Summary
The chapter opens at the top of the 4th inning with Kawakami delivering a swinging strike-out to the 2nd batter. He also outted the 9th batter, Okuyoshi, with a fly to the second, and the 1st batter was struck out with consecutive sinkers. Sawamura, seeing that the inning has ended safely, calls out to Yui to accompany him for his cooldown.
On the sidelines, the reporter guy compliments Kawakami’s play as he managed to stop the momentum of the game that was on Yurakou’s side with the usual agreessive leads from Miyuki. As Miyuki gets ready for his at-bat, he adopts a very serious look. The reporter guy continues that it still remains to be seen how this match will pan out since it looked like the Seidou bench was forced to make this pitcher change.
Bottom of the 4th inning. Sakaki tells Higashiyama, the pitcher, to avoid pitching his sliders in the zone this time, hoping to throw off the batters. As he pitches to Miyuki, he notes that Miyuki certainly exudes a particular aura. His first pitch is a ball which Miyuki did not react to at all. Sakaki notes to himself that this isn’t a good development at all. The catcher then indicates to Higashiyama to avoid an easy pitch but aim for a tight corner.
As he gets ready for his second pitch, Higashiyama notes to himself that he never would have thought two years ago that he could be in this current position, able to face Seidou at the same level. Sakaki had made them read a lot of notes (presumably data on their opponents) and memorized them, as well as practiced the different plays in preparation for their matches.
However, Miyuki hits a home run off his pitch, surprising everyone in the audience.
Originally serialized in Shuukan Shounen Magazine Issue #10, 2019.
All images are copyrighted by Terajima Yuuji / Kodansha.
Scoreboard
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 計 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 由良 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |||||
| 青道 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
Thoughts
Miyuki looks seriously pissed off in this chapter, while chaneling Tetsu-san classic focused look during his at-bat. The author hasn’t expounded on Miyuki’s change of attitude so I would say this is Miyuki’s マジキレ mode, ala Mei. I have not seen Miyuki with such an expression before, not even when he hit the sayonara home run against Seiko during the fall tournament. I almost want to say that this exceeds all his previous focused at-bat moments in the entire series. I guess this is what the author means by「本気の青道」?
I totally loved the “in your face” moment right after Yurako’s pitcher, Higashiyama, thinks that they were fighting at par with Seidou. Thank you, Terajima-sensei, for affirming that Seidou is not a weak team to be swayed by the current developments. Or you could say that Seidou’s players exceeded Sakaki’s expectation of their skills and data?
Judging from all the journals that Sakaki has written, this may mean that Sawamura is experiencing his first match where every bit of his data has been collected by the opponent and used against him. That’s why he is struggling so hard with each inning because he has never been marked liked this before where his pitches are being predicted at every turn. Most of his past opponents have always overlooked his strengths, and assumed he is just a relief pitcher with a peculiar pitching form with a strong preference to inside pitches and a changeup for his winning shot. I guess you could say that this is a good lesson for him since all his future opponents would now have extensive data on all his habits and pitches by now.
But as pointed out by the author via the reporter guy, the change of pitchers was made quite early in the game and if I’m not mistaken, if Kawakami pitches to the end of the match, it might be the most innings he has pitched in an official tournament match before. While it is impossible for Seidou to lose this match, I must admit I remain curious as to how this match will pan out.