I've Sharpened My Blade
"Stri~ke! Out!"
[Kang Hajin's strikeout show continues into the second inning. With the top of the second complete, he has recorded five of the six outs via strikeout!]
[It's still early, but his fastball velocity hasn't dropped below 157 km/h. A blazing heater with that kind of command, plus a splitter that drops over 140 and a sweeping slider also clearing 140—from a batter's perspective, it's pure despair.]
[Kang Hajin is leaning on the fastball today, but aren't his other pitches among the best in the league? And then there's the knuckleball.]
[Exactly. And... well... this is just my guess, but I don't think he'll bother showing the knuckleball today.]
[Oh? Why's that?]
[Well... let's watch the game unfold a bit more before I say.]
"You out of your mind today? Putting too much into it right from the start, aren't you?"
Kim Tae-sung tossed the remark my way like a scolding as he walked past. If you're going to say that, at least wipe the grin off your face.
I just shrugged at Ko Mandeok.
"Alright then—gotta go knock one out for our knucklehead."
Leading off the bottom of the second, Kim Tae-sung fired off one more line as he left the dugout.
Who exactly was calling who a knucklehead...
It wasn't just Kim Tae-sung. The other guys were cracking jokes and messing with me more than usual today. I had a pretty good idea why.
"That hyung always ends up striking out when he talks big like that..."
This one was solid fact. Kim Tae-sung always jinxed himself into a strikeout the second he got cocky.
"Puhaha. True enough."
The second Ko Mandeok chimed in—
"Stri~ke! Out!"
Three pitches. That was all it took. Kim Tae-sung trudged back looking thoroughly defeated.
"Knew that was coming. Sigh."
"Don't worry. Hyung'll go knock one over for you."
"Ah, come on!"
"Heh heh heh."
Ko Mandeok didn't manage a hit, but he did drive in a run with a double. No more scoring after that, which was a shame, but getting on the board first still mattered.
Top of the third. The moment I stepped onto the mound and the batter settled into the box, Ko Mandeok's hand started moving.
Curve, huh...
Before this inning he'd mentioned he'd start mixing in some slower stuff, but I hadn't expected the sign right on the first pitch.
Not that I minded or anything.
[Kang Hajin faces leadoff hitter Jo Sang-hyun in the top of the third and delivers the first pitch. Strike on the low edge of the zone!]
[That curve just now—it dropped from the batter's chest all the way to the farthest low corner. The guy actually had to bail out of the way. He's really showing it today.]
Yeah... it was landing clean.
The break was sharper than usual, and more than anything, it was dropping later—closer to the batter.
Han Song-yi buff, no doubt...
[Strikeout! Another one. That's six. The strikeouts keep rolling in the third.]
[He shows the curve, then two straight four-seamers, then a changeup. After flashing a curve, he comes with a fastball thirty kilometers faster, then a changeup more than twenty slower. When a pitcher does that, a batter can't time anything even if he wants to.]
My condition was one thing, but Ko Mandeok looked possessed today too.
Signs coming out without the usual hesitation—right ones for every situation, no need for me to shake anything off.
I wasn't the only one sharpening a blade. That hyung's got poison in his blood today.
In front of our pissed-off battery, the Stars hitters were getting erased in a hurry.
[We've wrapped the bottom of the fifth and are taking a short break. Current score is 3-0, Savers leading as we head into the top of the sixth.]
[Today... how do I even put this. Honestly... all I can say is it's incredible.]
[So far Kang Hajin has completely shut down the Stars on just forty-eight pitches. And ten strikeouts already.]
[Didn't I say early on we should wait and see?]
[Ah—about him not throwing the knuckleball? Right. Are you going to explain now?]
[Well... watching Kang Hajin's pitching early, I got this feeling. Today he's not just pitching well—it's more like... he wants to show what kind of player Kang Hajin actually is.]
[Ah... I see.]
[I'm not phrasing it well. Anyway, that was my thought.]
[So why skip the knuckleball...]
[The knuckleball. It's a devastating pitch—borderline magic, really. But in my view, it's a pitch that needs a certain amount of luck.]
[I-is that so?]
[The guy throwing it, the guy catching it, the guy swinging at it—none of them know where it's going. That's a knuckleball, right?]
[True. Exactly.]
[Kang Hajin wants to show what kind of player he is today. Would he really leave that to luck?]
