Seidou’s on top in the bottom of the eighth, but Ugumori has one more chance to beat em and Sawamura’s going to take the mound.
What They Say:
“This Guy’s Pretty Good”
Bottom of the eighth, it’s two outs with a runner on third, and Umemiya face off against Miyuki. Miyuki hits long but stops just short of the fence, and the game goes into the final inning. For the final inning, Coach Kataoka gives the mound to Sawamura for his strong spirit.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
It’s the bottom of the eighth and Kuramochi is on third with two outs following a sacrifice grounder from Haruichi. The captain and cleanup Miyuki is up to bat for Seidou and it is perhaps the perfect situation for Seidou to score some cushion runs before a key ninth inning.
Baseball is kind of a weird sport where stats rule everything. Billy Beane and Paul DePodesta brought about the big changes starting with the “moneyball” team, the 2002 Oakland Athletics. Miyuki’s batting average (BA) with runners in scoring position (RISP) is ridiculous, at least from the information we’re given in the show. Probably well over .400 and maybe even over .500, which is absurd. There’s no sabermetrics in Japanese high school baseball. At most, these kids have been playing for three years at the high school level and that’s simply not enough time to gather information. There are little to no trends because a guy can have one or two good years and then slump in the third. That’s why, even though Miyuki is great at batting, his BA with RISP should be taken with a grain of salt.
The show starts to speed up, likely wanting to focus on the…ace of the diamond…Miyuki flies out to the deep outfield, keeping the game within one run. This is bad for Seidou. Ugumori has the momentum now and Seidou has stagnated in the last few innings, especially with the comeback from Ugumori. The audience, not really holding allegiance, want to see the upset over the favored Seidou team. It’s perhaps the hardest situation Seidou has been in since Sawamura beaned the Inashiro batter.
If anyone can get past this, it’s Sawamura. The coach knows he can sometimes be the voice of the team and bring up a mood that is otherwise down. Sawamura also knows how to pitch. With the inside at least back, if not consistent, it’s a whole new game and one that Seidou can definitely win.
The problem is both the crowd and the ump (not intentionally) are against them. A called ball low and outside would have been a strike in a better “mood” for Seidou and Sawamura struggles after that. He throws a ball to the ground, a foul, and then allows a baserunner on what could have been a tough, but doable, defensive play on the part of the pitcher. Kuramochi is just a half second too short to get the ball to first, even while bare palming the ball.
This is the key matchup with the tying run on first and the winning run up to bat. And the winning run, Umemiya, hit a home run in the first inning for Ugumori’s first runs. To win here, they’re going to have to walk Umemiya intentionally (this is not suggested at all) or throw to the inside. After a ball to the inside, Umemiya swings hard at an outside pitch and gets a foul to deep right field. If he gets a good part of any of these pitches, it’s likely going out of the park for the winning run. The count isn’t made clear, but I think it’s 2-2, which is good for Sawamura and Miyuki. Sawamura throws a ball far outside the strike zone, which throws away the chance of a ball slightly outside of the strike zone to try and get the out. Another ball now will bring the winning run on base and that’s the pressure the pitcher should always feel. It’s mounted on top of the bean ball against Inashiro’s Shirakawa Katsuyuki.
With a batter this good, I suppose there would only be one option. For one, Sawamura’s best pitches are the inside ones, and his objectively best pitch is the cutter. They have to be aggressive in this situation, but if it works, damn it’ll work well.
By the way, this wouldn’t fly in Major League Baseball. The pitcher has 12 seconds to throw the ball to start his windup after receiving the ball from the catcher. I think the exchange to settle on the cutter lasted like five minutes.
In Summary:
This is basically the exact situation Sawamura was in against Inashiro, except Umemiya is likely a far better batter than Shirakawa. The pressure, however, is still there. And this is the situations where pitchers are made or get destroyed. This is where Sawamura can prove he’s an ace or will forever be relegated to set up man. This is do or die, and Sawamura wants to do.
Grade: A-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Equipment: PS3, LG 47LB5800 47” 1080p LED TV, LG NB3530A Sound Bar