The Pitcher Just Hits Home Runs Well [EN]: Chapter 339

“He’s thrown seven splitters so far today, right?”

“Looks like it.”

“Should we assume he’s planning something?”

“We probably should.”

“Is his elbow okay?”

“Who knows? But he’s such a diligent guy. Maybe he’s figured something out.”

“And it just happens to be today.”

Top of the 3rd.

Incredibly, Gerrit Cole retired the side in order once again. Ah, but this time, Dennis Martinez really helped out a lot.

To be honest, when Dennis Martinez said he was coming, I was a little uneasy. Offensively, he’s a step or two above Troy Johnson, who was traded from the Cardinals to Cincinnati, but defensively, he was rated slightly worse than Troy Johnson as a second baseman.

He’s solid, but his range is limited.

For an infielder, range is really hard to improve through training. It requires innate agility, coordination, and reaction speed. It heavily relies on inherent neurological physicality.

But what’s interesting is that our first baseman, Aaron Judge, is hurting and slowing down, but he originally played as a corner outfielder who was almost a Gold Glove contender. Of course, infielders and outfielders need different qualities. But Aaron also had quite a few qualities needed for an infielder.

By utilizing Aaron Judge’s relatively wide range and narrowing Dennis Martinez’s range a bit, Dennis Martinez’s defense, which was criticized for its limited range, became surprisingly stable.

“Nice play.”

“Haha, this is a bit embarrassing, isn’t it?”

“Embarrassing? It was a really good play.”

So, it might be natural for Dennis to be embarrassed by Aaron Judge’s praise. Anyway, even though Shohei Ohtani was showing great dominance on the mound today, the team’s atmosphere wasn’t bad.

Bottom of the 3rd, second in the batting order.

Anthony Volpe stepped up to the plate.

A more cautious stance.

In his first at-bat, Anthony couldn’t handle Shohei Ohtani’s splitter. But since he showed me the splitter for the first time, he’s been using it very aggressively, and there have been a lot of swings and misses, but also a lot of ground balls. It’s safe to say that’s why he only threw 27 pitches in 3 innings.

First pitch, a sinker inside.

Anthony took a short swing at the ball. I didn’t think it was that bad of a swing. But the result was bad.

Right back to the pitcher.

Ohtani easily caught the ball.

One out.

“Bad luck.”

“Yeah, should I have picked up trash more diligently before the game?”

“Considering that last hit, picking up regular trash isn’t enough, you’d have to pick up nuclear waste or something, right?”

I exchanged meaningless small talk with Anthony as he left the plate.

Relax.

Objectively, I’m a really great hitter.

Even before my regression, I was a hitter who had risen to a level close to being a dominant player of the era, but it’s nothing compared to now. The presence I’ve shown so far this season is close to the level where I should seriously throw my hat in the ring for GOAT [Greatest Of All Time].

Yeah, so the one who should be nervous isn’t me, it’s them.

[Now, bottom of the 4th. One out, no runners. It’s Choi Su-won’s second at-bat.]

[Our Choi Su-won currently has a batting average of .412 this season. I have no doubt that our Choi Su-won can fully resolve the Yankees’ frustrating situation of not getting a single hit so far in today’s game.]

Sweeper, sinker, splitter.

These are the pitches that Shohei Ohtani mainly used today.

Among them, the sweeper and sinker have trajectories that are cheating. The tunneling section is long enough, and they feel like they’re splitting apart right in front of you, so it’s usually not easy to distinguish them. But if you watch them closely enough, you can still hit them. The problem is the splitter. Like the curveball, a pitch that drops vertically is harder to hit than a pitch that moves horizontally.

77-game hitting streak.

I quickly performed my routine at the plate.

And Ohtani on the mound threw the ball.

Fastball.

Sweeper or sinker.

Watching the ball until the very end.

It doesn’t break outside.

Sinker?

No, it’s a fastball.

-Thwack!!!!

The hitting point is still slightly behind.

But still, a well-hit ball soared high.

[Choi Su-won hits the first pitch!! Well-hit ball!! To the right!! To the right!!! Ah!! Right fielder Mookie Betts easily handles the ball for an out.]

[Choi Su-won. The hit wasn’t bad, but ah, it’s a little disappointing.]

[But as the saying goes, if you fart often… Ah, sorry for the dirty story from the morning. Anyway, if you keep knocking like this, the door will eventually open. Choi Su-won seems to be in pretty good condition, so I think we can expect a lot from him today.]

Damn it.

I accurately identified it as a fastball, but I was pushed back a little. The ball wasn’t good enough. In the first place, Shohei Ohtani’s fastball is famous for being straight as a ruler. I hit it well, but because I watched the ball until the end, the hitting point was pushed back too much, and I couldn’t put all my power into it. If I were the muscle pig I was right before my regression, I would have cleared the fence with that, but unfortunately, I’m not that type now.

By the way, is the luck that Ohtani usually gets from picking up trash being used on the mound instead of for home runs today? Apart from the fact that I didn’t hit the ball hard enough to hit a home run, that ball should have been a hit.

“Su-won. You need to pick up trash with me after the game later, too.”

“No, Anthony, you need to handle nuclear waste or something, right?”

Tyler Wade grounded out to the infield on the third pitch.

[Infield groundout. Shohei Ohtani cleanly shuts down the Yankees’ attack in the bottom of the 4th once again.]

