Jamsil Stadium
About twenty minutes away from Jamsil Baseball Stadium stood a hotel that the Hana Eagles had contracted as their away lodging during the season starting last year. Even though it wasn't his turn to pitch, Seo Tae-woong lay on the bed, meticulously reviewing the scouting report on the Twins.
Crack!
"That's out too."
Crack!
"Caught right at the warning track."
Crack!
"Center fielder grabs it with plenty of room to spare. Man, it's huge. Jamsil lives up to the hype."
-Ace: Jealous much?
"Nah, not at all. Why would I be? I'm a full-fledged Eagle right now."
-Ace: You look like you're praying, 'Please let me be a pitcher with Jamsil as my home park in my next life.'
"......Did you pick up telepathy or something? Can you read my mind?"
-Ace: Not telepathy, but I can tell. Your head's stuffed full of fly balls. Just smash 'em outta there.
"Who's telling who to smash what? Maybe you need to snap out of it first."
Puns only land when the other person gets the reference. It fell completely flat on Tae-woong, who had no clue what Ace was on about.
-Ace:Ahem...... Anyway, nothing to envy. What helps you helps their pitchers too. Unless you're some extreme fly-ball guy, it's all the same.
Jamsil Baseball Stadium, shared home of the Bears and Twins, was the largest among the KBO's nine ballparks.
-Ace: Hell, it's the fifth biggest even if you combine all thirty MLB parks.
"Where'd you even get that from?"
-Ace: That Heo Gu-ra guy mentioned it offhand during an LA Dodgers Ryu Han-jin start broadcast. Dodger Stadium's on the smaller side, hitter-friendly, tough on pitchers. But damn, his dialect's thick.
"Dunno. He's been commentating forever. I've listened to Heo Gu-ra since I was a kid—feels nostalgic, kinda like it better that way."
-Ace: Fair enough...... tastes differ. So, whaddya think?
"Twins lead the league in starter ERA, right? Our bullpen's miles ahead at number one. It'll come down to the starters."
-Ace: Duh...... You're the one rambling nonsense.
"Complain when I talk, complain when I don't...... But why the huge gap?"
-Ace: Their foreign ace duo's killing it, but they get that park factor boost too. More fly balls die at the track, calms the nerves, and pitchers post their best numbers here most of the time.
"Yeah, Jamsil's massive. Hit it deep, still caught—drives hitters nuts, but for pitchers, no better spot to pad the ERA."
Words that wouldn't have fit his pre-regression self at all. Guys who could pitch a bit would call throwing at Jamsil straight honey.
'Well, I sucked everywhere, so I just shut up and watched......'
-Ace: Hey, it ain't you on the mound. Why overthink? Time to warm up.
Ace was right. If he kept cruising through his rotation without issues, July was the earliest for Jamsil. For now, all he could do was cheer from the dugout.
'Don't sweat it. Worrying won't change a thing......'
Tae-woong decided to focus on the present instead of some distant future.
"Gotta hit the gym."
-Ace: Smart move, meatballer.
As he changed clothes, something popped into Tae-woong's head, and he asked Ace.
"Hey, any missions for bulking up muscle mass?"
-Ace: You a bodybuilder now? Get your ass to the gym.
Ace shut that down cold with a firm tone.
"So harsh...... Cheap bastard."
But the smoother Tae-woong post-regression grumbled under his breath all the way out the door.
It felt like 2018 had just begun, but half of May was already gone. Facing the third game after splitting the first two 1-1 with the Twins at Jamsil Baseball Stadium, the Eagles squad headed to the park around 4 p.m. to warm up and train.
Leading with an ironclad bullpen, the Eagles were the only one of ten teams without a single rainout. Needless to say, the relievers bore the brunt of the fatigue, but starters and hitters weren't unscathed either. Players in their late 20s pushing into 30s, with top athleticism, were subtly hampered by accumulated wear, struggling to stay sharp on offense and defense. Small errors were creeping in.
By lunchtime, dark clouds gathered over Samsung Station, with scattered raindrops starting and stopping.
Drip, drip, drip.
