Peaceful Bullpen Life [EN]: Chapter 138

After the interview, Senior Kim Soo-chan left with words of encouragement and anticipation.

Anticipation.

Is this anticipation for me, or for our team?

He only mentioned the former, but I deliberately overinterpreted it.

29 wins, 1 draw, 15 losses.

It would be absurd not to expect great things from a team with such an incredible win rate through May.

The team we’re facing, this formidable team, is the Sangsoo Tigers, who share Jamsil Stadium with us.

They’re still nursing the wound from last year when Wonha [the team’s name] landed a right hook, relegating them to second place in the regular season. They were a whole three games behind Wonha in second place.

“Bullshit.”

But that’s just what you guys think.

If we’re talking about sharpening our knives, our team is the one doing it even more.

After finishing the pennant race in first place, everything was overturned in the Korean Series [championship series in Korean baseball]. It felt like my insides were being flipped inside out.

“Let’s go hard, guys. Really hard.”

“Let’s gooooo!”

Myungjin, moved by my quietly recited declaration of war, screamed like a madman as he headed to the plate.

Leadoff hitter, shortstop Lee Myungjin.

Maybe it’s because we’re away, but the stadium announcer announced Myungjin’s appearance in a very dry voice.

Even so, Myungjin… I can tell just by looking at his back from a distance.

That bastard is smiling.

“Play!”

Today’s starting pitcher for the Sangsoo Tigers is Sung Sangjin.

At the very beginning of the season, his role was about the team’s second starter, but his ceiling solidified a bit, and with the original first starter Park Dongil’s condition being somewhat ambiguous, his status rose a step.

Sung Sangjin faced Myungjin,

Wham-!

“Shhh-ick!”

Aggressively throwing a fastball inside from the start.

The batter, seeing a very good ball, nodded his head with a sly smile.

Okay, I got it, okay, okay.

Myungjin’s reaction probably implied something like that.

Otherwise, it would have been difficult to create such a well-hit ball on the second pitch.

But a well-hit ball can be explained by good hitting feel,

“Out.”

And it going straight to the infielder makes it even easier to explain this at-bat.

“Too bad, too bad!”

“Eunbi, Ggabi!” [likely player nicknames or inside jokes]

“You crazy bastard!”

“Ehehe!”

Leaving the seemingly insane Myungjin aside for a moment, I watched the next batters’ attacks.

“Sunghyun, let’s go, let’s go!”

“Take it, take one more!”

Even though we cheered so enthusiastically, Sunghyun hit a line drive to the shortstop.

“Namgi, don’t leave it!”

“You can’t leave it!”

“Shut up, you crazy bastard!”

Kiseong rolled a ground ball to a good spot, but Shin Taebum’s diving stop resulted in an out.

“…Is it getting twisted?”

“Looks like it.”

The fact that there were good processes three times in a row, but bad results three times in a row, was definitely a bad sign.

But it’s okay, today’s starter is none other than the Wonha Challengers’ ace, Emperor Hyukjoon!

Whack-!

“…….”

“…….”

…Thinking that way was also a good process, but the result was the same as a bad sign.

“It feels ominous.”

“Don’t plant the flag.”

I said a word while watching Park Haejin, who hit a two-run home run and was rounding the bases, and Gyujin-hyung [hyung is a Korean term for older brother or male senior] poked me in the side.

I can’t even express my feelings freely? I thought that at first, but…….

Whack-!

“Well hit, run, Jinhyeong, run!”

“Hey, this is three… ah.”

Seeing the same flow continuing, I really thought I should shut my mouth.

I wondered if my mouth was cursed, so I didn’t lean on the dugout railing and just sat quietly in my chair.

No, is it not just my mouth, but my entire existence that’s cursed?

Whack-!

“Ah….”

In the bottom of the 4th inning, Park Haejin, who came up as the leadoff hitter, hit a consecutive home run and once again leisurely rounded the bases.

After that, Hyukjoon didn’t allow any more runs until the 6th inning, but the team didn’t score any runs either.

3 to 0.

