On The Rise As A Catcher [EN]: Chapter 137

It’s effective to reduce power with a changeup when the opponent is putting in a lot of strength.

Even though I know it, I often forget it when I’m actually on the mound.

Song Seok-hyun threw some changeups, helping Han Min-seok to loosen his stiff shoulders.

“Showing off because you’re a catcher.”

Han Min-seok smirked.

The next pitch was a fastball.

Jeong Dae-han swung, but it went foul, skittering backward.

“A ball exceeding 150km/h [approximately 93 mph] came in. The batter can’t keep up with the speed.”

“Certainly, his pitches are good today. The problem is his control, not the quality of the pitches.”

Jeong Dae-han rotated his wrist.

The velocity is still there, enough to make his wrist tingle.

Han Min-seok threw another fastball, resulting in a foul.

The deciding pitch was a slider.

Whack!

-Strike! Out!

“Strikeout! Han Min-seok gets a strikeout here. Han Min-seok overcomes a major hurdle.”

“But the next batter is Jo Yang-cheol. The Scorpion’s cleanup hitter, the home run king.”

The air becomes heavy as Jo Yang-cheol steps into the batter’s box.

Before Kim In-hwan’s emergence, Jo Yang-cheol was the best hitter in professional baseball.

He wasn’t a batter with bulging muscles or a lot of weight, but if he made solid contact, he could easily hit it over the fence.

His natural frame, a solid build often referred to as ‘thick-boned,’ put both the pitcher and the catcher on alert.

‘Four-seam fastball, inside.’

Han Min-seok nods at Song Seok-hyun’s sign.

That’s right.

This is it.

There has to be the thrill of pushing through with power.

Baseball is a battle of strength against strength.

Whack!

A fastball that cuts inside on the right-handed batter.

Jo Yang-cheol exhaled without even swinging his bat.

-Strike!

“A strike that goes inside. Han Min-seok is being aggressive from the first pitch.”

“Has Han Min-seok been sharpening his knife? After talking with the catcher, his pitches come alive once again.”

“Haha, I’m curious about what they talked about on the mound.”

‘Four-seam fastball, inside.’

Again, an inside fastball.

Han Min-seok didn’t hesitate.

Whack!

-Strike!

“Han Min-seok throws two consecutive pitches inside. Is Jo Yang-cheol now in a chasing position?”

“It seems like Han Min-seok is finally warmed up.”

‘Four-seam fastball, outside.’

The next pitch is an outside fastball.

Jo Yang-cheol flinched as Han Min-seok threw the ball.

The bat didn’t move, and the ball was caught in Song Seok-hyun’s mitt.

The mitt is slightly forward.

The umpire’s call was a bit late.

-Strike! Out!

“Strikeout! Another strikeout. Han Min-seok is really picking up the pace.”

“You never know in baseball. Even if the score difference is large, it’s only the second inning. It’s a manageable score. If the starting pitcher can hold on, no one knows how today’s game will turn out.”

“Looking strikeout on an outside fastball. Jo Yang-cheol seems very disappointed. He keeps shaking his head.”

“From the batter’s perspective, it probably looked far away. Timing-wise, it was also a changeup timing, so he might have been caught off guard.”

Jo Yang-cheol shook his head as he returned to the bench.

“That guy’s got good stuff.”

“Yeah, he’s pretty good.”

“This is going to be tiring.”

“Still, he’s the great Jo Yang-cheol. He needs to hit a big one today.”

Catcher Gu Seung-cheol patted Jo Yang-cheol on the back.

Song Seok-hyun’s framing [the art of subtly presenting a pitch to the umpire to make it appear within the strike zone] isn’t good enough to make a pitch that’s a ball off the plate a strike.

But.

There are many catchers who, even after 10 or 20 years of catching, still fail to secure strikes on pitches that should be called strikes.

In professional baseball, there are plenty of players who are criticized by baseball fans for not even being able to do the basics.

Fans think it’s easy to catch a ball that’s coming at them, so they get angry when catchers turn strikes into balls, but their minds change when they try to catch a pitcher’s ball that’s approaching 150km/h.

Even with a mitt, your hand vibrates.

