Chapter 548 – Episode 540. Trap. (1)

-Kim Won-ho fights back! Balancing the series!

… Shilla Triggers was helped by Kim Won-ho’s pitching, allowing 1 run in 8 innings…, … In the top of the 7th inning, Ji Maeng-ho, who came to bat with one out, hit a home run and allowed 1 run, but Kim Won-ho did not collapse. Kim Won-ho, who still threw powerful balls even after hitting a home run by Ji Maeng-ho, allowed only one run until the 8th inning…

-AT Thunders! Take the winning series!

… AT Thunders won a winning series against Shilla Triggers thanks to Jang Yoon’s good pitching. On this day, Jang Yoon achieved 10 wins…

-UG Overlords! 2nd win in a row against AT!

… UG Overlords secured their winning series with two consecutive wins over AT Thunders. Meanwhile, on this day, Ji Maeng-ho got three walks…

– Consecutive loss stopper Crongs! AT, 1st win after 2 consecutive losses!

… When the AT Thunders were in danger of losing two games in a row, it was their ace, Crongs, who saved the team. … With this victory, the Crongs achieved their 16th win of the season… … Meanwhile, Ji Maeng-ho, who had been struggling throughout the series due to intentional walks, hit a grand slam…

-KBA League, who is the honorable candidate to win MVP in July?

… Meanwhile, in terms of batters, Ji Maeng-ho appeared in 12 games in July, recording a batting average of .301 and an OPS of 1.608, including 7 home runs. … In terms of pitchers, Seonghyun and Tinie of the Hwasan Falcons, Krongs of the AT Thunders, and Wonho Kim of the Shilla Triggers…

┗Wow, I didn’t even hit .400 this month. Looks like it’s gone out of fashion?

┗┗Honestly, OPS of 1.608 is crazy, but considering his performance as a fierce defender, he definitely seems to have lost pace haha

┗┗Fuck you, you fucking fans are cursing Beatik Jiri, who hit 7 home runs in 12 games and is complaining about this.

┗Well, either Seonghyeon or Ji Maengho will take it.

┗Honestly, I think Seonghyeon will get it. Now, Ji Maengho is not very impressed if he can’t hit 10 points at .400 haha

-Stop battle! AT VS Volcano. Who will win the first match of the second half?

… The first day of August. A match that could change the landscape of the league in the second half of the season takes place in Jamsil. This Jamsil Series is a match between the first-place team AT Thunders and the second-place team Hwasan Falcons, who are behind by 10 games…

*

“The pace has definitely dropped a lot, right?”

“Yes, I can feel it even when I watch the video.”

Meeting room at the Hwasan Falcons’ away hotel. Director Moon Ki-taek kept watching the video of one batsman.

Naturally, that hitter is Ji Maeng-ho, the AT Thunders’ number four hitter and one of the best hitters of all time in Korea, just three years after his debut.

Most of the AT Thunders’ batters, including Kim Su-ho, Ki Ki-joo, Williams, and Choi Jin-cheol, were threatening, but there is only one reason why coach Moon Ki-taek stubbornly watches only Ji Maeng-ho’s videos.

In order to win, he had to surpass Ji Maeng-ho.

Before Ji Maeng-ho went to the majors, coach Moon Ki-taek was convinced that the winning team in the league would either be the team that had Ji Maeng-ho or the team that would block Ji Maeng-ho.

And now that the second half of the season has begun, the clues seem to be showing.

“He hit three home runs in six games, but he looks different from his usual Ji Maeng-ho, right? The proportion of swings and misses at breaking balls at bat has increased.”

In the six games since the second half began, Ji Maeng-ho has hit three home runs. It was true that he hit one home run per two games, but it was far from the batting style that Ji Maeng-ho had hit so far.

Ji Maeng-ho’s usual hitting approach is perfect Guess hitting itself. Ji Maeng-ho’s batting method was to hit the pitch he was aiming for at the perfect timing and get it over the fence.

Occasionally, when a ball was hit out of the zone, the pitcher’s control was perfect, or a breaking ball curved in an unexpected trajectory, a hit or strikeout occurred, but it would be enough to say that Ji Maeng-ho’s guess hitting was perfect.

So much so that it is understandable that the media calls Ji Maeng-ho a ‘devil’ who reads the pitcher’s mind.

But there was something different about his three home runs in the second half of the season. Except for the home run hit by Kim Won-ho, it’s not a home run that came at perfect timing, but rather a feeling of getting over the fence with natural strength even though it wasn’t hit at perfect timing.

In addition, the rate of batters and strikeouts was slowly increasing.

“I think the batting cycle is off. Director. “Aren’t you in a bad condition?”

“… No.”

