Chapter 17

Short Summary
Saikawa quadruples the one outs contract as punishment for Tokuchi getting himself kicked out the game. Yoshida gets two outs, then tells Saikawa he's retiring to try his luck pitching in the US baseball league.

Long Summary
Saikawa calls Tokuchi to tell him he’s paying a penalty for getting himself ejected from the game. If Yoshida gives up a run, Tokuchi now has to pay 200 million yen. Tokuchi agrees that quadrupling the One Outs contract sounds fair. The owner is secretly pleased as he’s certain Yoshida will give up several runs.

Yoshida pitches, and the count gets to 3-0 against him. Oikawa points out to the owner that if Tokuchi ends up hundreds of millions in debt, he probably won’t be able to pay most of it. Saikawa says he doesn’t care, he simply wants to ‘smash that bastard into bits.’

Yoshida throws, and it just barely ends up being a being a foul by the batter. Filled with doubt, Yoshida hesitates at his next pitch. From the stands, Tokuchi calls outs to him and says he shouldn’t worry about ‘petty stuff like winning or losing,’ and should just pitch for himself.

Regaining his confidence, Yoshida pitches a ball that splits the batter’s bat in two. The catcher throws the ball to first, getting the final out needed to finish the game. The Lycaons have their first win of the season.

After the game, Saikawa reprimands Yoshida for disobeying his orders. Yoshida tells him he’s going to try restarting his career in the minor leagues in the US, in the hopes he can come back to Japan one day a stronger pitcher. Saikawa tells him this is an unrealistic dream, but Yoshida repeats Tokuchi’s words from earlier, saying a low probability doesn’t equal zero.

He leaves and Tokuchi laughs at Saikawa for things not going his way. Saikawa wonders when Tokuchi got into his office. Tokuchi hands him a bill for 150 million yen. The owner says this is too high, but Tokuchi points out they had a deal to quadruple the One Outs contract, and he gets 40 million for Yoshida’s two outs. Tokuchi’s sum total winnings are 420 million yen.