The Pitcher Just Hits Home Runs Well [EN]: Chapter 151

151. Did the Marines Really Become a Strong Team? (4)

One out, runners on second and third.

If it had been a one-run game, they probably would have ordered an intentional walk.

When calculating the expected runs with one out and runners on second and third versus one out with the bases loaded, the latter is statistically higher at 1.65 points compared to 1.46 points.

However, baseball strategy is subtle. Simply looking at the scoring probability shows that one out with runners on second and third has a 70% chance of scoring, while one out with the bases loaded is 67.2%, making the former about 3% higher.

But now they are leading by a comfortable 3 points.

Moreover, the batter is Choi Jin-woong, the number 8 hitter and the catcher.

-Whoosh!!!

“Strike!!!”

A swing and a miss on a slider that breaks away.

Jeff Cailon smiled.

He remembered what Kang Ji-woo, the Griffins’ general manager, and Charlie Kim, the head of the scouting team, had said when they came to persuade him. They told him they had been watching him since he was drafted. In fact, he was picked in the 3rd round of the draft because of their strong recommendation.

And they had said:

“You can become stronger even if you come to Korea.”

“You said ‘even if you come to Korea’ instead of just ‘if you come to Korea’?”

“Yes, well, frankly, I think you *could* become stronger if you stayed and did well here [in the US]. However, you’re getting to the age where you should start thinking about the future. And although the minor leagues have improved a lot, the KBO [Korean Baseball Organization] has a better environment. They take care of your body, pay you well, and cover your housing and food expenses with the team’s operating costs. It’s a great environment to focus solely on baseball.”

It was persuasive.

In fact, for a player of his level, playing as a foreign player in the KBO or NPB [Nippon Professional Baseball, the Japanese league] wasn’t a bad path. In Jeff Cailon’s case, although he was still a bit young, if he spent just 2 or 3 more years like this [in the minor leagues], it would be the right time to look into that option.

“Besides, in my opinion, about 2 years? If you do well, returning to MLB [Major League Baseball] isn’t just a pipe dream.”

He thought the last statement was an exaggeration, but he chose to go to Korea with the feeling of giving up on his MLB dream a few years early.

But surprisingly, their words were true.

And the reason was none other than the slider.

Jeff Cailon thought that he had mastered the slider, but when he came to Korea and saw the pitches that pitchers threw *as* sliders, he couldn’t help but think, ‘Are these guys crazy?’

“This is a slider?”

“Yeah.”

“This too?”

“Yeah.”

“Really, even this?”

“Yes, I’m telling you.”

*No*, I mean, it falls like a splitter, but that’s a vertical slider.

It’s clearly a changeup, but it’s a slow slider.

It’s similar to a cutter, but that’s a high-speed slider.

The KBO that Jeff Cailon witnessed was a league obsessed with sliders.

About 3 months after joining the Griffins last winter.

Jeff Cailon thought that his slider had improved significantly.

-Whoosh!!!

“Strike!! Out!!!”

A satisfying swing and miss strikeout.

Two outs, runners on second and third.

Lee Joo-hyuk stepped up to the plate.

A slight tension.

Lee Joo-hyuk licked his dry lips.

Recently, for the past few days…

He had been practicing hitting with Choi Soo-won. Asking Soo-won if he could join him at his house had definitely been an impulsive decision.

Of course, Choi Soo-won’s batting record was impressive. However, Choi Soo-won’s and his own physical builds were too different, and at least in terms of theory, he didn’t think he was inferior to him. No, he was sure he was much better. That’s because Soo-won was just a 19-year-old kid who had just graduated from high school, and Lee Joo-hyuk himself was a 6-year veteran who had even served in the military.

Besides, how many hitting theories had he studied and applied? He was confident that Lee Joo-hyuk would not be inferior to a properly educated coach, at least in terms of hitting theory.

“Um… I think you’re overthinking it, senior?”

“Huh?”

“No, actually, hitting theory is just about how to see the ball well and hit it well, right?”

