Pitcher’S End, Batter’S Start [EN]: Chapter 222

Pitcher Over, Batter Up – 221

[Ultimately, the Rangers failed to come back, and the 9th inning ended. The Braves take Game 2.]

[Unlike yesterday, today was a huge slugfest. In the end, the clutch ability of the cleanup hitter determined the game’s outcome.]

[Yes, he’s a really dangerous player. No matter how his previous at-bats went, he’s not someone you can ever underestimate. If he gets a feel for it, he’ll knock it out right away.]

After Lee Jung-woo’s home run, the Rangers failed to rally, and with the score remaining unchanged, the Braves took the victory. Although his overall batting stats were unremarkable except for the home run, Lee Jung-woo was named the MVP [Most Valuable Player] thanks to his excellent defense and the two-run homer that decided the game, earning him boos from the home crowd.

[Jung-woo Lee, 4 at-bats, 1 hit, 1 home run, 3 RBIs (Runs Batted In), 1 walk. Season home run #34.]

[10 home runs in July, Player of the Month is a given?]

[The game-winning hit at the last moment. ‘A player you can’t let your guard down against at any moment’.]

[TEX, Game 2 loss after a comeback attempt! Will they get swept?]

[‘Shackled by the name Lee?’ Todd Baker, silent for two straight games…]

Even after the game, the Rangers fans were in a foul mood. They had been looking forward to a slugfest, a type of game they loved and usually felt confident in.

But the team lost. Their cleanup hitter, Todd Baker, was shut down. And the player who shut him down also recorded the game-winning RBI, complete with a cocky bat flip.

Except for the fact that it was the slugfest they craved, thanks to Texas’ unique macho culture, everything else was irritating. Naturally, they couldn’t stand it.

-I nearly threw my remote through the TV when I saw that bat flip. What a jerk!

-Yesterday, he was sneakily hitting singles and messing with our fielders. Today, he held back and then just crushed a home run.

-Damn, I don’t know whether to admit he’s good or just call him an a**hole.

The perceived sneaky plays he pulled in both games infuriated the macho Texans. Once they were upset, everything he did seemed designed to provoke them.

Even though Lee Jung-woo’s home run was something they had anticipated before the game, the reaction was lukewarm.

In fact, it was almost comical. Posts with pictures of cracked or broken TVs or computers, casualties of thrown mice or remotes, flooded the internet immediately after the game. And the vast majority of those posts originated from Texas IP addresses.

[Lee Jung-woo, 3 at-bats, 1 hit, 2 walks, 3 stolen bases! Table setter today?]

[Game score 5 to 2, Braves win the series with a Game 3 loss.]

[Todd Baker, 2 hits, 3 RBIs. Records the game-winning RBI!]

[The strongest lineups in both leagues! The winner of that showdown is the Braves.]

Fortunately, the Rangers won the subsequent Game 3, saving face, and the fans’ anger quickly subsided. Since this was the last time the two teams would meet until the World Series, or perhaps three years from now, their emotions calmed down more easily than expected.

And as they looked back with a cooler head, Lee Jung-woo’s plays, which had initially seemed underhanded because they were hoping for long hits and home runs, appeared in a new light.

In particular, the belated admiration of those who re-watched Game 1, where he consistently hit the ball where the fielders weren’t, temporarily dominated the Texas Rangers fan community.

-I thought he was being sneaky when I watched Game 1 live. But he’s just amazing. He hit the ball well based on the adjusted defensive positioning. I was impressed without even realizing it after watching the replay.

-Another word for sneakiness is cleverness. Looking back now, Lee played it smart. He’s good at hitting singles, so there’s no need to try and send the ball to the outfield, where there’s a high chance of getting caught.

-Honestly, I was disappointed because it wasn’t the type of play I expected. But looking back, he just played incredibly well.

-His hitting is great, and his fielding is damn good too. He’s really a true five-tool player [a player who excels at hitting for average, hitting for power, running, fielding, and throwing].

-I’m still pissed about the bat flip, but he showed clutch ability when the team needed it in Game 2. I don’t really like the term “clutch hitter,” but it’s perfect for him.

Now that he was no longer directly opposing them, they began to appreciate him again. So the atmosphere, which had been friendly and then turned hostile, shifted once more. Texas was reacting in a similar way to most of the teams that Lee Jung-woo had played against.

-When I was young, my grandfather said he would rather never watch baseball again than trust another Korean. But… I took a look at him this time, and I think it’s time for him to stop watching baseball. He cheers for Texas with his mouth, but he can’t take his eyes off Lee.

-Why is it that other teams’ Koreans are always so tempting?

-When that other team’s Korean becomes our Korean, they strangely underperform.

-There are only two possible outcomes. Shouldn’t we believe one more time?

-There’s still a long way to go until free agency. Let’s save up little by little from now on and try to win the bidding war again. If we bid on three, one will succeed.

