The Cleanup Hitter
The heart of the lineup. The three-through-five hitters—the ones who hit best on the team.
And among them, the four-hole.
Plenty of talk floated around about how a strong two-hole this or that, or how the strongest hitter really belonged in the three-spot rather than four…
Even so, the symbolism of being the team’s cleanup hitter was something special.
Barely half a year after joining the Savers and starting to hit, I had finally claimed the spot.
Of course, as long as our captain was around I would have to hand it back after today’s game… but the fact that Manager Park had chosen me over Shane or Kim Taeseong filled me with pride.
“By the way, is that guy gonna be okay?”
The captain was one thing, but Ko Mandeok sitting out today’s game worried me a little too. The silver lining was that Marte wasn’t a pitcher who got picky about his catchers…
If today’s starter had been Michael Len, it might have been a real problem. That guy was quietly particular. He never said much, but his face made it crystal clear when he didn’t like something.
The reason Ko Mandeok had worn the mask every single day late in the season was partly the tight race for first, but also because Jeong Jong-seong hadn’t grown as much as expected.
Early in the year he had looked solid with aggressive leading. Opposing hitters often looked flustered by sequences that didn’t waste pitches and went straight for the kill.
Then at some point it stopped working. He’d been analyzed, I supposed. According to our analyst Seo Homin, he’d learned his pitch sequences out of a book.
It went like this: after a fastball, almost always a changeup. High and inside meant the next one was definitely low and away… That kind of thing. Predictable.
Once the sequences got read, hitters started sitting on them. He needed to mix things up… but it didn’t seem easy.
They said signs would come from the dugout today… but only to a point. You couldn’t flash a sign for every single pitch out of a hundred-plus.
“Ah… well, he’ll figure it out.”
Earlier I’d seen Ko Mandeok and Taeseong hyung grab him and talk for a long while. Looked like they were passing on secret techniques.
Top of the first. Marte threw four sinkers in a row and retired the leadoff man.
Then he mixed four-seamers and sinkers to put away the two- and three-hole hitters with ease, ending the inning.
Three outs on nothing but fastballs over 150 km/h. Clean start.
Bottom of the first. The opposing starter, Juan… something with a long name, took the mound.
“Every time I see that guy I think of Marte.”
“They’re similar, right? Looks and the way they throw. Both righties.”
“Still, our Marte’s a bit better.”
Just like Ko Mandeok said, he was a lot like our Marte. Solid four-seamer and sinker, mixing in circle changeups and curves now and then—almost a carbon copy. Our Marte had a little more velocity, though.
The bottom of the first had barely started when Jo Changjun struck out and trudged back.
“Ugh… shit, that guy’s filthy today. What kind of sinker drops like a forkball?”
Come on, overreacting.
“Stri~ke! Out!”
“Whoa… that sinker for real…”
“Out!”
“@#$%#$% Shit!!”
Hmm… watching them come back swearing every time, it really must have been good. Of all days, was he locked in today?
Top of the second, Marte gave up a hit but managed it well. Then the bottom of the second.
I stepped in as leadoff and saw something strange.
“······”
What was he doing?
After exchanging signs with the catcher, the pitcher suddenly peered into his glove and started muttering.
Like he was having a conversation with the ball inside.
“······ Senior. Shouldn’t you go up there? He doesn’t look right.”
“Puhah. He does that sometimes. He’s concentrating.”
“Why at the ball of all things… Why’s he doing it so creepily?”
Raiders catcher Kim Gyeongseok just snickered at my words.
“But how long is he gonna—”
After a longer-than-expected chat with the ball, Juan… whatever finally got set.
Then, without a windup, he fired the first pitch quick.
“Oh my shit. What the hell is this?”
“Stri~ke!”
That’s not a fork—it’s a curve?
The opposing pitcher was throwing a 150 km/h curveball.
Before stepping in I had resolved to show them something as the team’s cleanup hitter today…
“Stri~ke!”
“······”
I carefully raised the hand that had been choking up on the end of the bat.
