It’s time to show off what the varsity team can do so the coach brings in the Portables to play against them.
What They Say:
It’s the Portables vs. varsity! Ko takes the mound in the bottom of the first. He uses Aoba’s notes to his advantage and strikes out the first two batters, but later in the game, Azuma hits a home run off of him.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Senda’s show off nature is getting him lots of attention on the mound as he’s changing the sides quickly as the coach sets up to show off just how well the varsity team is doing. Since he wants to show off what’s going on, he’s using Senda instead of his ace pitcher since he wants to let the Portables actually get some hits so the team that’s being fielded can get some action and shine. That doesn’t work out too well since the first couple of them that are up barely get anywhere even with Senda’s fairly average pitching skills. When they switch out sides though, it allows for Ko and Akaishi to get up there and work as the team that they’ve been for awhile now. Ko’s pitching skills suddenly shine as the entire group has been overlooked by the coach.
As the game plays out, there’s a fair bit of strategy going on as Akaishi has gained a lot of data on the varsity team through the help Aoba as she spent a fair bit of time pitching against the varsity players. The first inning goes well for Ko and Akaishi as they work through the varsity players while getting a feel for what they can do. Akaishi’s working well as a pseudo-coach for the team as he’s come up with a good plan for playing both sides of the game. It’s even more impressive when you remember that the Portable’s have been largely ignored or used as fodder for the varsity team, so that they’ve done it all by natural skill and their own bootstraps is pretty impressive. Akaishi’s voice gives it an interesting relaxed feeling as well when he talks about what’s going on and deals with some of the changes to the plan when Ko just does what he wants.
As the game plays out, it’s fun to watch as the strategy changes and how Daimon reacts to what’s going on. There’s some definite concern about team data that’s leaked out somehow, not realizing that it’s just how Daimon has coached and pushed the Portables to learn everything they can while using the assets they have. Senda doesn’t do poorly exactly, but with his catching skills so off it doesn’t take much for him to become an embarrassment to Daimon and he kicks him off the varsity team entirely, causing him to land with the Portables now. The whole situation is one that in the end is really embarrassing for the varsity team as they’re getting further and further behind when they should be in the double digit territory going by their skill level and the perceived skill level of the Portable’s they’re playing against. What’s really interesting is to see how Akaishi starts to figure out what it is that Senda needs to be an even better pitcher and starts working it out in his head how to do it.
In Summary:
An episode that focuses entirely on the game itself is definitely a good thing since we’ve had smatterings of it in the first eight episodes. It’s also good to see the Portable’s starting to come together and how Akaishi is tweaking and working the team to the plan that he and Ko have to get themselves to Koshien during the window that they have open to them. The Portable team is slowly coming together while the varsity players are definitely under a lot of pressure. The most fun comes from watching the frustration just under the surface of Coach Daimon and his general disbelief over seeing his varsity team getting its butt handed to them with relative ease. There’s a good game being played here, but it’s one where it’s hard to say the Portable’s are sweating themselves over it.
Grade: B+
Originally Streamed By: Hulu
