Thank You!
Leadoff hitter: Gong Ji-hoo.
I'd asked for it myself.
Honestly, walking right up to Manager Kim Tae-sik and saying it out loud had been a little nerve-wracking.
"Yeah? Then go ahead and try it."
To my surprise, he agreed without hesitation.
The reason I specifically wanted the leadoff spot wasn't just so I could snatch up all the free passes the Wolves pitchers were handing out.
After first hearing about the Wolves' strategy from Kim Jae-sang, I'd briefly considered just taking the walks and leaving the rest to my teammates.
But that wasn't my style at all.
"Fine. Let's see who can mess with who better…"
Just dancing around on a stage someone else had set up?
Where's the fun in that?
So today, I decided to become the single black mudfish that muddies the clear water.
Tick.
"Foul!"
How many fouls was that now?
"Oh, tenth pitch."
I looked up at the scoreboard. This was the opposing pitcher's tenth offering.
The count sat at one ball, two strikes.
"Ha… you done yet?"
The Wolves catcher muttered that while staring blankly at a foul ball that had just rolled past the first-base line.
There was only one thing I could say to him.
"Don't stop me now~"
"Crazy bastard…"
Was this somehow my fault?
Tick.
They'd started it.
Tick.
So they could just sit there and take the outcast's rage.
"Relentless… seriously."
This pitch had clearly been inside the zone. I cut it foul anyway.
"You brought this disaster on yourselves."
"Hoo… I'm telling you, just take the free base. Why make it harder on yourself?"
Tick.
"It's no fun that way."
Thirteenth pitch.
What's the record for most pitches faced by a single batter again?
Twenty, I think. Seven left to go.
Tick.
Like I've said before, hitting, for me, is about matching trajectories.
Tick.
Matching the pitch's path with the path of my swing. If I want to sound cool about it, that's my entire hitting mechanism.
So then—
Tick.
What kind of work did I put in to create that perfect match?
The answer is—
Tick.
"Foul!"
I started by deliberately swinging on mismatched trajectories.
"Hoo… time!"
The catcher sighed and jogged out to the mound.
Even from a distance, the pitcher's face was pure fury.
That pale white skin unique to Caucasians had flushed so red it looked ready to burst.
Hongik Ingan? Benefit all mankind?
Anyway.
The skill of intentionally fouling pitches off was just a side technique that came from practicing how not to match trajectories.
I got a rough feel for how far off the paths needed to be for a clean foul. Purely my own sensory thing, of course.
I've heard other players train to manufacture foul balls too, but I doubt it feels the same as mine.
And of course—
"I don't even know anymore. Don't regret this."
"Well… I wonder who the one regretting it will actually be."
There's still a bit of luck involved.
Tick.
Even as a regressor, I don't have the power to aim a batted ball wherever I want.
I'm just swinging in a way that makes fouls highly probable.
And—
Tick.
"Foul!"
Today, luck seemed to be on my side.
Twentieth pitch.
I'd hit the number I was aiming for, but I had zero intention of stopping there.
Whoooosh!
Watching the ball leave the pitcher's hand, I was already locked in on cutting it foul again when—
"Huh?"
I saw the direction it was coming and couldn't even swing.
Because—
Thud!
You can't hit a ball flying straight at your ass.
Before the game, the broadcast crew had looked over the Suwon Wizards' starting lineup and felt plenty of anticipation about leadoff hitter Gong Ji-hoo—specifically, how many times he would reach base.
Everyone already knew his eye at the plate was exceptional. Even in the Game 1 loss, he'd used that eye to reach in every single at-bat. There had been a few suspicious moments, sure, but still.
Yet in his first plate appearance, Gong Ji-hoo showed no interest in taking pitches. He just kept swinging.
[Gong Ji-hoo is way too aggressive! He's swinging at pitches he would normally let go!]
[He needs to shake off the memory of that Game 1 loss. These swings don't look like him at all.]
The worried broadcasters watched the cuts keep coming and found a whole new kind of anticipation building.
[Wheeler's tenth pitch to Gong Ji-hoo! Fastball… and Gong Ji-hoo cuts it foul again!]
[From a pitcher's perspective, this is pure nightmare fuel.]
[The all-time KBO record for most pitches faced by one batter is twenty. Wheeler now has to throw his thirteenth to Gong Ji-hoo. Can he finally get a result?]
[Foul again. Look at Wheeler's face—he can't hide the frustration. He needs to settle down.]
And Gong Ji-hoo was the kind of player who never let that kind of expectation down.
[Ah… this is just brutal…]
Former pitcher and color commentator Kim Jung-up's face twisted in pure horror at the endless foul balls; the camera caught every grimace. Watching Wheeler grunt and fire pitch after pitch had clearly triggered every ounce of his pitcher empathy.
Twentieth pitch.
[The fierce battle between these two has reached the twentieth pitch. Wheeler delivers!]
[Another fastball right in the zone. At this point it's pure pride between pitcher and hitter.]
Tick.
"Foul!"
[Korean Series Game 2! Gong Ji-hoo's first at-bat ties the all-time KBO record for most pitches faced by a single batter! But the battle isn't over—Gong Ji-hoo is still standing in the box!]
[Wheeler takes the ball from catcher Lee Mun-woo and immediately sets. And then—]
The duel that had felt like it might never end finally did.
Thud!
The stadium went silent for a beat. Even the broadcast booth.
[…Yes. Hit by pitch. After a twenty-one-pitch battle, Gong Ji-hoo reaches first on a hit-by-pitch.]
A fastball over 150 km/h had come screaming straight at the batter. Gong Ji-hoo tried to turn and avoid it, but the ball caught him square on the backside.
Anyone could see it was intentional.
Clang!
Gong Ji-hoo clearly felt the same. He flung his bat aside and glared up at the mound.
[Both players need to cool off. This is the Korean Series, after all!]
Players on both benches started rising. The catcher stood up from home plate and grabbed Gong Ji-hoo's shoulder, trying to calm him—
when Gong Ji-hoo raised a fist.
And then—
Thok!
Out of nowhere, a single thumbs-up rose into the air. Every eye locked onto it.
And—
"Thank you!"
Grinning brightly, Gong Ji-hoo gave a little bow and trotted off toward first base, casually patting his own backside as he went.
[Uh… Gong Ji-hoo just thanked Wheeler and is now standing on first. I guess… he wasn't as angry as we thought?]
[Surprisingly good English pronunciation from Gong Ji-hoo, too.]
The broadcast crew sounded thoroughly deflated.
"You okay?"
I nodded at the coach's question.
"I thought you were about to start something…"
Start something?
"Start what?"
"A bench-clearing brawl in the Korean Series, you little punk."
"Come on, no way…"
I'm not that stupid.
"If I get ejected, we definitely don't win the championship, right?"
If the best hitter on the Wizards right now gets tossed for throwing punches, the season ends right there.
That's the kind of player I am for the Suwon Wizards these days.
And honestly, I'd already considered the possibility of getting plunked.
This whole duel had been a pure "who can grind who down" contest between me and the Wolves pitcher.
In the end, I'd won it all the way to the final pitch.
After thoroughly working someone over, you have to teabag. I just can't help myself.
"…Yeah. Good thinking."
The coach patted my shoulder, then leaned in close.
"Now look over at the dugout."
Oh…
Manager Kim Tae-sik had more of a gambler's streak than I'd expected.
Lee Mun-woo finally managed to calm the still-scarlet-faced pitcher and returned to home plate. While waiting for the next batter, Park Ji-han, he glanced over at Gong Ji-hoo standing on first.
This guy is actually insane…
The so-called "starve Gong Ji-hoo out" plan. The analytics team had come up with it, and as catcher he'd signed off on it too.
The damage Gong Ji-hoo had shown in the playoffs had been genuinely terrifying.
But—
I never thought he'd counter like this…
It was basically a toddler throwing a tantrum. The problem was that the toddler was an absolute monster.
The one silver lining—
…In the end, it's still just first base.
Gong Ji-hoo was unusually aggressive at the plate, but once he became a baserunner he turned passive.
That exact play style was why the Wolves analytics team—and Lee Mun-woo himself—had finally green-lit the starve-him-out approach.
His lead… yeah, completely ordinary.
No need to worry about Gong Ji-hoo once he was on base.
So all he had to do was focus on Park Ji-han stepping into the box.
"Appreciate the hard work~"
Outside four-seam fastball.
Wheeler on the mound still hadn't cooled down no matter how hard Lee Mun-woo tried. There was no way he could ask the guy for another off-speed pitch to set the hitter up.
Wheeler finally nodded, looking somewhat satisfied, and began his delivery.
Wheeler lifting his front foot. Lee Mun-woo setting the mitt.
The Wolves battery—
Tadadak.
—had no choice but to panic.
Oh, for fuck's sake…
Gong Ji-hoo, who had never once attempted a stolen base, broke for second the instant Wheeler committed to the pitch.
What the hell is this bastard doing now…
Why did nothing ever go the way they expected?
And then—
Thwaaack!
Got us!
With the second baseman pulled off the bag to cover, Park Ji-han's perfectly placed grounder rolled right through the vacated spot.
A textbook hit-and-run.
Tap.
Gong Ji-hoo's foot hit second and never stopped.
Ssssshhh!
"Safe!"
He slid into third ahead of the throw.
"You brought this disaster on yourselves."
Lee Mun-woo suddenly remembered Gong Ji-hoo's earlier words. His shoulders sagged.
A twenty-one-pitch leadoff battle.
Followed immediately by a hit-and-run.
The pitcher on the mound, rattled by the sudden blow, ended up walking the next batter, Lee Dae-beom, on six pitches as well.
[The Suwon Wizards' energy is completely different from yesterday. Bases loaded with nobody out already in the first inning! Stepping in is cleanup hitter Lee Se-ho.]
[Right after the franchise was founded, he took the cleanup spot as a rookie. For Suwon Wizards fans, this has to bring back a lot of memories.]
[Exactly. Drafted with the expansion team's first-round priority pick, he's now the longest-tenured player on the roster. Lee Se-ho is basically living history for the Suwon Wizards.]
In yesterday's game, Lee Se-ho had managed a hit that cleared the third baseman's head against Do Jeong-hoo. The fans' reaction, however, remained vicious.
[Lee Se-ho recorded one hit in Korean Series Game 1. Overall, though, his bat has been cold this entire postseason. Across the playoffs he has just two hits total.]
[Still, he put up double-digit home runs again this season. That power is probably why Manager Kim Tae-sik is showing faith and keeping him in the cleanup spot.]
Under the weight of all that doubt, Lee Se-ho stepped into the box with a rigid face.
Watching quietly from the dugout, Manager Kim Tae-sik's expression remained as unreadable as ever.