The Pitcher Just Hits Home Runs Well [EN]: Chapter 123

The Pitcher Who’s Good at Hitting Home Runs – Episode 123

123. A Pitcher with Six Tools (4)

-Boom!!

The umpire’s hand didn’t go up. He’d been calling a wide zone today, but it seemed like this was too much. Baek Ha-min bent down and briefly touched the rosin bag.

The past year.

He thought he’d done his best. Considering the high barrier between professional and amateur, a 4.14 ERA [Earned Run Average, a measure of pitching performance] over 41.1 innings in his first year as a pro wasn’t bad at all. But all those thoughts shattered the moment he saw Choi Soo-won play.

Clearly, two years ago.

In high school, despite the one-year age difference, Baek Ha-min considered Choi Soo-won his rival as a hitter. He had actually gotten him out at a crucial moment. And Choi Soo-won as a pitcher? He didn’t even consider him a competitor.

But in one year.

What on earth had happened? Why was there such a big difference between his year and Baek Ha-min’s? Should he have gone back to the States instead of joining the Futures League [Minor league system in Korean baseball] training back then?

Baek Ha-min shook his head.

No, that’s not it. Of course, the difference in training matters, but there’s something much more important.

When did it start?

When did he lose the dream he had as a child of winning three consecutive MVP [Most Valuable Player] awards, going to the majors, winning the Cy Young [Award for best pitcher], and being inducted into the Hall of Fame?

Was it last year, when he came to the pros and was just trying to survive? Or was it after he got to high school and became more aware of reality? Or was it from the moment he stopped saying it out loud?

He envied Choi Soo-won for casually talking about Rookie of the Year and MVP awards.

And he hated him.

Perhaps someone who dismissed his childhood dreams as delusions felt the same way. That’s why he was so ashamed of having such feelings himself.

Thanks to that, Baek Ha-min’s pillowcase was soaked with tears last night.

It had been a long time since he’d cried.

Baek Ha-min lifted his head.

Low and outside.

A slow slider.

It was already the second time through the lineup. The batters who had seen him once were starting to time their swings better. Cutter or high-speed slider. It meant they only had to choose one. Besides, they had similar trajectories and speeds, so they could probably make contact even if they were expecting a different pitch.

But he had expected all of that. He added a slider to his repertoire. It was almost 10 km/h slower than his high-speed slider. The batter’s timing was completely thrown off.

-Whoosh!!

“Strike!! Out!!”

His first strikeout of the game.

Park Dong-seok stepped up to the plate again.

In his previous at-bat, he had distinguished the difference between the high-speed slider and the cutter and told his teammates in the dugout, but no one had been able to properly attack it. The left-handed hitters had managed to make some weak contact, but unfortunately, there were only two left-handed hitters in the Jaguars’ lineup today. And the worst part was that slider.

Timing is the most difficult thing in batting.

The young pitcher’s modified fastball, or fast slider, is tricky, but you can hit it far enough if you swing hard or get lucky. And even if you don’t, you can still get on base if the fielder makes a mistake. But when your timing is thrown off, there’s no answer.

But it’s the leader’s role to create a path when there is none and find an answer when there is none.

Park Dong-seok gripped his bat tightly.

Park Dong-seok of the Jaguars.

His cheer echoed powerfully from the stands. Over thirteen thousand fans had gathered to watch the game on a weekday. Their cheers gave him strength.

3-4-5.

In baseball, 3-4-5 means a complete hitter. It refers to a batting average of .300, an on-base percentage of .400, and a slugging percentage of .500.

In KBO [Korean Baseball Organization] history, only four players have retired with a career stat line of 3-4-5. Even Lee Gyu-man of the Marines, the KBO’s representative hitter who is retiring this year, has a career stat line of only 3-3-5. And people expect Park Dong-seok to become the fifth player to record a career 3-4-5.

Baek Ha-min on the mound threw the ball.

Outside.

That guy loves the outside corner so obsessively. Park Dong-seok visualized the trajectory in his head. The moving bat stopped.

-Boom!!

The umpire’s hand didn’t go up.

1-0.

The second pitch.

This time, a similar course.

-Boom!!

“Strike!!!”

The umpire’s eyes weren’t wrong.

The previous pitch was a fast slider. And this one was a cutter.