This was no time to be hunting something big.
Crack.
“Foul.”
I’d been waiting for another sinker, of course, and barely fouled off a four-seamer that suddenly bored in.
Crack.
“Foul.”
Then a changeup. I barely cut another one diving outside.
But…
“Swing. Out!”
No, seriously—a 150 km/h curve is cheating!
The dugout was restless. The lineup had turned over through the third.
Whether he was really riding a hot streak or not, Park Jeonghun had squared up that 150 km/h curve for a single. But only Park Jeonghun had managed it.
The rest were lucky if they even made contact.
Now top of the fourth. Marte was stoutly holding the Raiders’ lineup on the mound. Jeong Jong-seong was doing better than I’d worried before the game.
“The problem is the hitting…”
No answers in sight.
“You like it that much?”
“…Did you see that 150 km/h curve? Don’t even start. Haa…”
“He wasn’t that good. Of all times, his stuff is that sharp against us. Did he take something…”
I flinched for no reason.
“Does taking something make a sinker drop like that? His condition must be ridiculously good.”
“True… with a freak like you around, I guess guys like that can exist too.”
What did this guy know to be saying that?
Feeling guilty for no reason, I quietly put some distance between myself and Ko Mandeok.
Bottom of the fourth. Leadoff Choi Mingi laid down a squeeze bunt on the first pitch.
But the ball rolled neatly to the pitcher and into the glove. Choi Mingi didn’t even make it halfway to first and had to return to the dugout.
Then came Shane.
Shane seemed to have come in looking only for the sinker, predicting the low course and taking three massive swings in a row.
All three were big whiffs well off the ball, and he headed back to the dugout.
“······”
I’d faced the guy in my first at-bat and watched from the on-deck circle, but I still couldn’t get a feel.
What to do…
I slowly stepped into the box and killed some time with meaningless preparatory motions.
I still hadn’t decided whether to go full swing looking for just one pitch like Shane, or abandon the sinker and look for other pitches.
But I couldn’t just keep waving the bat forever.
Let’s decide after seeing the first pitch.
I decided to keep it simple. See the first pitch, then look for whatever came on that first one.
It was like… rolling a pencil when you don’t know the answer on a test.
I had no idea, so I was just going to guess.
Bang!
“Stri~ke!”
“Huh?”
Oh shit?
A four-seamer came in, curling slightly inside from the middle of the plate. Looked like a mistake pitch…
“That… was a mistake, right?”
“Yeah, something must’ve been off.”
You idiot. Moron.
I’d just stared blankly at the opportunity that came my way and let it slip.
I stopped the self-reproach for a moment and faced the second pitch.
“······ Curve?”
A curve stuck on the outer edge of the zone.
Not the 150 km/h curve—a real curve.
A curve he hadn’t thrown once this game suddenly coming like this?
As my head grew more and more jumbled and I was getting confused, the third pitch came.
“Stri~ke! Out!”
A curve clocked at 128 km/h on the board came in again to the same spot as before.
I went down looking without even taking a swing. Three-pitch strikeout.
“Haa…”
Today’s game really wasn’t easy.
Marte went 7.1 innings with one run allowed and left the mound with two runners on.
In the top of the eighth with one out, Jo Sangjun took over and got two outs to escape the jam.
But bottom of the eighth. Juan… whatever was still on the mound for them. So far two hits, one walk, no runs.
Both hits had been allowed to Park Jeonghun, who was on a tear these days.
In other words, no one on our team except Park Jeonghun had managed a hit so far.
Bottom of the eighth starting from the seventh hitter, Jeong Jong-seong.
“Out!”
“Out!”
“Stri~ke! Out!”
Three hitters quickly made outs and it was over.
Then top of the ninth.
Oh Gyushin, who took the mound after Jo Sangjun, ended the inning with one hit and no runs.
Now the final bottom of the ninth remaining.
“Of course he’s coming out.”
The opposing starter came back to the mound for the shutout.
“Just need one hit. He looked tired too.”