"Huh? Rain again? Clouds were parting a bit before we boarded the bus......"
Droplets dotted Tae-woong's face as he hauled gear in front of the team bus. Lately, starters including him were going at least six, up to eight or nine innings, giving the pen more rest—but it still wasn't quite enough.
"Last game of the week—hope we get a full break."
Tae-woong finished loading the rest of the bags.
Tae-woong and the Eagles coaches and players all prayed for a rainout, but the heavens ignored them. By 5:40 p.m., twenty minutes before the final game of the week, the light drizzle finally eased, soaking the grass.
The Twins swiftly pulled the tarps from the infield and mobilized staff to prep the field. They always hustled to avoid delays, but today felt extra frantic.
-Ace: Giving up 1-2 early today could be huge. What, reincarnated monkey who starved on bananas? Got a grudge?
Ace looked skyward from the bench, spotting Tae-woong inhaling three team-snack bananas in one go—like a magician vanishing them unseen.
-Seo Tae-woong: Yeah. Looks like it'll pour before game's end.
Tilting his head, the sky was clear of rain but blanketed in black clouds over Jamsil.
-Ace: Check the staff sweating to drain puddles. Even the gray-haired manager's out there—they really want this one.
-Seo Tae-woong: Obviously. Twins got No. 2 starter Taylor Wills; we got No. 4 Min-wook hyung.
-Ace: Off day tomorrow, last game—might as well go for broke?
-Seo Tae-woong: Would be nice, but I'm not the manager. That's for him and the coaches.
-Ace: If I were your skipper, no way I'd let it slide.
And as Ace said, manager Han Young-deok had no intention of playing it safe in crunch time.
At lunch in the hotel, manager Han Young-deok checked the overcast sky himself. He asked support staff for precise hourly rain probabilities after 6 p.m. at Jamsil.
"90% chance and that sky? Safe to say 100% it'll rain post-start......"
While the Eagles took three from the Wiz, the NG Twins went 1-2 against the Lions in a losing series before heading to Jamsil from Pohang. Both sat tied for fifth.
'Winner takes solo fifth today. So......'
He trusted No. 4 starter Kim Min-wook and the lineup, but they couldn't deliver every time.
'Sitting idle in this spot? No point in being manager then.'
Decision made, Han called in chief and hitting coach Jang Jong-hyun, Song Jun-woo, and the staff. He instructed hitters to scratch 1-2 runs early with walks, steals, bunts—whatever—and have the bullpen warming from the second.
'Prep's done. Now it's up to the skies......'
Excluding the Tigers with homegrown ace Yang Hyun-jung, every other club's 1-2 starters were foreigners. Managers prayed for seven innings minimum—fewer innings meant less pen usage, and shaky starts got yanked early for multi-reliever wins.
Twins No. 2 Taylor Wills seemed to deliver, aside from a second-inning solo homer to Kim Tae-gun.
Eagles starter Kim Min-wook looked sharp too. His four-seam hummed at a steady 143 km/h, above average, with solid breaking stuff. From the first through third, he loaded bases with hits and walks each inning but escaped by retiring the follow-up hitter.
But in the fourth, a four-seam tight inside plunked the leadoff hitter's thigh, sparking crisis. Balance crumbled—pitches sailed high, hits followed, runners to first and second no outs. Twins bunt succeeded: one out, second and third.
"Skip, what's the call?"
The pitching coach asked from the dugout. Han nodded.
"Got it, sending him in now."
The coach phoned the pen, grabbed a fresh ball from the ump, and headed to the mound. Kim Min-wook, briefed pre-game, came down without protest.
In this spot—grounder or fly ties it, single flips 2-1—the mound got Lee Tae-young, Eagles setup man and closer with Aram, owning the eighth and ninth. In his last ten outings, 14 innings, one run max—Han trusted him.
And Lee delivered.
Whoosh!
Thwack!
"Strike three out!"
Next up: Twins' homer leader Garcia. But the 152 km/h four-seam and forkball threw off his timing.
At 2-2, the forkball dived perfectly.
Whoosh!
Swoosh!
Thwack!