The Pitcher Just Hits Home Runs Well [EN]: Chapter 162

162. Waste of Life (4)

Korean beef is expensive.

Especially the famous Suwon royal galbi [Korean BBQ short ribs] restaurants are even more expensive.

“Is it over 100,000 won per serving?”

“Hyung [older brother or male friend], you don’t look at the price tag like a country bumpkin in places like this.”

“No, still… If this is 300 servings, it’s my annual salary from last year…”

“Hey, you’re doing well this year. Next year, you’ll be able to afford about 3,000 servings.”

Lee Ju-hyuk seemed a bit intimidated after seeing the price tag. But surprisingly, Jjoyou seemed quite familiar with it.

“Kyu-man sunbae [senior colleague or mentor] is paying anyway. You should eat a lot at times like this. Just say thank you and eat a lot. I heard that the company dinner is covered by welfare expenses or something. Anyway, he told us not to worry and just eat.”

Having experienced being a high-income taxpayer, I didn’t think they would cover everything up to this scale, but I didn’t bother to argue. Anyway, even if the amount is different, once your assets exceed tens of billions of won, you don’t feel a huge impact from general consumption. As far as I know, Kyu-man sunbae’s after-tax salary has exceeded ten billion won, and he’s quite good at financial planning, so he’s managing several profitable real estate properties.

This much is nothing. Well…

“Alright, everyone, eat as much as you want. But no alcohol.”

“Huh? It’s a good day today, can’t we have at least a glass of beer…”

“Kyung-joon, we won by only one point today. We would have lost if even one of us was in slightly worse condition.”

Lee Kyu-man sternly cut off Seo Kyung-joon’s words.

Considering the weight and average physical abilities of athletes, a glass of beer is really just for the mood. But Lee Kyu-man didn’t even allow that mood today.

How did people feel about it? Some would definitely grumble about being strict on a good day when they won the game. But most nodded.

Victory is always right.

“He should have done that a long time ago… I’ve said it so many times. Seriously. He’s so slow… Tsk…”

Kang Ra-on muttered quietly.

He was a man who was strangely difficult to get close to. He was definitely the most normal person on the team and always said sensible things, but he always had a negative vibe. But Kang Ra-on’s appearance might be a side effect of the Marines’ monster-like nature. In this team, being normal meant having to deny almost everything.

“You worked hard. Zero Coke?”

“Just water, please.”

“Yeah, water is better than alcohol or Coke, but carbonation is just as bad for your liver. Drink water. No, wait. You need to gain some weight, so drink this sugar water disguised as juice.”

No, why did he even ask?

Kang Ra-on poured Del Monte orange juice, which he got from somewhere, into my glass.

“It’s funny. No matter how much I talked, the guys who wanted to drink would drink, and the guys who were happy to eat late-night snacks even after losing the game would eat them. But now that a guy who’s really good at baseball came, people are changing.”

“Sunbae.”

“Huh?”

“Did you secretly drink alcohol?”

“This punk. You’re really talking nonsense. If you weren’t good at baseball like Jung-hoon hyung said, you’d be getting a beating right now.”

“If I wasn’t good at baseball, wouldn’t I be more polite?”

“Really? Anyway, it’s better to be really good at baseball and rude than to be bad at baseball and polite, so let’s just go with this.”

Kang Ra-on put a piece of properly cooked meat on my plate.

“Here, eat. I’m not paying, but eat a lot.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

“Ha… It’s really complicated when I look at you. Should I have been really good at baseball instead of talking so much? That kind of thought? To be honest, I thought those guys were just lacking professionalism and were lethargic. But now that they see hope, it’s…”

The meat was definitely good.

I had eaten at another restaurant near here when I was playing in the KBO [Korean Baseball Organization], but it’s hard to say that the meat varies dramatically depending on the restaurant. It’s probably because these guys are regulars here, so the owner specially prepares good meat for them.

It melts in my mouth.

“But sunbae.”

“Huh?”

“From my point of view, it’s true that they lack professionalism. Hope or whatever. Raising the momentum and jumping in when you can win is something even unemployed people playing games at a PC cafe would do. If you’re a pro who gets paid to play games, you have to imagine and jump into the darkness beyond when you don’t see any hope. Ah, this is delicious. Imo [Aunt/female server], please give us two more servings of raw ribs.”

“…”

Kang Ra-on chuckled.

“Ha, you punk. What you’re saying is right, and the content is that my past thoughts were correct, so it’s definitely a good story, but where did you learn to give compliments so rudely?”

“Thank you for the compliment.”

“You punk. You’ll live a long life. Eat more meat. You can go full power like that at the beginning of the season. It’s hard to last long. Especially in the summer. And you’re doing both pitching and hitting. You’re constantly walking on balls these days, so you’re using a lot of energy running as a runner.”

“I’m already eating well.”

“Don’t eat herbal medicine or anything to boost your health. Just take the supplements that the doctor prescribes. And don’t go looking for some strange famous doctor that you heard about somewhere, just go to the team’s designated doctor.”

Kang Ra-on had a strong tone and a bit of a prickly feeling, but he was a pretty good sunbae.

What I especially liked was that he was very good at grilling meat and that he put the grilled meat on my plate first. In fact, the imos at these restaurants are sometimes late in grilling the meat, and the sunbaes had told them in advance, so the owner and the part-timers only served the meat, and we had to grill it ourselves.

