Baseball: A Two-Way Player

Chapter 735

The most terrifying thing is that with aging and increasing injuries, many people thought Verlander had lost his former speed;

As a result, after fully recovering this season, 34-year-old Verlander's average speed soared back to 95.3 mph, a figure that was nearly 4 mph higher than his peak in his twenties;

And his average fastball speed during two-strike counts surged to 97 mph, achieving "reverse aging," a miracle indeed.

With a career of over 200 innings in 10 seasons, four-time AL strikeout king, achieving MVP, Cy Young Award, pitching Triple Crown in a single season, two no-hitters in his career... Verlander is undeniably a super pitcher in both real performance on the field and honorary achievements.

It is precisely because of trust in Verlander's strong and powerful pitching style that the Astros didn't intentionally walk Lin Guanglai right at the first bat like yesterday, but attempted to have him face Lin Guanglai directly.

Since hitting that grand slam from Corey Kluber, Lin Guanglai hasn't had the opportunity to face a pitcher directly for a long time, which must have affected his touch;

And if Verlander can suppress Lin Guanglai, with the outfield camera ready for signal stealing, the Astros can focus entirely on cracking Lin Guanglai's pitches.

As Justin Verlander finished his warm-up on the mound and Lin Guanglai stepped into the batter's box, the home-plate umpire pointed to the mound, signaling with a "Play Ball" to start pitching.

As the game began, Verlander was still probing the umpire's strike zone and adjusting to the game. His speed wasn't particularly fast initially; the first pitch was a high 94 mph four-seam fastball biased toward the outside corner, Lin Guanglai let it through to home plate, and the umpire gave no indication, making the count 0 balls and 1 strike.

The second pitch was still a four-seam fastball but aimed at Lin Guanglai's inside low corner; benefiting from Verlander's precise control, Lin Guanglai hesitated slightly but chose to let the ball go without swinging, also counted as a strike by the umpire — 1 ball, 1 strike.

Justin Verlander, within the Majors, has the highest usage rate of four-seam fastballs among pitchers who start over 200 innings, but Lin Guanglai's strategy this at-bat is to force him to use a breaking ball.

As a veteran with over 10 years in the Majors, Verlander naturally knows Lin Guanglai's thoughts, so he refused to play into Lin Guanglai's expectations and insisted on using fastballs for a head-on fight.

Thus, a standoff began between them: Starting with the third pitch, Lin Guanglai began his passionate tussle with Verlander, disrupting all four subsequent fastballs sent by Verlander to the stands, entangling him in this way.

Though the count disadvantage wasn't cleared, Lin Guanglai's proactive swinging already imposed considerable pressure on Verlander on the mound:

Though physically strong and excellent at grinding innings, Verlander is already 34 this year, contrasting Lin Guanglai who's only 22; if they keep dragging this out, his stamina might not hold past six innings.

The sooner this game enters a bullpen carousel, the more advantageous it is for the Yankees.

"We can't let this keep going, it's only the first inning..." While Verlander thought this, Brian McCann from the catcher's box signaled a 12-6 curveball — after using six straight fastballs and with a count of 2 strikes, it's a common choice to solve the batter with substantial speed differential and trajectory shift.

Once Verlander confirmed the upcoming pitch type, he shifted his body on the mound, closed his glove, and prepared to pitch; moments later, the baseball flew from his hand, entering the strike zone from above Lin Guanglai's region, then dropped sharply with an exaggerated vertical movement towards the strike zone low position.

"Just waiting for you!" Without hastily swinging, Lin Guanglai in the batter's box began his batting motion only after Verlander's 12-6 curve fully dropped, slightly bent, concentrating and compressing his body's power, then seized the pitch, swung his bat fiercely, sending the curveball towards central field.

"Boom—!!!" The baseball thrown by Verlander collided violently with Lin Guanglai's bat, a muffled explosion reverberating in the sky above Minute Maid Park!

Astros fans felt their nerves twitching wildly, their throats seemingly choked, unable to utter a sound; the initially noisy atmosphere turned significantly quieter;

The same reactions came from the Astros player zone:

Jose Altuve stared dumbfounded at Lin Guanglai's frantic base running, feeling a mix of emotions; Yuli Gurriel's face turned grim again, angrily pounding the lockers in the player area to vent;

And Carlos Beltran, Alex Cora, the originators of the cheating moves, even felt a bit of relief: Fortunately, they prepared measures against him, otherwise with just their strength, could they really defeat someone like this?

Honestly, Verlander's pitch did suppress Lin Guanglai, evidenced by the initial hit speed and flight distance; but that's the nature of the curveball: once its trajectory is read correctly and struck at the center, with the absolute power of Major League batters, there's a high probability enough to hit it out.

"Another home run! I can't even remember how many home runs Lin Guanglai hit in this postseason..." The commentators in the broadcast booth were at a loss for words, thoroughly stunned by Lin Guanglai's performance.

As this home run flew up the stands at Minute Maid Park leaving Texas fans speechless, in the livestream of the United States baseball community's biggest influencer, Jomboy, this fanatic Yankees fan with millions of followers nearly shot up from the sofa, clutching his head, disbelief etched on his face:

"I'll tell you, once this season ends, I'll definitely dedicate an episode to Lin — if you know his previous baseball journey, you'll surely express the same sentiments as I do..."

"This guy, he's just not human!"

In the top half of the inning, during the first at-bat of the whole game, thanks to Lin Guanglai's leading solo shot off Justin Verlander, the New York Yankees took a 1-0 lead once again at the away game.

The 1-run lead might seem small, but this had a perfect effect on boosting the Yankees' confidence and striking the Astros.

However, when the game reached the bottom half, the Astros' offensive round, the game took another turn —

"Bases loaded! Viewers, I can hardly believe my eyes!" The commentators who were cheering for Lin Guanglai's performance earlier were now similarly exclaiming at the Astros' play.

"Facing this season's prime Cy Young contender, Astros immediately hit back — with the cost of two outs, they filled the bases in the bottom half!"

"Mind you, it's the first time this season Lin Guanglai allowed more than 2 hits in the top half! What exactly happened here?"

Thanks to the home team's stellar play, Minute Maid Park resumed its noisy atmosphere, having been silent for a while; and in the storm's eye was the Yankees' gathered players and coaching staff.

"Lin, what happened? Your pitching state before the game was quite good, wasn't it?" Larry Rothschild first voiced his confusion: it's one thing for other young pitchers, but such things had never happened with Lin Guanglai.

Lin Guanglai's expression turned serious, shaking his head, saying: "I don't know why this happened, but I vaguely have this feeling..."

"It's like each time before pitching, the Astros' batters somehow knew what I would throw next..."

Following that thought further, Lin Guanglai considered a possibility:

"Could our pitching signals be stolen?"