I think you got the first part of the sentence correct (note that there is no “if” in the sentence).
勝てそうなのに - even though you’re about to win / even though you’re winning
なんでやめちまうんだよう - why are you stopping?
The sentence has no question mark, but the question word なんで turns it into a question.
“Even though you’re about to win - why are you stopping?”
“Why are you stopping?? You’re winning!”
Something like that 
Chapter one completed with the reading of pages 16 17 and 18!
I thought I lost these yesterday, but clearly not! Hurrah, that saves me a bit of work!
Plot:
Red is consoling his hurt Polywhirl. The other trainer offers Red some words of advice. He knew the mysterious Pokemon was too strong, so withdrew Charmander. If you over estimate your abilities, you’ll end up self destructing.
Vocab:
Grammar:
Interesting Sentence:
オレは2回の攻撃でレベルの差を見切った。
Another sentence I struggled to make sense of but in essence it’s “I saw the difference in power after that second attack”. After being shown how it breaks down, it’s pretty simple but I had some kind of block when I saw this in the book.
I (topic) (with/at the second attack) (the difference in level) (clearly perceived)
Plot:
The mysterious Pokemon flies off into the night, as the strange men from earlier swarm the forest. They see Red and one begins to chastise Red before being reminded that finding the Pokemon (apparently called Mew) is their mission.
Vocab:
Grammar:
Interesting Sentence:
放っておけ！それよりもミュウだ！
My translation - “Leave him alone! Mew is more important!”
Plot:
Forlorn, Red heads towards the lab of Dr Orchid. Showing some humility after his defeat, he realises that maybe this cranky old man could teach him a thing or two…
Vocab:
Grammar:
Interesting Sentence:
へんくつでガンコなじじいときいてたから、今まで近づかなかったけど。。。
My translation “He’s just a stuborn, eccentric old man, that’s why I’ve never approached him before…”
You’re missing this part.
I heard?
You know what, I completely glossed over that bit when I read it. Me stupid
Lots of progress today due to not much dialogue that was pretty straight forward. Definitely getting more comfortably reading Japanese though, so that’s a bonus.
Slowly doubting if I’ll ever finish this bookclub thing though, the write up is more tiring than the actual reading!
Plot:
Red knocks on Orchid’s door but no anwser, seeing that door is unlocked, Red invites himself in…
Vocab:
Grammar:
Interesting Sentence:
カギあいてたのか
My Translation - “It’s unlocked?”
Somewhat hidden ている form. いる is in past tense, and is just た。開く is just to be open. のか turns it into a sort of rhetorical question. Red typically missing a particle out between カギ and 開く, which of course would be は/が and definitely not を because who would be silly enough to use を with an intrasitive verb?!
Plot:
Orchid’s lab is full to the ceiling of Pokeballs containing Pokemon. Set on the side, Red sees a ball containing a フシギダネ - Bulbasaur. Red takes out the ball containing his Polywhirl and shoes it Bulbasaur (I’m guessing Bulbasaur are rare where Red lives), the Bulbasaur stares at the Polywhirl angrily…
Vocab:
Grammar:
Interesting Sentence:
背中にたねがあるんか！へーっ！
My translation “It has a seed on it’s back, huh?” Red is seeing a Bulbasaur for appears to be the first time. Bulbasaur’s Japanese name is literally Strange Seed, turns out Bulbasaur has a seed on it’s back, just in case you needed that point nailing home.
Plot:
Orchid storms into the lab accusing Red of being a burglar! Red is startled and in attempting to stammer out an explanation, fumbles onto Orchid’s computer letting loose all the Pokemon in the balls!
Vocab:
Grammar:
Interesting Sentence:
こんの…ドロボーめ！
My translation “You! Thief!” Apart from Red’s vowels, this basically the only sentence one the page.
Pretty straight forward, the め particle at the end is new to me, however so it has some merit.
Plot:
Orchid is furious with Red, but before Red can warn Orchid, a bird Pokemon poos on Orchid’s face! This doesn’t help his mood and he screams at Red to catch all the escaped Pokemon.
Red manages to reel in most of them however Orchid spots a broken window, surely some have escaped outside…
Vocab:
Grammar:
Interesting Sentence:
何匹か。。。ハアハア。。。外へ出てしまったようじゃの。
My Translation “How many [Pokemon]…catches breath…it would seem some have gotten out[side]”. Pretty straight forward construction, just the ようじゃの bit that could trip you up if you’d never seen it before, I hadn’t. I’d omit the words in square brackets if I was translating the panel, however as a standalone sentence without context, I’d include them. Orchid is struggling to catch his breath after chasing all the escaped pokemon, in English, I doubt he’d waste what breath he has left on extraneous words. The context is pretty obvious when you read the comic.
Can’t wait to see all my mistakes!
…
(I do where see 鍵 and 開ける are written with various particles used, including を.)
You’ll see it from time to time in this series.
Correct. You’ll sometimes see another word modifying it, as you saw with 悪.
If you’re typing on a keyboard, after typing 。。。 you should be able to press the spacebar to convert it into … (in case you may be unaware). Actually, on the forums here, typing . three times produces the same result when posted. So many options.
If you’re curious, here is his line from the original English release, and from the English re-release:
Also, ふしぎ + だ + ね. Two copulas.
Probably better to called it “suffix”.
It’s not necessarily rare, depending on what you read.
This one is in current week’s Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar 
, called Ellipsis.
Isn’t ようじゃのう basically just ようだな/ね but old people slang?
I am not exactly sure of the basics, but じゃのう の例文集 - 用例.jp
I think of it as 様 + じゃ + のう.
In this case, I wouldn’t overthink it past たね since フシギダネ’s 図鑑 entry refers to it as a たねポケモン.
I remembered a (funny) Twitter profile image, but I can’t find it now. Anyways,
Strangely, the ellipses on my IME sometimes show up and sometimes don’t, I haven’t quite figured out why. (Maybe I have to lock the word in before, then do punctuation, I’ll experiment later.)
Looks like a successful session though, no egregious errors for a change!
Isn’t Ivysaur 不思議そう? I also read somewhere that it’s related. Ofc it’s a たね ポケモン, though.
The 何匹か is “some animals/pokemon”, it’s not the question marker か, but rather the か after a question word meaning “some”. Which is made needlessly difficult to understand by his breathing mid-sentence 
何匹か外へ出てしまったようじゃの
“Seems like several pokemon have escaped / got out”
It’s the same か as in
誰かいる - there’s someone there
いつかやる - I’ll do it at some point
何人かいる - there’s several people
Also made difficult by the panel before using 何匹か in question form.
I just assumed he was repeating back what was said.
In this case it might be は or が, but 開く can be transitive if it’s ひらく.
I think it’s just a coincidence that there is a pattern of だね then そう, as ばな (Venusaur) would break the pattern. But this is just my thinking, and I don’t mean to claim I’m in the right here.