“Hey, Jjoyou, ah, this punk. Don’t you ever touch the tongs. This good meat. Ugh.”

“Sunbaenim [honorific title for sunbae]!! Please give me one more chance!! Isn’t this how we learn!!”

“So learn with Australian beef later and just eat today.”

The position players’ dinner without a glass of beer went smoothly.

And the second game.

-Thwack!!!

Baek Kang-ho hit two home runs.

And Park Joo-won also hit a home run.

But that was it.

Diego Rodriguez pitched similarly to usual. But did the 108,000 won per serving Korean beef show its power? The position players’ concentration was a little different.

Even though there were only 3 home runs allowed until the 6th inning, they only gave up 4 runs.

“Oh, what? Is this deja vu? I feel like I’ve seen this scene a lot?”

“Hey, wait a minute. I think I’m getting PTSD.”

“Calm down!! 3 home runs and 4 runs are not our team!! It’s the opposing team!!”

The fans watching the game on TV were embarrassed.

Since the season started, the Marines’ games have consistently had an average of less than 1.5 RBIs per home run. But today, the Dolphins were not scoring points easily except for home runs.

Just the day before, the Dolphins’ lineup had scored a whopping 15 points. And even if that wasn’t the case, no one would deny that the Dolphins had the strongest lineup in the league. The average score per game in the KBO, where the pitching has been strong for quite some time, was around 4.2 points. But the Dolphins have scored an average of over 5 points per game for four consecutive years.

Moreover, what is the Marines’ team color?

A defense organization like sand.

If you were to rank the things that are furthest from the word “tenacity,” the Marines’ defense organization would be competing with the sand of the Sahara Desert.

But surprisingly, in today’s game, the Marines showed a defense that worked together.

The proportion of individual skill in baseball defense is absolute. But that doesn’t mean that there is no such thing as defensive organization.

For example, Kang Ra-on’s throw.

If his throw after receiving the ball was usually a bit rough, with the feeling that a person should be able to catch this much, today it felt like he was giving Kyu-man sunbae as good a throw as possible, with the warmth that he was often less than human, so he was giving him as good a throw as possible.

Also, for example, Kang Ra-on’s defense.

In the case of Noh Hyung-wook, he was good at handling balls that came into his zone, but that zone was not very wide. Nevertheless, Kang Ra-on’s attitude was a bit harsh, with the attitude that a person should naturally receive such a ball, but today he covered a wider range with the thought that I, who am younger and runs better, should run a little more, and even prepared for Noh Hyung-wook’s mistakes. If it hadn’t been for Kang Ra-on’s good defense, running at a crazy speed to catch the ball that Noh Hyung-wook had dropped, we might have given up two more points today.

Ah, but now that I think about it.

Kang Ra-on, that punk. He could have done better, but he was just sulking because he was upset?

Anyway, while the Dolphins’ lineup was continuing a constipated situation where they could only score 4 points despite hitting three home runs, we scored a whopping 6 points despite only hitting one home run.

“Will Suwon be substituted?”

“… If he walks again in the next at-bat, I’ll put Hyuk-joo in as a pinch runner and take him out.”

Some people think that if you don’t swing the bat and walk on balls, you’ll be able to conserve more energy, but that’s actually harder.

It would be easier for both the pitcher and me if they just sent me out with an automatic intentional walk, but they don’t do that these days. I heard that there’s a rumor among the umpires that my habits aren’t good, so they’re slightly favoring the pitchers in their calls, but it’s ambiguous. Still, there’s consistency in the calls, and it’s not like they’re giving me calls because they don’t like me, but rather it seems like a general level of breaking in a rookie…

Anyway, standing at the plate like that and running as a runner every time, what should I say? It’s easier to hit a home run and walk in leisurely?

Fourth at-bat.

Hitting a foul ball and a ball count of 1-3.

The sinker-like ball seemed to be slightly concentrated, so I hit it, but unfortunately, it didn’t leave the infield.

Infield ground ball out.

“You worked hard. Go wash up and rest.”

It was a bit late of a substitution since it was tomorrow’s game starter.

Anyway, I showered first and left work early.

It wouldn’t have been bad to watch the game, but I wanted to eat a hearty meal quickly, digest it, and go to bed early.

[Marines win 7:5 against the Dolphins!!! Winning series confirmed for the first time in 2 years and 7 months!!]

Wow…

The victory was joyful, but the words that followed were truly amazing.

No, this team has to have astronomical negative records to even be able to show its face, but the hurdles for these kinds of good records are too low. It’s not even a sweep, but a winning series against a specific team for the first time in 2 years and 7 months?

Then when did they sweep last?

I thought about looking it up for a moment, but I just held back. It feels like that place is an abyss that people shouldn’t look at.

No, actually, I was going to look it up, but I only found out records that I didn’t want to know.

So, I heard that the game against the Dolphins last month was the one that broke the 16-game losing streak against the Dolphins. They had 0 wins against the Dolphins last season… For reference, the longest losing streak in this category is also the Marines’ 18-game losing streak…

Let’s stop looking at the bad things.

The image of victory that must be engraved.

It is my appearance cheering on the mound after perfectly finishing the game.

***

3rd game.

The Marines challenged the Dolphins for a sweep for the first time in 4 years and 1 month.