Chapter 419 – Episode 411. The Cheater Hides the Cheat. (1)
How far can we go without Rossby? Honestly, I was curious. Yesterday, he hit a home run against a pitcher who had just come up from the 2nd team, but he was still a 2nd team pitcher. I wanted to know how far I could go against the first team starter.
Coincidentally, the starting pitcher for JT Gold Eyes today is Andrew Hamilton, the first starting mercenary. He was the perfect opponent to test me. This guy is a typical aaaaa league player. In the Major League, he was a pitcher who was a so-called ‘tanking general’ as he was part of a tanking team, pitching over 100 innings and recording an earned run average in the 5-point range. When he came to Korea this season, he appeared in 17 games and recorded an earned run average in the low 2-point range.
The ace of a weak team who was single-handedly responsible for 9 of JT’s 32 wins this season. Soyoung was also keeping an eye on him, so he definitely had skills.
“Then, finally, the lineup is called. No. 1 second Ji Maeng-ho. Meng Hao, are you confident?”
“Number 1? Yes. It doesn’t matter.”
“Okay.”
Is this the first batsman in a long time? He brought it up a few times last week, but it seemed like the manager made a decision after seeing 4 walks yesterday.
“No. 2 Third Su-ho Kim, No. 3 Left Ki Ki-joo, No. 4 Right Fielder Williams, No. 5 First Choi Jin-cheol, No. 6 DH Woo Gwan-hyeong, No. 7 Short Yoon Seong-tae, No. 8 Catcher Jeong Yun-cheol, No. 9 Center Baek Jeong-jin.”
It was a solid lineup. Our ideal lineup for this season is Baek Jeong-jin and Jeong Hwi-cheol alternating in center field. The proof was that Yoon Seong-tae, who was playing number 5 when there were many injured players, was pushed down to number 7.
In addition to the performance of Woo Kwan-hyung, who returned from injury at the end of the first half, veteran catcher Jeong Yun-cheol, who had been out due to injury during the first half, returned in the second half, and Williams, who had been hit in the ribs by me, was also playing normally in the second half.
‘With a lineup like this, we can win even without Mr. Rossby.’
They are still competing with the Hwasan Falcons for first place. There was a risk that we could lose the game if we went to bat without Rossby, but looking at the lineup, it was pretty solid, so I was able to play without any pressure.
‘It’s reassuring to have a lineup like this.’
As I look around with a happy expression, Williams avoids my eyes.
‘The education is good.’
Don Williams. He was a guy who made sabotage like a meal, but he was not without the ability to learn, and from the second half of the season, he took on the role of the team’s fourth hitter and showed off his skills, maintaining his OPS in the low 0.9 range. … Maybe it was because my side was uncomfortable, but I didn’t hit many long balls.
“Then let’s win today too. Did you know that the volcano erupted yesterday? “It’s three games now, so let’s win a little more and make it, so they don’t even think about following us.”
“Yes!”
“I understand!”
*
JT Goldeyes’ first starter, Andrew Hamilton, was a right-handed pitcher who mainly used a two-seamer with an average speed of 148-9 km/h and a maximum of 153 km/h, and threw a curveball, change-up, and sweeper. The final ball is a ‘clumsy’ sweeper. The reason it was a clumsy sweeper was because the direction in which the sweeper bent was not consistent. On scratchy days, he cooked the batter by bending it quickly and horizontally, but on non-scratching days, it had a tendency to bend more vertically.
Even during the game, he often throws differently, so when we met in the first half of the game, I started skipping all of his sweepers, and that problem has not been fixed yet. But would it be rather threatening to me, who knew the pitch type?
‘Probably practicing before going to the majors, right?’
There was no way the team would be in the bottom half of the rankings anyway and not go to the majors with that level of performance. I guess they keep throwing that ‘clumsy’ sweeper to get a clear feel for it before going to the majors, right?
When I saw the guy on the mound making practice pitches, it seemed like he still couldn’t throw properly. Because out of the five, three were bent horizontally and two were bent longitudinally. Well, still, the slider in the mid to high 130s was a threatening ball, so it worked in the KBA.
‘Good. Mr. Rossby. Let’s go.’
‘What do you want to go for?’
‘Oh, that’s right.’
I got so used to it that I ended up talking to Rossby as a habit without even realizing it.
‘It’s a bit awkward.’
I already experienced this yesterday, but as expected, batting without Rossby is awkward. It felt like Rossby would stand behind the pitcher at any moment and tell me the pitch.
“Hi.”
“…”
A catcher without an answer. It was a silence that strongly conveyed the will to win today as the team’s ace took the mound.
“Ball.”
But the first pitch is a ball. A two-seamer running at 146 km/h is declared an outside ball.
‘Sweet, wasn’t it a bit dangerous?’
It felt like about half a ball was missing. As the number one batsman, he tried to watch the ball a little bit, so he was able to hold back, otherwise the bat would have gone out. And the next ball.
