VS Korea's Best Left-Hander
Becoming a starting pitcher came with a schedule I really liked: a full day of rest the day after I pitched. Sure, I'd only started two games so far, but...
A whole day completely off... just light jogging if I felt like it... How great was that?
Unfortunately, I'd pitched on Sunday, and today was Monday. Somehow it felt like I was getting shortchanged on my rest.
"I have no idea what goes on in that head of yours. Used to be I thought you had no self-esteem, but then you pull something like this and you're full of arrogance... Sigh."
That was Ho-min's immediate reply when I told him over breakfast about what had happened yesterday.
"Was your changeup really so amazing that they couldn't even hit it unless they were sitting on it? Where the hell does that confidence come from? If you'd kept getting lit up, I wouldn't say a word. But it was one at-bat. One single at-bat, and you started thinking like that? Give me a break."
"But even Mandeok hyung said it was weird..."
"That hyung thinks you're the best pitcher in the country, so of course he'd say that!"
"W-well, yeah?"
"And the batter wasn't just anybody—it was Park Kang-su. That Park Kang-su. And just because one pitch got hit cleanly, you go, 'There's definitely something here! What the hell is it?' and start freaking out? Ha! You're seriously something else."
"······"
Fine, I admit it. I'd been feeling pretty confident lately. But that wasn't why I'd thought those things...
Still, I couldn't come up with any more excuses for Ho-min. Annoyingly, nothing he'd said was wrong.
This guy's been spouting nothing but the truth lately. He didn't used to be like this.
"Try being a little more humble. Those hitters you're facing aren't in the first team for no reason."
I was starting to feel like my breakfast was going to sit heavy in my stomach.
I still had a little room left, but I wrapped up the meal roughly.
Better to duck out now than get greedy for more food and have to listen to more of that lecture.
"Running away? Hey! I'm only saying this for your own good..."
I got that, but my ears felt like they were about to start bleeding.
I fled to my room, locked the door, and dove straight onto the bed.
Then I used a delivery app on my phone to order coffee and a slice of cake—Ho-min's favorite.
Figuring that if I fed him this, it might take the edge off that rising temper of his.
A little while later, the coffee and cake I'd ordered arrived.
I quietly handed them over to Ho-min, who was sitting on the living room sofa watching TV. He snorted a laugh. Naturally, the lecture stopped.
"Don't you ever go on dates on days like this?"
Out of nowhere, while happily working on the cake, Ho-min tossed out some nonsense.
"...What date? Don't I need a girlfriend first for that?"
"That girl you meet sometimes. The one who gives you chocolate."
"I told you it's not like that."
"Why don't you date her? Because she's a fan? Some crap about how players and fans shouldn't get together?"
"No, it's... Haa~ seriously. We're not like that. I don't even have her number."
"Then isn't that a problem? Someone who doesn't even have your number shows up at your front door? Is she a stalker? Want me to report her?"
"······ Seriously, don't. Don't ruin the mood—just sit still for once."
This crazy bastard really would report her and then some.
"Heh heh. Alright~ now sit down. Time for some fun studying, yeah?"
"Ah..."
The lecture still wasn't over.
Our team played two games of the three-game midweek series against the Stars that started on Tuesday.
The results: 2-4 and 0-8. We couldn't carry over the good vibes from sweeping the previous series and dropped both games in a row.
Lee Yong-hun, who took the mound on Tuesday, looked solid early on.
The hitters gave him two runs in the first, and he held them to one run through five innings, raising hopes for a four-game winning streak for the team and Yong-hun's second win since Opening Day.
But he wobbled a bit in the sixth, putting two runners on, and with one out and runners at first and second, Manager Park made a pitching change.
Oh Gyu-shin, who came in after Yong-hun, surrendered a three-run homer that flipped the game, and that score held all the way to the end.
A frustrating loss.
Wednesday's game, on the other hand, was hopeless from the start.
No Geun-sik, getting another shot as the starter, collapsed early again, and by the time the third inning began, the pitcher had already been switched to Hwang Chan-young.
No Geun-sik: two innings, five runs. Hwang Chan-young: four innings, two runs.
Would No Geun-sik get another chance? I doubted it.
Thankfully, Michael Len took the mound on Thursday and went seven innings allowing three runs to earn the win and turn the atmosphere around.
Then we headed out on the road to face the Dongbuk Radars, last year's Korean Series champions.
Just like last year, the experts were predicting a runaway for the Dongbuk Radars and another championship this season.
The biggest reason was their rock-solid starting rotation.
Jung Seong-hwan, one of the best left-handed pitchers in the country, was still going strong, and they'd successfully re-signed the foreign duo who'd combined for thirty-seven wins last year.
On top of that, they'd locked down the foreign hitter who'd posted a .339 average with twenty-five home runs, keeping last year's potent lineup intact this year as well.