Hating him to death, then falling in love with him.

In particular, those who watched the game live at the stadium, rather than on TV, had a 100% conversion rate. Even among the hooligans who claimed they would not hesitate to confront Lee Jung-woo if they ran into him, there were those who secretly whispered Lee Jung-woo’s name and dreamed of him wearing a Phillies uniform, so there was no need to even mention the Texas Rangers.

It would be an understatement to say that the word “Korean,” which felt like a cursed word to Texas Rangers fans, looked a little less offensive. And the Braves fans were extremely wary of the subtly changing atmosphere.

-The Texas guys are slowly falling for Lee’s charm. Damn it. This is not good for us!

-Why does Lee always seem to cultivate his own personal fan base within other clubs? It’s scary.

-Haa… I don’t know why, but it feels like we have more competitors every time we play an away game? I’m really worried about free agency.

The Braves fans, who had previously only frowned when they heard the curses directed at Lee Jung-woo loud and clear on the broadcast, felt even more threatened.

It was as if one more competitor, a big-market competitor, had been added to the list of those they would have to contend with when trying to retain Lee Jung-woo.

Thus, Lee Jung-woo and the Braves, who had created a large number of enemies in Texas, as they always did in away games, and planted their fans among them, left Texas, which had been fierce and then calmed down again, and headed for their next series.

####

After finishing the interleague matchups, the Braves had played 19 of their 24 games in July. The remaining opponents were the Washington Nationals and the New York Mets.

And Braves fans affectionately called those two teams ‘decent pushovers’ and ‘generous pushovers’. Watching the Braves, the fans of the two teams felt that their reckoning had finally arrived.

For this season only, the Braves were particularly brutal against their fellow Eastern Division teams, as they were against almost all major league teams. After finishing the interleague schedule, the fans of the Nationals and Mets watched them return to the East with fearful eyes, while trying to appear nonchalant.

In particular, in the case of the Nationals, who they would meet first, the power imbalance was stark, as it was a match between the bottom of the division and the top team in the entire major league, so the feeling of dread was even stronger.

However, the Nationals were much more resigned than the Mets. They were already in 5th place, and 4th place was the best they could realistically hope for. It was almost impossible to climb any higher.

“Work hard! Just work hard! That’s enough!”

“I’d tell you to win if possible, but just play well. Let’s lose 멋있게 [with style] even if we lose!”

“It’s okay, it’s okay. Don’t be scared! You can lose!”

So even though it was an away game in Washington, and even though it was against a rival team in the same division, the atmosphere was more like watching a minor league game.

“Don’t the fans act like that at minor league games? Work hard! Do well! Beat anyone!”

“Why are they acting so nice?”

“Haha, I’m experiencing this warmth in a divisional away game for the first time in my life.”

Even Lee Jung-woo was taken aback by the home fans, who were so detached from winning or losing that the Braves players, the away team, couldn’t help but chuckle. The reason was simple.

“They’ve basically given up. Frankly speaking, there are people who actively want them to lose.”

“Oh, who was it? Phillips, was it? That NCAA [National Collegiate Athletic Association] shortstop. They’re making a fuss about drafting him next year. Is that why?”

It was a lost season anyway. The fans knew that the time for simply cheering for victory had passed, as they were well aware of the team’s situation.

So they were just watching baseball for entertainment, and like the Cardinals, who had given up earlier and faced the Braves, they were going to dream of a brighter future.

And the Braves, who had been consistently ruining the plans of other teams in the Eastern League, were about to pour salt in the wound of these sweet dreams.

“Tsk- It doesn’t feel right.”

“I know, my body feels a little… sluggish. Why is this happening?”

“Isn’t it because everyone is tired? We came all the way from Texas to Washington, so we must be fatigued.”

“Well… even though the flight was a bit rough, we rested for a day thanks to the day off, so it shouldn’t be enough to cause fatigue.”

The Braves’ overall game sense was somewhat off, as if they had been waiting for the Nationals to make such a choice. This time, they poured salt in the wound in a slightly different way than before.

[Game set! With a score of 6 to 2, the Nationals win Game 3 and hand the Braves their first series sweep loss in July!]

[This is… with this series, the head-to-head record between the top team in the league and the bottom team in the same division is tied. 6 wins and 6 losses.]

[This is the irony of baseball. No matter how strong a Goliath is, he can lose to a David, who is favored by the goddess of victory. Overall, the Braves players seemed sluggish. Even considering that, the Nationals played exceptionally well.]

[The losing streak has continued since Game 3 of the last series, and now it’s a 4-game losing streak. The Braves will be concerned that even ace Mason Looper and Ian Field couldn’t break the losing streak.]

Contrary to expectations that the Braves would win at least a series, and probably sweep the Nationals, the actual result was a clean sweep by the Washington Nationals, which completely defied everyone’s predictions, even the Nationals fans’.