We went through a good process, but we didn’t get a good result. They’re all mediocre except for one, but the results are all good.

“Sigh….”

But. I feel like I’ve felt this before.

Among the imbalances where I can fully use the phrase, ‘If it goes well, it’s thanks to me, if it doesn’t, it’s someone else’s fault,’ I was feeling something similar to déjà vu.

Click!

To be exact, the important thing is that it’s the exact opposite of the situation I feel like I’ve seen before.

“Oh… this…!”

With a 0-2 count, Myungjin hit the ball in a somewhat bizarre posture, thinking of cutting a fastball that was digging inside.

And as if the luck that hadn’t followed him until now exploded all at once,

“Fair!”

The ball tapped the foul line at a point between the first baseman and the right fielder, then rolled all the way into very deep foul territory.

“It broke through!”

“Myungjin, run, three! Look at three!!”

The combination of a very fast runner and a very slow-rolling ball is very annoying for the defending team.

Whoosh-

“Safe!”

They have to give one more base when they could have stopped it with a double.

“Myungjin is so fast!”

“Click, hey! Click!!”

Myungjin, who happened to be stepping on third base and was close to our dugout,

Click!

Celebrated his first hit of the game with his teammates.

And the one who will continue this good atmosphere is,

Second batter, right fielder Kang Sunghyun.

Our thug.

Sunghyun didn’t seem particularly interested in Myungjin on third base. Rather, he was looking at the infielders who were positioned much closer than normal defense because of the strangely flowing atmosphere.

“If it were me, I’d just play normal defense.”

You can definitely make the judgment that you can’t allow even one point, that if you allow even one point, things will get weird.

But that judgment,

Tap-

Doesn’t always succeed. There are definitely times when you have to sacrifice the small for the sake of the big.

“Oh!”

“It’s out, nice!”

It was a slightly undercut hit, but since the shortstop was so far forward, a simple RBI [Runs Batted In] hit was created.

Thanks to that, Sunghyun safely stepped on first base, and Myungjin even more safely stepped on home.

“Myungjin, nice run!”

“If you run away a lot, you can become as fast as me….”

“Ah, stop with the nonsense.”

I quickly called in Myungjin, who was trying to evolve from a crazy guy to a really crazy guy, and watched the battle of the third batter.

First base has a slightly fast runner. The batter’s box has a very slow runner.

In this case, everyone thinks the same thing. No, the thoughts of both teams are sharply divided.

Sangsoo will think of getting a double play, and Wonha will think of just not hitting a double play.

After the thoughts of both teams crossed several times, Sung Sangjin finished his set motion.

“Kiseong, show them, show them!”

“Nam Kiseong, let’s go!”

The first pitch that will be the watershed of today’s game. Sung Sangjin glanced at Sunghyun, then,

Poong-!

“Shhh-ick!”

Got the first pitch count with a breaking ball.

Did Myungjin nodding his head earlier seem to have something? Kiseong nodded his head like Myungjin during the first inning attack.

Okay, I understand.

The meaning that can be interpreted from that action was also the same as when Myungjin did it in the first inning. Even,

Whack-!

Even the fact that the ball was well hit was the same.

But there is one crucial difference.

“Oh…!”

“It’s gone!”

That he crossed the fence so that the fielders couldn’t intervene at all.

Kiseong, who stared at the ball for a very short time, slowly ran towards first base and pointed at us with his left index finger.

Did you see that?

The Wonha Challengers team began to burn with the message scribbled with that finger.

Jinhyeong, Seungju, Sunghyun-hyung, Sungmoon, Gyuhak, Hoon.

“Go, keep going, go one more time!!”

Sung Sangjin, who had been continuing a perfect game until the 6th inning, allowed a whopping 6 points in the 7th inning without getting a single out.

The power to reverse a 3-point lead as it was did not dissipate in an instant.

In the bottom of the 7th inning, Senior Son Seokmin went to the mound to maintain the 3-point lead.

His zeroing was slightly off, and he allowed a walk to Ha Haejin as soon as he came on, but he cleanly handled the next three batters and maintained the score difference.

