Baseball: A Two-Way Player

Chapter 718 41: Fierce Battle in the Rain, Back to the Starting Point

The third pitch, as Lin Guanglai's forkball was thrown, the applause and cheers from the stands erupted: the outcome was naturally no suspense, Jason Kipnis was struck out - the infield point of this forkball was exceptionally accurate, and regardless of Kipnis's swing, he would have been struck out.

Following Kipnis was another core player of the Indians, Jose Ramirez. Similar to Lindor, Ramirez, who performed well in the regular season, struggled to adapt to the playoffs, with his batting average plummeting to just .154, managing only 2 hits in 15 plate appearances, and not hitting any home runs or RBIs, which is not the expected performance of a player of his caliber.

Against Ramirez, Lin Guanglai replicated the strategy he used against Lindor, leading to a 2-2 count, before enticing Ramirez to swing at an outside low fastball, resulting in a grounder to third, which was easily fielded by Frazier for the out at first base.

In the top half of the inning, Lin Guanglai's performance was seamless, eliminating the aggressive Indian batters one after another with just 13 pitches.

In the bottom half, it was the Yankees' turn to bat, with Indians' starter Trevor Bauer taking the mound, known for his stellar performance in the series opener where he shut out the Yankees' lineup. Although it had only been three days since his last start, the so-called "pitching textbook" showed no signs of being affected by the short rest period.

This season, Bauer faced the Yankees as a starter three times, boasting a 3-0 record. In 19.2 innings pitched, his ERA was a staggering 0.92, holding the Yankees' team batting average below .200 - Trevor Bauer, albeit the Indians' number three starter, is unequivocally a "Yankee killer".

Despite only having three days of rest, Bauer seemingly showed no fatigue against Brett Gardner, the Yankees' leadoff hitter, striking him out with a combination of fastballs and curveballs, securing the first strikeout of the game - particularly noteworthy was the final 94mph fastball to the outside corner, pinning Gardner with no room for countermeasures.

With hopeful looks from the home fans, Aaron Judge stepped into the right batter's box for his playoff debut: Judge's performance in this series had been dismal, failing to record even one hit and having struck out 8 times.

The reasons behind this included his lack of playoff experience, exacerbated by the Indians specifically targeting him:

In Judge's at-bats, even Cy Young caliber pitchers like Kluber seldom gave him good pitches to hit, often engaging him with pitch combinations to exploit any mistake; at times, the Indians would even opt to walk him rather than give him a chance to swing - not having hittable pitches is tough on batters, particularly for long hitters like Judge.

In this at-bat, Trevor Bauer employed similar tactics, pitching to the corners to force swings or fouls, and on a full count, struck out Judge with a 99mph high fastball.

"Watch out for his repertoire of fastballs and curveballs, he especially likes using that curveball this year." Upon returning to the dugout, Aaron Judge shared his insights from the previous at-bat with Lin Guanglai; after receiving a nod of understanding, he pointed to the field to signal his confidence in Lin Guanglai hitting a base hit.

In response, Lin Guanglai gestured towards right field: his intention was to not only aim for a base hit, but ideally launch one out off Bauer.

During the walk from the on-deck circle to the plate, Lin Guanglai pondered his strategy for the upcoming at-bat, incorporating intel provided by Aaron Judge:

As a starter, Bauer has roughly six main pitches, with the fastball comprising over 40% of his repertoire, but his most relied-upon breaking ball is the curveball, which is top-tier even in the Major League.

Generally, curveballs serve as a finishing pitch with 2 strikes on the batter; however, Bauer uncommonly likes to lead with it to seize the count - thus, Lin Guanglai formed a clear plan in mind.

This at-bat, his approach would be more aggressive: If Trevor Bauer likes his curveball so much, Lin Guanglai intended to show the consequences of using such a slow pitch against a Major League hitter!

Once both pitcher and batter were ready, the home plate umpire signaled Bauer to begin pitching. Bauer took a deep breath on the mound, then threw towards Lin Guanglai's inside corner.

Truthfully, the pitch was impressive, though the velocity was not high, it was precisely aimed at Lin Guanglai's inside, projected to end on the lower left corner of the strike zone, quite remarkable;

Yet Lin Guanglai's reaction was quicker: adept at hitting inside pitches, he wasn't about to let such a 78mph slow curveball pass by unnoticed.

With slight adjustment of his footwork and center of gravity, the explosive power accumulated in his body transferred fully to the bat, which caught the descending curveball squarely, lifting it towards Yankee Stadium's center field under enormous recoil.

Amid the deafening cheers of home fans, the descending baseball eventually landed beyond the centerfield bullpen with a "bang";

However, unlike yesterday's outburst of emotion after hitting a home run, Lin Guanglai simply waved his arm in celebration, then leisurely completed his run around the bases - in his view, this home run was merely the beginning, with much more to achieve on both offense and defense in this game.

Lin Guanglai's home run seemed to awaken the dormant Yankee batters, who followed his lead with continuous extra-base hits, delivering precise strikes against Trevor Bauer - even Aaron Judge, previously stymied by the Indians, finally registered his first hit of the series, a two-base hit with an RBI.

The exceptionally performing Trevor Bauer from the first game was forced off the mound after only 1.2 innings, and the relief pitchers brought in by Frankner struggled to handle the current intensity of the Yankees; by the time Lin Guanglai completed his seven innings of pitching, being replaced by Girardi, the score of the fourth series game reached 7-0.

Amidst this, besides the jubilant Yankees fans, the most elated were undeniably the Asian fans who silently supported Lin Guanglai all along:

"It's a blessing rain! With the series score standing at 1-2, in a dire situation, in the pouring rain, Lin Guanglai pitched a seven-inning one-hit shutout, contributing an outstanding offensive performance with four hits and three RBIs... assuming nothing goes awry, SoftBank's superstar may very well help the New York Yankees level the series!"

"Now, the pressure shifts to the Indians, who find themselves facing the same predicament as last year's World Series: holding 3 match points, a victory seems unattainable!"

"Which team will ultimately meet the Astros? Dear viewers, let us wait and see!"