Pitcher’S End, Batter’S Start [EN]: Chapter 249

[Jungwoo Lee’s 46th home run of the season! Only four more until 50! And! With this home run, he ties Joe DiMaggio for the most home runs in a season by a 22-year-old! Also, with this solo home run, he moves up another spot in the RBI [Runs Batted In] rankings! Of course, this is an all-time record, not just for this season!]

Orange County is an affluent area, with many retirees, so Angel Stadium is usually quiet, but it was especially so now.

People were silent, beyond just being speechless, and some spectators were so quiet they were startled by their own sighs.

“Just like I heard… he’s amazing.”

“Tsk, the front office should bring in someone like that instead of wasting money on useless players.”

“What a sight. Getting hit with a leadoff home run right from the first inning.”

Only after Lee Jungwoo finished his base running did the spectators exhale the deep breaths they had been holding, along with their annoyed grumbling.

Even though they’re still doing well in the division, the team hasn’t felt the same for the past few years. Still, they come to the stadium out of habit. But today, the start was unpleasant.

Perhaps that’s why the guy who made that unpleasant start kept lingering in their minds, even after he had gone into the dugout and finished high-fiving his teammates.

“We still have some ammunition left, right? Shouldn’t we try to target him? He’s a shortstop, right? They say he’s good at defense too?”

“Yeah, I saw the highlights on TV all the time. He’s really good.”

“What? That guy’s a shortstop? He looks taller than Trout, but he plays shortstop?”

“Watch some TV. All the media is talking about him. Don’t you know that?”

“What a rude punk. How old is he to be throwing his bat like that? It’s not even the postseason.”

“Everyone does that these days. And actually, Trout was too quiet. Other guys used to do bat flips all the time.”

The spectators clicked their tongues and tried to find fault with him, but still feeling annoyed or envious, they just pouted. When the inning ended and the teams switched sides, they lashed out at the batters returning to the dugout.

“Come on, turn it around! Show us some power!”

“Schmidt! You’re better, so don’t be intimidated. Hit one out too!”

“Don’t back down, show us what you’ve got!”

After venting their emotions, they seemed to calm down, and Angel Stadium returned to silence after a bit of noise. As the opposing team’s players busily switched positions, the spectators’ eyes darted around again.

They looked at the batters with anticipation or glared at them with sullen eyes, and they also glared at the opposing team’s starting pitcher on the mound.

Everyone was looking in different directions according to their own thoughts, but one thing was certain: a significant number of eyes were fixed on the player standing between third and second base.

“Looking at his height, he should be a first baseman, third baseman, or outfielder.”

“I heard he used to be a pitcher. He switched to being a batter because of a shoulder injury.”

“So that’s why he’s so big? Wait, but he used to be a pitcher and now he’s playing shortstop?”

‘So, you’re getting all-time level evaluations? Let’s see how good you really are. We’ve already seen a player like that before,’ the spectators were thinking.

Or maybe they just wanted Lee Jungwoo to show some flaws in his defense, so they could forget about his earlier home run.

But one thing was certain: everyone in Angel Stadium of Anaheim, that huge stadium, was watching just one person.

####

The game continued, and thanks to the early lead they gained in the first inning, the Braves maintained their advantage until the later half of the game, the 6th inning.

[Gerry Winters! He hits! But – out! The Braves’ attack in the top of the 6th inning ends.]

After the Braves’ attack in the top of the 6th inning ended, the score was 4-1. Still, it was a score that could be overturned at any time, so the players went out to the field for defense with the utmost caution.

Lee Jungwoo, who was also coming out of the dugout with his teammates and heading to his position, eventually shook his head at the gazes that followed his every step.

‘When one side quiets down, the other side gets worse.’

The center fielder, Henry Schmidt, who had been glaring at him, seemed to have lessened his gaze after the home run, but the spectators were looking at him even more intensely.

The number of eyes watching him had increased even more than before, and now it felt like his whole body was being poked by sharp objects.

