Seeing that I had a lot to say about this episode, I decided that it merited its own post. Better get your baseball cap on, it’s time to play ball!

Thoughts

I think the episode was quite exciting and frustrating at the same time. It was exciting because Mihoshi managed to come up from behind to lead by one. We finally have a ball game! It was also frustrating because our boys are down by a run.

Ren’s pitcher-sense

We also see Ren struggling to choose between his instincts and Abe’s instructions. Ren’s baseball intuition was dead on the money that Oda will be able to hit the inside screwball. Even though his pitcher-sense was tingling, he ignored it knowing that Abe dislikes pitchers who do not follow his lead.

It would be interesting to see how Ren will sort this issue with Abe, knowing that Abe is quite the control freak. This will surely be a problem since, as established in this episode, Abe’s analysis is not always right. Thus, I presume that there will come a point that Ren would have to disagree with one of Abe’s signals in future games. This will probably become one of the major issues between their catcher-pitcher relationship.

Was Abe overreacting?

You may be thinking that Abe was overreacting when the left fielder failed to catch the fly ball. Well, prior to that, Ren has yet to give up a run or a base hit. Moreover, they were already in the 7th inning, 3 innings away from ending the game. Thus, you can only imagine how annoyed Abe was, having been able to help Ren pitch a perfect game up to that point, when his hopes of a perfect game got ruined.

You see, pitching a perfect game is extremely difficult. It is to completely shutout the opposition’s offense and no one should reach first base. Hits that ended up foul do not count. According to Wikipedia, there are only 17 official perfect games recorded in the 130-year history of Major League Baseball. Wikipedia also cites that there are more people who have successfully orbited the moon than those who have pitched a perfect game. It sounds insane, I know, but it only shows that pitching a perfect game a big deal. Thus, explains Abe’s seemingly over-the-top reaction.

Intentional walk

Now, let us move on to another aspect of the game that was quite interesting—Tajima’s intentional walk. If you noticed, the only time Tajima went up for bat, he was not given a chance to hit. Instead, Hatake, Mihoshi’s catcher, stood up to the side and caught four balls. I have done a bit of reading on this and the intentional walk is a defensive strategy. It is used when the defense wants to skip a good hitter and take a chance on succeeding batters as they feel they have a bigger chance of getting them retired. This is quite risky as this means that there will be another man on base, resulting in a higher chance of scoring.

Given Tajima’s last two appearances at bat, he has managed to hit the ball on the first pitch and got base. So, the intentional walk signifies that the Mihoshi acknowledged Tajima’s abilities. Also, taking a gamble like this means that Mihoshi has finally gotten serious about the game. I know that these must be trivial for baseball fans, but for someone like me it isn’t, these intricacies in the game fascinate me.

I think Hanai may have been irked just a tiny bit that Mihoshi thought they would have an easier time getting him out. Though, he managed to deal with it maturely and not go on an emo rollercoaster ride. So, Hanai gets major props for that.

Ren’s pitching stats

Kanou mentioned some of Ren’s pitching stats in the dugout during his last year in Mihoshi. He mentioned that Ren had zero death balls, also known as hit by pitch. It is exactly as it sounds, a pitch hits the batter. Ren also had only one base on balls.

I am not sure, but those statistics sound impressive. In this game alone, Kanou has already committed several base on balls. In contrast with Ren, who only had one in his senior year.

I wonder if Ren is naturally talented in pitching, or just a product of pure hard work.

On Ren and Abe

I really liked how this episode turned out. In the end, when I thought Ren was going to lose confidence again, he surprises me and comes back with a stronger resolution to pitch. I have newfound respect for Ren for that. It takes spine to pick yourself up after back-to-back hits and giving up the lead in just a single inning.

Abe, on the other hand, got his confidence shattered. I actually thought that he was a bit full of himself earlier, having led Ren perfect till Oda got a hit. Poetic justice? I think so. That was quite a humbling experience, I reckon. Nevertheless, I am sure that Abe will get over it quick. They need to win after all.

It was refreshing to see both exchange places on the confidence spectrum. I just hope Ren does not go back to being the wimp that he was.

Final thoughts

It was an awesome episode. A lot of baseball action. They did nicely to build-up the game for the climatic ending next episode. So, see you guys again very soon!

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