Chapter 140

Short Summary
Tokuchi’s strategy works and the Lycaons pitch well against the Mariners. Kawanaka gets irritated by his team’s poor performance.

Long Summary
In the top of the third inning, Kawanaka has shut out all the Lycaons’ batters. The Lycaons announce a pitching change to Mitsui for their turn. The Mariners are surprised because Takahashi had been doing so well, but they don’t know about Tokuchi’s new rule for the pitchers. Mitsui stands on the mound picturing Tokuchi giving Takahashi his winnings, realising all he has to do is throw to the strike zone. He pitches to the first batter, who hits it and gets on first base. Mitsui looks to Tokuchi, who holds up a piece of paper showing Mitsui’s winnings of 500,000 so far.

By the end of the inning, he’s won 5.5 million yen, letting in only one point against the Mariners top batting line up. The third pitcher, Nishioka, achieves the same and wins 6 million. The fourth pitcher, Hasegawa, allowed four hits but no points, and wins 8 million in two innings.

In the Mariners dugout, Brooklyn says the Lycaons can’t win even with this clever scheme of changing pitchers. Kawanaka gets angry and tells him to say such arrogant things only after he’s scored 10 or 20 points, then storms off. Amami explains that Kawanaka thinks he must always play perfectly and expects everyone else to have the same awareness he does. He points out that the Mariner’s offence was a lot poorer than Kawanaka’s pitching. He had so far given up only one walk that game, with no hits.

In the ninth inning, Kojima goes up to bat against an irritated Kawanaka. He is close to achieving a no hits, no runs game. Kawanaka suddenly remembers what Tokuchi told him Brooklyn had said about the new players before the game. His irritation leads to a careless pitch and Kojima hits a home run. Tokuchi laughs from the dugout, declaring ‘The winds have changed.’

Characters

 * Tokuchi Toua
 * Kawanaka
 * Mitsui
 * Nishioka
 * Hasegawa
 * Takami
 * Brooklyn
 * Amami
 * Kojima