3. The Man Hits a Grand Slam (1)
Two outs, bases loaded, and the ninth pitch of the duel.
Even for Baek Ha-rin, this was the point where the fatigue had to start setting in.
Every offspeed pitch she'd shown me had been cut to pieces, so I was certain that this time she'd come into the zone with a four-seamer.
-Whip!
"Strikeout!"
…Which was exactly why the forkball that dropped away beneath the zone was the last thing I expected.
"Hey, Kang Tae-oh! Why would you swing at that?!"
"All you had to do was stand there and take the walk!"
The dugout kicked up a fuss over it, but not a word of it reached my ears.
Bases loaded, full count. In a spot where simply standing there might have earned me a bases-loaded walk, she had boldly dropped a breaking ball out of the zone.
…All I could say was that I'd lost the mind game. Nor could I deny that Baek Ha-rin's nerve ran bolder than I'd given her credit for.
"Ugh, every time Kang Tae-oh comes up today, it's a strikeout."
"How come the chances keep landing right on his at-bat?"
By the time I'd collected myself, the muttering of a few players in the Blue team's dugout had drifted into my ears — the starters were already out taking the field by then, so it was mostly the backups doing the talking.
So I get pulled at my next at-bat, huh.
Coach Yoon Gaeul had said there would be no defensive changes before the sixth, but that was never a promise that extended to the designated hitter.
Nothing guaranteed my turn would even come back around within six innings, either. Errors and near-errors had summoned the crises, sure — but the plain fact was that Baek Ha-rin was still running a scoreless outing today.
If I get just one more chance, I really think I can hit her this time.
Even if I were the coach, I doubted I'd keep a designated hitter in the lineup after two straight strikeouts. And yet, nursing the hope that exactly one more chance might come, I kept at my swing work in the corner of the dugout.
A three-pitch strikeout in his first at-bat. His second had been a tenacious grind, and it had still ended in a strikeout on the ninth pitch.
Judged on results alone, Yoon Gaeul was starting to think a substitution would be the better call.
So he's still not ripe for live play.
He had walked back to the dugout on three pitches, yes — but the sight of him waiting, dead certain, on the pitch he wanted before committing his swing had given her a brief flicker of hope. Then came the second strikeout, and her doubts deepened all over again.
Granted, the content of that second at-bat had improved by leaps. But the bottom line didn't change: against Baek Ha-rin's best, he couldn't barrel a single ball.
By any ordinary standard, this was the hour to start weighing a change. His next turn likely wouldn't come until around the seventh, so pulling him now wouldn't even violate her own declared rule about no substitutions before the sixth.
"Coach."
…
"Kang Tae-oh. When his next at-bat comes around, better to have a pinch hitter ready, don't you think?"
"…Right."
She had given him ample opportunity, after all.
And she hadn't taken the helm of the Chaewon University baseball team for just this one year, either. Her contract ran at least through next season — if Kang Tae-oh truly did have talent, all she had to do was build him toward the C-League next year.
And if the notion that he might be talented turned out to be her own misjudgment… then it was simply a memory she could bury, quietly, and forget.
-Whoosh!
As the designated hitter, Kang Tae-oh had stayed behind in the dugout, back at his swing drills.
He was driving low, powerful swings one after another, as if still sore that he hadn't managed so much as a ball in play his last time up.
Come to think of it, Baek Ha-rin's pitch count was running unusually high today.
A heavy-strikeout pitcher by nature, she wasn't the type to work deep into games — but even allowing for that, she had thrown more than sixty pitches through only four innings.
At that pace, it was hard to be confident she'd even make it through the fifth. And whether she was aware of it or not, there was even the way her form wavered, ever so slightly, each time Kang Tae-oh's turn at the plate drew near.
"…About Kang Tae-oh."
"Ah — yes?"
"If by chance he comes up once more before the sixth ends, leave him in. If it's after the seventh, take him out."
"…Understood."
If, just maybe, Kang Tae-oh's at-bat came back around before the sixth was over — then that once, surely she could afford him a final chance. So Yoon Gaeul thought, cautiously, to herself.
After my at-bat ended — the top of the fifth.
Han Yu-seul was still holding the mound without surrendering a single run, even as her pitch count kept climbing.
Cha Seo-rin laced another sharp grounder, but Kim Na-hyun flung her body to spear it at short, and the remaining hitters went down on harmless contact — nothing given up through five innings.
Truth be told, I barely watched any at-bat that wasn't Cha Seo-rin's. I was too busy chewing over the strikeouts Baek Ha-rin had hung on me, buried in my swing drills.
In the bottom of the fifth, our ninth batter, Moon So-yul, never lifted the bat against Baek Ha-rin's four-seamer on the outside corner — strikeout, called.
And then came the third at-bat of the day for our leadoff hitter, Min Do-hee.
-Crack!
"Run, Do-hee!"
"Go, go!"
-Pop!
"Safe!"
On the second pitch, Min Do-hee finally scratched her way aboard with a bunt single.
If this keeps up…
Then maybe — just maybe — my at-bat would come around one more time before the sixth ended. Of course, for a designated hitter like me, Yoon Gaeul's word about no changes before the sixth could always be revoked; still, I couldn't help the strange flicker of hope starting to stir.
After that, Seo Ma-ri's grounder in the two-hole turned into a run-advancing out — two down, a runner on second — and Kwon Ye-rim lifted a fly ball to center.
"Out!"
