The Pitcher Just Hits Home Runs Well [EN]: Chapter 167

167. Momentum (1)

To be honest, any decent pitcher in the KBO [Korean Baseball Organization] would have been intimidated by Baek Gang-ho’s reputation. At least in the KBO, the name Baek Gang-ho definitely carried weight, much like MLB [Major League Baseball] pitchers felt intimidated by the name Choi Soo-won.

But even in MLB, there were many pitchers who weren’t afraid of me.

Some of them were really tough for me to deal with, and some were just plain crazy, fighting to the bitter end even after getting hammered.

And from my experience of hammering those guys, the ones who fought to the bitter end were slightly more likely to succeed than those who eventually gave up after getting hit hard. The scouts said it was the strong fighting spirit a starter should have—a powerful ego.

Frankly, back then, I thought it was ridiculous that the stubbornness of a puppy barking at a tiger was a prerequisite for a good starter. Anyway, I thought all pitchers were a little crazy.

And now.

Despite Baek Gang-ho’s grand entrance, I didn’t feel intimidated at all.

I don’t know if this is the powerful ego the scouts were talking about, or just the stubbornness of a puppy barking at a tiger.

But what’s more important now is that despite getting tagged with a home run-like hit earlier, I had a strong feeling that my powerful fastball today could shut him down.

A scenario where he cleanly hits the ball was unimaginable.

Jo Yu suggested an outside high fastball.

The KBO is a few years behind MLB, not only in skill level but also in trends. There’s a time lag between when the fly ball revolution starts in Major League Baseball, proves to be effective, and then Korean coaches, influenced by it, teach their kids and bring them to the league.

Therefore, Baek Gang-ho’s batting is definitely efficient by KBO standards, but in MLB, it’s a batting style that started trending about 10 years ago and peaked about 7 or 8 years ago.

A batting style to counter the meta of pitchers throwing lower and faster, two-seamers and sinkers.

So, the strategy was simple.

Aggressively throw fastballs high in the strike zone.

And if there’s a clear best option, it’s normal to choose it.

An outside fastball.

There was no risk of hitting the batter, and if it missed, it would just end up as a ball outside the strike zone, so there was no pressure.

I threw the ball.

And the moment I released it, I knew.

That this casually thrown ball was the fastest ball I’d thrown today.

A 162.9 km/h [approximately 101 mph] fastball.

The location was a bit disappointing.

A ball that was slightly more centered than I had aimed for.

And Baek Gang-ho’s bat moved.

-Clang!!!

It was a hit that showed why Baek Gang-ho could reign as one of the best hitters in the KBO, despite the obvious weakness of a high pitch.

An overwhelming talent that could cover up some of the problems in his hitting mechanics with his own skills. If it were around the mid-2010s, Baek Gang-ho would have been a designated hitter-level player in the big leagues, earning around $10 million a year.

But now it was 2027, and I, who was throwing the ball from the mound, was a starting pitcher who could throw fastballs over 100 miles per hour, which was rare even in the majors by 2010 standards.

The high fly ball couldn’t escape the infield….

‘Huh?’

A great fielder ‘predicts’ the landing point just by listening to the sound of the hit.

Of course, that’s an exaggeration. But the sense created by a combination of innate talent and long experience was definitely so great that the exaggeration felt real.

However, the ability to ‘predict’ the landing point was usually the job of outfielders. The job of infielders is quick reflexes and fast feet to handle hard-hit balls.

And Kang Ra-on moved.

Not moving while looking at the infield fly ball, but turning his back and heading towards the outfield grass beyond the infield dirt a little faster than others.

A slightly awkward position.

A strange spot where it could be a Texas leaguer [a bloop hit that falls between the infield and outfield].

Kang Ra-on stretched out his arm and caught the flying ball.

“Out!!!”

In fact, it would have been a routine play from the viewer’s perspective.

If he had missed it, it would have been a ball that would have been easy to get criticized for. But from my perspective as a former infielder, Kang Ra-on’s defense just now was quite, no, very deserving of a high score. Honestly, I breathed a sigh of relief that Kang Ra-on was at that landing point.

Maybe if it had been Kang Ra-on, who had only done a little more than his fair share before eating Korean BBQ ribs a few days ago, he wouldn’t have intervened, thinking that the third baseman or left fielder should handle that?

Three up, three down.

Baek Gang-ho kicked the dirt in frustration. The way he was huffing and puffing as he went to the dugout made it seem like he was going to break something. I secretly wished he would break something appropriately where the camera couldn’t catch him.

The game continued.

As I expected, it might have been because the Dolphins’ bullpen was overloaded after the first game, or it might have been because the momentum, once it started, rose like fire. Or maybe it was a result of both factors mixed appropriately.

Anyway, as a result, our team’s bats really beat up the Dolphins.

The Marines’ highest-scoring game in history was against the Jaguars in 2014, with a score of 23:1. Considering that the biggest score difference in history was 23 points, it can be seen as a rare record of glory for the Marines.

Of course, the fact that the Marines also suffered a 23:0 defeat against the Hawks, which was the record for the biggest score difference loss, was very Marines-like.

