The Pitcher Just Hits Home Runs Well [EN]: Chapter 294

294. Look Over There (3)

-Whoosh!!!

“Strike!! Out!!!”

Another out count vanished meaninglessly.

Now, only 12 outs remain.

Gerrit Cole went up to the mound.

37 years old this year.

It’s an age that even I, before my regression, hadn’t experienced.

I know well the pain of reaching a point where you can’t improve any further no matter how hard you try each day, and you have to be satisfied just standing still even if you work harder than that. Then, what would it feel like to be pushed back no matter how hard you try?

-Bang!!!

Of course, Gerrit Cole on the mound didn’t know anything about that and was throwing the ball with the feeling that he was going to have at least a shutout victory today.

Just as Toronto’s starter, Jerry McGuire, is famous for throwing up to 104 mph, Gerrit Cole was famous as a physically gifted pitcher who threw up to 102 mph since his amateur days. But that 110kg mass of muscle was not just a natural talent, but his own struggle to avoid being pushed back.

-Clang!!!

A Toronto batter hit a 97.7 mph fastball. The batted ball flew out to the outfield. But I wasn’t nervous. Because the center fielder in the outfield now wasn’t just a fast-running center fielder from a baseball team in Busan.

[Jake Domingo with a steady catch!! Lead batter out on a fly ball!!]

[Gerrit Cole’s pitching is quite excellent today. His overall speed is about 6 or 7 mph slower than Jerry McGuire, but he’s definitely more stable.]

[Based on last year, his season average speed is 93.4 mph. It’s almost 5 mph slower than his prime, but those occasional fastballs in the high 90s are still powerful.]

[You could say it’s the seasoned control that comes with age, right?]

[Well, not every pitcher gains something like that as they get older. This should be seen as the result of Gerrit Cole’s fierce efforts.]

Gerrit Cole on the mound touched the rosin bag several times.

5.1 innings, no runs allowed.

It was a rare shutout game, so he seemed to be focusing even more.

Leo Lukas, who stole my hit today in the first inning, came to the plate.

[Leo Lukas, who is 1-for-2 in the previous two at-bats, is showing the best performance in both offense and defense today.]

Two signs went back and forth.

It was an instruction to go down from the dugout, but Gerrit Cole shook his head. Well, considering his career, his performance, and what he’s shown so far today, it’s right to go with the pitcher’s gut feeling.

-Thwack!!!

And a low ball on the inside course.

Leo Lukas hit that ball accurately.

The batted ball stretched out.

[It’s over the fence.]

[Top of the 6th. Leo Lukas’s second solo home run of the season. The score is tied again at 1:1. The game returns to square one.]

[It was a pretty good course… Leo Lukas really hit that well.]

94.8 mph.

The course was good, but the ball was slow. Thanks to that, the ball that was meant to get a count was forced over the fence with brute force. If it had been a 97 mph or 98 mph ball in his prime, this wouldn’t have happened.

The game continued. He was a problematic human in many ways, both in terms of his personality and the various unsavory incidents that had occurred during his career, but nevertheless, he was a great pitcher in his 16th year in the big leagues.

Even though he gave up a run meaninglessly, Gerrit Cole continued pitching without wavering.

The Toronto dugout got busy.

[Series score 2:0. Of course, this series is a 4-game series, so even if they lose today’s game, there’s still one game left to sweep, but from the Blue Jays’ point of view, they really want to avoid a 3-game losing streak.]

[That’s right. The opponent is not a team from another league, or even another division, but a team from the same league and the same division.]

Bottom of the 6th.

The score is 1:1.

[They’re changing the pitcher after all. Bottom of the 6th, New York Yankees’ attack. Marcos De La Rosa comes up to the mound for the Toronto Blue Jays, replacing Jerry McGuire.]

[A 24-year-old who throws 104 mph, followed by a 36-year-old veteran bullpen pitcher.]

[That player has been doing quite well since he switched to the bullpen in the second half of last year, right? He only allowed 7 runs in 21.1 innings last year. His ERA [Earned Run Average, a measure of pitching performance] was only 2.96.]

[Toronto Blue Jays. They’re going to win this game no matter what. That’s what it seems like.]

Suddenly, balls around 90 mph were flying at batters who had been facing balls around 100 mph. You might think this is almost batting practice speed, but the command was not. Fastballs that stubbornly came into the outer low course borderline, and changeups that were slower than slow balls. And even a 87 mph two-seamer [a type of fastball] that subtly broke in.

-Clang!!!

They didn’t strike out, but the batted balls didn’t stretch out easily.

Out counts accumulated against the Yankees’ lower batting order.

Considering the state of the Yankees’ bats today, I thought two chances were almost certain, but the way things were going, it didn’t seem easy.

Top of the 7th.

Gerrit Cole went up to the mound again.

-Thwack!!

You can now see that he’s running out of steam. But is it that he can’t back down against the lower batting order? Gerrit Cole managed to finish the 7th without allowing any additional runs, catching a ground ball out against the last 9th batter.

And bottom of the 7th.

[7th inning. The Blue Jays are putting Blake Hunt on the mound. This player hasn’t allowed a run in 6 innings in 6 games this season.]

Anthony Volpe spoke to me.

“Don’t be too nervous. He’s nothing special.”

“Nervous about what.”

“Your expression doesn’t look like it.”

“This is an expression of worrying that my turn might not come.”

“You’re worrying about something you don’t need to worry about at all. I don’t know how many out counts there will be, or how many runners will be on base, but at least one runner will be on base when your chance comes, so watch his pitches carefully.”

The lead batter grounded out to the infield.