“That’s… right?”

“So, I think the way to hit well is to completely internalize it in your body and just focus on seeing the ball well.”

His hitting coach in middle school and his hitting coach in high school.

And the three hitting coaches who changed after he came to the pros.

For about 12 years, all the coaches he met corrected Lee Joo-hyuk’s somewhat flawed habits and explained in detail the reasons why his hitting wasn’t working theoretically.

Lee Joo-hyuk nodded every time, thinking that it was a truly correct statement. He studied a lot and steadily modified his batting form to match the study.

“Well, in the end, aren’t rotational power and weight shift just ‘methodologies’ that need to consider the current situation of the league and the physical builds of the hitter, rather than being inherently right or wrong? The most important goal is to hit the ball hard and far, no matter what.”

The saying that it was like a thunderbolt of realization was not an exaggeration.

He tried to erase the obsession of what order to move in and how to move.

No, he tried to erase it. But it is impossible not to think about something originally. It was only natural that if you decided to forget something forcibly, you would become more immersed in it.

Therefore, what he had to choose was just focusing on the ball the pitcher was throwing.

Two outs, runners on second and third.

The pitcher on the mound wound up.

-Bang!!!

First pitch slider.

He checked his swing, stopping the bat.

The umpire’s hand did not go up. But the catcher who received the ball asked the third base umpire if it was a check swing.

“Strike!!!”

Lee Joo-hyuk frowned.

But soon he waited for the second ball again.

His head was complicated, but he tried not to overthink it.

Second.

Low and inside.

Four-seam fastball?

Or that two-seam fastball that Senior Noh Hyung-wook hit into a triple play?

I don’t know.

Let’s just swing as I feel.

-Clang!!!

The bat that was pulled in with force hit the baseball.

The ball came in a little lower than expected. It was a smooth hit, but not very strong.

But he was lucky.

The entire infield was playing a few steps forward.

The hit barely passed over the shortstop’s head.

Similarly, the right fielder, who had advanced to some extent, quickly ran towards the ball.

But who was Lee Joo-hyuk?

He is undoubtedly the fastest man in the KBO. His feet smoothly stepped on first base.

-Safe!!!

And about 0.3 seconds after Lee Joo-hyuk stepped on the base.

Lee Gyu-man’s hand brushed the home plate.

It was a rare sight that the runner on third base arrived home later than the batter running to first base after hitting the ball, but what was important now was that the Marines scored 1 point with consecutive hits instead of a home run.

“Wow, I never thought I’d see Lee Gyu-man come home on a hit by Lee Joo-hyuk in my lifetime…”

“I know. Today, Lee Gyu-man hit a double, and Lee Joo-hyuk sent the ball to the outfield. You have to watch baseball for a long time to see things like this.”

Top of the 2nd inning, two outs, runners on first and third.

Kang Ra-on, the first batter, stepped up to the plate.

***

Wow, I couldn’t help but admire Lee Joo-hyuk’s hit.

Did he hit it *that* well? No way. Right now, that’s a ball that would definitely be an out if the fielder was in position. He was just very, very lucky. The part I admired was that he didn’t doubt the advice I gave him and put it into practice.

It wouldn’t be a lie that he had adjusted his batting form greatly three times and subtly nearly ten times in the 6 years since he came to the pros.

Of course, it is very important to properly refine a bad form.

Look at Jo Yu-jin here. Because she has mental problems, she forcibly corrected her form, so she had a decent batting average for a while in her third year of high school. Of course, she went back to square one because she went back to her original form to try to explode her potential, which didn’t even work.

Anyway, I think Lee Joo-hyuk needs to get rid of his obsession with batting form and just focus on batting itself at the plate.

Anyway, scoring with consecutive hits and runners on first and third with two outs.

It was a miraculous thing.

Senior Gyu-man came back to the dugout, sweating profusely.

“Nice, senior!!”

And Jjo-Yu approached Senior Gyu-man and took his helmet.

It was two outs, but our attack started again from the top of the order. But surprisingly, I didn’t expect much.

