The direct confrontation between the two ace pitchers naturally made the batters of both teams suffer:
In the first three innings of this game, the home team's SoftBank batters only managed to hit two singles off Kaneko Chiharu in the bottom of the third inning, followed by small-ball tactics advancing to third base, but their offense was stalled, leaving stranded runners helplessly;
The Orix batters fared even worse, managing just one hit in three innings, apart from reaching second base once via a sacrifice bunt, none of the other batters even saw the bases.
This situation continued, and even by the end of the seventh inning, no one could break the deadlock on the field.
The ones who couldn't sit still first were the managers of both sides.
Over these past seven innings, Lin Guanglai had thrown around 110 pitches, while Orix's Kaneko Chiharu's pitch count had reached as high as 122.
