Peaceful Bullpen Life [EN]: Chapter 102

※ 102. Staring Contest

Bottom of the 9th, the Sangsoo Tigers have three outs to spare.

My body faces home plate, but my eyes are drawn to the left.

Kang Dae-hyun glares at me from the on-deck circle.

Hong Seok-jin watches me indifferently from the dugout.

Next to him, Park Hae-jin is putting on his batting gear, piece by piece.

Play!

“Scary.”

Looking at Sangsoo’s lineup, I feel a more brutal intensity than even the KP Stars’ batting power.

Killer intent.

Even as I sense that intangible energy, I smile.

Bang-!

“Strike!”

Just like Gyu-hak said, I start the count by jamming a sinker [a type of fastball that dips downward] on the outside corner. He doesn’t even flinch, showing his resolve not to swing rashly.

Rashly? How dare he.

I get the sign I want on just the second signal. If I tickle him gently, he’ll follow along with a ‘heu-eung’ [a Korean onomatopoeia, similar to ‘uh-huh’].

Just by slightly covering my index finger over my thumb, I can easily transform into a changeup grip [a grip used for throwing a slower pitch].

Come to think of it, I’ve become quite bold myself. To throw this kind of garbage ball so,

“Eup!”

Carefree.

The spot Go Dong-wook likes is slightly outside from the center. The batter’s eyes waver as he watches the ball flying accurately towards that spot.

Is it a bluff? Or is it real?

From the batter’s perspective, a swing and a miss is sometimes more beneficial in many ways.

Thwack-!

Like right now.

If he hits the ball with a swing that lacks confidence, all he’ll get is an infield ground ball.

The weakly hit ball rolls slowly towards Seong-hoon hyung [hyung is a Korean term for ‘older brother’ used by males].

“Third, dash!”

“Throw immediately!”

No matter what people shout around him, Seong-hoon hyung knows best.

How many meters before the ball he needs to shorten his stride.

Whether to catch it in front of his right foot or beside his left foot.

Whether to catch it with his glove or barehanded.

Seong-hoon hyung, who shortened his steps with quick footwork about 2m before the ball, quickly snatched it barehanded the moment it passed beside his left foot.

In that brief moment, just one step, as his left foot that touched the ground lifts and his right foot lands, he gets ready to throw.

A throwing posture close to an underhand, without even straightening his back properly.

The throw, drawing a low trajectory, ends up slamming right in front of the first baseman,

Thud-!

Ki-sung, who hadn’t taken his eyes off the throw for a moment, scraped the ground with his left arm.

“Out!”

Nice scoop!

“Whoa! Nam Ki-sung, you can do this too!”

“Gotta do this to make a living.”

Wooheehee, with that expression, Ki-sung passed the ball to Myung-jin. After watching the infielders’ rounding and replenishing his rosin for a moment,

Batter number 2, Kang!! Dae!! Hyun!!

The appearance of batter number 2 forced me to turn around.

Come to think of it, I seem to have faced Kang Dae-hyun quite a few times. What’s also interesting is that even before ‘that day,’ my compatibility against him wasn’t very good.

“Hmm.”

Got him.

The algorithm of a pitcher with good mentality runs very simply.

When they see a batter who hits well, they think like this: Then he won’t hit well this time.

When they see a batter who doesn’t hit well, they think like this: Then he won’t hit well this time either.

Looking at Kang Dae-hyun, who consistently gives me good experiences, I also had a thought closer to the latter.

Then I can brag that I’m a pitcher with a good mentality wherever I go.

Bang-!

“Strike!”

The fastball, thrown straight into the body from the first pitch without any worries, was called a strike.

A glance at the scoreboard to check the speed, then my gaze went straight to Gyu-hak’s finger.

Outside slider, okay.

Bang-!

“Ball!”

Kang Dae-hyun only flinched, and let out a sigh of relief when the umpire made the one-syllable call.

Don’t let your guard down until it’s over, didn’t you learn that?

Uuuuu-!!

Towards Gyu-hak, who was pointing at him, the first base umpire answered by clenching his right hand.

Kang Dae-hyun, belatedly realizing that fact, glared at the first base umpire, but there was nothing he could do.

So, with a 0-2 count, what should I throw? Personally, I want to throw a ridiculous ball.

A splitter that bounces in from the body [a type of pitch thrown with the ball wedged between the fingers].

Gyu-hak’s calling is very pleasing to me today. He’s pinpointing exactly the ball I want.