And then Troy Johnson, the 9th batter, followed with an infield hit.

“So, if you don’t hit into a double play and strike out, does that mean my chance will come as you said before?”

“It’s better to think that you’ll have a three-run chance.”

Blake Hunt was a tricky pitcher.

But Anthony Volpe was a good enough hitter to attack that tricky pitcher.

-Thwack!!!

[To the right-center!! A batted ball that goes over the shortstop’s head!! It’s a hit!! It’s a hit!!]

[First base runner Troy Johnson!! Quickly to 2nd base!! Past 2nd base to 3rd!!]

“Safe!!!”

One out, runners on 1st and 3rd.

Anthony Volpe kept his promise.

[Choi Su-won at the plate!! Choi Su-won is up!! Fourth at-bat of the game!! And perhaps the last at-bat of the game!! I just hope that young, no, young player isn’t swayed by the pressure.]

[Haha, I think our Michael forgot something very important. That young player is the first hitter in the world to record 74 home runs in a season and is already a pitcher who has experienced a perfect game. Pressure from just a consecutive game hit? No way. I guarantee it. Choi Su-won will definitely show a great performance here. Yes!!]

Okay. Let’s ask one question.

It’s the bottom of the 7th and it’s 1:1.

The opponent is on a 2-game losing streak and there are runners on 1st and 3rd with one out.

And there’s a batter at the plate who’s swinging his bat like crazy.

What’s the answer here?

-Bang!!!

[Ah!! The 6th pitch!! A ball that completely misses the zone!! Choi Su-won!! The third walk of the game.]

[No!! What the f······. So, hoo······.]

Yes, the answer is runners on first and third with one out through a walk.

Honestly, that’s the right answer, but I didn’t think Toronto would really do this. The boos that had been coming out sporadically during the previous walks filled the entire stadium without any exaggeration.

Of course, winning or losing the game is important, but three consecutive walks? It is an unwritten rule of baseball not to deliberately interfere with records. If my record is broken because of this, it’s no exaggeration to say that it’s an outrage to the point where I can break the heads of those core hitters when I face Toronto on the mound next time.

Honestly, the previous two walks felt like the pitcher was doing his best and made a mistake, but this time… Well…

Tyler Beatty came to the plate.

All the Yankees fans filling the stadium were hoping for a strong realization of justice.

-Clang!!!

The first pitch was a sinker [a type of fastball] on the low inside course.

The batted ball flowed straight to the third baseman, Leo Lukas.

An unforgiving double play.

The inning ended like that.

“What the fxxx are those guys doing? Anyone can see that they did that on purpose to fill the bases.”

“Fxxx······. Are they really crazy?”

“Who’s our pitcher this time? Is it Jace?”

“Yeah.”

And top of the 8th.

Jace Whittaker wasn’t a guy I got along with very well. He always thought that he was pushed out of the starting competition because of me.

But even so, the clothes I wore and the clothes he wore were the same pinstripes. That’s why he carried out what he should naturally do.

-Thud!!!

A 94 mph fastball accurately hit the thigh of Blue Jays’ lead batter Cameron Jones. There was no polite bow like in the KBO [Korean Baseball Organization]. Rather, Jace Whittaker was the one who held his head high. Cameron Jones, who was hit in the thigh with the ball, silently walked to first base without any appeal. He also knew that what they had done was something worth getting hit for.

The game continued.

8th inning.

And 9th inning.

-Clang!!!

[Right fielder Tyler Beatty catches it and throws it to home!! At home!! At home!!!]

“Safe!!!”

[Ah······. It’s safe. 2:1······. Top of the 9th. The Yankees allow a come-from-behind.]

The faint hope that I might have a fifth at-bat if we went to extra innings was shattered. Only three outs remained. And there were a total of four batters in front of me.

Will I really get a chance?

Victor Francois, the closer for the Toronto Blue Jays, came up to the mound.

The hit that I had unfortunately lost in the first at-bat flickered before my eyes. Should I have tried to hit even the balls that were falling out of the zone more aggressively in the second and third at-bats and aimed for a lucky hit? The thought didn’t leave my head.

“Swan.”

“Huh?”

Hose Trevino spoke to me.

“Don’t worry too much. I’ll do whatever it takes to give you a chance.”

“Uh······.”

It was a moment that reminded me of the famous meme, “I’m your eternal helper!!” Okay, let’s trust the team member once. This is the Yankees, not the Marines. They can definitely create a fifth at-bat chance for me.

[Now, one out and no runners. Mark Thomas, a pinch hitter, is up to bat instead of 8th batter Hose Trevino. Mark Thomas is up.]

“······.”

Looking at Hose Trevino with an awkward expression, I couldn’t help but laugh. No, he made such a serious declaration there, but he’s being replaced.

-Thwack!!!

Mark Thomas’s hit.

And then Troy Johnson’s strikeout.

Two outs, runner on 1st.

It was Anthony Volpe’s turn.

He held out his fist without saying anything.

A light fist bump.

I, who was facing a record, had pressure, but Anthony, who’s bat would determine whether he could challenge that record or not, would also have no small amount of pressure.

But as I said before, this guy.

He’s a good enough hitter.

It’s not possible with ordinary mentality to carry the heavy title of ‘Derek Jeter’s successor’ on his back and still do his part.

Isn’t meeting people’s expectations under pressure familiar enough to him?

-Bang!!!!

Full count 3-2.

The last pitch.

He didn’t swing the bat.

Silence.

A bizarre silence of 0.1 seconds, unsuitable for a space with 46,000 people, explained the tremendous tension in the stadium.

-Waaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

And the overwhelming roar that followed immediately filled the stadium.