‘The ball is floating!’
The moment I throw it, I hold back the bat again because of the curve’s unique feeling of floating.
“Ball.”
Also. There’s no way the curve is in the zone. But two balls in a row, are you really planning on skipping me even if the ace comes on the mound?
“I’m the leadoff hitter in the first inning, so are you going to skip it? Can you catch it? With that shoulder?”
“…”
“Are you mute?”
“Shut up.”
“No, I’m glad.”
I scratched him slightly, so will he come towards me? I also think he will throw the ball twice in a row and hit it into the strike zone. Since the ball count was advantageous, I narrowed the zone and matched my hitting timing to his two-seam timing.
The guy’s arm swings again, the trajectory is slightly outward.
‘If it’s two-centered… !’
The moment you throw the ball, which seemed to be on the outside, flows out. Sweeper!
Perfect!
‘Fuck!’
It hits the tip and bottom of the bat and the batted ball bounces heavily on the floor. The result was a ground ball, the first ground ball I had hit in a long time, so I started running at full speed all the way to first base.
‘Mr. Rossby! What about batted balls?’
As usual, I ran without looking at the batted ball, but I couldn’t hear Rossby’s voice. As I glanced toward third base, the third baseman ran forward and caught the ball. And the first base in front of you. The moment you step on the last step, you can hear the sound of the ball hitting the first baseman’s mitt.
“Safe!”
“Wow, I almost got fucked.”
“Nice. The sprint was good. “It’s Meng Hao.”
“Wow, that was dangerous.”
If the third baseman had not stepped back and defended, it would not have been surprising if he was truly out. Due to the nature of my batted balls, which usually do not produce ground balls, the infield stayed back when there were no runners.
Even if it’s a lucky infield hit, a hit is still a hit. My heart pounded slightly at the feeling that my strike worked even against the mercenary.
‘Tsk, I can’t believe I just hit an infield hit and like it.’
After handing over the equipment to the coach and receiving a base-running glove, Rossby came up to me and clicked his tongue.
‘No, Mr. Rossby! Where have you been? ‘You have to tell me where the batted ball is!’
‘I was watching the cheerleaders. ‘Why?’
‘… It’s more annoying because it’s so confident. Please tell me about the grip. Run.’
Since it was a match between Jang Yoon and the opponent’s first mercenary starter, scoring first was important. Moreover, Suwon is a stadium where home runs are quite common. Considering Jang Yoon, a fly ball type pitcher, it was important to score as many points as possible since you never know when he might get hit.
‘It’s a change-up.’
Changeup from the first pitch. Since he didn’t throw a single pitch today, it seemed like he was trying out a changeup from the first pitch. Then there is only one choice for me!
“Safe!”
I received a light safety at second base and was preparing to run to third base again, but there was no need to do so.
Ta – Aak!
It was because Kim Soo-ho’s home run, which had been hit for the first time in a long time, led me to home. Andrew Hamilton wasn’t a hitter who hit home runs easily, but he seemed to be targeting the pitcher well.
“Nice!”
“Let’s go easy! “Easily.”
*
The game against Andrew Hamilton was 1 hit and 1 walk in 3 at-bats. In his first at-bat, he hit an infield hit, but ended up only getting a walk. It was unfortunate that I couldn’t hit a long shot, but considering it was my first match against a mercenary, I guess it was a good result? Moreover, we won the game.
The starting pitcher for the next game is Baek In-hyuk, who finished second in the 2021 Rookie of the Year award and is said to be the next national team starter. He walked three, but went 0-for-1, ending the series against JT as a winning series. His record at bat without Rossby in this series was 2 hits in 5 at-bats, 1 home run, and 6 walks. It was inevitable that there were a lot of walks. Because most people avoid winning. There was also a reason why the game turned into a close game. I wondered if I had to put in a little more effort to properly win the match, but I couldn’t rig the match, so I decided to keep pushing forward like this for now.
When the game until September 1st ended, the performance I recorded without Rossby was a performance that could hardly be considered a normal stat.
0.304/0.686/0.826/1.512. The on-base percentage and slugging percentage are unusually high. I felt like most pitchers were avoiding him, so I tried to aim for a shot with few opportunities, so I guess these stats came out. Because I only got about 10 intentional phrases.
‘So, how was it?’
‘Well, it’s worth doing, right?’
As I thought to myself and hit the pitchers’ balls, I felt like my batting ability had improved slightly, and I also saw that once I hit it, it went over the fence. Excluding the JT game, there were 2 home runs. The more we beat everyone in Jamsil, the more confident we became.
‘But, it seems like I’m developing some bad habits. ‘Let’s just train today.’
‘Oh, I thought you were just going to watch the cheerleaders, but I guess you were watching my at-bats?’
‘Shut up.’
Since it was Monday, I was planning on having sex with the girls and having fun, but Rossby suggested training first. If Rossby was like this, he probably needed to do some training together.
‘I hope we can compete a bit starting next week…’