Nodding with a smiling face, I tucked the ball between my two fingers.

The only one who knows the truth that the appearance changes without any movement of the glove is,

Thud-!

“Swing, swing!”

Only Gyu-hak, who has perfectly finished preparing for the block.

As I slammed it into the ground as desired, Kang Dae-hyun happily swung and missed. After confirming that it bounced, he tries to run to first base, but,

“Out.”

Without even going to first base, Gyu-hak quickly picked up the ball and tagged Kang Dae-hyun, lighting up the second red light.

Batter number 3, Hong! Seok! Jin!!

Receiving a new ball and applying rosin, I looked at the next batter to appear.

Indifference.

How many more at-bats will the batter, who has announced his retirement at the end of this season, have?

One thing is certain, if we narrow the scope to the regular season, this at-bat will be his last.

If I were to take the mound for the last time, would I be able to maintain such composure?

Gyu-hak, examining Hong Seok-jin’s intentions, requested a fastball to the body. The meaning would be to overwhelm him with his physical weakness.

“…Ggeuk!”

Bang-!

“Strike!”

Even as I threw, I could clearly see it. Just like Go Dong-wook earlier, he watched the fastball without any movement.

But the difference between the two is that Go Dong-wook was expressing that he wouldn’t rush in rashly, and Hong Seok-jin,

Thwack-!

Simply filtered it out because it was a ball he didn’t want.

“Foul!”

After the fastball to the body, I tried throwing a sinker to the outside, and it had an immediate effect.

It was a well-hit ball, but it became a foul, and I succeeded in creating an extreme count once again.

Looking fastball to the body, a foul that slightly deviated from the left field line on the outside sinker. And… what’s next?

Gyu-hak requested a changeup on the outside. The idea was to steal the timing with a similar-looking but much slower ball, since he had timed it for the faster one.

Nodding to show agreement, my index finger was once again covered over my thumb.

“Eut!”

A kind of feint motion.

The changeup, thrown with my head turned away to express ‘I’m throwing with all my might!’,

“Ball-.”

Was easily thwarted. Receiving the return ball, I bit my lip and thought. Should I just jam it in?

A high fastball to the body.

But the catcher was asking for a ball that was almost a brush ball. I wondered if it would have any meaning, but since Gyu-hak’s sense was good today, I decided to follow along.

“Ggeuek!”

If the last one was a feint motion, this one is real.

Bang-!

I really threw the fastball so hard that my head turned away. Because of that, I quickly shifted my briefly lost vision towards the batter.

“Ball.”

And I was disappointed.

Hong Seok-jin simply added another ball by slightly pulling his head back.

Unexpected results came out, but the veteran catcher didn’t panic at all and immediately sent the next sign.

The same ball as the first pitch.

The intention seemed to be that if it was a ball that Hong Seok-jin had filtered out before, he could cut it off here. Okay.

“Hoo….”

A 1-2 count. It’s still a count that favors the battery, but if I slip up here, I don’t know what the flow will be like afterwards.

I have to put it in. Even if I get a hit, I have to put it in.

Wait. Just for a moment. Just a moment.

The darkened vision for a deep breath brightened. Even within that, everything is mosaic-processed, but only one thing,

“Euk!”

Gyu-hak’s white mitt is clear.

Thwack-!

“Foul-.”

Aimed shot?

It became a foul, but it wasn’t an ambiguous swing at all. Rather, it was such a well-hit ball that it became a foul that passed by Ki-sung.

Something’s off.

The five fingers that felt a strange sensation traveled up the stairs from the glove to the shoulder.

I knew after trying to throw a splitter to Kang Dae-hyun a little while ago.

Today is a day when the splitter works. It’s not a compatibility issue with Kang Dae-hyun, but today’s splitter itself is a good one.

“Heup!”

The ball that popped out from the grip, which was narrower than usual, draws a trajectory that is a little more similar to a fastball.

Paang-!

A ball that was missing about one and a half from the bottom line. I felt anew that it was a day for the splitter.

But,

“…Ball!”

Hong Seok-jin picked it out without the slightest movement. The way he looked at me after taking his eyes off the catcher’s mitt was like,

‘So, what’s next?’

That’s how it felt like he was asking.

“I’m going crazy.”

Returning the ball and walking back to the mound, the heartfelt words were not my intention.

And in the meantime, it was my intention to turn my body towards the scoreboard so that the opposing team wouldn’t see my mouth shape.