It wasn’t Kang Ra-on’s problem.

It was the belief in the Marines team.

A strong belief that the Marines would not pour cold water on this situation. Because that’s the Marines.

-Clang!!!

At that moment, the ball flew.

A precarious trajectory.

Uh?

But this time, the Griffins’ fielders’ positions were a bit strange.

Originally, it was a ball that could easily be a double play…

[Third base runner Saul Lopez to home!!]

“Safe!!!”

Saul Lopez scores.

[First base runner Lee Joo-hyuk!! Lee Joo-hyuk!! Very fast. Past second base to third base!!!]

[Kang Ra-on’s clean timely hit. The Marines score an additional point in the bottom of the 2nd inning. The score is now 3:2. Two outs, runners still on 1st and 3rd.]

[Now Lee Jung-hoon is up to bat.]

What?

I picked up my bat and headed to the on-deck circle.

Something felt strange.

A strange feeling that it was becoming normal baseball, not Marines baseball.

“Come on!! Let’s go for the comeback!!!”

Jjo-Yu’s voice, which was hyping up the bench today, was heard from behind.

“Soo-won, watch carefully from here. The moment when this senior becomes a hero.”

“Senior, the atmosphere is good right now, so don’t do any weird swings and just connect somehow. I feel like we have to make a comeback in this inning.”

Clearly, it was two outs and we were still behind by 1 point.

But I felt like the momentum had completely shifted to our side. If it was a normal Marines team, that momentum would be cut off here and we would suffer an absurd defeat, but somehow it felt different today.

“Ugh, the way you talk. You would have been beaten a lot if you weren’t good at baseball.”

“If I wasn’t good at baseball, I would have been more polite instead.”

“So you gave up your manners and gained baseball skills? Suddenly, I understand that skill. Hmm… Do I have to give up something too?”

Lee Jung-hoon muttered nonsense and walked to the plate.

-Whoosh!!!

A wild swing that scoops up the first pitch greatly.

It was a swing that showed a strong desire to hit his first home run of the season today.

Is the Marines’ will continuing like this again today?

Lee Jung-hoon, who briefly stepped away from the plate, looked at me once and smiled mischievously, mouthing something.

‘Get. Rea. Dy.’

Well, I only saw the lip shape, so maybe it’s not.

But that’s how I felt.

And Lee Jung-hoon, who was back at the plate, took 2 balls in a row.

Ah… Could that guy be? Did he deliberately show his strong desire from the first pitch to draw out a breaking ball? Foul on the fourth. And another foul on the fifth.

Ball on the sixth. And on the last seventh

-Bang!!

Walk, taking a low two-seam fastball inside.

Bottom of the 2nd, 3:2.

Two outs, bases loaded.

Sajik Stadium, full of fans wearing old-fashioned old uniforms.

The fans’ cheering sounds hit my eardrums.

Besides, wherever I looked, I could see the back number 79. No, it’s not even a formal uniform, it’s an old uniform, and when did they put my number on it?

As I said before, now that I’ve gone back in time like this, I want to become a superstar.

And this timing was the perfect timing to become a superstar.

Okay, let’s go.

It was then.

The Griffins’ dugout moved.

And with a bit of exaggeration, Sajik Stadium froze at that decision.

Of course, as someone who knows that I am a major MVP-level hitter, it is an understandable decision, but wow, are they doing this already?

[Huh?]

[Bottom of the 2nd inning. 3:2 situation. Two outs, bases loaded. The Griffins are…, the Griffins are…. So, they chose an intentional walk.]

[Forced walk. It’s a forced walk. Oh my gosh. Choi Soo-won. Choi Soo-won adds 1 point to the Marines with a forced walk. 3:3. Two outs, bases loaded. Marines’ number 4 hitter Noh Hyung-wook steps up to the plate.]

3:3

So, until now, it was only possible to get 1 RBI by hitting a home run.

Today, I earned that precious 1 RBI without swinging the bat once.