If the ball catches on the edge of the mitt, your fingers can get bent.

Just framing a strike as a strike is enough to be called a defensive catcher.

Song Seok-hyun goes one step further, making about half to one ball’s width a strike, depending on the situation.

Even this alone puts him in the top five framers in the league.

“His acting skills are already that good…….”

Many people think it’s not difficult to slightly pull the ball into the strike zone after catching it when the catcher moves his mitt.

Umpires extremely dislike having their zone interfered with.

The catcher’s mitt movement is an eyesore to the umpire.

Umpires’ ball calls are biased against catchers who make obvious mitt movements.

The ability to make a slightly off-target ball a strike without making it obvious is true framing.

Song Seok-hyun’s framing range isn’t wide, but it’s natural.

Looking at his framing alone, he’s caught up to within a hair’s breadth of himself and Park Shin-eon.

Monsters like Jeong Yong-wook sometimes make pitches that are one or one and a half balls off the plate into strikes.

That’s not something that can be done just by moving your hands.

Before catching the ball, he moves his body in advance with small steps to match where the ball is coming, and sits at an angle.

When he catches the ball, he straightens his tilted body, and the mitt that was caught outside the zone naturally enters the zone.

It sounds easy, but even in the major leagues, that kind of catcher is rare.

There’s a good reason why Jeong Yong-wook received attention at the WBC [World Baseball Classic].

While moving his feet, his upper body must be fixed so that it doesn’t catch the umpire’s eye, and when catching the ball, he fixes his shoulders and only moves his hips slightly.

Even he, who prides himself on being a defensive catcher, is more than a hair’s breadth behind Jeong Yong-wook’s framing.

It’s not a matter of time, it’s a matter of talent.

A catcher who has reached the peak of defense also has an A-class offense, so he is recognized as an S-class catcher.

But a twenty-year-old rookie catcher has already caught up to his chin in terms of framing.

A catcher who is S-class in offense is also A-class in defense.

He had a feeling that a catcher who was perfect in both offense and defense might emerge.

-Strike! Out!

“Strikeout! Han Min-seok’s three consecutive strikeouts end the bottom of the second inning. Han Min-seok overcomes the crisis on his own.”

“Gote’s potential is not to be underestimated. They don’t give up easily even after giving up 6 points to the Scorpions.”

“In the next inning, Gote will also have their upper batting order. It will be interesting to see if Gote, who has regained momentum, will be able to score in the third inning.”

Gu Seung-cheol put on his catcher’s gear and stood up.

The shaky pitcher struck out three batters in a row after talking to the catcher.

From the beginning, Han Min-seok’s strikeout ability was innate, but he was curious about how he had managed that crazy Han Min-seok’s temper.

“Ugh. That young punk has no humanity, no humanity.”

He feels resentful.

Such talent, such skill, such results at the age of twenty.

He has a feeling that this year might be the last time they face off against each other with similar skills.

“Alright, alright, let’s finish this cleanly and go!”

“Fighting!”

The leadoff hitter in the top of the third inning was Lee Ji-seong.

Jo Sang-woong got two strikes with two fastballs.

It was a smooth start, but that’s when it began.

Tap!

Bang!

Tap!

“Jo Sang-woong wipes away sweat. It’s already the ninth pitch.”

“Even though he’s down two strikes, Lee Ji-seong isn’t giving up easily.”

“Lee Ji-seong’s weakness is said to be inside fastballs, but that doesn’t seem to be the case today. There are no solid hits, but he keeps fouling them off.”

“Jo Sang-woong’s strength is his changeup, which has a small drop but a sharp angle. It’s a pitch that’s hard to distinguish from his fastball, so he gets a lot of strikeouts, but it’s actually counterproductive against hitters who hit short like Lee Ji-seong. If it’s close, they swing and make contact, so he can’t get a strikeout. He doesn’t give up hits, but it’s hard to get outs either.”

Catcher Gu Seung-cheol blew air out of his nose.

From Song Seok-hyun earlier to Lee Ji-seong now.

It’s annoying. It’s irritating.

They definitely scored a lot of points in the first inning, so why is the game getting tangled up?

Whack!

-Ball, low.

