The Pitcher Just Hits Home Runs Well [EN]: Chapter 94

94. Two Billion (8)

-Whoosh!!!

“Strike!! Out!!!”

[Swinging strikeout!! Jin-cheol Kwak of the Marines strikes out swinging. Three up, three down. Both pitchers are really amazing today, aren’t they?]

[Starting pitcher Soo-won Choi of the Marines, and Da-jeong Jeong, the starting pitcher for the Blaze, are both showing incredible performances today.]

[A rookie’s surprise performance. Isn’t that the charm of the Futures League [minor league] ?]

“Surprise my ass. Da-jeong has been burning it up in the second half. It’s just that the stupid front office guys didn’t call her up to the first team.”

A Blaze fan watching the game on TV grumbled at the commentator’s words.

“Hey, still, isn’t it a surprise compared to Soo-won Choi? Isn’t there a 20x difference in their salaries?”

“More like 40x. Da-jeong joined three years ago with a contract bonus of 50 million won [approximately $37,000 USD].”

“Wow, 50 million versus 2 billion won [approximately $1.5 million USD], huh. If Da-jeong wins today, those Marines guys will be feeling the pain.”

Of course, that was just their wishful thinking.

-Bang!!

“Strike!! Out!!”

Looking strikeout [called strike].

The Blaze hitter who returned to the dugout tore at his own hair. Players with leeway on the first team can throw their helmets and toss their bats, but a second-team player can’t do that. In the end, all he can abuse is his own hair roots.

2.1 innings.

A whopping three hitters couldn’t even touch the ball. And it’s not like the other hitters were getting hits either. One ground ball to the infield and one fly ball to the outfield. And three foul balls.

-Hoo…

One of the Blaze coaches sighed without realizing it. The sigh made Manager Jong-yeop Choi’s eyes turn fierce.

“I’m sorry, Manager.”

“Tsk…”

A coach is supposed to be thinking of ways to make things work. Sighing because the situation is difficult… I don’t like it at all.

‘Still, I can’t completely misunderstand him, but it’s frustrating…’

It was fortunate that Da-jeong Jeong was holding up well. He had recommended using Da-jeong in the second half of this season, but the first-team manager, who didn’t listen until the end, would have no choice but to change his mind if he watched today’s game.

‘It’s definitely a fastball that’s hard to get used to. At this rate, if she had a third pitch, she’d be almost a foreign first-line starter… No, no. With that fastball and a curve, she wouldn’t necessarily need a third pitch…’

Still, there are areas to bet on.

Stamina.

According to her profile, she’s over 190cm [approximately 6’3″] tall but weighs only about 90kg [approximately 200 lbs]. Moreover, she’s clearly putting in a lot of effort today because it’s her professional debut. No matter how monstrous a rookie she is, that’s inevitable. Above all, throwing her fastest ball from the first inning can only be interpreted that way. A racehorse that gets excited and starts running first will eventually tire in the second half. So, for now, the hitters can only try to get used to the ball and get their timing down.

Dugout corner.

The figure of Da-jeong Jeong, sitting quietly wearing a pitcher’s jacket, could be seen. She was drafted in the 8th round with a contract bonus of 50 million won. And for a whopping 4 years. Unlike hitters, where lotteries often hit even in low rounds or as rookie players, it is very rare for pitchers to hit in low numbers. It can’t be helped. A hitter’s hitting is largely a technical aspect, but a pitcher’s pitching is ultimately a sum of talent. Throwing fastballs, and more accurately, planting the ball. Everything ultimately follows innate talent.

In that sense, it is nothing short of a miracle that Da-jeong Jeong, an 8th rounder, has persevered without being released and is finally going back and forth to the first team.

People like the miracle of the underdog more than the obvious victory of the top dog. And that was the same for the old manager of the Blaze’s second team.

-Thwack!!!!

The high infield fly ball went straight into the shortstop’s glove.

Three up, three down.

Soo-won Choi on the mound erased the 3rd inning.

The turn came back in an instant.

Da-jeong Jeong took off her pitcher’s jacket.

-Gulp…

Even though she hadn’t gone up to the mound yet, Da-jeong Jeong’s heart was pounding like crazy. It’s because of fear.

She had accidentally changed her changeup grip before the game in the second half of this season, and the results were pretty good that day. Usually, if you’re a person full of self-love, you might think, ‘I’ve finally awakened. My ball must be amazing,’ but Da-jeong Jeong wasn’t that type. She just honed her ball with the thought that she had to work harder to keep the current luck going.

Below a certain level, effort does not betray people. But above a certain level, effort betrays people with very high frequency. At that level, what matters is not simply working harder, but working in the right direction.

In that sense, Da-jeong Jeong was lucky. The grip and feel she changed was the perfect form of ball for her.

Eighth hitter Soo-won Choi entered the plate.

The fact that he bats 8th instead of 9th as a pitcher proves that his hitting ability is unusual. But even so, he was just a hitter who graduated from high school. Of course, I already know that Soo-won Choi’s high school record is unusual.

But the team must have had their reasons for putting him at number 8. A hitter who hit 50% with 7 home runs in high school baseball can be in the second team for nearly 10 years. In this way, it is more common than you think for a hitter who flew around at the high school level to come to the pros and immediately fail.

Da-jeong Jeong took a deep breath.

The pounding heart calms down. Yes, he’s just a lower-tier hitter.

He wound up greatly.

***

It was a familiar face.

