The Pitcher Just Hits Home Runs Well [EN]: Chapter 361

361. For Four Days of Rest (2)

[Top of the 1st. Anthony Volpe hits a shocking leadoff home run! Wow, of course, Anthony Volpe isn’t a player who *never* hits home runs. He’s recorded 9 home runs this season. But here at Kauffman Stadium, it’s not a ballpark where home runs come easy. Amazing, Anthony Volpe.]

[That’s right. It barely cleared the fence, but if it were Yankee Stadium, it would have landed in the upper deck in the outfield. You can get a sense of it, but Kauffman is about the same size as Jamsil Baseball Stadium [a baseball stadium in Seoul, South Korea]. Maybe a bit deeper to left, right, and center, and slightly less deep to left-center and right-center.]

I lightly high-fived Anthony as he returned to home plate.

His face was flushed red, and he looked very happy. I could definitely feel that the entire team’s condition has improved lately. It’s a good mix of appropriate fatigue and sharp game sense.

Rick Winters didn’t seem completely broken even after giving up a leadoff home run. Of course, he looked a little embarrassed, but even veterans get flustered when they get hit like that on this stage. It’s not that strange.

[Now at the plate is Choi Su-won. It’s Choi Su-won.]

[Our Choi Su-won has only recorded one hit so far in this series, up to the third game. Ah, of course, it’s not like we can just say ‘only.’ He has one hit, but his batting average is .333. He’s 1-for-3 with a home run.]

[Yes, with a whopping five walks and a sacrifice fly. His slash line [batting average/on-base percentage/slugging percentage] is a rather bizarre .333/.667/1.333 right now.]

[Will the Kansas City Royals intentionally walk Choi Su-won with the score 1-0 and no runners on base?]

[Any other team might try to face him in this situation, but I don’t know. In the second game, they didn’t try to compete against Choi Su-won in any situation.]

[Ah! They’re not walking him. They’re going to compete.]

[I think it’s because Choi Su-won scored four runs after being intentionally walked four times in the second game the day before yesterday.]

[That’s right. Didn’t Choi Su-won almost always score after walking yesterday? In the end, if you think that even if you get hit with a home run, it’s only one run, and he’ll score anyway if you walk him, some people might want to take their chances against a .333 batting average.]

[Haha, I wonder what that ‘some people’s’ decision will lead to… Rick Winters is now in his pitching motion.]

Before regression.

I clashed with that guy a lot. Of course, our positions were very different back then. Now, we’re both in our rookie year, but if my current position is like a rookie challenging a great hitter who has conquered the Big League, then before regression, I was like a huge rookie from across the Pacific challenging a Cy Young winner [award given to the best pitchers in Major League Baseball].

Back then, I had to realize the high wall of the majors after striking out in three consecutive at-bats, but it’s different now.

-Whoosh!!

“Strike!!”

Huh?

[The first pitch, a slider, came in perfectly.]

So, is it because I’m swinging the bat properly in a real game for the first time in four days? I raised my hand to step out of the batter’s box for a moment to reorganize myself and tightened my batting gloves. Then, I carried out my usual routine.

I fixed my helmet with my left hand and tapped my head twice. Then, I gripped the bat firmly twice with my right hand, tapped the home plate once, and adjusted my stance.

Confidence surged.

The guy on the mound also looked more relaxed, probably because he gained some confidence from my swing and a miss.

Winding up.

The ball he threw was as powerful as I knew it to be back then. But a pitcher’s skill isn’t determined solely by the speed and power of the ball.

Tap, tap, tap.

You might wonder what this sound is, but it’s the rhythm I’ve figured out from his pitching motion.

Five years from now, that guy had very complex deception in his pitching motion. But not now. His form is too straightforward to play in the Big League. Maybe that’s why Anthony hit a home run earlier.

-Thwack!!!!

Yeah, exactly that feeling.

The batted ball shot out. For about 0.1 seconds? I watched the ball for a moment…

[Well-hit ball! Ah, Choi Su-won! He’s running! Very fast!]

The moment I saw the ball, I could immediately sense it.

This isn’t going over.

The direction wasn’t good. If this were Yankee Stadium, it would have been a home run that landed in our team’s bullpen, but here at Kauffman, it’ll end up as a warning track fly ball in front of the fence? Or a ball that hits the fence directly. Still, since it’s such a big stadium, that kind of hit would be a triple unless the outfielder makes a super play.

Passing first base and heading to second.

I turned my head slightly to look at the third base coach, but his gesture was…

[It went over! Choi Su-won! A home run that barely clears the fence in right-center! Choi Su-won records a back-to-back home run!]

[Ah, but Choi Su-won’s reaction is a bit funny. He seemed to have a look on his face that said, ‘Why did this go over?’]

[Yes, he seems to have been running at full speed because he didn’t think it would go over. But Choi Su-won, you were too humble.]

[That’s right. Choi Su-won needs to understand his place now. When he hits the ball, he should observe it for a bit. He needs to do that when he hits it that far.]

Ah, it went over.