1-1

The third.

This time, it was a little more inside.

Right, no matter how good a pitcher’s condition is, he can’t always throw the ball exactly where he wants it.

-Clang!!!

He tried to pull the ball, tightening his armpit until the last moment. But the ball went over the third base foul line.

1-2.

He gripped the bat short, determined to cut off any decent pitch, and waited for the fourth pitch. Extreme concentration. He could see every detail of the pitcher’s posture on the mound.

High.

-Boom!!

There was no need to swing. It was definitely going to miss.

2-2. He waited for the fifth pitch. Baek Ha-min’s ball was released.

It was perfectly on the corner.

And at that moment, an unknown premonition flashed through Park Dong-seok’s mind.

But after 14 years as a pro, that premonition is more like a sense learned from a lot of data. This is a slow slider.

Park Dong-seok’s bat, which had been about to swing, stopped.

-Boom!!!

Han Gyo-cheol jumped up from his seat and looked at the home plate umpire. The umpire’s finger pointed to the first base umpire, asking if it was a checked swing. But the home plate umpire didn’t call a swing.

3-2, full count.

Baek Ha-min on the mound took off his hat and wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. It was definitely chilly, but the undershirt he had changed into was already soaked with sweat.

[Park Dong-seok briefly steps out of the batter’s box to tighten his gloves.]

[Top of the 4th, one out. The score is 0:0. The count of two strikes and one ball is now a full count!! It’s a tense situation.]

[It’s hard to hit a big one in Jamsil Stadium, but the opponent is Park Dong-seok. He’s a hitter who hits more than 20 home runs with Jamsil as his home field. Baek Ha-min’s caution is understandable.]

Tense atmosphere.

Park Dong-seok took his position in the batter’s box.

And he felt a gaze staring at him intently from the dugout.

It was Choi Soo-won.

He didn’t know why, but the cocky junior was treating him like a child left out in the water, or like a much younger teammate. But for some reason, he felt like if he looked at him once, this tense atmosphere would ease a little.

That’s why he didn’t look at the dugout.

He just steeled himself. He gripped the baseball tightly. He had been thinking about it for a while. He would throw his most confident pitch on a full count.

Childhood.

Baek Ha-min threw the ball towards his idol, who was swinging his bat in a way that wasn’t much different from now.

A 144km/h high-speed slider.

Park Dong-seok swung his bat.

-Clang!!!

To center-right. The ball stretched out towards Jamsil’s vast outfield. Park Dong-seok quickly sprinted towards first base.

[Lee Joo-hyuk!! Lee Joo-hyuk!!]

His trademark is a zigzag defense.

Lee Joo-hyuk, the Marines’ eternal prospect, who is famous for comments like “Giant Lee Joo-hyuk is loading up for 4 home runs” in articles related to the Marines, moved as if he were flying. Some said that the moment Lee Joo-hyuk chose baseball, the Korean track and field world lost a world-class medalist.

Of course, baseball player Lee Joo-hyuk hated that saying. It was like saying he was a player who couldn’t do anything but run.

But now.

Looking at Lee Joo-hyuk running across Jamsil’s wide outfield, it was clear that the Korean track and field world had really lost a big star.

Fast.

Very fast.

The weakness of outfielder Lee Joo-hyuk was just that he sometimes made fatal mistakes in judging fly balls. Other than that, all his other abilities were top-notch. Even just in terms of running, he was the best of all the outfielders in KBO history.

Truly a talent optimized for the wide Jamsil outfield.

His super catch stole Park Dong-seok’s hit.

“Out!!”

[Oh my gosh. Lee Joo-hyuk. That’s really an amazing defense. It’s hard to believe even when you see it with your own eyes.]

[That’s right. Of course, his start wasn’t bad, but his acceleration was really amazing.]

Good defense usually brings good synergy.

Of course, the Marines weren’t a normal team, so their offensive innings continued to be sluggish, but at least they succeeded in not giving up any runs.

6 innings, no runs allowed.

Manager Kim Dae-cheol patted Baek Ha-min on the shoulder himself.

It was a successful debut as a starter.

***

Ha-min hyung’s [older brother or close male friend] expression after finishing his appearance was quite… Well…

It’s a bit much to say this, but yeah, he became a bit annoying. Just like when we met as enemies in high school.