Their only supposed weakness was the middle relief corps. But even those "weak" guys had ranked in the top four in the league last year...
And once you got past them, Im Jong-hun—the best closer in the country, with just two blown saves all of last year—erased the ninth inning.
We actually felt confident about Friday's game. For one thing, the weight of the two teams' starters was different.
Our second starter Marte was going, while the Radars, with their rotation a little scrambled from rainouts and such, were sending out their fourth starter.
So we walked into the game full of confidence, but...
Friday's game had Marte—who was always smiling—scowling from the very beginning.
Things went sideways right from the start. Against leadoff hitter Jo Sang-won, he threw a full twelve pitches and still ended up walking him.
The moment he threw that last pitch, Marte's shout of "Fuck!!!" carried all the way to our dugout.
Once he reached first, Jo Sang-won kept getting under Marte's skin.
Known for his baserunning, Jo took a long lead that forced Marte to pay attention, then kept looking like he was about to bolt for second, forcing throw-overs.
And the second Marte focused on the batter, Jo took off and stole second clean.
A productive out and a single from the number-three hitter, Evan Kawit, brought him home. Classic Radars scoring formula.
"Fuck! Fuck!! @#$#$%^$%^@#$%$@"
When Marte came back to the dugout after the first, he made no attempt to hide how he felt. Honestly, I was a little surprised. Was it really something to get that angry about?
I couldn't understand a single word of the rapid-fire stream pouring out of him, so I couldn't be sure, but it seemed like he was more pissed at Jo Sang-won than at giving up three runs in the first.
He kept pointing toward first base while he talked, after all.
It was Manager Park who calmed the fired-up Marte down.
He took him behind the dugout with the dedicated interpreter, and when Marte came back, there was even a faint smile on his face.
"What the hell did he say..."
Manager Park usually only said exactly what needed saying and left you feeling frustrated sometimes, so it was genuinely amazing that he'd managed to settle Marte down like that.
With his head clear again, Marte pitched through the fifth and at least fulfilled the bare minimum of a starter's job.
Not that he shut them down after the first. He just ate the innings a starter is supposed to eat.
When the fifth ended, the score was 1-6.
We limped into the middle of the game, and by the time every inning was over, the final score sat at 3-9.
The second matchup of the season between the Radars and the Savers. Today's starting pitchers for both teams are Kwon Jong-jin and Kang Hajin.
It's a showdown between the best hard-throwing lefty and righty in the country. This should be a thrilling battle.
How do you see the matchup between these two?
Neither pitcher has anything to criticize in terms of pure stuff. Kwon Jong-jin has proven his velocity not only domestically but in international competitions as well. And based on what Kang Hajin has shown from last year through now, he doesn't fall short at all.
Yes. Kang Hajin looked excellent in both of his previous starts.
Both teams have high-quality bullpens and elite closers, so today's game will likely hinge on which team scores first—and which team holds the edge until the starters come out.
Crack!
"Out!"
"Hoo..."
I finished the bottom of the first against three opposing hitters.
Whether I could really call that "finishing them cleanly," though, I wasn't so sure.
"Now I get why Marte was so pissed off yesterday."
Jo Sang-won, leading off the bottom of the first, choked way up on the bat and kept fouling off pitch after pitch.
Thankfully I didn't suffer the catastrophe of throwing twelve pitches and walking him like Marte had, but even after getting the out I'd still thrown nine, and the irritation surged up anyway.
Watching him somehow get the bat on even my knuckleball and foul it off just made me sick of the whole thing.
I figured it'd get a little better once the leadoff guy was gone, but... seven pitches, six pitches.
Facing three hitters, I'd thrown a total of twenty-two pitches.
Manager Park had only been allowing me around eighty pitches in the previous two games...
On top of that, facing a senior pitcher I'd always looked up to, I'd come out determined to stay on the mound as long as possible today so I could really go toe-to-toe with him—but right from the start, nothing was going the way I'd planned.
Back in the dugout I talked it over with the battery coach and Ko Mandeok, and from the second inning on we changed the repertoire a little.
Instead of the four-seam-heavy approach of the first, we attacked the zone mainly with two-seamers and sliders.
Thankfully that worked well—I gave up a single in the second but got through it in ten pitches.
Then the third. Against the bottom of the order I leaned on pure power, firing eight straight four-seamers and so on, and succeeded in overpowering them.
Forty-four pitches through three innings. At least that brought me back to a somewhat reasonable level.
The problem was...
"How many, you said?"
"Twenty-nine."
The opposing pitcher, Kwon Jong-jin, was in ridiculous form.
"Damn it. If their fourth starter went yesterday, their fifth should be going today—why the hell is their ace out there making a mess of things?"
"······ Is this your first time playing baseball?"
Ko Mandeok looked at me with an expression of pure disbelief.
I knew it was a stretch. I was just grumbling because I was irritated.