Chapter 99

Short Summary
Tokuchi bats against the Fingers’ Nakabayshi and gets an RBI.

Long Summary
It’s Tokuchi’s turn to bat. If he strike outs here, he’ll lose a billion yen and be in the red. Nakabayashi throws and Tokuchi swings embarrassingly late, getting a strike, and the pitcher laughs. Tokuchi calls timeout to talk to the manager. He goes back to bat and Mihara signals to Ideguchi on first base to run on the next pitch.

Nakabayashi throws and Tokuchi misses for a second time, but Ideguchi catches the battery off-guard, successfully stealing second base. The defence remain unworried, convinced Tokuchi will be out with the next pitch. Imai wants him to hurry up and strike out so they can start the next inning, but it dawns on Kojima he might get a hit.

Tokuchi connects with the ball on the third pitch and it goes over the shortstop’s head. Ideguchi manages to get from second base to the home plate. Since he helped Ideguchi get home, this counts as an RBI, earning Tokuchi a billion yen off the Owner.

The Lycaons in the dugout are shocked, but Kojima explains that Tokuchi was waiting for that pitch. Since the Fingers’ relief pitchers were exhausted, Nakabayashi was to pitch the entire game. Seeing the terrible lineup, Nakabayashi planned on striking them out quickly to recover his stamina, which is why he got Kurai and Sugadaira out using minimal pitches. Tokuchi made sure Nakabayashi’s final pitch to him would be a fastball by luring him in with his terrible swings on the first two throws.

The Lycaons successfully tie the game. Tokuchi’s salary has gone back up to 1.166 billion yen.

Sugadaira tells Tokuchi well done, assuming his hit was a lucky shot. Tokuchi sees he doesn’t understand and tells him that in a game like baseball, even an amateur hitter like him can get a decent hit so long as he looks for a chance. Those who have resigned themselves to being weak players ‘will be degraded to a true underdog’.

Characters

 * Tokuchi Toua
 * Ideguchi
 * Kojima
 * Nakabayashi
 * Sugadaira
 * Manager Mihara