Baseball: A Two-Way Player

Chapter 721 43: Salute of Cannons

On the way to the pitcher's mound, Sabathia's gaze kept scanning the stands, among them were even some faces he recognized, though they'd grown considerably older over the years.

For the Yankees, today's Progress Field was undoubtedly a devilish home field akin to a lair; but for Sabathia, it was also his other home.

Here, he grew from a boy to a man, from an invaluable young player to a Cy Young-caliber pitcher, the Cleveland pitcher's mound carrying the marks of his youth and his journey.

This was his first return to Progress Field for a playoff game since 2008, and this game would decide the fate of the two teams; considering his contract with the Yankees would expire at the end of the season, this game might even be his last wearing Yankees pinstripes.

Although his velocity had decreased over the years and due to knee injuries, nowadays Sabathia had shaken off past control instability, and his experience was undoubtedly a valuable asset.

Bottom of the inning, facing Indians hitters eager to immediately answer back and even the score, Sabathia displayed his veteran skills: the entire inning, he relied solely on fastballs just over 90 miles per hour and breaking balls around 80 miles, striking out Francisco Lindor and Jason Kipnis consecutively; and Ramirez was baited with an inside pitch, hitting a ground ball to third base that was sealed off by Frazier with Golden Glove-level defense.

Three up, three down! Judging purely on this inning's performance, Sabathia in some aspects suppressed Corey Kluber, who was in the prime of his career, demonstrating remarkable form.

"Impressive, CC, are you in great form today? Surely, you used to be a Cy Young winner! Kluber isn't performing as well as you, right?"

As soon as Sabathia returned to the player area, he heard Lin Guanglai's compliment, inevitably feeling a bit proud; but on the surface, he maintained his cool demeanor as a former Cy Young: "It is what it is—I've got to say, if I were a few years younger, not to say Indians, even your number one spot wouldn't have been spared... You guys better perform well at bat and rack up a few runs before I'm off the mound, strive to get me a win!"

"No worries," Lin Guanglai reached out to give Sabathia a high-five, assuredly saying, "I'll strive to make Kluber retreat before you do, what do you think?"

"If you can really pull that off, I'll treat you to a meal at Per Se, as you say, order anything, open any wine, spend as much as you want."

The restaurant Sabathia mentioned is one of the most expensive high-end restaurants in all of New York, located right next to Central Park. In this Michelin three-star restaurant that has held the rank for over ten consecutive years, a simple set menu costs at least a thousand US dollars.

Hearing the opponent raising the stakes like this, Lin Guanglai raised an eyebrow nonchalantly; though he didn't say anything more, he'd already decided in his heart: this meal, he was set on it!

In the second inning, although neither side managed to score on the scoreboard, judging from the actual scene, the Yankees unquestionably held the upper hand.

Sabathia was indeed in exceptionally good form today, sending out another three up, three down in the second half, controlling the pitch count well, using only 27 pitches in two innings;

While Kluber's situation wasn't optimistic: just like the first inning, Kluber issued a walk with two outs on the board, then his catcher Perez committed interference and allowed another walk, if not for the highlight-worthy defense from the double-play combination of Lindor and Ramirez, Yankees might have extended their score.

As the third inning commenced, the Yankees lineup cycled back to the top, starting their attack again with leadoff hitter Brett Gardner: after going back and forth with Kluber for four pitches, Gardner seized one of the rare opportunities and swept a 94-mile inside fastball towards left field, securing first base.

"It seems Kluber isn't performing well against left-handed hitters today, and there's quite an error in controlling inside pitches... this might be good news for me."

In the on-deck circle, Lin Guanglai warmed up while gathering information, watching Kluber who had barely pitched two innings but was nearing a 50-pitch count, some thoughts formed in his mind.

It's somewhat unfortunate that as a main regular-season power output for the Yankees, Judge's form still hasn't improved much:

Like the first inning, after patiently bringing the pitch count to 2 balls and 2 strikes, he sighed out at an outside breaking ball, swallowing his 14th strikeout of the series.

At least in targeting Judge at this point, Indians honestly taught the rest of the postseason teams a lesson: they precisely captured Judge's technical deficiencies and psychological impatience from consecutive battles, turning the Yankees' top hitter into a silent cannon.

"Next up is Lin, should we just intentionally walk him?" Next to Frankner, Indians pitching coach Mickey Callaway suggested his idea.