Chapter 150

Short Summary
Takami explains to his team exactly how Tokuchi's pitches manage to evade them and reveals his 'mock Tokuchi pitching machine'.

Long Summary
After Takami’s home run, Tokuchi strikes out the remaining players and the Lycaons win 11-5; they now have a 1.5 game lead on the Mariners in the pennant race.

The Mariners hold a meeting following the game, the team demanding to know how Takami managed to get a home run off Tokuchi. Takami’s pleased they finally see he wasn’t lying and says he’ll explain why Tokuchi’s so hard to hit.

Takami claims Tokuchi's ‘precise, machine-like control’ and ‘overwhelming gambling will’ allow him to do two things no other pitcher can. The first is decide the pitch on moment of releasing the ball. Most pitchers receive signals from the catcher and cannot change their mind after they’ve decided on their grip. Tokuchi can observe his opponent through his pitching motion then pitch a ball that will ‘outsmart them without fail.’ Breaking balls and change-ups have led batters to guess the type of pitch before they hit it and Tokuchi has taken advantage.

Kitaooji points out he doesn’t attempt to guess the pitch beforehand, but rather just tries to hit whatever comes at him, yet even he can’t hit Tokuchi’s pitches. Takami says before he answers, there’s something he wants everyone to see. He reveals his ‘mock Tokuchi pitching machine’ which he had designed personally for 60 million yen. The machine can launch pitches with a variety of different spin counts, between the speed of 86-128km/h, exactly like Tokuchi’s pitches. Takami asks Kitaooji to try to hit one of the machine’s pitches, and he misses twice and fouls once. Kitaooji says the machine is well-made and describes the feeling as being exactly the same as when he goes up against Tokuchi, unable to get a hit no matter what.

Takami claims the second thing Tokuchi can do that no other pitcher can is throw slow balls with a high spin count. These pitches are deceptive in that they look similar to a change-up. Takami reckons that their years of baseball experience has led them to acquire ‘bad habits’.

A pitcher who can throw a 145km/h fast ball wouldn’t bother throwing one at 115km/h, so when the batter sees such a slow ball coming, they’ll assume it’s a change up. Even without knowing the exact type of pitch, they can be certain that the ball will dip and they’ll prepare to swing for this low trajectory. Any trajectory above that of a fastball unconsciously gets ignored. Tochuki’s slow, high-spin pitches eat into this ignored blindspot. This is why many batters describe the feeling as 'the ball avoiding the bat’.

Takami assures everyone there’s no need to be afraid of this blindspot. If they can become conscious of it, the trick to handling Tokuchi will be ‘within their grasp.’

Characters

 * Takami
 * Tokuchi Toua
 * Kitaooji
 * Brooklyn
 * Thomas