Anyway, the Marines poured out a really unilateral attack against a team that hadn’t swept in the past 4 years and 1 month.

-Whoosh!!

“Strike!! Out!!”

[Choi Soo-won!! Strikeout!! Another strikeout!! Oh my gosh. This player is really amazing today… Wow… 12 strikeouts in 6 innings. Excluding two flawless innings, he has already added six more. Arithmetically, if he plays until the 9th inning, that means 18 strikeouts. If that happens…]

[He will surpass Jake Bohr, who is currently leading the league in strikeouts with 61, by 2 strikeouts and rise to the top of the league in strikeouts.]

[He will be the first player in the KBO to win titles on both the pitching and hitting sides.]

[In fact, in the KBO, dual pitching and hitting has been almost non-existent except in the early days.]

[Anyway, Choi Soo-won is truly amazing.]

[Unlike what was predicted that the Dolphins would desperately prevent a 3-game losing streak in today’s game, it is flowing quite unilaterally. The current score is 14:0. The Dolphins’ lineup has not succeeded in a single hit against the Marines’ Choi Soo-won for two rounds.]

[Now back to the top of the 7th inning. The Marines’ attack. The Dolphins are sending up reliever Kim Jo-kyung.]

From a batter’s point of view, today is a really good day to pad batting stats.

Besides, what’s good about this is that the padding often doesn’t just end with padding.

They say hitting is a cycle and sports are about momentum.

If you raise your momentum and improve your hitting on a day like this, it often lasts quite a long time. As a result, games where well-performing teams go on 10-game or 15-game winning streaks often start on days like today.

In fact, our Marines hitters were quite excited to swing their bats today.

-Clang!!!

[Lead hitter Jo Yu-jin!! Hit it!! Already her third hit of the game!! Her performance at the plate has been a bit disappointing, but today she is showing really outstanding performance on both offense and defense.]

Especially in Jo Yu’s case, it seems like she is trying to properly embody what she grasped at the plate earlier, recording 3 hits in 4 at-bats, with a .750 batting average.

With the total number of at-bats still not reaching 60, her batting average, which was 0.189, rose by 39 points to 0.228, so she properly padded her stats.

[Recently, the Marines sent their starting catcher Choi Jin-woong to the Braves through a trade. If Jo Yu-jin performs like this, apart from the performance of the traded players, it can be said that the Marines have achieved the best trade. Well, that’s how it can be judged.]

[That’s right. For such a talented young player, the experience in the first team itself can be a really necessary element for growth, but this is not an easy task. Especially for a catching prospect to play as a starter from the first year. It is a shining moment for Marines general manager Jeon Sang-ik’s choice.]

[Back to the plate, 1st batter Lee Jung-hoon. Already his fifth at-bat of the game.]

Still the top of the 7th inning with no outs.

Our team’s batting order has already completed four rounds.

It seems like my turn will come again this time… Wow, this is starting to get a little tough?

***

Mets scout Kim Jin-gyu was watching Choi Soo-won’s game again today.

Five games a day.

The number of KBO games held in different baseball stadiums.

Therefore, it was not often that all the major league scouts working in Korea gathered in the same stadium.

But recently, the Marines’ games.

Especially for Choi Soo-won’s starting games, not only major league scouts working in Korea, but also senior-level scouts dispatched to NPB [Nippon Professional Baseball, Japan’s highest level of baseball] have been increasingly flying in for a short time.

“It’s crazy. 1 hit and 1 home run in 2 at-bats in a game he started as a pitcher. And 2 walks.”

“What’s even crazier is that his batting average has dropped despite that.”

And that was the same for the Mets scout.

Eric Kimura, the general manager of East Asia in charge of scouting NPB, also entered Korea, and even he, who had a lot of experience in this field, had no choice but to be amazed at the performance Choi Soo-won was showing.

“Even considering the level difference between the leagues, this is definitely a prospect who has reserved a spot in the Hall of Fame.”

Of course, not all the players who heard that they had reserved a spot in the Hall of Fame actually achieved the results to enter the Hall of Fame. But at least among the prospects who heard such words, there was no player who had never shown an All-Star level performance, and what usually caught those players was not skill but ‘injury’.

“I think so too. If there are no unfortunate events.”

“Ugh… Unfortunate events… Of course, there shouldn’t be any.”

A player with the potential to change the popularity of baseball itself.

Eric Kimura made that judgment after seeing Choi Soo-won directly at the scene. Beyond simple stats, there was definitely that ‘it’ factor in the baseball that Choi Soo-won was showing.

Fastball.

Strong ego.

Home run hitter.

Star quality.

In Eric’s view, Choi Soo-won was like a being in whom the god of baseball had crammed all the elements that people would be enthusiastic about in baseball into one person.

That’s why amazing skills are connected to unprecedented records, and that is unknowingly connected to overwork.

Watching Choi Soo-won, who was entering his fifth at-bat in a game where he was setting a ridiculous record as a pitcher, Eric Kimura was convinced.

“That guy is a talent that needs to be brought to the majors as soon as possible.”

Now 3 innings until the first perfect game in KBO history.

The Marines’ attack was still not over.