The Pitcher Just Hits Home Runs Well [EN]: Chapter 183

To think that recognizing a slightly high pitch means you can immediately knock it out of the park is an oversimplification of baseball. Baseball, especially hitting, is never that easy.

But here was a man who made baseball look easy, swinging his bat in the batter’s box.

-Clang!!

[Kang Raon!! First pitch hit!! A fast hit piercing through the 1st and 2nd basemen escapes the infield!!]

Our team had many physically outstanding guys.

Looking at Jo Yoona and Lee Joo-hyuk, I even wondered how they could play baseball with such physiques. It felt like seeing Windows XP installed on a state-of-the-art computer. Kang Raon, on the other hand, had excellent balance.

His physique wasn’t quite as good as those guys, but it was still impressive, and the technical skill to back it up was quite high. To put it simply, Jo Yoona and Lee Joo-hyuk had almost major league potential, or perhaps even All-Star potential in the majors, but the chance of that blossoming was less than 0.1%. Kang Raon wasn’t quite major league potential, but he was a solid AAAA-level player [a player who is a step below Major League Baseball] or a player who could aim for a major league infield backup.

Kang Raon grinned at first base.

My batting sense and overall condition had been a bit off lately, but I hoped this at-bat would be the turning point.

[Batter number 3, Choi Soo-won, steps up to the plate. He’s reached home in all previous at-bats, right?]

[Yes, both of the Marines’ runs today were scored by Choi Soo-won. A solo home run in the bottom of the 1st, and after reaching base on a walk in the bottom of the 4th, he successfully stole two bases in a row and reached home on Noh Hyung-wook’s sacrifice fly.]

[I wonder what he’ll show us this time. Ah, Braves manager Park Yoo-sung is coming to the mound himself. Is he thinking of changing the pitcher?]

[Well, Choi Min-hyuk has been pitching quite well today. He still has some pitches left, and personally, I think it’s a bit early.]

The Braves’ manager went to the mound.

Even though he covered his mouth with his glove, Choi Min-hyuk’s expression was clearly not good. A conversation that felt quite long took place.

[Ah, manager Park Yoo-sung is coming down from the mound as is.]

What on earth was said?

Surprisingly, the Braves didn’t intentionally walk me.

Choi Min-hyuk’s first pitch.

A course completely out of the outside corner.

Honestly, I couldn’t understand what they meant by saying it came in higher than it looked. Because to my eyes, it just looked like it was coming in at exactly this height.

-Whoosh!!

155.3km/h

Of course, the umpire’s hand didn’t go up.

Ball count 1-0.

The mechanism of a batter watching the ball is simple. By checking the position of the ball when it first starts and the position of the ball when it reaches about halfway, the trajectory of the ball that will finally arrive is inferred.

Of course, a lot of experience is needed here. The fact that if the ball starts there and comes to about there, it will end up coming to about here is ultimately experience.

This is why it’s better for pitchers to have longer tunneling for breaking balls. The later the starting point of the change, the higher the probability that the batter’s prediction will be wrong.

And as with all money-making sports, there are many studies related to this. Among them was a part about people’s innate talents, which I remember well because I participated in related research.

“The middle temporal gyrus, that is, the lower part of the parietal lobe of the cerebrum, around the boundary with the temporal lobe, has the function of identifying the movement path of an object, which was already revealed more than 20 years ago. We went one step further from there…(omitted)…. In conclusion, Choi Soo-won’s function in this area is truly overwhelming. We believe that Choi Soo-won’s mysteriously accurate batting is due to this part.”

“Ah… Yes.”

Anyway, they said that it could be improved through training, so I received a training method, but as with the methods given by physiologists and desk-bound scientists, it didn’t have much effect. Still, one thing I could say for sure was that the reason I could see the trajectory of the ball better than other people was because of that reason.

In that sense, the trajectory that Choi Min-hyuk’s ball was drawing was very clear to my eyes even now.

Like now.

-Swoosh!!!

“Strike!!”

Ah, of course, sliders are a bit of an exception.

His slider is really crazy today. It’s especially confusing because he’s not throwing it in the middle to tempt me, but throwing it just barely on the outside boundary. Besides, I think I’m psychologically wanting to hit it, so I’m swinging the bat often.

To be sure, I think I’ve built up some frustration from being walked every day.

-Whoosh!!

The third slider again.

This time the bat didn’t go out.

With this, the ball count is 2-1.

Choi Min-hyuk threw a pickoff throw to first base.

-Whoosh!!

Kang Raon dusts off his chest.

It seemed like there was a bit of a war of nerves between the two while I wasn’t watching. Well, Choi Min-hyuk couldn’t help but be nervous since I had stolen two bases in a row in the previous inning.

But now is not the time to distract your attention to the runner, is it?

The batter you’re facing now is, to put it modestly, in the top five in the history of baseball, to put it objectively, in the top three, and to put it with a bit of a current player premium, a batter who can be called the GOAT [Greatest Of All Time].

-Whoosh!!

Ah, of course, even such a batter can’t hit a ball that goes into a place where the bat doesn’t reach.

A slider that completely misses the zone.

With this, the ball count is 3-1.

I think I knew a little bit about what he had talked about with the manager on the mound. Anyway, he wants to compete. Then never give the ball inside the zone. I guess they exchanged such contents.

And the fourth.

This time, a ball that slightly enters the zone.

