The Pitcher Just Hits Home Runs Well [EN]: Chapter 308

308. The Record-Breaking Machine (2)

Wander Franco, standing on second base, watched Choi Su-won’s back.

‘He’s only twenty years old.’ Usually, the word ‘kid’ would suit him. But you can’t possibly use that word for that guy.

If *that* guy is a kid, what would Wander Franco himself be, who failed to win the Player of the Month award despite having a record-breaking month, pushed back by that kid?

April.

0.366/0.447/0.723. 8 home runs and an OPS [On-Base Plus Slugging, a key baseball statistic] of 1.170.

His career-high record, and looking back at the past 10 years, the only hitter who showed better stats in April was Bryan Buxton in April 2021.

But that monster had 0.475/0.512/0.950 with 9 home runs. He set an absurd record of 1.462 OPS and took both the Player of the Month and Rookie of the Month awards. What was it? The fourth-highest monthly OPS in American League history since the Player of the Month award was created. Even including the NL [National League], it was the 12th highest record, and the second-highest in April across both leagues.

‘And only 6 people, excluding Barry Bonds.’

And considering that Barry Bonds is a very obvious drug user, he lost to someone who had the hottest April in history. It was somewhat fortunate, wasn’t it?

And today, the last day of May.

Wander Franco felt something like fate in today’s game.

Choi Su-won’s stats for this month are 0.354/0.424/0.696 with 6 home runs. And Wander Franco himself was at a similar level with 0.327/0.419/0.694 with 8 home runs. Of course, Choi Su-won’s side stands out more if you add the pitcher’s stats and the symbolism of the records, but the Player of the Month award is determined only by the hitting stats of the month in the first place.

The Player of the Month for May is determined by the result of today’s game.

In that sense, this first at-bat is Wander Franco’s victory.

The game continued.

***

[The next batter, Josh Willcox, comes to the plate.]

[Josh Willcox, who is currently recording very excellent stats of 0.287/0.377/0.496. He is a hitter who is leading the Tampa Bay lineup this season along with Wander Franco.]

First base is empty.

So, with the thought that in the worst case, I can just fill first base.

The first pitch is the high outside course that guy likes.

A fastball that slightly misses the zone.

-Clang!!!!

The guy touched the 101.9-mile fastball.

Towards first base.

Aaron Judge quickly chased the ball.

Although he was an old-timer creaking here and there, he was a first baseman from an outfielder who had once played as a center fielder. Even now, if his condition improves, he can easily handle the corner outfielder position again.

The giant, who had already caught up with the ball far beyond the outfield foul line without walking a few steps, stretched out his arm.

“Out!!!”

[Aaron Judge’s fantastic defense!! Foul fly out!! Top of the 1st inning. Runner still on 2nd. Next up is the 4th batter, Roger Salas. Roger Salas comes up.]

A foul fly out on the first pitch; I was lucky.

Of course, even if it just ended as a foul and the game continued, I didn’t feel like I would give up a clean hit, but it was definitely lucky that it ended with one ball.

‘Good.’

I gave Aaron Judge a slightly humble thumbs up. The guy chuckled at my humble thumbs up. Next up is the 4th batter, Roger Salas. He hit 6th in the last game, but his batting order has risen a lot. That’s because his hitting has been pretty good recently.

First, the first pitch is an inside curve that drops sharply, which I’ve been having quite a bit of fun with lately against left-handed hitters.

-Whoosh!!!

“Strike!!!”

And the second.

High inside fastball.

-Clang!!!

He’s definitely got a good sense of hitting. To follow a 102.1-mile high inside fastball after an 88-mile inside curve.

But in the first place, it was a high ball that was out of the zone.

The batted ball hit the infield spectator’s net behind the catcher.

[The count is 0-2 in an instant.]

And the third.

High inside curve.

I added a little bit of force to my thumb. So that the axis of rotation of the ball coming out of my hand tilts more.

-Whooosh!!!

“Strike!! Out!!!!”

[A swing and a miss!! It’s a really amazing curve!! Top of the 1st inning, runner left on 2nd. Three out change!!]

[Just now, the high course in the middle. It was a waterfall-like curve that completely made the batter swing in vain.]

[The biggest factor in Choi Su-won’s pitching improvement this month is that confident curve. The swing rate is amazing right now for that ball that drops right in the middle.]

Ah······.

I was going to throw a curve with horizontal movement to the high inside course, but a curve that just dropped in the middle went in. But the result is good, so it’s okay. It’s a much better result than the last game, where a 91-mile mistake that didn’t drop properly went into the middle.

Since listening to Pedro Martinez’s advice last time, I’ve been practicing adding and subtracting strength to my fingers, and I definitely have some sense, so it went in pretty well as I wanted. Well, even if it’s a ball that I’m confident in, it can happen sometimes, so I have to treat it as a kind of tax. If I think, ‘I’ll use it in a real game when the ball is 100% perfect,’ there is no ball that I can throw.

Wander Franco, who went out to second base, looked at me with a look full of regret. In the case of the Tampa Bay Rays, there is still a considerable gap between us, but what kind of fighting spirit is that.

Well, the season is only two months old, and there are more than 100 games left, so there is a good chance that the rankings will be reversed depending on what you do. With a heart to support his fiery fighting spirit, I lightly winked at him once.

