil again:

As the Yankees' main shortstop, Didi's defense remained consistently stable, while his batting stats refreshed career highs: batting average .287, OPS .796, 25 home runs, 87 RBIs, it's not an exaggeration to say he's among the top few shortstops in the American League.

Stuck at full count against Irvin Santana, Didi Gregorius seized the opportunity and sent Santana's decisive fastball intended for inside corner up into the stands with a single swing, adding another run for the Yankees.

Yankee Stadium erupted, Yankee Stadium roared—the home fans on the stands exploded with ear-shattering sounds, raising their arms high while bouncing in place;

Didi himself, who hit the home run, was also visibly thrilled: due to an injury in the WBC, he had to miss a whole month of the new season's initial games, enduring substantial mental and physical pressure; but now, accompanied by this rainbow bullet flying high onto the stands, all the pressure dissolved away at this moment.

The camera focused on Santana's bewildered face, standing on the mound with a somewhat dazed expression, hands on hips not knowing what to do, then deeply lowered his head; in the visiting team dugout on the third base side, Paul Molitor's patience finally reached its limit, he dialed the phone connecting to the bullpen, signaling the next pitcher change.

The Minnesota Twins' ace, starting pitcher Irvin Santana, who won 16 games and made the All-Star this season, had only pitched 0.1 innings at the Bronx, this place being his nightmare ground, before being completely KO'd by the Yankees' batters, unable to recover.

As the Yankees team anticipated, even though Yankee Stadium was naturally left-biased, Berrios suffered from severe "leftophobia", the Twins still opted to replace with their second starter—there's no choice, for a financially constrained Twins, constructing a strong lineup necessarily comes at the cost of a weak pitching staff.

If it weren't absolutely necessary, Paul Molitor wouldn't dare to use Jose Berrios against conventional wisdom, but with their ace resolved in 0.1 innings, only he could take on this responsibility.

Just being swapped in, Berrios performed reasonably well, not causing trouble when facing the Yankees' latter lineup, cohesively partnering with the fielders to take three outs without any thrills, finally ending this nightmare half-inning:

Worthy of mention is Twins' center fielder Byron Buxton, this top rookie prospect from 2015, was the only super rookie to have all four abilities rated over 70 before Lin Guanglai entered North America;