No Malice (6)
“Safe!”
“Boooooooooo!”
“Wooooaaaaah!”
Lee Hajun’s dash back to first was ruled safe. Enrique’s quick pickoff move from the Lakers mound had failed. Hawks road fans booed; Lakers home fans answered with cheers. The noise filled Jamsil Stadium the way only a packed house could—especially with the game on the line, the most trusted arm on the mound, and the most trusted bat on first.
If I can just get to second somehow…
Having driven in a run and become a baserunner himself, Hajun was already eyeing second. In practice and in the last two games, foreign hitter Jays had proven the real deal. As long as he stayed healthy and his head stayed clear, he would do more than his share.
[Enrique draws a swing with a first-pitch splitter. Now the second pitch!]
[He still has to keep an eye on the runner.]
Facing a pitcher who had just surrendered his first hit and first run of the day, Jays swung freely at the first offering and missed. His expression stayed confident.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Run!”
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Run!”
Road fans wanted the advance, pitcher-batter duel be damned. Enrique delivered again.
[He’s going!]
Thwack—!
“Ball!”
A sinker that usually worked well against lefties, but it rode high and was called a ball. The battle shifted from home plate to second base. The catcher had risen to take a high fastball, so the throw came easy.
[At second!]
“Safe!”
[Safe at second! Lee Hajun steals a crucial base!]
[That jump was lightning. They never really held him… give him even a little timing and you can’t stop those legs.]
“Lee Hajun! Lee Hajun! Lee Hajun!”
“One more round of applause for that beautiful steal by Lee Hajun—and now the strongest man in Daejeon, Jays!”
The pitcher finally turned his attention back to the batter, but Hawks fans kept chanting the name of the man who had just stolen second.
Thwack!
“Ball!”
Crack!
“Foul!”
“Shit!”
Jays snarled as if he had just missed a pitch he should have crushed. Even with two outs and two strikes, he refused to go passive. Catcher Lee Jeongseok stayed just as calm, setting the mitt outside, trusting the pitcher to hit the spot.
[Can Jays bring the runner home from second?]
[This is a huge at-bat.]
Enrique’s splitter dove late. Crack—! The batter was already sprinting to first before he could even swear. He had gotten the barrel on a diving outside splitter at the last instant, but the result was a ground ball.
[Jays puts it in play—!]
[Wait, the defensive positioning—]
Enrique had done what ground-ball pitchers do: induce a grounder. He just couldn’t dictate the direction.
[Through the three-hole! Jays’s hit sneaks between third and short!]
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The ball hopped mockingly between third baseman and shortstop and found grass. From second, Lee Hajun was never going to be thrown out at the plate.
[Runner scores from second! Jays’s RBI single makes it 3–2! This is Hawks baseball—grab the opponent by the throat at the critical moment and never let go.]
[The Lakers battery got the contact they wanted, but Jays’s ability to keep the barrel on the ball until the end made the difference.]
The result still tasted bitter. Unless it was a clean strikeout, a well-located pitch that disrupted timing still counted as a hit and a run when it left the infield.
“Yes!”
“Nice work, Hajun.”
Lee Hajun returned to the dugout to his teammates’ welcome. He had finally squared up Enrique, who had been untouchable all day, and the stolen base had turned a disappointing single into an extra run.
He swallowed a mouthful of sports drink and watched third hitter Park Jinhyeok’s at-bat with quiet focus. Two outs already—he might be back on defense any second. As the starting shortstop and the heart of the infield, he had started every game at the position since claiming the job; unless the game was already decided, the team now expected him out there.
Thwack—!
“Strike three!”
[Swinging strikeout! A tough inning, but Enrique keeps the lead intact.]
[Even Park Jinhyeok, who’s been hot lately, can’t find his timing. For the Hawks, the key now is keeping the Lakers off the board until their top of the order comes around again.]
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Enrique! Enrique! Enrique!”
Two runs allowed still stung, but the Lakers still led 3–2. Their ace had given them a chance to wait for the lineup to answer, and the home fans rewarded him with encouraging cheers.
“Hoo…”
Reliable leadoff man and baserunner now shifting into defensive cornerstone, Hajun moved to his position with a careful expression.
“Number one hitter Lee Hajun! Base hit! Lee Hajun!”
“One more time!”
Even in the heat the cheer leader blew his whistle with passion, and the cheerleaders kept smiling as if the weather didn’t exist.
