Pitcher’S End, Batter’S Start [EN]: Chapter 191

The game began, and the Braves took an early lead in the bottom of the 4th inning with a two-run homer by Joey Fredman. The Reds only managed to score one run by the top of the 6th, putting the Braves ahead 2-1.

However, proving they were a team with real staying power, the Cincinnati Reds didn’t allow any further runs, keeping the score close and the game tense, with a comeback always a possibility.

[Lee has been showing slightly disappointing performance lately. In this game, he hit fly balls to the right fielder in both his first and second at-bats.]

[Actually, it’s strange to call it disappointing. Even based on his recent performance, he’s still in the top tier of the league. However, his long hit power seems to have decreased a bit.]

Amidst all this, Lee Jung-woo continued to show somewhat disappointing performance, making the fans’ hearts sink. Consecutive ground balls. Fans watched him in the dugout with bated breath as Lee Jung-woo recorded only weak outfield flies that the right fielder could easily catch.

“Is there really something wrong? His hits have definitely been shorter lately…”

“It’s all because of Pratt. Why did he even hold that weird event, putting pressure on Lee for no reason? Stupid blockhead.”

“Hey, hey, isn’t blaming Pratt for this a bit much? He was trying to do something for Lee.”

“What problem? Are you guys even Braves fans? Are you watching Lee’s games? Isn’t it his usual thing to suddenly start hitting home runs like a ghost?”

“I guess so.”

Even while blaming the hapless Pratt, the fans didn’t complain too much about Lee Jung-woo’s slump, which wasn’t really a slump.

In the first place, his performance wasn’t bad enough to warrant criticism.

“His defense is the same, though, right?”

“Watching Lee sometimes brings tears to my eyes. To have such a shortstop in the farm system and raise him as a pitcher, and then use guys like Darren in the league…”

“You shouldn’t even compare him to Darren. Lee would feel terrible if he heard that.”

“Speaking of Darren and Lee, it’s a relief that Garzza is gone too. Didn’t he go to Texas? What’s he doing now? Still making errors on defense?”

“Designated hitter.”

“Those American bastards are lucky. If we had the designated hitter rule, we could have just used him for that and kept him on the team.”

“Why are we even talking about those guys? Lee just needs to keep doing well. Just wait, he’ll hit one soon.”

To Braves fans, who were used to shortstops and infield defense filled with errors, just seeing his defensive skills every inning and the solid infield defense based on it was enough to be satisfied.

So, the home fans were slightly worried, but not too concerned. And Lee Jung-woo was ready to erase even that small worry and ruin the expectations of the pitcher who had been holding him in check so far.

“Lee, is this okay? You need to hit a home run!”

“What was it, they say in the East they gather something called ‘ki’ [life energy or vital force]. Isn’t that what Lee’s doing? Saving it up to hit them all at once on his birthday.”

“Hush, you lowly commoners, how dare you. Just wait! Don’t doubt Lee! He is the one who will fill the majestic Truist Park with his name and the flag of his country!”

Peterson, Rollins, and others joked with Lee Jung-woo, who was slowly swinging in the batting cage like he was back to basics, as if doing tee-ball.

The faces leaning over the dugout, watching Lee Jung-woo and chuckling, seemed to be trying to lighten Lee Jung-woo’s mood, which didn’t look good, with a playful atmosphere. But in reality, it was closer to just teasing him.

Even among such teammates, Lee Jung-woo calmly checked his swing, glanced at the field as if roughly positioning himself, and then removed the donut ring [a weighted ring] he had put on the bat to add weight.

“How about it? Will this at-bat be okay?”

“Yeah, well, it’s the same as always. If one hits, they’ll come back.”

“Okay, then I’ll be out there first again, so have you, not Joey, bring me home.”

Lee Jung-woo nodded slightly at Derek’s words and then looked at the opposing starting pitcher, who was still on the mound.

From the bottom of the 1st inning to the bottom of the 5th inning, the pitcher’s record was 6 strikeouts, 2 hits, 1 walk, and 1 home run allowed, and 2 runs given up. Perhaps because of his effective pitching, the pitcher, who had looked at him warily at the beginning of the game, now had a stable expression on his face.

‘Looking at the number of pitches, this inning will probably be his last…’

Even though his form had declined overall, he had effectively blocked most of the powerful Braves lineup, except for Joey’s two-run homer, so Lee Jung-woo watched the pitcher with a relaxed face and then drew a curve at the corner of his mouth.