“Walk. It’s a walk. The call is that Jo Sang-woong’s changeup was too low.”

“He seems to have dropped the ball a lot because he was greedy for a strikeout. But this time, Lee Ji-seong picked it off.”

“This makes it runners on first and no outs. Lee Ji-seong, a fast runner, is on first base. It’s the best situation for Gote.”

Second batter, Seol Jin-il.

First-pitch hitter.

Gu Seung-cheol signaled for an inside pitch.

He’s aiming for a double play.

As the pitcher threw the ball, Seol Jin-il swung his bat as if he had been waiting for it.

Whoosh.

Whoosh?

With the bat passing far above the ball, Lee Ji-seong ran to second base.

Gu Seung-cheol caught the ball and threw it to second base, but Lee Ji-seong safely reached second base as he hesitated, blocked by Seol Jin-il’s body.

“Lee Ji-seong succeeds in stealing a base. Lee Ji-seong is showing aggressive baserunning from the first inning.”

Gu Seung-cheol bit his lip.

He gave up second base easily.

With a fast runner, it’s natural to aim for second base, so why was he careless?

Was it because he had it ingrained in his head that Lee Ji-seong doesn’t steal often?

He struck out Seol Jin-il, but he felt uneasy.

The game isn’t going his way.

With one out and a runner on second, the batter is Kim In-hwan.

The next batters are Song Seok-hyun and Yoo Seon-ho.

He feels stuffy as if something is stuck in his chest.

They’re winning by a lot, so why does he feel like they’re being chased to the chin?

Daegu Sonic [Likely a reference to the team or a specific play style].

“Walk. Another walk.”

“Jo Sang-woong’s cautious approach has gone completely wrong. Kim In-hwan and Song Seok-hyun are picking off the pitches well.”

“This means Yoo Seon-ho is coming up with the bases loaded.”

Top of the third inning.

Jo Sang-woong took off his hat and wiped away sweat.

He continued to have a difficult time against the cleanup hitters, and the result was a complete failure.

Yoo Seon-ho stepped into the batter’s box.

Tuk tuk.

Yoo Seon-ho tapped his foot twice with his bat and then took his stance.

Yoo Seon-ho and Gu Seung-cheol both remained silent.

It’s not the time to chat.

Jo Sang-woong threw a slider as the first pitch, but Yoo Seon-ho didn’t swing.

“…….”

Gu Seung-cheol’s head became complicated.

Yoo Seon-ho, a batter who picks pitches even in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs and the bases loaded on a full count.

With his innate composure and added experience, he doesn’t rush in the batter’s box.

When a batter is relaxed, it means the pitcher’s changeups aren’t working well.

‘Four-seam fastball, outside.’

There’s no choice.

He has to go strength against strength.

Jo Sang-woong isn’t a style of pitcher who pushes through with strength, but sometimes there are times when you have to do it even if you know it.

“The battery’s signs are getting longer.”

“The battery must be really struggling against the veteran Yoo Seon-ho. Yoo Seon-ho and Jo Sang-woong have been together for their entire lives, so they know each other well. If there’s a lot of data about each other, the batter has more of an advantage than the pitcher.”

“There are a lot of bases loaded today.”

“That’s right. Both teams’ starting pitchers are top-notch players, right? The pitchers’ condition is also a factor, but it seems like the batters are doing well today.”

The ball that left Jo Sang-woong’s hand entered the zone.

Yoo Seon-ho’s bat hit the center of the ball accurately.

Bang!

“Center right! A hit that splits the center right! The runner on third scores! The runner on second also comes home easily! Yoo Seon-ho’s two-RBI hit explodes.”

“As expected, it’s Yoo Seon-ho. He doesn’t miss the balls that come in.”

Two points.

It’s only two points.

Jo Sang-woong touched the rosin bag again.

Once they get past Yoo Seon-ho, the batters behind him are no different from a weak lineup.

Bang!

“Hit! It’s a hit! Three consecutive hits. This means Gote has scored 4 points in this inning alone.”

“This inning is Gote’s inning. Choi Jae-wan and Oh Jin-young seem to be scoring consecutive RBIs for the first time in a while.”