In the top of the 8th inning, the attack started again with Myungjin, but it’s okay even though we didn’t score any additional points.

“Hanwool, let’s go up.”

“Yes!”

Because I’ll block them. It’s okay, because at least these three points will be maintained.

As I walked to the mound, I looked at the Sangsoo Tigers’ batting order that I would face. Min Jonghyun, Go Dongwook, Kang Daehyun’s 912 batting order.

One easy batter, one slightly annoying batter, and one pushover.

“Okay.”

I prepared to pitch, letting out a common phrase that circulates among the players as a call sign.

Ninth batter, Min!! Jong!! Hyun!!

Min Jonghyun, who received the stadium announcer’s loud introduction, showed his determination to focus on getting on base as much as possible from here and there.

A bat held shorter than usual, a stance closer to home plate than usual, and eyes filled with more venom than usual.

Okay.

Our batters were shouting, and Min Jonghyun was also using the phrase I used to hypnotize myself just before.

He can hit. I know now. I won’t be fooled anymore.

Having experienced several appearances recently, I have noticed one thing. It’s now a little harder to get a count with pitches that are ambiguous whether they are balls or strikes.

It’s not a big inconvenience, but the umpires called the balls a little more carefully, and the batters who had been blankly watching after two strikes somehow swung their bats.

But whatever.

Wham-!

“Shhh-ick!”

Whatever.

The weapon I’m banned from is just whether or not I grab the ambiguous apex, but I still have many other weapons besides that.

The guts to throw it high and inside to the batter close to the home plate from the first pitch,

Bang-

“Shhh-ick!”

And the courage to cram in a 106km slow curveball right after that is still intact.

And there’s one thing you guys are misunderstanding. What I’m banned from is whether or not I grab the apex.

Wham-!

“Shhh-aaaack!”

It’s not whether I can throw it or not.

Returning to the royal road and getting the first out count, what I do is always the same.

While the infielders are rounding, I spin around the mound once and charge the rosin.

Then I take the ball again and check if there’s anything wrong with the ball,

First batter, Go!! Dong!! Wook!!

Facing the next batter.

If Min Jonghyun was a batter with a somewhat easygoing impression, Go Dongwook is a batter who provokes a slight annoyance.

Very good contact, not bad eyes for pitches, and also very fast.

I’d rather he just swing wildly without thinking,

“Ugh!”

Wham-!

“Ball-!”

That’s unlikely.

Habits are really scary. I didn’t intend to throw a fully packed ball, but my body threw a fully packed fastball inside on its own.

Giving a ball doesn’t matter, but it’s quite annoying that he doesn’t even show the attitude of flinching and dodging.

There are two main ways to deal with this type of batter. Just overpower them or make them feel the limit of their patience.

Of these two methods, I,

“Guh!”

Wham-!

“Shhh-ick!”

Chose the former.

Good contact, so what. Good eyes for pitches, so what.

“Ugh!”

Tap-!

“Foul, foul!”

Do you have the power to push it inside the line?

Until now, you’ve only seen two 150km balls,

“Guh!”

Wham-!

“Swing, out!”

Do you have the confidence to hit a 155km ball?

Seeing him break his personal best speed day by day made me feel proud.

My fastball stat is currently 91. If the origin of my system is the baseball game ‘Full Count,’ I typically throw 152km [approximately 94.4 mph].

So why can I inflate it by 3km?

“Hanwool, don’t overdo it.”

“Ah, I have to show this sometimes.”

“Good ball, let’s go to the end.”

“Yeah.”

The fact that I can compress the stamina to throw three balls and make a full-power pitch is also the system of Full Count.

A batter appeared who gave me even more wings, thinking that I would really hit the speed of my dreams soon.

Second batter, Kang!! Dae!! Hyun!!

And at the same time,

Ting-!

[I’ll Beat Up Only One Guy]

– Get 3 strikeouts from a batter with absolute superiority. (0/1)

– Reward – Four-seam +1

A quest that gave me even more wings also appeared.