But this is a slider.

A moment of hesitation.

I stopped the bat.

-Whoosh!!

A slider that goes out of the zone.

It’s a walk.

[Ah, Choi Soo-won calmly picks out the ball and succeeds in getting on base with a walk.]

If I had pushed it a little, I could have hit it somehow, but even for me, it was impossible to make a good hit. Perhaps Ted Williams, the man who was called the greatest batter before me, would have said that you should never hit such a ball.

One out, runners on 1st and 2nd.

Noh Hyung-wook came to the plate.

It was heavy.

Yeah, still, I could swing the bat because there was Noh Hyung-wook, who had shown Choi Geo-noh a few times.

Still, if Noh Hyung-wook, who had shown balls flying to the warning track in both of his previous at-bats today, wouldn’t he show something in this situation?

Because I’m achieving superhuman results, it often tends to be buried, but Noh Hyung-wook is still a top-level hitter in the league. If I’m Superman, Noh Hyung-wook is about Aquaman, who talks to fish.

Choi Min-hyuk threw the ball.

-Whoosh!!

A slider that goes out of the zone.

Noh Hyung-wook wasn’t fooled.

Ball count 1-0.

Noh Hyung-wook, who took a brief breath, returned to his batting stance. It’s like pressuring him to hurry up and throw it.

Choi Min-hyuk’s face wasn’t very good.

In the meantime, Kang Raon took another three steps of lead, putting pressure on Choi Min-hyuk. If so, then I too….

[Ah, the runners’ lead is getting bigger little by little. It looks like they’re even expressing that they’re going to do a double steal if things go wrong. From Choi Min-hyuk’s point of view, who allowed consecutive stolen bases earlier, it seems like the pressure is quite high.]

“Hey, aren’t you guys being too cruel to a guy who was on the same team until recently? At this rate, he’ll have trauma left. I believe in your strong heart.”

“I don’t think Min-hyuk needs such faith?”

The second.

An outside course fastball.

But it missed a lot.

Ball count 2-0.

And Noh Hyung-wook acted as if he knew what the answer was at this moment. Without stepping out of the plate, he grabbed his stance again and urged the third ball.

Choi Min-hyuk stepped back for a moment, patted the rosin bag, and looked at me and Kang Raon once each.

The score is 2:2.

Noh Hyung-wook, who is recording fifteen home runs this season, is at the plate.

Could Choi Min-hyuk trust his ball and throw it even in such a moment?

The third.

-Swoosh!!!

“Strike!!!”

The ball, which seemed to be heading to the center of the zone, exquisitely escaped to the outside.

Slider.

Ball count 2-1.

It was finally the first strike.

But Noh Hyung-wook didn’t waver at all. He urged the fourth ball in the same way he had when he first came to the plate.

If I were in that situation, what would I have done?

Ah, of course, I’m talking about Choi Min-hyuk’s situation, not Noh Hyung-wook’s situation.

Honestly, if I were in Noh Hyung-wook’s situation, of course, it would just be thank you. Even at a 0-2 ball count, the pitcher is only running away, so there’s no reason to feel psychologically uncomfortable just because he gave up one strike. If a pitcher who only has stuff to believe in is scared, then the game is over.

But when I thought about it that way, it became a little clearer what choice I should have made if I were in Choi Min-hyuk’s situation.

If you’re a pitcher who only has stuff, you have to go with a bluffing game there. You can stack firewood with pitching that doesn’t matter if you give a walk against a difficult batter, but that’s the result of a bold mind that doesn’t matter if you give a walk, not the result of a scared mind that runs away.

It’s the same walk, but it’s clearly different.

-Whoosh!!

Shaking control.

Choi Min-hyuk’s ball went out of the zone.

Ball count 3-1

The catcher went to the mound.

It was a little obvious what was said.

Roughly, cheer up. Your ball is really good today. Even if you get hit, it won’t go over, and if it’s an outfield fly, the worst result is two outs and runners on 2nd and 3rd. Trust your defense and throw your ball. That’s what they’re talking about.

Me and Kang Raon maintained a three-step lead.

And the fifth.

In that situation, Choi Min-hyuk committed the best choice and the worst mistake a pitcher could make.

A 156.1km/h fastball thrown in the middle.

It wasn’t a ball that didn’t run away.

Instead of a bold mind that didn’t matter if he gave a walk in front of a count that had been stacked enough, it was an expression of an easygoing mind that it would be better to just trust the defense than to give a walk.

Of course, Choi Min-hyuk’s fastball was very good today.

Perhaps if the batter at the plate was Lee Gyu-man, such an expression of an easygoing mind would have been enough. If I’m Superman, Lee Gyu-man is at best Batman eating popcorn.

-Clang!!!

Noh Hyung-wook’s bat hit Choi Min-hyuk’s fifth ball.

***

“Ah… That stupid bastard.”

Jo Chang-hyuk frowned.

No, if you’re going to run away, run away until the end.

It’s only the bottom of the 6th inning.

But the moment he saw Noh Hyung-wook’s big hit, he sensed that today’s game was over. And that intuition led directly to reality.

[Marines, an overwhelming 6:2 victory in the first game against the Braves!!]

[The Dolphins’ dramatic come-from-behind victory!! KBO League, the competition for the lead is getting fiercer!!]

[Marines and Braves Game 2 canceled due to rain!!]

And July 1st.