‘Let’s at least ruin his quality start [a game in which a starting pitcher pitches at least six innings and allows three or fewer earned runs].’

####

[Bottom of the 6th, with a runner on second base and no outs, Jung-woo Lee comes to the plate for his third at-bat of the game. He is 0-for-2 in this game, with two outfield flies.]

[His hitting has been disappointing, as the record shows, so I’m curious to see how this at-bat will go. Actually, his compatibility with the pitcher isn’t that bad?]

[Yes, the pitcher doesn’t have an effective slider, and his speed is around 91-2 miles. However, his pitch quality is good, so it seems to be working well in this game.]

As he trudged to the plate, the gazes and loud cheers sent from all directions scattered like flower petals and greeted him.

The catcher glanced at Lee Jung-woo, who entered the plate carrying those gazes, and then stared blankly ahead as if he had cut off his nerves.

‘He’s openly ignoring me. One hit, or even a sacrifice fly, would mean a run. Well, I’ve definitely been lacking a lot lately.’

Of course, he wasn’t happy with his recent performance either. 9 hits in 9 games. That’s about one hit per game.

However, if you go into more detail, in his case, he’s the second batter, so he usually gets at least four at-bats per game, so he also recorded 7 walks in 4 at-bats, so in terms of at-bats, it’s far from lacking, and it’s fair to say that he’s performing well considering the position of shortstop.

‘Since Athletics, it’s .290 with an on-base percentage of .420. Actually, that’s a little closer to normal.’

In the case of a shortstop, the position is used as a starter even if the OPS [On-Base Plus Slugging] is below .700, assuming that he defends well.

So, if he has a batting average of .290 and an on-base percentage of .400 during 9 games, it’s good, not bad, and it’s fair to say that it’s close to excellent.

‘But that’s not the case. But I’m not a table setter either.’

However, as with everything, there was a standard that existed for each person. If he was an ordinary shortstop and a type close to a table setter [a player whose primary job is to get on base for other players to drive in], there would be no problem, but isn’t that not the case?

A player who boasted an OPS of over 1.00 and a batting average in the mid-.400s is suddenly recording a performance that has been cut by almost half.

Furthermore, his slugging percentage, which was the most popular as a slugger, was only .300 with 7 singles and 2 doubles. There was a big problem.

His home run pace was also a pace, but the production of long hits itself suddenly dropped.

“Strike.”

[The first pitch went right in. It was a 92-mile fastball.]

[Yes, even though he has a lot of pitches, his pitch quality is still good, so considering Lee’s recent drop in power, he may be able to induce another ground ball.]

As a result, some people were worried, and the possibility of injury, which had always been raised along with drug rumors whenever Lee Jung-woo was in a slump, not just a simple decrease in stamina, was also raised.

The Braves’ controversy over the overuse of promising players is also constantly being raised. It means that they are overworking a player who is only 21 years old and about the age of a college student, who will be celebrating his birthday soon…

‘That’s bullshit. I’ve even been injured before, so there’s no way I’d overdo it just because the club told me to, but I haven’t been hitting well lately. It’s subtly off.’

There’s no particular problem. It’s not that there’s a problem with the batting itself, because the ball itself was hit well. This was also evident from the fact that he was still maintaining a significantly low number of strikeouts even in the midst of a slight shortage.

Lee Jung-woo thought that the current problem was just a slump in hitting that all hitters experience, and he had already expected it.

“Ball.”

[Circle changeup, it looked like he was just testing the waters. He endured it well.]

[In this case, Lee is intelligent. He must be a little impatient, but he knows what he can do right now. His slugging percentage is very disappointing, but his on-base percentage is decent right now.]

Originally, form is like a roller coaster, and if it soars to the end of the sky, it naturally goes down. Lee Jung-woo himself used to catch hitters in such situations before his regression.

So, he wasn’t too worried. He was just focused on the immediate game.

In these cases, as he told Derek in the dugout, once one starts to hit, they start to explode again.

‘The problem is contact, or more precisely, the accuracy of hitting has decreased. But…’

“Strike!”

[Oh, he was bold. He put it almost in the middle. It went right in.]

[Even if it’s a dangerous course, it’s courage that comes from the belief that he won’t lose to Lee’s power with his current pitch quality.]

[Now the count is two and one, Lee is cornered.]

‘Why are they making a mistake?’

Lee Jung-woo looked at the pitcher.

