Baseball: A Two-Way Player

Chapter 728 44: We Only Lost to Lin

Lin Guanglai boarded the plane to Houston with the Yankees entourage, smiling as he looked at the contents on his phone screen: for some reason, heading to the Astros' home field this time, he couldn't shake a certain unease in his heart.

After more than three hours of flying, the plane carrying the Yankees coaching staff, accompanying personnel, and players landed at George Bush Intercontinental Airport; however, when they headed to the hotel to settle in, they found that the sabotage by Astros fans had already begun.

The first issue was the hotel's facilities: the rooms where Yankees players were staying had air conditioning that emitted a moldy smell when turned on, making the players very uncomfortable — coincidentally enough, the occupant of this room was Luis Severino, who was set to pitch in the first game of the series tomorrow.

And when evening came, as Yankees players, who had just endured a grueling battle yesterday and a long journey today, were about to go to bed to recharge for the next day's game, discordant noise erupted outside their hotel windows:

A large group of fans in Astros jerseys gathered outside the Yankees' hotel, not only making a racket late at night, singing and dancing, but even lighting fireworks — their simple reason for doing this was to interfere with the Yankees players' rest, preventing them from being in peak condition for the next day's game.

In response, Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman, who was in Houston with the team, exploded in anger and only managed to resolve the issue through negotiations with the hotel and leveraging his connections.

Although such sabotage is not explicitly prohibited, it is rarely seen in baseball, which highly values etiquette and culture: it's worth noting that during the regular season, the Yankees also visited Houston but were not treated this way.

"Looks like the Astros and their fans truly care about the outcome of this season…" Yankee hitting coach Alan Cockrell said thoughtfully as he stood at the glass window of a room, watching the crowd outside being dispersed by police.

"Screw the Astros, screw Houston!" Behind him, Joe Girardi's emotions were extremely agitated, almost tearing the data analysis report in his hand to shreds.

Now it was already late, and Cockrell was in Girardi's room for a simple reason: before the start of the seven-game four-win series with the Astros, they needed to solve the current issues with the team's lineup.

As the league's top homerun producer during the regular season, with other offensive stats ranked in the top three, offense is inherently the foundation of this Yankees team;

However, in the playoffs, their offensive efficiency has plummeted — the reason the series with the Indians was so thrilling largely stemmed from the lineup's low ability to seize opportunities in high-pressure situations.

And the most typical example of this is their lineup core, Aaron Judge: A regular season batting average of .280 with 52 homers, but in this series, the Judge fell into a slump, contributing little offensively and repeatedly becoming an easy target for opposing pitchers.

Lin Guanglai's excellent form at bat is both a blessing and a curse for the Yankees: it's great because they have a clutch slugger who excels under pressure; but the downside is, in this series with the Astros, as long as A.J. Hinch uses his brain, Lin Guanglai won't get a normal hitting opportunity.

Given the high likelihood of this happening, reactivating Aaron Judge is imperative for both the player and the team's situation!

"The top priority now is to relieve Aaron of pressure, we need to adjust his mindset from the last series, his abilities are fine, what's vital is whether he can regain his hitting feel — if he can recover even over half his form, it's good news for us."

Girardi didn't even expect his star Judge to return to his god-like regular season form; if he could simply revert to an OPS above .800, it would ease the team's strain significantly.

After all, compared to the Indians, the Astros' pitching lineup and bullpen aren't as strong, except for peak-form Dallas Keuchel and the experienced Justin Verlander, the rest of the pitchers aren't a threat.

The next morning arrived, and having gone to bed early, Lin Guanglai didn't watch the Nationals and Cubs game, just remembering both teams battled fiercely; as he prepared to check the result on his phone, harper's message was the first thing he saw:

[Sorry, Lin. Couldn't keep my promise — hope you defeat the Astros and win the World Series, let's meet again next season.]

Seeing this message, Lin Guanglai's heart already knew the result, but after seeing the detailed game data, he couldn't help but feel regret for the Washington Nationals:

As the core of the Nationals' lineup, Bryce Harper gave his all in Game 5, with 4 at-bats, 2 hits, 1 walk, 1 RBI, and multiple stellar defensive plays, he did his best within his ability; unfortunately, the Nationals' pitching pillar Gio Gonzalez couldn't withstand the pressure, lasting only 3 innings before being knocked out by the Cubs lineup.

The final score was 8:9, the Nationals lost by one run at home; thus, the matchup for the 2017 MLB league championship is fully revealed.

No time to regret for friends in the Washington Nationals, Lin Guanglai quickly got up from bed, began dressing and washing up: in a few hours, at the Astros' Minute Maid Park, he had a tough battle ahead.

After the morning's simple warm-up, the players followed tradition into the conference room for the final pre-game meeting; aside from the starting pitcher selection, Girardi announced his adjustments to the lineup order:

"Lin, for this series against the Astros, I want you to bat leadoff — you made a lot of headlines last series, you're sure to face more intentional walks, putting you first will give more plate appearances and, even if walked, contribute to the team."

Lin Guanglai nodded in acknowledgment: he had certain expectations for the treatment coming his way, he had no objections to Girardi's arrangement.

"As for Aaron…"

When Girardi mentioned his name, Aaron Judge instinctively closed his eyes in the crowd: he was aware of his poor performance at the plate lately; because of this, he had even prepared to be moved to the latter part of the lineup.

"Aaron, you will still be our number two hitter." However, when Aaron Judge truly heard the coach's arrangement, he was stunned in place.

"Dallas Keuchel is a very formidable left-handed pitcher, with Lin highly likely walked, we need your right-handed power — no pressure, Aaron, we all believe in your abilities."

Girardi's words received enthusiastic support from the surrounding Yankees players:

"Yeah, Aaron, you're our strongest batter, we're relying on you for this series!"

"Brother, go for it, we believe you have the ability."

"Judge, make the Astros defendants rot in jail!"

Feeling the strong trust from his coach and teammates, Aaron Judge was immensely moved: he swore in his heart that in this series, he would truly make a name for himself!