It was nice to see his face turn red and embarrassed at my wink. Once again, this wink. It’s not a provocation at all, but a purely supportive heart.

Today’s starting pitcher for Tampa Bay was their ace, Sean Carpenter.

25 years old this year. He bloomed last season and recorded 3rd place in the American League Cy Young Award [Award given annually to the best pitchers in Major League Baseball]. What’s even more surprising is that he recorded 3rd place in the Cy Young Award even though he was out for the season in September.

And this season, he has continued his momentum from last year, starting in 9 games so far and recording an absurd record of 2.01 ERA [Earned Run Average, a measure of runs allowed per nine innings pitched] in 67 innings.

In our first series against them, he shut them out for 8 innings and won a victory over Domingo Rodriguez, who recorded 1 run in 8 innings.

Left-handed sidearm.

Maximum 95 miles with a four-seam fastball and a two-seam fastball. In addition, a changeup and a slider. And sometimes a curve.

-Bang!!!

“Strike!!!”

Anthony Volpe looked at the referee with a look of whether that was a real strike. Anthony. But that’s a strike. They gave me a strike there a little while ago when I was pitching.

Before I knew it, the count was 1-2.

And the following pitching.

Anthony Volpe endured the changeup that was slightly out of the zone. It must have been a difficult ball to endure with the count cornered. He gets some flak for being popular with the Yankees, but he’s still a two-time All-Star and has the skills of a hitter who is said to be Derek Jeter’s successor.

And the following fastball.

-Clang!!!

It was greatly lacking.

A foul that hits the infield net.

The count is still 2-2.

Middle.

No, it’s a curve.

However, unlike me watching from the dugout, Anthony Volpe, who was at the plate, was a little late in realizing that the ball was a curve.

-Whooosh!!!

“Strike!! Out!!!”

A swing and a miss.

Anthony Volpe returned to the dugout.

“The curve movement is very sharp.”

“What about the changeup?”

“I was lucky.”

That means he wasn’t sure that the ball was a changeup and endured it.

The best pitcher in the league, who has no particular weaknesses except for durability, looked straight at me. It’s as if my stats last month were possible because he hadn’t met me even once. So I looked back at him with the same eyes.

‘You punk, if you had met me last month, your ERA wouldn’t be 2.01, it would be in the 3s.’

Jake Boyle, wearing a catcher’s mask, spoke to me.

“It’s going to be hard enough to pitch today, so why don’t you take it easy?”

“Even if you don’t like the starting pitcher today, isn’t that too much?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“You’re cheering me on to hit a home run. Well, if that’s what you really want, I won’t refuse a 90-mile fastball in the middle.”

“······.”

Quick surrender.

Anyway, the guys who can’t even open their mouths properly always open their mouths first and then become silent like this. If you want to shake up the hitter, you have to keep talking to him until the end, even if you get *teolri* [Korean slang for ‘destroyed’ or ‘dominated’]. There’s no grit. No grit.

First pitch.

Fastball?

It was a four-seam fastball coming in along the outside border line.

-Bang!!!

“Strike!!!”

The umpire today is already a bit generous to the outside, and since the left-handed sidearm is throwing the ball so that it barely touches the outside, there’s no answer. If you put the hitting point behind, it’s a ball that barely touches the zone, but with that, a long hit is impossible.

The count is 0-1.

The guy who had been silent started talking again as soon as one strike count went up.

“What? You were talking about a home run. Are you scared and frozen?”

“Typical of a .200 hitter. Swinging the bat wildly on the first pitch and grounding out. Typical of a .400 hitter. Waiting heavily and hitting a home run over the fence.”

“What, you punk?”

The hitter with an early .200s average got angry.

And originally, the side that gets angry loses in this kind of fight.

Sean Carpenter wound up.

Second.

A pitcher can’t always throw a perfect ball.

That’s the same for any pitcher. Like my pitching earlier, the bat can come out wildly even on a mistake. So what a good hitter has to do is ‘never’ miss a mistake.

Sean Carpenter’s ball flew.

Fastball.

Inside knee height.

It’s not a mistake.

If I had to say, it’s a different kind of perfect ball than the one just now.

Four-seam? Two-seam?

There was no hesitation. In the first place, you can’t know that by looking at it. So I decided in advance. If a fastball comes in at this timing, let’s think of it as a two-seam.

A slightly lower position than the four-seam.

At a timing that was already too late to change the trajectory of the bat, the ball wiggled and moved. It was a two-seam as I expected. But what was a little different from my expectation was that the movement of the two-seam was much better than I thought.

A ball that falls slightly less than I thought and goes out more.

It was a very good ball.

A good hitter never misses a mistake. That’s enough.

But a great hitter sometimes doesn’t miss balls that aren’t mistakes.

-Clang!!!!

Center right.

It wasn’t perfect.

[Evan Murphy!! Quickly chasing the batted ball!! Deep center right!!]

[The batted ball is stretching out!! Choi Su-won passes 1st base and goes to 2nd base!! The batted ball hasn’t fallen yet!! It’s not falling!!]

The bullpen of Yankee Stadium.

The place where the pitchers who will take over the mound today are waiting is where the ball I hit was delivered.

[It went over!! A refreshing home run after 6 games!!]