The ball flew out of Ken's fingertips like it was fired from a cannon. The sheer spin and power behind the throw was something that no one could fathom, let alone expect from a human.
Bran had no choice but to swing blindly, hoping and praying that he might actually be able to touch the seams of the ball. Yet it seemed hopeless at this point.
WHOOOOOSH
THUD
The bat sailed past the ball, missing it by a country mile. Yet the clean sound of the ball hitting the glove did not enter his ears.
"Strike! No catch!"
The umpires shout caused Bran to toss his bat aside and kick off the ground, sprinting towards 1st base.
Ken's eyes widened in shock at the play unfolding. He saw Daichi toss his mask off and look for the ball that he'd dropped.
"Behind!" Ken shouted, pointing past the plate umpire.
It seemed that the ball had flown through Daichi's glove and come out behind him.
Thanks to this shout, Daichi was able to locate the ball. He swooped upon the errant ball and scooped it up with his bare hand, firing off a throw towards first base.
Ken's eyes followed the ball through the air and panicked. The throw looked like it might beat Bran to first base, but he wasn't sure if it was low enough.
His fears were quickly realized as the ball continued to rise on its way towards Samson.
Despite his 6'2 length, Samson's glove fell a few inches short of the throw, missing the catch. It continued straight past him, heading into the outfield where Kris was supposed to be.
Seeing the throw off the mark, Bran rounded 1st base with speed, his new destination the 2nd base. Ken on the other hand was still in disbelief as he watched the ball sail into the outfield.
Kris Carpenter their right fielder was out of position, though he seemed to be running as fast as he could towards the ball. He finally managed to track it down, but by that time, the runner was on his way to 3rd.
He tossed the ball towards 3rd base with some heat. Thankfully, his throw was on the mark.
"Safe."
The 3rd base umpire made the call, spreading out his arms.
Now that the play had finally come to an end, the Ligers were left scratching their heads, Ken especially. He had thrown perhaps the fastest pitch in his life, so how did the batter get all the way to 3rd base?
It all felt nonsensical.
He turned to look at Daichi who seemed rather downcast. In his hand was a glove with a decent hole through the webbing.
Only now did Ken understand what had originally happened. It had been a series of unfortunate events that led up to this moment, but there was nothing that they could have done differently to prevent it.
What made it worse was that this happened on the 3rd strike, meaning the batter was eligible to head towards 1st base.
Daichi called timeout with the plate umpire before disappearing into the dugout, likely to get another glove. It didn't take him long to return, sporting a brand new catchers glove.
Instead of restarting play, he jogged over to the mound towards Ken. When he approached, he lifted his new glove to cover his mouth before speaking.
"I'm sorry big bro… I was flustered when I threw that ball to first." Daichi said, apologizing.
Ken shook his head, "It's fine man, we were just unlucky." He concluded, putting an end to the matter.
"Still… Since when could you throw that fast? I knew I needed a new glove soon, but I never thought it would be this soon." Daichi asked incredulously.
Hearing the question, Ken suddenly remembered that he wanted to check the speed of the ball. He turned to the jumbo screen, however the speed of the pitch was not shown, probably because it had been too long since the pitch.
However, he didn't know just what kind of a stir he'd caused after such a pitch.
The commentary team were silent for what seemed like an age after the play.
"I can't believe it… I am honestly stunned Bob."
"…"
"I don't think we'll ever see another pitch like that again, Bill. Just when I thought we'd seen it all, Ken goes and smashes his record by a country mile."
"What was his previous record? 108?"
"Yes… He's surpassed his old record by a full 3 miles per hour. That's almost 6 miles per hour faster than the previous record of 105.8 by Chapman back in 2010."
"He truly is a generational player that we might never see again, especially in our lifetime."
"The Miami Blue Marlins get a lucky break thanks to Daichi's glove breaking and the surprising poor throw. But it doesn't change the fact that we just saw the fastest pitch in the history of the MLB."
In Austin Texas, Steve was just about screaming from his chair.
"YOU BASTARD! HOW COULD YOU NOT CATCH THAT?" He cried, his tone filled with righteous indignation as he cursed Daichi till he was black and blue in the face.
"Steve… Did you not see the big hole in his glove?" Tara said calmly, trying to deescalate the situation.
"It doesn't matter. This record will probably stand for many years, but it will forever be tarnished by this stupid play." Steve replied bitterly, throwing himself on the couch with a huff of annoyance.
But it wasn't just Steve who found it regretful.
The entire bar in Japan let out a collective groan of regret. Riku, Shiro, Masayuki, Yusuke and Hiroki looked visibly pained as they saw what happened.
What was supposed to be a history making pitch had been turned into a huge blunder, putting the Blue Marlins in position to score.
"This sucks man…" Hiroki said, scratching his head in frustration. He scratched so hard that he almost dislodged his unicorn horn.
Makoto returned from the bar with many drinks in his hand.
"Why the long face?" He asked, struggling to keep in his laugh, "Get it… Cos you're a unicorn. HAHAHA."
"Just… Shut up Makoto."
"Oryah?"