Sure enough, as the game went late and the pitch count rose, the stuff had dropped a bit. If he’d shown that crazy movement from the early innings all the way through, it really would have been cheating.
But even so, he was still throwing powerful pitches. Like he was pouring everything into it as if today were the last game.
Jo Changjun fouled off a 152 km/h four-seamer on the first pitch. It sailed way over the line for a foul.
Then the second pitch.
Tick.
“Oh! Nice! Run! Run!”
He poked a sinker coming inside toward third and sprinted full speed to first.
The squeeze bunt on a one-strike count worked perfectly, making it no outs, runner on first.
Next hitter Choi Mingi sacrificed, and now it was one out, runner on second.
Then the Raiders dugout chose to walk Shane.
“······”
This feeling…
I’d been completely shut down by that pitcher today, but still. An intentional walk right away.
With that, our dugout got busy too.
Shane came in, and pinch-runner Ju Yanggyu went to first.
The calculation that one extra-base hit could reverse it.
Yeah. I’ll get one.
Stepping in, pissed off at the intentional walk in front of me.
“Stri~ke!”
“······ No, why only me…”
The 150 km/h curve I thought was sealed away came flying again.
And once more. So a whiff.
I was down 0-2.
Shortening my grip on the bat again, I faced the third pitch with mixed feelings.
“Huh?”
The ball left the pitcher’s hand and flew straight at my upper body.
“······”
I should just dodge, but without thinking I turned my body and took the incoming ball with my back.
Thud!
“Ugh!!”
I must have been crazy. It really hurt. A feeling of my breath catching with a sharp pain shooting through my whole body.
It wasn’t the first time I’d been hit by a pitch, but this one seemed especially painful.
They say in the majors not to act hurt even if you get hit? When it feels like you’re dying? Is that even possible?
Should I just leave?
Getting hit by one pitch brought all sorts of thoughts.
“You okay?”
“Ah, no… I feel like I’m dying.”
“You’re fine. Get up slowly.”
This guy—I said I feel like dying…
Following instructions, I slowly got up with support. But once I stood and took a few deep breaths, my body came back quickly.
Is it normally like this? Or is it the drug high?
“How is it? Think we need a sub?”
“Ah, no. I think I’m okay. I’m fine. I’ll go.”
I headed to first almost walking. The crowd all stood and applauded.
Coming out as cleanup, getting on base with my body for the first time today and getting applause.
It felt somehow embarrassing, so I deliberately didn’t look back at the stands.
Now bases loaded. And at the plate, Park Jeonghun, the only one who’d been strong against that pitcher today.
The opposing pitching coach came to the mound, talked, then just went back down alone.
Looks like they’re leaving him in to the end.
The pitcher even windup and threw.
Crack.
On the first pitch, the bat swung powerfully.
And the ball floated high over the catcher’s head.
“Out!”
The trusted Park Jeonghun was out on one pitch.
Then Manager Park burst out of the dugout.
“Pinch hitter!”
Kim Taeseong, waiting in the on-deck circle, went back to the dugout.
And instead, a giant of a man came out holding a bat.
“Seo Gyeongmin! Seo Gyeongmin! Seo Gyeongmin!”
Our captain with enteritis was slowly walking to the plate with a bat.
Before stepping in, the captain looked from me on first, then second, then third in turn.
After locking eyes with all of us, only then did he step into the box.
“Stri~ke!”
“Ball.”
“Ball.”
“Foul!”
“Foul!”
“Foul!”
“Ball.”
“Foul!”
Is this a guy with enteritis?
Our captain facing the pitcher’s last-ditch efforts with full swings.
Even though one whiff would end the game, he didn’t shorten his swing.
The ninth pitch coming in with two outs, bases loaded, full count.
Crack!
With a clean sound, the ball shot past me quickly.
“Wooooaaah!! Captain!!!!”
“Captain!!”
“Awesome!! We won!!”
That guy wasn’t the Savers’ captain and cleanup hitter for nothing.