The Pitcher Just Hits Home Runs Well [EN]: Chapter 238

238. Korean Series (3)

I was a little worried.

What if too many reporters and fans showed up when I went through the arrival gate? Baseball is the most popular sport in Korea… It would be a problem if my movements were restricted. Should I hire a bodyguard now? I had such worries. And those worries completely disappeared the moment I passed through the arrival gate.

It was desolate.

No, of course, there were many people in the arrival hall looking for their acquaintances. But not a single member of the media or any fans I was worried about were to be seen.

I subtly lowered my sunglasses.

I also took off my mask.

But it was no use.

No one recognized me.

I caught a taxi.

The driver, wearing sunglasses, spoke fluently in a slightly countrified but still understandable accent.

“Welcome to Korea. Where are you headed?”

“Sajik Stadium in Sajik, please.”

“Oh, are you going to the Korean Series by any chance?”

“Yes, a friend of mine kept begging me to come.”

“Is your friend a baseball fan?”

“He really likes baseball.”

“You must be really close friends. It must be really hard to get tickets for this Korean Series, especially for home games in Busan.”

“Ah, I’ve heard about it. The Korean Marines are like the Boston Red Sox. Ah, Boston, sorry. Like the Philadelphia Phillies.”

“Are the Philadelphia Phillies a well-established team in America too?”

“Ah, yes. Well…”

Overall, it was a good conversation.

“It was a pleasant conversation. This is a gift.”

“Alex? Is this Alex Rodriguez by any chance?”

“No, that guy retired a long time ago. It’s a new ball. It’s Alexander McDowell’s autograph. It will be worth more than Alex Rodriguez’s autograph ball later on.”

“Ah… Yes. Thank you. Then enjoy the game.”

***

The question of how much credibility the Korean Golden Glove award has is a very old controversy. This issue, which began to be seriously discussed in the late 1990s, hasn’t changed much even until recently.

However, the fact that this has been a controversy for so long also implies that someone has been consistently raising the issue for a long time.

That history stretches back 30 years.

People still raise many issues with the Golden Glove voting, but the practice of openly saying things like, ‘You got the MVP, so let’s give the Golden Glove to that guy’ to foreign players [mercenaries] in the 1990s has disappeared. And that’s not all. The saying, ‘He played well in the national team, so we should give him a Gold Glove even if he was a bit sluggish in the regular season,’ is no longer heard. Ah, of course, this may be because the national team no longer performs well in international competitions…

Anyway, despite the many controversies surrounding the Golden Glove, there were quite a few players who considered it a great honor and sincerely wanted to win it.

And Dillon Doyle, the Marines’ foreign pitcher, was one of those people. At first, he thought the Golden Glove was simply an award that only looked at defense, like the American Gold Glove. So when people said to him, ‘Wow, Dillon, are you going to win the Golden Glove?’ he thought it was an unpleasant joke mocking his clumsy ground ball handling.

But after learning that the Korean Golden Glove is a kind of ‘Best Pitcher Award’ and that the Choi Dong-won Award [an award for the best pitcher in Korean baseball] is like the relationship between the Gold Glove and the Fielding Bible Award, he openly expressed his desire for the Golden Glove.

“So, the Korean Golden Glove includes postseason performance, right?”

“Well, as I told you before, strictly speaking, postseason performance may be more important because it has a strong impact.”

“Really? Great!!”

The strongest pitcher in KBO [Korean Baseball Organization] history, capable of fighting 1:5 on his own, a former amateur wrestler. Dillon Doyle picked up his glove.

Top of the 1st inning.

The sight of Sajik Stadium packed with people was now too common.

A huge cheer.

The piercing sound of the amp.

Something intense, closer to a professional wrestling match than baseball, struck Dillon Doyle on the mound.

It wasn’t bad.

No, it was very good.

Baseball, KBO, this Marines team, and those passionate fans who support this team.

[Now, the KBO League. The highly anticipated Korean Series. Game 1 of the series. This is Sajik. Sajik Baseball Stadium. On the mound right now is the ace of the Busan Marines, right? Dillon Doyle is on the mound. This season, he appeared in 30 games, with 14 wins and 7 losses. 193.1 innings, 79 runs allowed, 64 earned runs. His ERA is 2.98. He averages almost 6.2 innings per game. He has really shown the aspect of a tremendous inning eater.]

[Yes, that’s right. When you look at the Marines, the bullpen depth is a bit thin, but the fact that the bullpen wasn’t overloaded was thanks to Dillon Doyle’s contribution.]

[At the plate is leadoff hitter Kim Nara. This season, he has a batting average of .297 and 7 home runs. He played in all 8 games in the previous準playoff [Semi-playoff] and playoff games, with 14 hits in 43 at-bats. With a batting average of .325, Braves fans can look forward to this at-bat.]

Dillon’s body, which was long but didn’t look long thanks to his many muscles, moved.

A full count inside.

153.7km/h

-Thwack!!

“Strike!!”

[Wow, 153.7 kilometers!! From the first pitch, a ball close to 154 came out. The fastest ball Dillon Doyle threw this season was…]

[The highest record is the 154.8km/h ball he threw in the last Elitz game.]

[Wow, so he threw a ball that was only 1 kilometer different from the fastest ball he threw from the top of the first inning. It looks like Dillon Doyle is in very good condition?]