Unlike the catcher, who was closer to ignoring him, he still seemed wary, and he seemed to be careful himself, but Lee Jung-woo thought the Reds’ battery [pitcher and catcher] was the same.

They were firmly mistaken that his problem was power right now.

[Pitcher winds up-!]

‘Even if the accuracy is low-‘

Lee Jung-woo’s eyes flashed.

The distractions that had swirled in his head for a moment disappeared, and the noise of the noisy stadium penetrated his deafened ears again.

Along with the sound he made while holding his breath, and the sound of the long bat cutting through the air.

‘I can get over this much.’

Paah-

The clear hitting sound that he hadn’t heard in a long time hit his eardrums, with the catcher’s long sigh, which he couldn’t hold back, as background music.

The ball flew far away. After briefly glancing at the face of the pitcher who had dropped his head, he left home plate, extending his arms to the spectators who stood up like waves with each of his steps.

‘Is this the nineteenth?’

The 47th career home run.

Considering that he had only played for two seasons, and even if you consider the actual period, from June to September last year, and from April to now this year, since he had only recorded it for a little less than 7 months, it could be said to be a truly terrifying pace.

In fact, if he played without any problems until his late thirties, some fans and the media seriously said that he could break Cal Ripken Jr.’s record for most home runs by a shortstop and exceed 500 home runs.

In the case of these local fans, who have a strong fan base for Lee Jung-woo, they even said that he could surpass A-roid’s [Alex Rodriguez’s] record, who played as a shortstop and third baseman.

‘It’s too far away. It’s only my second year, and no one knows how things will turn out.’

He himself thought it was absurd, but anyway, the expectations that the player Lee Jung-woo gave were that high.

And after a brief wait, Lee Jung-woo, who had once again satisfied that, lightly high-fived his teammates who were welcoming him and said.

“At this point, you have no complaints even if I throw a grand birthday party, right?”

“Hey~ When have we ever had complaints? We were just teasing you. Should we keep teasing you? It looks like you’re going to hit 30 home runs before the first half. How about it, should I talk a little more?”

“A guy who hits 19 home runs during the first half can’t say anything even if he rents out the entire stadium to throw a party. You crazy bastard.”

“I thought he was going to rest for a while… but he still has a lot of strength left, a lot left.”

The teammates were just tongue-tied at the one hit that came back like a ghost, always sending him looks as if they were looking at a strange creature.

####

[Out at first base! The Reds fail to come back, and the Braves take Game 1 with a score of 5-2.]

The home two-game series against the Cincinnati Reds. The winner of the first game held in front of the fans was the Braves.

The victory itself was pleasing, but there was one more element that Braves fans could be happy about besides that.

“See! What did I tell you? Sanders, that’s why you can’t do it. You have to believe in Lee and wait like me-”

“Who was it who said we should catch Pratt and beat him to death?”

“Ahem, ahem, well, about the past…”

“I told you he’d hit one! He’s going to start hitting them again from now on, so just sit back and watch!”

“I was a little nervous because it was a one-point difference, but wow! Lee is really the main character, the main character. Look at him hitting one at the most important time.”

Just the fact that Lee Jung-woo’s silent bat hit his long-awaited 19th home run of the season was enough to make the fans feel relieved enough to not even care about the victory.

In addition, he recorded a walk and a double in the two at-bats that followed, achieving a decent record, which made them feel even more satisfied.

As much as the fans were happy, Lee Jung-woo himself was quite satisfied with the game.

“Is it back?”

“Yes, it’s back properly.”

“They said it was an injury, or that he raised his form too quickly because he was a rookie. I’m curious to see what they’ll say now.”

He could feel that the home run acted like a priming water [something that prepares or enables something else], raising the hitting feel that had gone down.

As such, it was a satisfying and happy day for the Braves organization, the fans, and Lee Jung-woo personally. But there was only one problem. It was the overly diligent stadium staff and clubby [clubhouse attendant].

“Oh! Lee, you were in the locker room. I was worried because I thought you had already left. You’re going straight home, right?”

“Yes, I don’t have any plans and I’m a little tired. Is there anything you want to ask me? Oh, did I leave my uniform to be dry cleaned? Then-”

“No, it’s not that, but a front desk employee asked me to give this to you. He told me to give it to Lee after the game. It looks like it’s steaming, so it’ll be warm even after you get home. Haha, I’m Mexican, so I can’t get used to the smell, but it’s your hometown food, so it’ll be perfect for Lee’s taste. You must be hungry from hitting a home run. Enjoy your meal.”

“Ah…”