Top of the seventh. Homegrown ace and franchise face Yu Seungjin had finally been charged with his fourth run and left the game. Against opposing ace Enrique they had managed only two. Score: 2–4. Yet the man the fans adored was at the plate, so they still found energy.
[One out, bases empty. On the mound is the Lakers’ second pitcher, Han Jonghun. At the plate: Lee Hajun!]
[Empty bases or not, if this guy reaches, things can get crazy fast.]
[Walked last time up, but the time before that he ripped a clean single off Enrique.]
With a thin left-handed bullpen, the Lakers trusted Han Jonghun.
Thwack—!
“Ball!”
Thwack—!
“Ball!”
Two straight breaking balls missed. A walk was the worst outcome; time to challenge him.
Crack—!
Inside!
When the outside-and-in sequence failed, the Lakers battery tried an inside fastball. Retribution was instant.
[He turns on it—through the right side! Lee Hajun’s second hit of the day!]
[He’s going!]
“Safe!”
[Lee Hajun steals second on the first pitch! Scoring position with one out.]
[That completely caught them off guard.]
A left-hander who should have had the advantage holding a runner at first, Han Jonghun thought he had Hajun locked down—until the first-pitch breaking ball bounced and became fatal.
[Jays at the plate. First pitch called a ball.]
[Han Jonghun came in specifically to handle Hajun and Jays. If he lets Jays on too…]
Thwack—!
“Ball!”
[He’s going again!]
An outside fastball that ABS barely rejected.
“Safe!”
The real problem was that Lee Hajun had just stolen third.
“Lee Hajun! Lee Hajun! Lee Hajun!”
Down two runs late, yet Hawks fans were celebrating as if the deficit didn’t exist.
[His third stolen base of the game! Why have the Daejeon Hawks become so hard to put away? Because this player latches onto the other team at the exact moment it hurts most.]
[Calling a young shortstop with big upside ‘unstoppable’ already feels early… but he really does look unstoppable.]
The top of the seventh ended with Jays’s four-pitch walk, Park Jinhyeok’s towering sacrifice fly, and Kim Dongseong’s groundout. The Hawks’ high-leverage arms shut down the Lakers lineup; the Lakers’ high-leverage arms answered in kind.
Then came the top of the ninth. To close out a one-run game, the Lakers sent out closer Mu Junsik, a right-hander.
Thwack—!
“Ball!”
When he retired leadoff man Hwang Jaewon, Lakers fans roared. Then ninth hitter—pinch-hitter Bae Hojun—drew a walk. A pitcher whose command could desert him on any given night. The same pitcher who had already disappointed them the night before in the ninth. In a razor-thin game, home fans felt the fear rising.
Next up: leadoff man Lee Hajun.
Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!
“Lee Hajun hit!”
By this point Hawks fans could no longer simply enjoy the game. All they wanted was a tie. Settling for a 2–1 series win was not an option right now.
[Lee Hajun, already with a multi-hit night, steps in.]
[If he gets another hit here… haha, this series is going to be the talk of every baseball fan for a while.]
The hottest short-term story in the league right now was how much Lee Hajun would do against the Seoul Lakers—and so far he had been smiling for every fan who didn’t root for the Lakers.
[Mu Junsik sets for the first pitch!]
“…”
The Lee Hajun who had returned looked airtight. But if walks kept coming, the nightmare would only deepen. Catcher Lee Jeongseok calmly called for a first-pitch fastball to get ahead.
Crack—!
They never got the result they wanted.
[Squared up! Dropping into right-center for a hit!]
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Wooooaaaaah!”
Daejeon Hawks fans hammered their cheer sticks and screamed until their throats tore. Seoul Lakers home fans felt their mouths go dry. Even the cheer leader’s calls to dig deep were growing harder to hear.
Thud!
[Hit by pitch!]
Mu Junsik’s breaking ball got away and drilled Jays. The hitter glared at the mound just long enough, then jogged to first without crossing the line.
“Please, not here…”
Thwack—!
“Ball!”
“Kyaaaaaaaah!”
A Lakers fan’s desperate prayer was buried under the near-screams of joy from the Hawks side. Third hitter Park Jinhyeok walked, forcing in the tying run. Lakers manager and coaches could only fidget; they had no one left to replace the closer with.
If they could just get out of this—if bases-loaded, one-out somehow ended as only a one-run deficit—they could still dream of the bottom of the ninth.
Crack—!
[He turns on it—left-field wall!]
[It’s got a chance!]
And on cleanup hitter Kim Dongseong’s drive, Lakers fans either stood frozen in despair or started calculating the quickest route home and left early.