But well, it wasn’t bad.

Socially, he’s my hyung, but my core is thirty-five, no, thirty-seven now that two years have passed since I came back. If I had a nephew, would this be the feeling? It’s like seeing a kid who got a perfect score on a test and came back showing off.

-Clang!!

[Ah!! A batted ball that doesn’t leave the infield. Kang Ra-on catches it and throws to Kim Hoon, Kim Hoon back to Lee Gyu-man!!]

“Out!!!”

[Double out!! The Marines safely overcome the crisis of 1 out and runners on first and second.]

[Wow, both teams are really focused today? The score is still 0:0 after the 7th inning. They’re not giving up any runs easily.]

Even after Ha-min hyung came down from the mound, the game continued to be tight. The Jaguars and our Marines both had sporadic hits, but they didn’t lead to any runs. And as the game went on like that, I could feel that the manager was looking at me more and more often.

Honestly, the bruise was still there where I got hit by the beanball [pitch thrown intentionally at the batter], and there was still some pain, so of course there was a bit of awkwardness in my movements. But baseball is originally about playing through this much.

The weak pitchers make noises about how their fingernails are a little cracked or their necks are stiff, and they try to skip their appearance every five days, but the true baseball players, the hitters, play through muscle strains and inflammation, even broken bones.

I lightly kicked off my seat and swung my shoulder a few times for no reason.

It was an open appeal.

Honestly, if a nephew brings a perfect test score, an uncle should buy him a transforming robot, or if he doesn’t have the money to buy a transforming robot, he should at least buy him a banana milk and stick a straw in it!! That’s just human nature.

Besides, he pitched 6 innings without giving up a run, and even though he already missed his chance to be the winning pitcher, he’d feel very dirty if the game was lost and those 6 innings without giving up a run became meaningless. I know that feeling well. I also felt very dirty after pitching 5.2 innings without giving up a run and getting 2 hits in the last game, but losing the game.

The first batter is number 7, Han Gyo-cheol.

Right, if a guy who can’t even catch the ball is playing catcher, he should at least swing the bat. If he doesn’t show a good performance with the bat now, he’s in a situation where Jo Yu-jin, who’s batting in the .100s, will take his starting catcher position.

Han Gyo-cheol, cheer up… -Whoosh!! “Strike!! Out!!” …la.

It’s okay.

There are still two outs left.

The second batter is Kim Hoon, who is playing second base today. Let’s trust the manager’s judgment that Saul Lopez at shortstop and Kim Hoon at second base is better than Jung Ji-woon at shortstop and Saul Lopez at second base.

-Clang!!

And the time it took for that trust to be betrayed was only 0.4 seconds.

A clean pop-up out on the first pitch.

No, no. It’s actually good.

The next batter, number 9, Lee Joo-hyuk, has finished his quota by stopping that hit today. Expecting anything more than that would be something that neither Lee Joo-hyuk nor the manager himself could do. So, Manager, let’s slowly bring in a pinch hitter here…

-Boom!!

“Strike!!”

A clean first-pitch strike.

In fact, the Jaguars seemed to have made up their minds, as they brought up their setup man in the 8th inning. A native pitcher who throws a fastball with a maximum speed of 154km/h. He only has a fastball and a slider, but his command isn’t bad.

In fact, Kim Hoon isn’t a pitcher who can do anything.

But it’s okay.

Baseball is originally until the 9th inning. And the main character is originally a bit late.

Let’s just prepare for the next inning cleanly.

-Clang!!!

Uh?

Right outfield. That is, a position that went well over the first baseman’s head. The baseball rolled across Jamsil’s vast outfield.

A lucky Texas hit [a weak hit that falls between the infield and outfield] that no one expected, perhaps not even Lee Joo-hyuk himself who swung the bat.

He sprinted like crazy. Fast. Really fast. Really, really fast. This was a speed that was hard to see even in the majors.

Past first base, all the way to second base.

It was a crazy thing for a normal runner to do, but it was a baserunning that was possible because it was Lee Joo-hyuk.

-Boom!!!

The umpire’s hand went up.

Safe.

Two outs, runner on second.

Finally, a runner has reached scoring position.

And finally, the manager looked at me.

“Soo-won.”

“Yes!!!”

I dare not ask, but I wish for it.