[Ah...]
[Not saying I'm right. Just my opinion. Haha.]
The dugout was dead quiet.
Just the occasional clink of gear and the sound of someone sipping a drink.
Especially around Ko Mandeok sitting next to me—it was arctic.
I knew why, but still...
"We're only through five. Why are you already..."
"Because I watched you pitch."
"It's not something that just happens that easy, you know. Perfe—mmph! Mmph! Mmph!"
"What the hell are you spouting for no reason? You gonna shut up or what?"
"Heh heh. Maybe I should just go out there and hand out free bases."
"This crazy bastard..."
Watching Ko Mandeok panic made me laugh on its own.
His face had been locked so tight I was half-worried he'd mess something up. So I poked at him a little, and it seemed to loosen him up some.
Had I loosened up too much?
Facing the leadoff hitter in the sixth, two balls in a row. The pitch I'd meant to catch the outer edge had leaked a little wide.
I tilted my head, and Ko Mandeok stared straight at me before his hand slipped between his thighs and his fingers pointed to just one sign.
"Crazy... heh heh."
No matter how you looked at it, that bastard Ko Mandeok wasn't right in the head either.
[Kang Hajin tilts his head. Two balls in a row.]
[Command slipped a bit there.]
[Is he tightening up?]
[Hard to say. But it's just two balls. Kang Hajin hasn't shown anything like this today, so it feels weird, but it's not actually a problem, right?]
[Ah... true. Haha. I barely mentioned balls all game, so consecutive ones feel strange.]
[Just shows how perfect the pitching's been so far.]
[Exactly. Sign exchange done. Kang Hajin delivers the third pitch! Ah!!! 161 km/h! 161 comes up! He just reset his personal velocity record again!]
[Unbelievable. Both the guy throwing it and Ko Mandeok calling for it. Command starts to wander a little, so they just pump the absolute fastest one right down the middle.]
Honestly, I figured if it got hit, so be it.
Better a hit than a walk, I thought as I threw it—but from the batter's face, he never even considered swinging.
He looked properly rattled, all tensed up... which meant I already had a good idea what sign Ko Mandeok would put down next.
[Changeup makes it two strikes. Kang Hajin takes the ball back. Ah! He goes right into the next pitch.]
[He's so quick. All game long, the second he gets the ball he's into the next one.]
[Two-and-two, fifth pitch. Swing and a miss! Big drop on the splitter, and he's gone. Strikeout number eleven!]
Cheers rose from the stands for a moment, then the crowd went quiet again. Aside from the visiting team's cheering section, the whole stadium was still.
The brief command hiccup in the top of the sixth snapped right back into place.
Slider for a grounder to first. Two-seamer boring in for a fly to short.
The sixth was over in a blink, and when I got back to the dugout, even Ko Mandeok had joined the silence.
He'd wandered off somewhere far away. I sat alone at the end of the dugout, staring out at the field by myself.
"Should I just try a bunt?"
In the Stars dugout, Hong Jong-gu muttered it while watching the sixth evaporate into nothing.
"Are you insane?"
Kim Hyun-sung, sitting next to him, nearly jumped out of his skin and tried to clamp a hand over Hong Jong-gu's mouth.
"Haa... fuck, what even is that guy? 161? Does that make any sense?"
"Right?"
"Why the hell didn't they put that bastard on the national team? He's taking it out on us, isn't he?"
"Probably."
"You go hit one. You're all we've got. You're the three-hole."
"...Not feeling it."
"...... Hey! Garcia! Our cleanup! You can get one next time, right?"
Hong Jong-gu asked desperately, but—
"Nope!"
Garcia shook his head without a second's hesitation.
"For fuck's sake. These are our middle-of-the-order guys..."
"What can you do? He's actually possessed today. You hit one, hyung. You."
"You think I can? The bat's not even finding the ball properly."
"Just give up. It's easier if you give up. Look at those kids. They already have."
Hong Jong-gu followed Kim Hyun-sung's finger and let out a long, deep sigh. The young guys handling the bottom of the order today were sitting there with blank, shell-shocked faces.
"......"
"Even for a cheap little blooper of a hit, you need some kind of will to swing. You see that in them? I sure don't. Looks more like they're praying for a pinch-hitter."
"Yeah. You're right. Damn it. This is seriously embarrassing."
Nothing but sighs filled the Stars dugout.