Curve? A curve at this timing is meaningless.

Changeup? It won’t work.

Fastball? I think I’ll get hit with a fastball.

Sinker? If it’s a sinker….

“Not bad.”

I nodded at the outside sinker sign. It was an action prompted by the judgment that it would give a sufficient reaction and a sufficient result.

“Euk!”

Thwack-!

“Foul!”

Once again, a foul heading towards the left fielder’s line. He’s definitely showing a reaction. Should I play on the outside?

Thwack!

The fastball thrown to the outside afterwards was a slightly mis-hit foul. I wondered if it lacked stickiness, so I fiddled with the rosin.

Once the white makeup became sufficient, I slammed it onto the ground with a pak! sound and stepped on the plate again.

Let’s review the balls thrown to Hong Seok-jin.

Fastball, sinker, changeup, fastball, fastball, splitter, sinker, fastball.

And this is the 9th pitch. I’m planning to throw a breaking ball that I haven’t thrown against Hong Seok-jin yet.

“Seong-moon! Ki-sung too!”

Before throwing, I took my foot off the plate and simply adjusted the positions of my left infielders.

As the positions were adjusted with a few gestures, I threw the pitch that was signaled from my side.

“Heut!”

Slider [a pitch that curves sideways].

The calculation was that if it was a slider digging in from the body, the left infielders would scoop up a pulled hit, even if it wasn’t a swing and a miss.

Bang!

“Boall-.”

F***!

There was movement, but it was hard to see it as a swing.

Gyu-hak, who still had lingering feelings, pointed to Seong-hoon hyung’s side, but the 3rd base umpire only spread both hands wide to the left and right.

That action felt like an embrace for the Sangsoo Tigers, and my mood dropped for a moment.

This feeling that I’m feeling after a long time. I don’t feel perverted emotions like this game is fun or exciting.

The feeling right now is closer to,

Baseball is f***ing with me!

I felt the need for a different kind of ball combination than before.

What kind of ball would be good?

While picking out Gyu-hak’s signs several times, the index finger and middle finger briefly traveled back and forth between the shoulder and elbow.

“Hoo….”

Let’s throw a fastball to the high outside. Inside the zone….

“Ak!”

Get in there!

Bang-!

The fastball, flying in the desired direction, was caught in Gyu-hak’s mitt and remained still. However,

“Ball!”

I got a ball call.

That’s a ball?

Seeing a call that would make Sim Bong-sa cry [referencing a character known for complaining about ball calls], my eyeballs grew even bigger as much as he couldn’t open his eyes.

“Time, time!”

“Time-!”

No….

Just before something was about to get out of hand, Gyu-hak skillfully cut off the flow with a time and ran towards the mound.

Because of that, the steps filled with protest stopped in place.

“Hey, was that a ball?”

“It was a bit… ambiguous. Hong Seok-jin picked it out well.”

“Wasn’t it in?”

“Well, you know how it is. It was missing half of half a ball.”

“……”

“Now it’s Park Hae-jin.”

What’s done is done. Let’s focus on what we can do right now, what we have to do.

What Gyu-hak said was a condensed version of the lines I usually chanted like a mantra.

“Should we just walk him [intentionally walk the batter]?”

“No, just….”

“Yes.”

“Let’s go with the gut.”

“…The gut?”

“Yeah. Either way, it ends if we stop him.”

“That’s right.”

“Even if a pinch runner goes out, he won’t run. It ends if we just catch Park Hae-jin. Somehow, let’s try to catch him somehow.”

“Can we catch him?”

The strange catcher’s heart, demanding spoilers about the result, was the same as my heart.

I met Park Hae-jin’s eyes as he stood next to the plate, staring at me intently. I didn’t avoid Park Hae-jin’s eyes as he looked at me.

Because of the eyes that were further emphasized by the mouth covered by the glove, I spoke with chewed-up pronunciation.

“I’ll catch him.”

“I’ll believe you.”

Thud-

Gyu-hak, who tapped my chest with his mitt, ran back to home plate. Even in the midst of that, the staring contest with Park Hae-jin continued.

Batter number 4, Paak!! Hae!! Jiin!!

Waaaaaak-!!

Staring contest?

No, now it’s time to win the real fight. If we narrow the scope to the most recent two at-bats, his batting average against me is 0.

I can definitely catch him. I’ll catch him somehow. Catch him and,

“Play!”

I’ll go to the Korean Series first.