“Why is the outfielder pitching now? Wasn’t he a batter?” Jorge asked, his brow furrowed.
After seeing Ken bat earlier in the match, he had assumed that the guy was a batter and should have no business on the mound. In the United States, 2-way players were something that they almost never saw.
This was especially the case when one got to this level of competition.
Most coach’s recommended players to focus on one or the other, perfecting the skill that they were best at in order to not waste any time or effort.
In essence this made quite a lot of sense. If one were to place all their time and effort into one aspect of their game, they would progress at a far faster rate.
For some reason, Jorge had a bad feeling about this.
The whole Cuban dugout watched on as Ken threw some warm up pitches, uncertainty in their expressions. They knew about Satoshi since he’d been part of the U18 team before, but Ken was an unknown.
While it was true that Ken shined in Koshien just a month ago, it was obvious that the Cuban team had not done their research.
After completing his warm up throws, Ken sent a nod to the plate umpire, indicating his readiness.
“Batting 8th, Catcher, Guillermo.”
Guillermo approached the batters box and stared at Ken warily.
‘What kind of pitches does he throw?’ He thought inwardly, gripping his bat tightly.
Daichi squatted down behind the plate, unable to remove the smile from his face. After all this time, he and his brother were going to show what they could do as a battery, he was ecstatic.
‘Let’s put some fear into them first.’ He said in his heart, calling for a fastball.
Ken nodded, his expression donning his poker face. If he hadn’t activated it, there would be a giant grin plastered on his lips.
He raised his left leg and coiled his body before stepping forward. The dirt was kicked up as he heavily planted his foot and whipped the ball out of his fingertips.
PAH!
The sound of the ball hitting the leather glove echoed through the field, bringing with it an eerier silence afterward.
“S-Strike!”
The plate umpire almost forgot that he had to call the pitch, lagging behind a little after seeing the display in front of him.
Guillermo was frozen in place, unable to move from shock. His eyes slowly moved to the jumbo screen and saw the 3 digits staring back, as if taunting him.
“100mph!?”
“Where the hell did this guy come from?” The Cuban coach seemed to mirror everyone’s thoughts in that moment as he stared at Ken on the mound.
“Nice pitch!”
Daichi yelled out, sending the ball back to Ken. He knew that he’d achieved his goal after having Ken unleash his greatest asset, promptly scaring the crap out of the Cuban team.
‘Ah that felt good.’ Ken thought inwardly, receiving the ball back from Daichi.
He had been getting a little frustrated this game having to watch from the outfield as Kei struggled.
‘As I thought, pitching really is the best.’
Guillermo subconsciously moved his gaze to the Head Coach, as if to ask for directions. Yet seeing the shocked expression of his coach, it was clear that even he was unsure what to do.
‘I’ll just have to try to hit it…’ He thought.
WHOOOOOSH
PAH
“Strike.”
The two-seam fastball came flying towards him, breaking inside at the last moment and causing him to miss terribly. Yet even if the ball was straight as an arrow, Guillermo knew that he would have been lucky to hit it.
‘Swing early and hope for the best.’
He had no other strategy available to him in this moment. It was either that or just watch as the ball rocketed through the strike zone.
Ken wound up once more, sending the next ball flying from his fingertips.
WHOOOSH
Pah
‘Eh!?’
Guillermo swung far too early, almost falling over from the missed swing. He had expected a similar speed, yet the ball was at least 10mph slower.
“Curveball?”
“Strikeout!”
“Nice Ken!”
3 consecutive pitches was all it took to get his first strikeout of the World Cup, sending Guillermo back to the dugout filled with uncertainty.
The next two at-bats were over just as fast. No one could keep up with the pairing of Ken’s speed and Daichi’s accurate leads.
“3 outs, changeover!”
Just like that, the tide had changed for Japan as they ran off the field in high spirits. Although Ken had only cleaned up the latter end of Cuba’s batting line up, it provided a much larger impact than anyone had expected.
The Japanese players almost skipped off the field, ruffling Ken’s hair and nudging him on the way past.
“So the real Ace has finally stepped up huh?” Riku said with a grin.
“Nice pitching Ken.”
Hiroki was probably one of the happiest people on the team in that moment. He knew just how hard Ken worked, and to see him rewarded lifted his spirits.
This time, Ken let his true feelings appear on his face, smiling widely. It sure felt good to pitch with this team.
“Alright, now time to go get some runs.” He said, grabbing a bat and helmet.
Last time he was up to bat, he had started to get used to the sinking pitches, though the slider still eluded him. As long as he could watch the ball properly, he should have a good chance of hitting it.
As he walked onto the field, he could feel that the Cuban team looked at him a little differently. It was subtle, but definitely apparent.
“Batting 6th, Pitcher, Ken.”
For some reason, hearing himself announced as a pitcher felt a lot easier on the ears than outfielder.
As he stepped into the batters box, Ken focused on Antonio. His goal for this at-bat was to at least make contact with the ball, whether it resulted in him getting out was inconsequential.