Overall, honestly, pretty damn good!

Gonna quickly acknowledge four tiny bummers- Bowser Jr. blocking my path - forcing me to sacrifice thirty seconds and waste my Power Bat - made me sad, 2-inning Peach was not the best, 2nd try Barrel Batter was disappointing (although DEAR GOD that starting pattern is one of the worst I've ever gotten, so I don't feel too bad about it) and while that Toy Field was a slaughter it also took four minutes, when ideally it should take more like three and a half. Getting insurance runs also cost me a little bit of time, but I felt comfortable with the investment given that I mostly wanted to get a time on the board.

But look at that. Jumping Catch off of the first pitch thrown with Luigi as a fielder. 6 innings of baseball played, with the ideal run being just 5. Zero hits or walks- every single match was a perfect game, in terms of defense. Most matches had only one replay, which is deliberate.

I've sort of inadvertently developed a middle ground between "I will eat the time loss" ultra-safe batting that doesn't bother skipping replays and the self-destructive bunt-to-win strategies that skip them all IF they succeed. I go into a match thinking, "I want there to be just one replay. I'm going to bat however I need to to make that happen." Usually that means sending runners home in batches, with an emphasis on trying to end plays with a 5-run lead if it's remotely possible. It's also why Petey starts out 4th on the lineup- I've decided, yeah, you know what, Petey is gonna hit a goddamn home run if he wants to, and I might score three or four runs off of it, and yes, I'll get the home run cutscenes, but they're not that much slower than a replay off of a non-home-run hit and now I'm in a position to skip replays more easily for the rest of the match!

Whew. Bit long-winded there, but I hope that makes sense. With a run like this, it's clawing for every optimization that you can.