I'd been hoping at least one more runner would reach, but the inning closed right there, with neither a hit nor a walk to show for it.
Hah… hah…
If there was a silver lining, it was that Baek Ha-rin, barely five innings in, already looked fairly worn down.
After that, in the top of the sixth, Han Yu-seul gave up one single to the White team's lower order, but turned the next batter into a double play to close the frame again.
The bottom of the sixth opened still scoreless at 0–0, and our cleanup hitter, Han Ji-woo, stepped to the plate.
He took one look at Baek Ha-rin's first-pitch four-seamer on the outside corner; the second pitch came in low and inside.
-Crack!
The ball ripped toward third, and third baseman Do Yeon-seo pounced on it in a hurry —
-Tick!
"Safe!"
Flustered, she rushed her throw, and it climbed high and clean out of the first baseman's glove. Error — and a baserunner.
"Hey, Do Yeon-seo! Get your head in the game!"
Her second error of the day, on the heels of the one back in the second inning. Considering she'd already looked shaky in the fourth as well, anything hit toward third today was practically a free ticket to first.
Either way, Baek Ha-rin's outing resumed with nobody out and a runner on first.
This inning had begun at seventy-one pitches, and now she'd even put the leadoff hitter aboard — this was almost certainly her final inning. Coach Yoon Gaeul had set the cap for her starters at ninety pitches, after all.
-Crack!
While I was still mulling it over, Kim Na-hyun, batting fifth, punched a single into left — first and second, nobody out.
"Nice one, Kim Na-hyun!"
"Let's go! Get us a run!"
With hitters reaching back to back, Cha Seo-rin rose from her seat and started toward the mound — but Baek Ha-rin lifted a hand to wave her off. She was fine.
-Tap.
In the at-bat that followed, Oh Yu-ra, sixth in the order, laid down a bunt.
The ball skittered toward first. Baek Ha-rin pounced on it and shot a glance toward third —
-Thwack!
"Out!"
"Good one, Yu-ra!"
Whether she judged the play at third too late or simply took the sure thing, she threw to first and locked down the out with no fuss.
One out, runners on second and third.
Maybe the scramble on defense had left her breathing ragged. Maybe the thought that a single sacrifice fly would hand the Blue team the first run of the game had shaken her loose.
"Ball four!"
After a seven-pitch duel, she issued a walk to the seventh batter, Lee Chae-won — and just like that, the bases were loaded with one out.
"Good eye! Good eye!"
"Yes! Yes!"
The Blue team's dugout erupted for an instant — and then fell dead quiet at the sight of me walking toward the plate.
Setting aside the fact that I was a male player, I'd already been struck out twice today with chances on the line. Nobody had any reason to expect a thing.
"They're not pinch-hitting for him?"
"Coach said no substitutions before the sixth, didn't she?"
"Still, he's Kang Tae-oh…"
Too far away to catch clearly, but I could guess the gist — whether I'd be replaced or left in.
I'd expected to be swapped out myself, but Yoon Gaeul, principled to a fault, had apparently decided that even a designated hitter shouldn't be yanked while the sixth remained unfinished.
"Back again, huh?"
"You're telling me."
"Just take a few cuts and come sit down. It's your last at-bat today anyway — don't go getting hurt for nothing."
Maybe it was the two strikeouts talking, but Cha Seo-rin's voice had gone thick with easy condescension.
Without answering, I stepped into the box and met Baek Ha-rin's eyes across the mound.
If I were Baek Ha-rin, how would I attack here?
She'd taken both of my earlier at-bats by strikeout, so she'd be burning to make it a third.
But she was at eighty-four pitches. For all practical purposes, I was the last hitter Baek Ha-rin could afford to face today.
Coming up short of six innings just to strike me out would be the deeper humiliation for her — and with two punchouts already in the bank, whatever cracks her pride had suffered from the home run I'd hit off her a while back must have been more than patched up by now.
More than anything, Baek Ha-rin is the type who craves the team's win even more than her own pride.
What's more, in that second at-bat she'd baited out my whiff even while braced to concede the walk entirely.
The four-seamer was too dangerous, and every breaking ball that came in slower had been cut to shreds — which left exactly one pitch for her to throw me here.
A sinker, low and in.
With her pitch count stacked that high, the weight of a full count would only tighten the noose; she'd almost certainly come at me for the kill from the very first pitch.
-Shake, shake.
-Shake, shake.
-…A nod.
The sign exchange with Cha Seo-rin stretched long. Baek Ha-rin shook her head several times before finally giving in with a nod.
And even if the pitch she threw wasn't the one I'd called, I had nothing to regret. A third at-bat meant Yoon Gaeul had already extended me every chance she reasonably could — failing to cash it in would be nobody's fault but mine.
-Swiiiish!
It came in looking for all the world like a four-seamer at thigh height, and I didn't waver. I knew there was no way in hell Baek Ha-rin would hang a mistake like that with the bases loaded and one out.
Calling up the memory of Baek Ha-rin's sinker arc, I swung with total conviction — driving the barrel through a point a good two ball-widths below where the pitch appeared to be —
-CRAAACK!!
The crack of ball meeting the sweet spot split the stadium as the liner tore off toward left.
The White team's left fielder and center fielder drifted after the flight of the ball at a slow walk —
"WAAAAAAAHHH!!"
—and beneath somebody's roar exploding out of the Blue team's dugout, my ball was already sailing over the left-center wall.