‘Is it because of the bat flip?’

Lee Jungwoo glanced at the stands and met the eyes of a spectator who was staring at him as if his neck would break. He didn’t know what thoughts were in his head, but it felt like he was burning up.

However, he couldn’t keep paying attention during the game, so Lee Jungwoo reluctantly ignored it and focused on his defense, just like he had been doing.

‘I was a little worried because there are a lot of right-handed hitters, but there are a lot of fly balls. It fits the trend. It’s almost boring…’

Of the hitters from number 1 to number 8, excluding the number 9 pitcher’s spot, six of the Angels’ hitters were right-handed. But he had only caught the ball twice during today’s game.

Even those were just weakly rolling ground balls. Perhaps that’s why Lee Jungwoo kept moving his body slightly to prevent it from stiffening.

[Bottom of the 6th. Angels’ leadoff hitter, number 1 batter Michael Bowden, is up to bat. He has recorded one strikeout and one groundout today.]

The number 1 hitter filled the batter’s box. He was a second baseman and one of the few left-handed hitters on the Angels. Although he was a table setter [a player whose job is to get on base for the power hitters], he was an extreme pull hitter [a batter who tends to hit the ball to the same side of the field as their batting stance].

‘Still, he can’t completely push the ball to the opposite field, so I have to be careful.’

With a left-handed hitter and a pull hitter, it could be said that the shortstop is almost always irrelevant, but he watched the match as carefully as possible, just in case. Soon, he was struck out, and he felt relieved as the out count quickly increased, but that didn’t last long either.

The number 2 hitter who came up next dragged out the match.

‘It seems like he’s reading the timing… he’s fouling [hitting the ball out of bounds] easily.’

The match went on to the 10th pitch due to the batter who kept fouling. At this point, it couldn’t be considered a complete loss even if he was out.

So, from the pitcher’s point of view, it would be a huge loss if he couldn’t get him out after wasting so many pitches.

And the worst thing is…

“Base on balls!” [A walk]

[Outside! The batter stopped his bat, and the ball came in. Hmm – this is… a bit ambiguous, but it’s a ball, right?]

[Yes, it was slightly outside. The batter held back well.]

Giving up a walk to the batter after dragging it out this far. A walk on the 11th pitch. It’s the worst of the worst for the pitcher. A leadoff home run would be less painful.

Lee Jungwoo, who watched the pitcher’s drooping shoulders from behind, glanced at the bench. The pitching coach must have felt the same way, as he immediately ran to the mound.

‘Even though it seems like he’s getting outs economically because there aren’t many hits, he’s actually using a lot of pitches. This is dangerous.’

He had used quite a few pitches, but it wasn’t yet time to replace him, and there were no runners in scoring position, so the pitching coach just comforted him and went back down. But the worry only deepened.

Lee Jungwoo slightly narrowed his brows and looked at the batter taking a few practice swings next to the batter’s box.

‘The opponent is bad too.’

Henry Schmidt. The center fielder who had been slightly dazed by the home run Lee Jungwoo hit in the top of the 1st inning was at the plate. Regardless of how difficult it was for him to be compared to the fans, he was definitely a good hitter. He was a very dangerous hitter in the current situation.

‘He grounded out in the bottom of the 1st, but the quality of the hit was good. And he got a hit in the next at-bat. It was also an extra-base hit. He also scored. His batting sense is slowly improving.’

It’s not a good thing for a good hitter’s form to improve, especially when the score difference isn’t that big and the pitcher is tired.

‘Even if he doesn’t get an RBI [Run Batted In], if he gets another hit this time, he’ll definitely get a feel for it. He’ll probably get another at-bat, so I should cut it off before that.’

The fortunate thing was that Henry Schmidt was one of the many right-handed hitters on the Angels. He was a right-handed batter, so there was room for Lee Jungwoo to intervene.