I slightly slowed down the speed I was running at as I passed second base and headed to third. I lightly stepped on third base and then back to home. It seems my condition is much better than I thought. As expected, using my waist diligently for the past few days has improved my waist rotation…

I shook my head a few times to clear unnecessary thoughts from my head.

A light high-five with Tyler Beatty, who was walking out from the on-deck circle.

“Crazy! Su-won! You’re really crazy.”

Dennis Martinez, who had come out of the dugout, laughed loudly and hugged me tightly, followed by congratulations from my teammates.

“Seriously, I thought I was going to get some camera attention for a while, but you stole it in a minute.”

“You said you were burdened by the expectations of others.”

“This isn’t expectation, it’s attention.”

And Anthony’s playful grumbling.

Top of the 1st.

Our lineup started to beat up Rick Winters like crazy, so much so that I wondered if he might have PTSD and go into a slump for a while.

“Sigh… This is a bit unsettling.”

Still not over in the top of the 1st.

The score is 4-0. One out, runners on 1st and 3rd.

Austin Battle was at the plate.

“Unsettling? What is? The game? Even if Austin hits into a double play here, it’s still 4-0. Even if Owens gives up some runs, we look like we could easily score 20 points today.”

“No, not that.”

“Then?”

“There haven’t been many teams that swept the Championship Series and then won the World Series. I’m worried that we’re using up all our luck here and something might happen at a crucial moment.”

“Sigh. You’re saying unlucky things for no reason? Quickly knock on wood.”

Anthony hurriedly knocked on the table behind him three times – knock, knock, knock. It’s similar to spitting three times in our country.

“And what do you mean there haven’t been many? There were a lot of cases where the swept team didn’t win in the old days, but the two most recent teams that swept both went on to win the World Series without any problems. So, according to recent jinxes, sweeping is actually closer to going straight to winning the championship.”

“Is that so?”

“Besides, what’s our team’s concept this year?”

“Our team’s concept this year? Was there such a thing?”

“Record breakers. If you only count the big ones, it’s the winning streak record and the most wins record. If you count all the small things, there are really countless records.”

“Yeah, that’s definitely true.”

“So, we need to add one more here.”

“A postseason winning streak record? The one Kansas City has?”

“Ah, they’re the ones who have that record?”

“Yeah, 8 consecutive wins based on the opening of the postseason in 2014. If you connect it to the 1985 record when they won the championship, it’s an 11-game winning streak record.”

Wait a minute.

So, they won the World Series in 1985 and then didn’t advance to the postseason even once for 29 years, and then they had an 8-game winning streak, making it an 11-game postseason winning streak? That’s an amazing record in its own right.

“So, if we sweep like this, it’ll be a smooth 7-game winning streak. And if we win the World Series, it’ll be an 11-game tie for the record. That’s good.”

“What is? Even if you win all the remaining games, you won’t break the new record you want.”

“Instead, it’s a definite motivation to make sure we advance to the postseason again next year and win the first game no matter what. Besides, the winning streak record based on the opening is broken if we win just the first and second games of this World Series. This way, we can definitely stick to our concept until the end.”

“Sigh… Listening to you, it feels like a new record is just like eating a piece of cake?”

“It’s actually about that level of difficulty. Hey, it’s your turn.”

“Huh? Already?”

Top of the 1st, the lineup turns over.

I heard that the recent viewership ratings for our Yankees games are among the highest in the last 40 years of Major League history. And as high as the viewership ratings are, the ticket prices for the stadium are also ridiculously expensive. I heard that the ticket prices for the Championship Series 1st and 2nd games at Yankee Stadium were close to $100,000 for the skyboxes, and even the outfield seats were easily over $1,000.

Maybe today’s ticket prices at Kauffman aren’t quite that high, but they must be close to at least half that level.

Ah, why am I suddenly talking about today’s game ticket prices in this situation?

[Choi Su-won, the number 2 hitter, is at the plate. The score is 6-0. One out, bases loaded. It’s Choi Su-won, who hit a solo home run in the previous at-bat.]

[Ah, the Kansas City Royals are making their second pitching change. Whitman is coming down from the mound without getting a single out.]

[Goodness. Surprisingly, people are starting to leave the stadium here and there. It’s the 3rd game of the Championship Series. It’s only the top of the 1st.]

[Maybe they’re taking advantage of the pitching change to go buy something to eat?]

[Well, it seems like the whole group is packing up all their belongings and getting up.]

Yes, it’s because fans who paid so much money to get in are starting to leave after watching only the top of the 1st inning.

Fans are more sensitive than you think. Even if they’re losing the game, if the players show the will to turn things around somehow, they’ll endure the frustration and stay in their seats. In other words, the fact that fans are leaving like that means they’ve instinctively caught on that the Kansas City Royals players have lost their motivation for today’s game.

Series 3rd game.

We set another new record.

[New York Yankees ALCS [American League Championship Series] 3rd game. Records a whopping 13 points in just the 1st inning! Breaks the Major League postseason record for most points in one inning!]