Exiting the batting zone, Lin Guanglai slightly moved his upper limbs and then stepped back into the batting zone and stood firm.
The third ball was swiftly pitched over; Lin Guanglai let the fastball below the strike zone pass once again, and for the third time, it flew into Ishikawa Ryo's catcher glove.
Just as Ishikawa Ryo was joyfully celebrating finally getting a strike count, a voice from behind made him feel as if he fell into an icy pit in the blazing summer:
"Ball."
Feeling somewhat incredulous, Ishikawa Ryo turned his head to look at the umpire who made the decision and found that the expression on his face didn't seem fake—yet unable to argue with the umpire right then, he reluctantly turned back to focus on the game.
Thinking carefully about that ball just now, Ishikawa Ryo reckoned that it was likely his instinctive framing that led the umpire to make such a ruling:
