Just Two More Wins (Part 2)
Game 5 began as a battle between the bottom-of-the-rotation starters.
Jeong Hwi-wook of the Superstars versus Jeong In-young of the Doubles — a matchup between two draft classmates.
Truth be told, these two pitchers had long carried reputations: one was "a guy who can throw breaking balls but can't locate them," and the other was "a guy who can throw exactly one breaking ball but can land it where he wants."
Back when Jeong In-young was a swingman, one breaking ball was enough, so his stock had actually been higher than Jeong Hwi-wook's.
But then the Doubles' rotation sprang a leak, and since they had playoff baseball to play that fall, they bumped In-young into the starting job as a stopgap.
The day those two bottom-tier starters faced each other, the fans' blood pressure shot through the roof.
One of them can't throw the damn ball into the zone, and the other just serves up the same pitch on repeat and gets crushed. f***, what a circus;;
Double-digit scoring today too, I bet~ f***, this game's gonna run 4 hours
Instead of showing hope for the future of their pitching staffs, all the fans got was a full-blown gong show.
Pull the heart of the lineup and there wasn't a single human-looking hitter left — just one blood-pressure-raising situation after another. The Superstars, thin in talent to begin with, and the Doubles, missing their starters to begin with.
It was an era when the fantastical, maddening circus of bottom-tier starters facing off made fans' heads explode.
On top of that, this was also the era when Jeong In-young was being tormented by a pitching coach obsessed with forkballs.
"So you need to be able to throw a pitch that drops like a forkball—"
"Ah, I told you I'll handle it myself!"
"Wh-what?! Since when do you get to talk back to your coach?!"
Mentally, he was cornered from every direction.
Truly, agonizing times for the Doubles — the season right before Noh In-seong's draft.
"...Why are you bringing that up now...?"
"Because you pitched like a dog back then too."
Even as this cold-blooded roast of his own little brother — a jab only Jeong In-woo could deliver — was flying across the dugout—
CRACK--!!
[That ball--!! Yes, a base hit for Jeong Him-chan! And here comes another runner scoring--!!]
[The Superstars are putting together a big inning this frame!]
Runners kept crossing the plate, again and again and again.
On the mound, the starting pitcher stood frozen, sweat pouring down his face.
"...Ha... six runs. Six, and we're not even out of this inning yet..."
With the win streak on the line, Jeong In-young gnashed his teeth at his own helplessness, at the mess he'd made of everything.
Jeong In-young, the Game 5 starter in the first matchup against the Superstars.
People said his repertoire had grown from one breaking ball to two in the second half of the season — but in essence, all he'd added was a direction to his slider.
In other words: he still only had one pitch he could actually throw.
[Even now, yes — a pitch that just tumbles in flat. His slider isn't listening to him today at all.]
[Its whole selling point used to be that the velocity gap from his four-seamer was small, but at this rate that's become the flaw instead.]
The pitches he kept getting hammered on today were those 'not-quite' breaking balls with that maddening, in-between velocity.
There were days when his dropping slider didn't drop enough, days when his sweeping slider didn't sweep enough — sure.
But never had anyone imagined a day would come when the slider simply didn't break at all.
"Good grief."
Just as the pitching coach had said — a day when his conditioning completely fell apart?
Then he had nothing to throw but the four-seamer.
What remained was a single changeup, so feeble it carried no value whatsoever beyond being an offspeed pitch.
Maybe a year of starting experience had finally counted for something, or maybe his catcher's game-calling was just that good — either way, an aggressive four-seamer-heavy attack held up for two innings, limiting hard contact to a single home run.
But once the lineup turned over, they'd read the state of his breaking ball, and that was the fatal crack.
"That bastard's slider isn't breaking today, is it? Free swings, boys."
The man who'd hammered a pitch right where he was looking and turned it into a home run — the veteran Jeong Him-chan — caught on fast.
In the top of the third, during the Superstars' turn at bat, the tower built on solid ground came crashing down.
With the scoreboard reading 3–7, Jeong Im-taek made his call.
"...You've done enough."
The starter was pulled, a new pitcher sent in.
In-young handed over the ball in silence, his eyes burning with dead-serious fury, and staggered off the mound.
The man who climbed up next inherited it.
"Didn't think I'd have to call on you this early..."
Exactly as Jeong Im-taek had said — a pitcher slated for the rotation, thrown into the fire on emergency notice.
He'd been given a long stretch of rest, called up this month to clean up the innings that had gone missing.
The Doubles' project starter — Song Soo-ho — took the mound.
"You're going to eat almost all of the remaining innings. Good luck."
"...Yes, sir."
On the shoulders of this sixth-starter candidate — this year's draftee called up from the minors — rested a monumentally heavy burden: a 23-game winning streak.
Bringing in Song Soo-ho had been a calculated setup — a play to at least carry the streak into the Grizzlies series.
"We have to give the appearance of having tried. Otherwise everyone will have plenty to say."
Jeong Im-taek placed a fair amount of faith in Soo-ho's early-season performance.
Sure, the kid had been called up to the bullpen now, but he'd gone through the starting rotation early in the year as the team's nominal sixth starter.
He could barely strike anyone out, balls stayed in play constantly, and his command hadn't come around yet — fine.
"But compared to Jeong In-young today? He'll be far better."
Better to have a breaking ball that actually broke than some freak pitch that came in straight with nothing but a different speed.
A curve with a short but sharp drop. A cutter that skimmed just past the sweet spot.
Batters who had spent the whole game seeing nothing but forward-moving pitches kept whiffing at anything that changed its angle.
With no outs and a runner on second — in the span of six pitches, it turned into first and third, nobody out.
"Aargh, we almost had it completely broken open!"
"What's this guy's deal? How long is he planning to pitch?"
The Superstars players, who'd been joyfully desecrating someone else's record before getting yanked mid-ceremony, naturally looked on with wounded longing.
"...Wait. Aren't we the ones in danger?"
"...Huh?"
Stare into the abyss, the saying goes, and the abyss stares back — and devours you.
A gong show, by definition, takes two hands clapping.
CRACKAAANG---!!
[That ball--!! High and deep---!! The People's Hitter, finally! FINALLY one! He's almost caught up!!]
[Season home run number 55 for Noh In-seong! Painting the corners is fine and dandy, but what good is it if you leave it right over the heart of the plate?!]
Because the Doubles' mound was so much higher-caliber than the bottom-tier matchup between the two Jeongs, Jeong Hwi-wook — a bottom-tier starter simply because his control was garbage — chose exactly this day, this very hour, to implode as well.
The Doubles' fielders were exhausted, but at least the focus in their lineup was still alive.
CRACK--!!
[A line drive to left off the bat of Song Jin-wook--!! He can't make it to second! Back to first!]
[By the way, look at this lineup — it's stacked. Every one of these hitters has a clearly defined strength. And the top two spots are full, too.]
Useless in the field, but a man who'd just proven why he was the number-two hitter.
Song Jin-wook laced another base hit.
CRACKAAANG---!!
[Jo In-soo's seventeenth of the season---!! IT'S GONE! That's what a captain looks like!]
[At this rate, that FA contract doesn't look like an overpay at all! Honestly, might even be a bargain!]
The Free-Swinging Slugging Flop behind him suddenly uncorked a random bomb, and the score gap shrank in the blink of an eye.
7–3 became 7–6 in an instant, and the opposing starter was pulled after just two innings in a fine show of sportsmanship.
The score held steady at 7–6 all the way into the top of the seventh.
Song Soo-ho gave up four scattered hits but managed to chew through a full five innings.
The Superstars, with a comparatively fresher bullpen, deployed a reliever every inning for the first time in ages and slammed the door.
And then — the bottom of the seventh.
The Doubles' lineup came back around, starting from the nine-hole.
"...Well, well. And what sort of situation do we have here?"
Standing before Noh In-seong was the number-nine hitter, already on base.
At that point, nobody understood what was happening, and everyone scrambled in confusion.
"Noh In-seong. Intentional walk."
"...What? Are these lunatics out of their minds, doing this now?"
And the moment Noh In-seong himself trotted down the line, everyone understood.
[...Ah, right — the home run record. Of course. From the Superstars' perspective, they can't let him break it against their pitchers.]
[It does feel... a little bit bush league, though.]
"Why would I do you clowns any favors? Tell the rest of those bastards to get it through their heads."
Jeong Jae-yoon's petty little prank was turning into a massive gift to the Doubles' win streak.
It wasn't that the move was incomprehensible.
First of all, Noh In-seong did carry an image as a man for the big moment — and with 55 home runs already in the books, only two more stood between him and the record.
"If they don't want to be the ones it happens against, well — I can't exactly blame them."
If facing Song Jin-wook was the easier road, so be it.
[The runners are going! Second and third--!! Safe at third! Wow, that is genuinely fast.]
[Jin Jung-seok, who came in to run for Pi Jeong-doo, has great stolen-base instincts, you know? Two on, nobody out.]
[They've blocked the home run record, sure — but the odds of falling behind this inning look considerably higher now, don't they?]
Of course, that all assumed Jeong Im-taek hadn't sent in pinch runners and called for the double steal.
With a runner who could at worst guarantee third base already in scoring position, a double steal held no fear for them.
And the Song Jin-wook of old — the one who couldn't lay down a bunt to save his life — no longer existed.
TAK-!
[Yes, the ball's rolling toward first! The runner from third is already crossing the plate, third base is too late, and the throw — caught, tag applied!]
[Song Jin-wook really has come such a long way this year. I say it again — the man can lay down a bunt now.]
A sacrifice squeeze executed with textbook smoothness — one run in, tie game.
Then Jo In-soo, who'd always been a skilled bunter anyway, laid one down as well.
This time, even playing the infield in meant nothing.
"Hey, how many stolen bases do I have? You really think playing the infield in is going to stop ME?"
"Goddamn lunatic. He's genuinely fast."
The man boasting the fastest home-to-third speed in Korean baseball today came charging in with all the subtlety of a runaway freight train — a full sprint that said 'dodge and you're out, and your season's out with me.'
Song Jin-soo, who'd already spent far too long rotting in the minors, shrieked and dove out of the way.
Two outs, and the go-ahead run in. 8–7.
Yet strangely, the Superstars dugout didn't look all that heartbroken about it.
Do you pieces of s*** not know a single thing about respecting a RECORD?!
You're supposed to battle them fair and square and give it everything, you dirty bastards
Just because you didn't want to hand Noh In-seong his home run record, you go running away and hand over baserunners instead — look at yourselves
You just GAVE them the lead. Unbelievable, you're on the level of a joke franchise...!!
Meanwhile, the Incheon fans — who cared about this game far more than the Superstars' own supporters did — were having their stomachs tied in knots.
But none of that reached the Superstars' players or coaching staff.
When the next hitter, Sung Hyun-tak, went down on strikes, only two innings stood between the Doubles and history.
It was a single run — but a single run can weigh like a mountain.
After taking inventory of a thoroughly worn-down pitching staff, the only arm left standing was Cho Hyo-jin.
With two innings left until the record, one man climbed the mound on the strength of a final promise.
Cho Hyo-jin fired his first pitch with a face full of newfound admiration.
On my old team, I wouldn't have even dreamed of a record like this.
The 155 km/h had vanished somewhere, and a 150.4 km/h fastball crossed the zone instead — but for this national team sidearmer, that was already more than enough.
His changeup wouldn't obey, his splitter wasn't dropping nearly as far as it should —
CRACK--!!
[That ball is snagged on a line down the shortstop's side! Noh In-seong leaps and robs it!]
[How HIGH did he just jump?! That was a guaranteed base hit, and it comes down at the very tip of his glove!]
"Nice! NICE, In-seong!"
"Aargh, throw it right, will you?! Do you NOT want your vacation?! You want me chasing after your sorry ass all break long, tormenting you the entire time?!"
He'd offered his thanks, and in return the shortstop was performing a full audit of his gratitude — so he simply kept pumping strikes into the zone.
Balls kept staying in play, one after another.
But as if to prove that a ball isn't a hit until it lands —
[That ball--!! The first baseman, into foul territory...!! He catches it! Two outs!]
[Sung Hyun-tak went tumbling into the stands there... ah, no, I think he's fine.]
"Aargh, now people are playing defense in the stands. What's next."
Grumbling and spitting out grass, Sung Hyun-tak held up the ball and added to the out count.
"Strike three! Batter out!"
[Final pitch: 152 km/h! A clean strikeout, and now only ONE inning stands between the Doubles and history!]
"Hey, you could beat me to death and I couldn't throw another pitch. If Jin-hong hyung can't go, who's even left?"
Cho Hyo-jin dragged himself back to the dugout on his last fumes and asked the question.
"Who do you think?"
Jo In-soo grinned wide and turned toward the shortstop wearing that devilish smile of his.
"Alright, let's wrap this up quick and go home."
A man who wanted to set fire to the Incheon fans' blood pressure — carrying the hardest fastball in Korean baseball today — took the mound in the ninth.
He threw exactly one pitch. The four-seamer.
"You spent all day watching slow stuff, didn't you? Not anymore."
His fastest pitch — 166 km/h — kept hammering into the strike zone.
Eleven pitches. That's all he needed.
The eleventh crossed the plate, and the final batter, completely lost, flailed at empty air.
Before the umpire could even make the call — as if the swing alone had told them everything —
the entire dugout emptied at once, a roar of celebration exploding across the field.
"It's OVER! F***, FREEDOM!"
"This madness ends here! I'm going on vacation...!!"
[And THAT will do it! With a save from Noh In-seong---!! The record books of Korean baseball have been rewritten!]
[So many teams. So many games. So many victories --!! And now, a new record stands!]
Amid all of it, one man near the dugout was wailing at the top of his lungs.
Jeong In-young — the man who'd gotten shelled today and was carrying the weight of it on his soul.
"...Good grief, what are you blubbering about?"
Because he was supposedly a teammate, Noh In-seong wandered over to take a look — and discovered what all the misery was about.
"AAAAGH---!! WE SURVIVED! We actually SURVIVED---!! I am NOT a record-wrecker...!!"
...He was spouting the exact same species of nonsense as his own brother.
WHUMP--!!
"Aargh, why is this whole team nothing but a pack of lone wolves?!"
"AAAAAGH--!!"
An incident occurred in which a crying man was made to cry considerably louder, but the details were buried and lost to history.
And so, amid a deafening storm of noise and chaos — the day of the Doubles' 23rd consecutive victory came to an end.