A word of warning before we begin – don’t watch the preview if you don’t want to know exactly what the climactic situation for next week’s episode is (assuming you know the rules of baseball and can do basic math).  Between that and another extended recap in the cold open, Major 2nd was kind of an annoying sandwich this week – but while the bread was irksome, the filling was vastly entertaining.

No disrespect to Anita – she’s actually become much more tolerable now that she’s shown a touch of humility – but it’s striking how much more engaging this series got as soon as Daigo ordered Anita to “take it all off” and slipped on the mask again.  He’s the beating heart of Major 2nd, and he goes from being literally shunted off to the side to being the center of the action.  In youth baseball catcher is even more the locus of everything  than it is with the pros, and that’s truly where Daigo’s remarkable qualities – both as a character and a ballplayer – can shine through.  Frankly, he’s wasted in the outfield.

Daigo, you lying little guttersnipe…  I guess it’s fine that he fibbed for Anita’s sake, but that still doesn’t explain why he surrendered the catching position to her in the first place.  That still doesn’t grok with me and I hope we get a better explanation at some point, and while we’ll never know for certain it’s certainly not unlikely that Fuurin could be ahead in this game if Daigo had started at catcher.  As is, the best he can do is damage control – though in the top of the sixth he does a stellar job of that.  Sakura’s comfort level pitching to him is obvious, and it’s perfectly natural – they’re best friends who’ve been teammates since little league.

As it turns out, Seiwa doesn’t really get a chance to revive their small ball attack, because soon enough they have the bases loaded with nobody out.  The key moment is the inning is Daigo’s decision to intentionally walk Andy to load the bases, despite first not being open – and the Seiwa coach’s response is the proof of how spot-on it was.  This is a situation where even one run is huge, and it’s worth risking a big inning to take the bat of the hands of the enemy’s best situational hitter.  When the strategy pays off thanks to a 1-2-3 double-play and a foul out, it really looks like that old Daigo magic has returned.  Seiwa takes the lead, but frittering away such a golden chance leaves them feeling like they lost the inning.

After a not-too-convincing but hilarious fake-out courtesy of the slacker advisor, it’s Fuurin – and Daigo’s – turn to attack.  Daigo gives them a great at-bat, forcing Urabe to throw 11 pitches and hitting the ball hard, but can’t get on-base.  Urabe looks vulnerable in giving up three hard-hit balls, but gets a one-two-three inning, and things go south in the top of the 7th.  Again Anita is at-fault, though she has help.  Daigo is uncharacteristically distracted and Sakura is understandably fading fast.  After she hits the first batter Anita plays a single into a two-base error and run allowed (at least she has a good excuse, not being an outfielder by trade).  After a walk, Daigo finally decides Sakura has had enough.

Fuurin is not in a commanding position to say the least – they’re a team with only nine players, and one experienced pitcher.  Daigo turns to Akira, who’s only too happy to finally get his turn in the spotlight.  And he reveals that his hard work in conditioning is paying off, as his velocity has substantially improved – but not his control.  Akira hits the first batter with his second pitch and the bases are juiced yet again with nobody out.  Here again, though, Daigo gets his chance to shine.  He orders his inexperienced hurler to throw from the windup and praises his mechanics, and Akira responds by challenging Seiwa to deal with his heater.  Which they can’t, to the tune of Akira striking out the side.

That was the easy part though, because all Seiwa has to do is sit on the lead.  Daigo can influence the game in many ways on defense, but when it comes it hitting it all boils down to the Fuurin batters winning individual battles with Urabe.  He does seem to be tiring, though, and the meat of the Fuurin order is due – though Anita’s ability to swing a bat is very much in question at this point.  We definitely saw a little Daigo magic this time, but next week Fuurin is going to need even more of it.