‘It’s a coincidence that the Angels fans are expecting something. He’s the same center fielder, and he’s also a right-handed hitter, and their styles are similar. That’s probably why he seems like a lower version [of a more famous player].’

Like these subtly similar commonalities, he was a player who also had a definite sense for home runs, so Lee Jungwoo raised his senses.

Mostly a pull hitter. If a great home run like the one he hit in the top of the 1st inning comes out, it would be difficult to catch, but if he could salvage anything else, it would be a good deal.

‘Most of his home runs flew through the left-center field. The launch angle is usually around 28 degrees, properly angled towards the left foul pole.’

The defensive coach must have been thinking the same thing, as he sent a signal. Following the instructions, Lee Jungwoo adjusted his positioning to the left along with the other players and quietly waited for the moment while watching home plate.

As in the previous at-bat, the match didn’t end quickly. The count continued to stop at two and one due to the batter who kept picking balls and fouling them away. The only changes were the increasing number of pitches and the pitcher’s annoyance felt on his shoulders.

‘He’s starting to get rattled. It’s timing.’

Lee Jungwoo could tell because he used to be a pitcher and now he’s a batter. That now was the most appropriate timing.

Perhaps annoyed by the dragging match, the pitcher shook his shoulders vigorously and took his pitching form again and threw the ball. Unlike before, a heavy swing came out, not for fouling the ball.

[He hits!]

A hit that accurately split the ball while cutting through the strike zone. The heavy sound of the hit was as loud as the swing, and the ball that followed the grain of the bat moved sharply like the sound of the hit. But Lee Jungwoo moved a little earlier than that.

‘Right.’

Before the sound of the hit came out, Lee Jungwoo watched the bat clearly and moved. The tens of thousands of eyes that had been briefly moved to the ball also turned to the same spot again.

A momentary noise. Eyes rolling diligently. But other than that, there wasn’t much movement on the ground. The fielders, the batter, and the runner couldn’t take many steps. It was closer to the batter and runner not being able to take steps, rather than not taking them.

[Lee jumps! Caught it – caught it – back to 1st! Safe at first!]

Lee Jungwoo took two more steps to help him run to the right from his perspective, that is, to the left of the field, and that was enough. The rest was taken care of by his outstretched left arm.

A clean out call. Lee Jungwoo, who caught the amazing hit and immediately threw to first base without resting, slightly narrowed his brows as if he was disappointed that he couldn’t even catch the runner. But he was the only one making that expression in this stadium.

Everyone else was tearing at their hair, and some of the Braves players were laughing it off while patting their chests.

“Uh… home run…”

“Wasn’t the hit… fast? He caught that like that?”

“Is it because he’s a pitcher? His arm is long… he caught that?”

“Let’s say his arm is long because he’s a pitcher. Then what about his jump height? What, did he used to be a high jumper before he was a pitcher?”

The people who were pulling out their non-existent hair were still dumbfounded even after calming down a bit, and they muttered exclamations that weren’t exclamations, like goldfish opening and closing their mouths.

If the shortstop, Lee Jungwoo himself, had roared or smiled contentedly, the shock might have been less. They might have applauded and said, “You’re really amazing.”

But the shortstop, who wasn’t an outfielder, stole a home run and still narrowed his brows as if he was disappointed, which made them speechless. Not even admiration or lamentation came out.

“I deliberately induced it to Lee’s side. You know?”

“Oh, didn’t you make it too easy to catch? Try to induce it more difficultly next time.”

Amidst those reactions, Lee Jungwoo, who had a nonchalant expression as usual, gave a playful response to the pitcher who was making nonsensical jokes after the inning ended, and then scanned the stands again. He nodded in satisfaction at the eyes that were just blankly blinking instead of looking at him.

‘Home run and super catch. The performance is certain. But the next time is the problem.’

As expected, there was no better combination to temporarily quell the ominous gaze. However, the problem was that the next time people who had experienced this met him again, their gazes would become even more intense, and they would even drool.