[The tempo of today’s game is quite fast. That inning was only five pitches, right?]

[Yes, that’s right. With that, Shohei Ohtani has shut down 4 innings with only 32 pitches today. He’s continuing to pitch very efficiently.]

The game continued.

Gerrit Cole and Shohei Ohtani both showed great presence today.

However, the difference between the two is that Gerrit Cole’s pitching was literally intimidating the Dodgers’ hitters, while Shohei Ohtani’s pitching was subtly coaxing them.

At the end of the 6th inning, Gerrit Cole had a whopping eight strikeouts. On the other hand, Ohtani had only three. But as much as the difference in the number of strikeouts, there was also a difference in their pitch counts. Gerrit Cole currently has 86 pitches, while Ohtani has only 52, showing a difference of over 30.

Top of the 7th.

Gerrit Cole went to the mound without showing any signs of fatigue.

-Boom!!!

“Strike!!!!”

96.9 miles.

Gerrit Cole’s fastball was still fast and powerful. But if I could just overpower hitters with fastballs, I wouldn’t have a reason to be going through this hardship in the majors.

-Thwack!!!!

[Hit!! Rafael Thiago!! To left-center!! A hit that soars over the shortstop’s head!!]

The first sign of a tired pitcher isn’t a decrease in velocity or power. It’s command. Rafael Thiago, the Dodgers’ leadoff hitter, finally got to Gerrit Cole’s pitch, which had started to flatten out in the middle.

It was a Texas League single [a bloop hit that falls just beyond the infield].

[The tight pitching duel between the two teams has been broken here. The first hit of today’s game!! Rafael Thiago finally reaches first base.]

The perfect game is broken.

Gerrit Cole frowned. But like a veteran, he soon returned to his original expression. He probably knew it himself. What the 86 pitches at the end of the 6th inning meant.

In the first place, in the entire history of Major League Baseball, there is only one perfect game with more than 130 pitches. Only my case, where I threw 137 pitches to record a perfect game, a while ago. Among the total of 25 perfect games, only 3 perfect games exceeded 120 pitches. In fact, almost half of the perfect games recorded fewer than 100 pitches.

Yes, just like Shohei Ohtani, who recorded only 52 pitches in 6 innings right now.

Gerrit Cole, who was fiddling with the rosin bag, threw the ball again.

Even though the perfect game was broken, there was no movement in our dugout. Gerrit Cole was a man with a lot of noise in many ways, but he was still a man who deserved this much trust from the team.

-Whoosh!!!

“Strike! Out!!!”

And he delivered a pitch that perfectly lived up to that trust.

Swing and a miss strikeout. And a double play.

Gerrit Cole returned to the dugout again.

“Damn it, my hand slipped just once, and it had to be then…”

Even though no one asked, he loudly proclaimed that his hit was a mistake caused by his hand slipping. Domingo Rodriguez, who would have sneered at him at least once in normal times, didn’t say anything today.

“Still, make sure to get the win today.”

Anthony grabbing his bat and heading out.

And me, following behind him to the on-deck circle.

I gave Gerrit Cole, who was muttering to us from the back of the dugout, an okay sign behind my back without turning my head.

Emotions are contagious.

Anthony Volpe was fully infected with Gerrit Cole’s greed for victory.

-Thwack!!!!

Anthony stubbornly stuck to Shohei Ohtani’s pitches.

Already five.

The count is 1-2.

And the sixth.

It was a splitter.

Anthony swung his bat powerfully at Shohei Ohtani’s finisher.

-Thwack!!!

It was pushed back a little, but it wasn’t a bad hit.

No, it’s not just not bad.

It was a very well-hit ball. The power in the hit, the angle of the hit, and even the direction were all appropriate.

The ball stretches straight towards the right field fence. The relatively short and low right-center field fence at Yankee Stadium.

Season 7?

And Mookie Betts was there.

The embodiment of a 5-tool player [a player who excels at hitting for average, hitting for power, running, fielding, and throwing].

Yes, he is the best 5-tool player of this era who would be inducted into the Hall of Fame even if he retired right now.

Wide range.

Ridiculous athleticism that allows him to dunk with a height of only 175cm.

So, this might not be as good as The Grab that Anthony Volpe showed in my perfect game, but it was almost something comparable.

[Ah!!!!]

Ah!!!!!!

Regretful exclamations echoed throughout the stadium.

Mookie Betts proudly held up the ball he had taken out of his glove high in the sky.

Flyout to the outfield.

Anthony Volpe, who was running towards first base, walked towards me with a dumbfounded expression.

“Damn it, this one was about the size of a gum wrapper, right?”

“Yeah, if you had just put the drink you had in the dugout a little while ago in the trash can, it would have been fine, right?”

“Drink? I brought a tumbler today?”

“I know. I should have given you the drink bottle I drank to throw away.”

Probably a situation where he was so frustrated that he was burning up inside.

Anthony and I exchanged another useless nonsense.

[Bottom of the 7th. One out, no runners. Choi Su-won is at the plate. Choi Su-won is coming up for his third at-bat of today’s game!!]

Maybe Shohei Ohtani volunteered to handle nuclear waste in Fukushima last winter?

As I looked at the pitcher who was riding on a wave of incredible luck that couldn’t be explained otherwise, I slowly took my stance.