novelraw Chapter 722 43: Salute of Cannons
Chapter 722 43: Salute of Cannons
The declaration of intentional walks is a brand new rule that MLB just implemented this season. As long as the head coach signals the chief umpire, the opposing batter can be directly walked to first base without having to intentionally throw four bad pitches as before—this idea is meant to speed up the game and concurrently avoid the risk of a batter hitting a base hit during an intentional walk.
However, at this moment, Frankner, who is typically decisive and resolute, found himself unusually caught in deep thought: from his perspective, he supports walking Lin Guanglai, considering that, given the opponent's outstanding condition, allowing him to bat again could potentially risk losing more runs;
But the problem is, the current pitcher is their ace, Kluber, who is at the peak of his career both physically and mentally, one of the finest pitchers in the entire Major League this season, and Frankner, as the coach, has to consider his perspective;
Moreover, even if they walk Lin Guanglai, they still have dangerous hitters behind him like Gary Sanchez with his remarkable power, and Didi Gregorius who performed quite well in the playoffs. If Lin Guanglai is walked to base and then the subsequent hitters hit a long shot, the Indians will suffer even greater losses, making it not worthwhile.
After pondering deeply for quite some time, only when Lin Guanglai had already stepped into the batter's box did Frankner shake his head and express his thoughts: "Let's watch one more at-bat—if he hits a base hit this time, then all remaining at-bats for today will declare intentional walks!"
Lin Guanglai had no idea about what was going on in the Indians' dugout; at this moment, his mind was solely focused on Kluber and the baseball in his hand.
Having learned a lesson from hitting a home run in the first at-bat, Kluber and Perez, this pitching and catching duo, finally chose not to continue pressing Lin Guanglai on the inner corner but shifted the battle to the outer corners.
For the first pitch of this at-bat, Perez called for a tough high fastball on the outside corner, aiming to seize the advantage in ball count: the requested position was nearly the upper right corner of the strike zone, the most challenging spot in the entire nine-box grid, where even a slight control deviation would be judged as a ball.
Yet Kluber lives up to his name, his wrist's exquisite control endows him with extraordinary ball control, at least from Perez's perspective as the catcher, this was a pitch almost describable as a perfect high fastball on the outside corner.
However, to the surprise of the Indians' pitcher and catcher, even facing such a challenging outside pitch, Lin Guanglai resolutely swung his bat, pulling it powerfully towards right field.
With a "thud," the baseball soared into the sky, heading directly towards the stands on the first base side; and Carlos Santana, responsible for guarding first base, was the first to dash towards where the baseball was falling, trying to catch it, until the baseball flew over the net and into the stands, he gave up.
"Hit a home run in the first inning and wants to leverage the hot touch to pursue another long shot...this kind of mindset might be a point to exploit..." Roberto Perez's face behind the catcher's mask showed a thoughtful expression, and a corresponding pitching strategy gradually took shape in his mind.
He placed the glove at the low outside position of the strike zone, asking Kluber for a low breaking ball on the outside corner—the primary purpose of this pitch is to lure the batter to swing, setting the stage for subsequent pitches. Securing a strike count is preferable, but not crucial.
Nodding slightly at his catcher, Kluber made a simple adjustment and started swiftly, seamlessly combining leg raising and arm swinging, swiftly sending the ball to the low outside corner.
Yet as the ball approached closer to him, and Lin Guanglai's decisively swinging bat appeared in front of him again, Roberto Perez's face did not show joy for a mission accomplished but rather a look of horror:
This pitch was indeed called for a low outside breaking ball, but Kluber's ball control had gone awry—the baseball was about one and a half ball positions off from where his glove was aiming, shifting towards Lin Guanglai's inner corner.
The error seemed minor, but against a wide-angle hitter who can cover all areas of the strike zone, it was enough to become a major mistake that influences the balance of the whole match!
When the "thud" sound resonated again in his ears, this time Perez didn't even remove his mask to observe the result: having rich game experience as a catcher, he knew all too well what this sound meant—a home run was a foregone conclusion.
Towards right field, Jay Bruce was still sprinting towards where the ball was falling, but while running, he just stopped in his tracks: there was no way, the ball flew too high, too fast, too far; Lin Guanglai's powerful pull gave the baseball immense kinetic energy, so much so that no matter how strong human strength was, it could not catch up.
If, when Lin Guanglai hit that solo shot in the top of the first inning, the sound in Progress Field could be described as "silent," then now, as the baseball flew into the outfield stands for the second time, adding 2 more runs for the Yankees who were playing away, this stadium accommodating nearly 40,000 people fell into utter silence—exaggeratedly speaking, at this moment, even a pin dropping could be heard clearly by the more than 37,000 fans present.