Usually, a hitter is a little stronger against the opposite-handed pitcher. From my perspective as a right-handed hitter, the trajectory of a ball thrown by a left-handed pitcher is a little easier to see. Moreover, the slider, which has almost never missed the top spot in the ranking of the most powerful of all breaking balls, is the decisive ball that goes out based on the same-handed hitter.

But just one thing.

There was a breaking ball that was like a special medicine to catch the opposite-handed hitter, and that was none other than the circle changeup.

And Da-jeong Jeong, who is standing on the mound right now, is the pitcher who has been in the pros for several years with just that circle changeup. Based on when I was playing in the KBO [Korean Baseball Organization], I was also quite fooled by that circle changeup. I still remember. The day I carelessly touched the changeup in a game that decided the rankings at the end of the season and made a double play with a ground ball to the infield. Someone, an unknown guy, scratched my car very long next to my car and ran away.

Da-jeong Jeong on the mound wound up greatly.

The kicking foot hit the ground and the rotation of the arm pulled out from behind was clearly visible.

The ball flies.

The countless experiences I have built up over a long period of time instantly drew the trajectory of the ball.

It’s a ball that comes into the zone. It wasn’t just talking about the strike zone. The space where I can swing the bat with the most confidence. To express it as a heatmap that is commonly used, it is a ball that comes into one of the five spaces in the nine-divided zone that I am most confident in.

It’s a ball to hit.

The time it took to decide that by instinct was about 0.125 seconds. The long experience added to the vivid brain was a much faster and smarter judgment than in my prime when I was winning the home run king in the majors.

The ball was still flying. But time was plentiful.

It was a slow ball, a circle changeup.

Perhaps if Da-jeong Jeong was a pitcher who threw 100 miles, or if I didn’t have the experience of blowing 100-mile balls, I might have been robbed of the timing and hit a ground ball to the infield and returned to the dugout sadly.

But he was just a pitcher who threw an 88-mile fastball at best.

The time of about 0.075 seconds created there gave him enough time to see that the ball he threw was a changeup.

A slightly slow timing.

The trajectory of the ball drawn in my head was modified. It’s a position that slightly deviates from the strike zone. About half a ball?

But it wasn’t bad. My arm was long enough, and my position in preparation for the circle changeup was also close enough to home plate. It was out of the strike zone, but it was still a position where I could confidently swing the bat.

Then all that’s left is to swing the bat.

As I expected.

At some point, I swung the bat vigorously toward the ball that was wriggling outward.

-Thwack!!

A refreshing feeling.

There was nothing to watch.

It was a home run.

I lightly threw the bat and ran towards first base.

[The batted ball is huge!! Very huge!! Home run!!! A huge home run that goes far beyond the fence!!! Oh my gosh. Soo-won Choi!! He pulled the first pitch of Da-jeong Jeong, who was showing almost perfect pitching today, as it was!!]

[Wow, it was a pretty well-controlled changeup? But he pulled it as if he was aiming for a changeup.]

[The fans watching the game in the outfield of Sangdong Baseball Stadium are going crazy right now. The home run ball flew over the spectators, so they are running to pick up the ball. It’s amazing power. I wonder how far this distance is.]

[Perfect pitching on the mound. A home run in the first at-bat. It can’t be helped that it’s a great performance worthy of 2 billion won.]

[A man just picked up the home run ball. He is smiling and rejoicing.]

[It seems like he is a father who came with his family? He is handing the baseball to the child sitting next to him.]

[Now, with Soo-won Choi’s opening home run, the score is now 1:0. The game continues.]

“Wow, I couldn’t believe it, but his first at-bat in the pros is a home run?”

Yu-jin Jo, who was in the on-deck circle, ran out, leaving her bat behind.

“What do you mean by first at-bat? It’s not a regular league, it’s a Futures League. Stop exaggerating and prepare for your at-bat. The seniors over there don’t look too good.”

I went back to the dugout, high-fived a few people who held out their palms to me, and sat back down.

Yu-jin Jo swung her bat in her unique form.

-Thwack!!!

[Yu-jin Jo hit it!! A low-lying batted ball!! Shortstop catches it and throws it to first base as it is!!]

“Out!!”

[Ah, the batted ball was quite fast, but the course wasn’t very good. Yu-jin Jo is unlucky.]

A clean ground ball out on the first pitch.

Da-jeong Jeong’s expression, which had been showing signs of shaking, stabilized a little. If it was at the high school level, that batted ball would have been a hit with a high probability, but it was a very stable defense. Certainly, even the second team of the pros is an ace-class based on high school baseball.

The game continued.

I tended to beat him up a little easily, but Da-jeong Jeong was a good pitcher. He held the Marines’ sloppy lineup without any additional points until the bottom of the 4th inning.

I believe you know why he only held it until the bottom of the 4th inning without me having to tell you the reason.

Bottom of the 5th inning, one out, no runners.

-Thwack!!!

After rejecting two balls,

The third.

I picked up the fastball that came in a little deeper as it was.

The second home run of the game.

Fortunately, people didn’t run that hard this time. It wasn’t because the distance of the home run was short. Just like when a hitter with long hitting power comes to the plate, they move back to defend in a deep place, many of the people watching the game in the outfield had moved away from the fence in advance.

In that way, I filled the limit of 70 pitches in the Futures League and pitched 5.1 innings with no runs, 11 strikeouts. And 2 at-bats, 2 hits (2 home runs).

My first and last Futures League game was over.

[2026 Nakdong River Futures League Final Game!! Marines 6:2 Unfortunate Comeback Loss]

─WhyDon’tTheMarinesDisband?: Unfortunate?? Unfortunate?? Unfortunate??