####

[Braves suffer series sweep loss to Nationals!]

[Shocking 4-game losing streak, prelude to a collapse? It’s too early to jump to conclusions!]

[Jung-woo Lee, 15 at-bats, 12 official at-bats, 4 hits, 3 walks, 1 RBI. Stable performance throughout the series despite the team’s sweep loss!]

The Braves suffered a long-awaited sweep loss with 3 losses and no wins.

Even the Braves, who had never recorded a losing series, let alone a sweep loss, in July, either in the first or second half of the season, gave that dubious honor to the Nationals. Of course, even the best teams lose 3-4 times out of 10 in baseball. The shock was significant because it was so unexpected.

Even the Nationals fans, who had resigned themselves to fighting for last place for next year or the future like the Cardinals, were taken aback.

In particular, regarding the pitching rotation, it was somewhat understandable that they lost in Game 1 because it was the 6th starter, but in Games 2 and 3, Braves’ super ace Mason Looper recorded a sluggish performance of 6 innings and 5 runs allowed, and Ian Field, who is considered the other ace, recorded 5 innings and 4 runs allowed, so the Braves fans felt even more dismayed.

[Braves, has the decline finally begun? Will it be downhill from now on?]

[Aftermath of overexertion. The squad’s fatigue is catching up, and they will barely be able to hold on until the expanded roster [when teams are allowed to have more players on their active roster] with their current performance.]

Immediately after the Game 3 loss, the naysayers who were eager for the successful Braves to fail were excited and pounced on them like a pack of hyenas, rehashing the same tired speculations that were now so familiar. Articles praising the winner, the Nationals, were also published one after another, but ironically, the Nationals fans, who had created these amazing results themselves, reacted somewhat lukewarmly.

[‘The Pleasant Rebellion of the Bottom!’ Washington Nationals Sweep ‘MLB No. 1’ Braves!]

[‘Giant Killing’ Nationals Even Head-to-Head Record with Braves!]

-I like giant killing [when an underdog defeats a favorite]. The team that needs to tank [intentionally lose games to get a better draft pick] suddenly raised its win rate and ran away.

-The Braves are really not helpful. I was just about to give up and tank, but they suddenly give us charity and run away.

-No, why do they only lose to us sometimes when they meet us? Now the head-to-head record is tied.

-Why are you guys doing this after winning? We’re pissed off because we lost to you.

-Of course I’m happy because we won. We swept the Braves, but it’s not beneficial in the long run. It’s useless. To be honest, we only have 34 wins, and we’re still 5 games behind the Marlins. But they lose and leave. With this kind of performance, we have to tank by force.

-Especially this season, the wild card competition is almost impossible due to the Giants, Phillies, Texas, and Yankees, so there are quite a few teams that will enter tanking mode in both the NL [National League] and AL [American League]. I’m happy that we swept, but I’m a little annoyed.

The Braves were so frustrated that they were dumbfounded by the ironic situation of being swept out of nowhere and even being scolded by the team that swept them. The Braves fans, who had a sudden cold shower due to the unexpected sweep loss and the 4-game losing streak that continued from the interleague Game 3, expressed their displeasure at the Nationals, who were also angry. The Nationals, who had been wearing colored glasses for a long time, just glared at the Braves.

Saying that it’s really not helpful in many ways.

In this bizarre series where everyone resented each other and everyone was frustrated, the Mets, the Braves’ next opponent, reacted the most. They were already annoyed by the terrible schedule of meeting the Braves twice in July, both in the first and second halves. The unexpected news perked up their ears.

-Maybe it could happen to us too?

-Looking at the highlights, their bodies just look sluggish.

-Honestly, we’re much better than the Nationals, right? And if we’ve lost 8 straight to the Braves, it’s time to win.

-Ha, should I be sad that we’ve lost 8 straight so far, or should I be happy that it’s time to break the streak? We’ve lost a lot.

-Lee looks fine, so I’m a little worried, but it’s really doable this time.

The fear of the Braves, who were annoying, scary, and they wished would disappear, was lessened a little. Also, even though the possibility of the postseason was somewhat slim, the Mets, who were at least holding on to 3rd place in the division and looking down on the Nationals, were naturally confident.

No, the Nationals swept them, they took all three games in the series, so we can definitely take two games, right? That’s what they couldn’t help but think.

-Yeah, the Braves pushed themselves too hard. It’s time for them to get tired.

-Aren’t they going to keep getting tired like this? That would be really great.

-Their performance was abnormal, so yeah, there should be some side effects.

Since June of last year, when the Braves’ great leap forward began.

The Mets’ optimism, which had been mostly dormant, started to surge for the first time in a while. Many Mets fans were lost in happy daydreams. Unfortunately, reality was merciless.