[Yes, in fact, I mentioned it in advance before the game, but the Marines had a good rest for almost 3 weeks. In this case, the hitters’ batting sense is a bit of a concern, but it’s a really good time for the pitcher to recover. Considering that short-term games like the postseason are usually pitcher’s games, this is a very advantageous point for the Marines.]

[I see. Ah, the second ball at the moment I’m talking!!]

-Clang!!!

A slightly high course in the middle, 154.1km/h.

Of course, it wasn’t intentional. It was just a mistake in control.

But the batter’s bat was completely pushed back.

The batted ball rolled weakly outside the foul line.

And the third ball.

-Whoosh!!!

“Strike!! Out!!”

A slider that drops sharply.

[Dillon Doyle!! Three-pitch strikeout!! It was a really clean slider.]

[In an interview a while ago, Dillon picked that slider as the thing he improved the most after coming to Korea.]

[That’s right. In fact, Marines coach Kim Jin-gyu was also famous for his slider during his active career, wasn’t he? I still remember it.]

[Ah, come to think of it, Commissioner. You were quite weak against Coach Kim Jin-gyu during your active career, weren’t you?]

[Now, Jang Chan-min, the second hitter, comes to the plate.]

Dillon’s interview was not just lip service.

He really improved his slider a lot after coming to Korea. What should I say? This country has a kind of craftsmanship? I don’t know if that’s why, but he performed all sorts of strange feats with the slider.

The same pitcher controls the vertical movement, the horizontal movement, and even the timing, but when you ask him, all three are sliders. So it was not surprising that there was one that fit Dillon perfectly among the many sliders.

-Thwack!!

“Strike!!”

[First pitch strike!! It was a very subtle course.]

[Ah, but come to think of it, Jang Chan-min was a member of the Marines until just last year, right?]

“If you think about it, Chan-min is also pitiful… If he had just endured one more year, he would have been able to win the championship he wanted so much.”

“What nonsense are you talking about? Don’t you remember what he said when he left? ‘There’s no answer to winning with the Marines?’ Wow, I was really angry. I feel like a year’s worth of indigestion is going down today. Dillon!! Just beat Chan-min up!!”

-Clang!!

Jang Chan-min pulled the second fastball.

A fairly difficult course flowing between 2nd and 3rd base.

Saul Lopez, who played as the second baseman in today’s game, dove to catch the batted ball.

And in that collapsed posture

-Tap

Lee Gyu-man received the lightly thrown throw and made two outs.

The stadium erupted.

“Waaaaaaaaaaaa!!!”

In that atmosphere, he struck out the last hitter and retired three batters.

Dillon Doyle exhaled and came down from the mound.

[Three batters retired with two strikeouts. Dillon Doyle doesn’t look normal today.]

[But if you only count today’s starting pitchers, Braves’ Jo Chang-hyuk is also not easy. No, if you look at the stats, he’s much better. This season, he appeared in 30 games with 16 wins and 4 losses. 197.2 innings. His ERA is only 2.69.]

[However, the worrying part is that, unlike Dillon, who rested for 3 weeks, he has been on a very tough schedule for the past 2 weeks. He pitched a total of 20.1 innings in the first game of the準playoff [Semi-playoff] and the first and fourth games of the playoff, and he is pitching again today after only four days of rest.]

[From the Braves’ point of view, he’s an ace they can trust that much. Anyway, Jo Chang-hyuk, who declared his challenge to the major leagues at the end of this year. His last season in the KBO. Whether he can achieve the beauty of winning. Marines’ Kang Ra-on comes to the plate.]

Although there were no games, training was not stopped.

-Whoosh!!

“Strike!!”

Ah, of course, it was conditioning-oriented training, but he maintained his sense through constant scrimmage games.

-Clang!!!

[Foul ball on the first base side!! It goes into the infield stands.]

Kang Ra-on’s gaze swept across the electronic display board.

149.4km/h

Considering that Jo Chang-hyuk’s highest speed is 160, it is a very slow speed even if he is the first hitter in the top of the first inning.

He was clearly tired.

It was the first game of the Korean Series, so he came out as the leadoff hitter to take the lead.

With that strong heart

Third.

-Whoosh!!!!

“Strike!! Out!!!”

[Ah, Kang Ra-on, a swing and a miss on a changeup that drops sharply!!]

Kang Ra-on retreated sadly.

“Soo-won, just wait. I…”

Choi Soo-won mercilessly cut off Lee Jung-hoon’s words.

“Senior, I’ve been watching you for the past year, and it seems like there’s almost a 10% difference between your batting average when you yelled at me and when you just left me alone. So fighting [Good luck]!!”

“Uh, uh?”

Thanks to this, Lee Jung-hoon, who couldn’t say anything, entered the plate.

Jo Chang-hyuk on the mound threw the ball.

Foul, ball, strike, foul, foul, ball.

And.

-Whoosh!!!

156.7km/h.

A fastball that went up almost 3km/h faster than before, a swing and a miss.

“Does this mean that record has fallen below 10% now?”

“No, I think it’s still over 10%.”

“No, but if there was something like that, you should have told me during the season.”

Lee Jung-hoon grumbled and returned to the dugout.