Of course, no matter how good a hitter he is, he has a hitting cycle, and he cannot hit well every game, week, or month, so it was only natural that Ji Maeng-ho’s performance would drop, but Moon Ki-taek, who kept watching Ji Maeng-ho’s videos, I was sure.

This guy is not in bad condition

“A guy in bad condition can’t pass the ball like this. “If you look at the fact that he is able to pass even if he doesn’t get the timing right, it shows that he is in excellent condition.”

“Yes? Then why are there so many missed swings?”

“Well? “I’ll have to find out now.”

In Moon Ki-taek’s opinion, the reasons for Ji Maeng-ho’s current decline could be largely divided into two. Either he is in such good condition that he goes to bat without thinking much, or he is having more experience and is having a hard time getting a hit.

“… The latter would be better.”

When he didn’t have much experience, he might have been able to believe in himself and hit Geth, but after he gained experience, the accumulation of useless data could have been holding him back. My condition is good, but I am in such a state that I cannot properly hit the guess…

However, if the condition was too good and Guess was not hitting, there was no answer. In the first place, it would have been a disaster for a guy with that much physical strength to see the ball and hit it.

Moreover, there was no guarantee that the regular season could be overturned by a sweep in this series anyway, so it was as if it had already ended, and there were about 3 months left before the Korean Series. At that time, my condition would drop, and I could go back to my normal form of Geth Hitting, so there was no guarantee that I would be able to beat the guy who had returned to his usual Ji-Maengho at that time.

In other words, in the former case, since it was out of one’s hands in the first place, the only way left was to pray. Or, should I just skip every at-bat like I did against him in the first season.

But in the latter case, there was a possibility. If a ball combination that was never used in the Korean Series was planted in his mind, it could have been a clue to beating Ji Maeng-ho.

“I have to come up with the ball combination against Ji Maeng-ho in this series.”

“Yes? Still, it takes courage to mix balls…”

“No. Even if I lose the game, I need to know what state he is in right now.”

Moon Ki-taek also knew. Lee Yong-gi’s ball mix works much better than his or Coach Battery’s ball mix. However, if you plant useless data on Ji Maeng-ho with your own ball combination and catch him off guard with Lee Yong-gi’s ball combination in the Korean Series…

‘Yes, I can easily win.’

1 win and 1 loss were not important right now. If we lose this series, we can make up the number of wins by catching another weak team. What is important is winning or losing in the Korean Series.

This is the first game against Ji Maeng-ho, who is in a different state than usual. The pitcher on the mound for the Volcanoes in that first game was Tinie, who used his strength to beat the opposing batter.

[In the bottom of the first inning, Ji Maeng-ho comes to bat with 2 outs and 1st base.]

‘First, a high fastball.’

The ball combination chosen by Moon Ki-taek in this series is the standard itself. Lee Yong-gi was the best catcher in the league, able to catch batters off guard. However, even with Lee Yong-gi’s ball combination, it was a hitter named Ji Maeng-ho who was able to hit a hit.

If he goes to the standard here, if he goes to the standard against Ji Maeng-ho throughout the remaining games against AT, he can plant data in Ji Maeng-ho that Lee Yong-gi is using the standard ball combination against him.

‘Anyway, guess hitting is a hitting method that makes predictions based on some data… No matter how much the media says it’s evil, we have no choice but to make predictions based on basic data. Moreover, the standard ball combination is the most effective way to catch the batter… Then Ji Maeng-ho will have no choice but to worry.’

If he could instill hesitation in Ji Maeng-ho, who believed in his own Ges hitting ability and swung the bat without hesitation, it would be a profitable business.

“Ball.”

‘Yeah, I never thought it would be easy from the beginning. Next time, high fastball.’

Tinie is a player who does not have very good control. Moon Ki-taek made a second sign, hoping that he would be lucky enough to get the ball into the zone.

“Strike!”

And as if the heavens were granting Moon Ki-taek’s wish, Tinie’s second ball hit the highest point of the strike zone. A position where you can’t hit a good ball even if you hit it properly.

‘Yes, you know that if you hit that ball you won’t get a good ball, right? So that’s why you didn’t hit it?’

Lucky strike. However, for Moon Ki-taek, a greater luck than that was that he had some sense of Ji Maeng-ho’s condition.

If the conditions were so good that I was going to bat without a guess, I should have swung the bat for this ball. If I was in good condition, I wouldn’t have missed this ball hitting the most appetizing location.

‘Rather, I guess I missed this ball, which looks appetizing but doesn’t produce a good hit even if I hit it, because I was expecting a high ball to hit the body, right? Still, it is still too early to be sure. … The third ball is a slider that falls as expected.’

A falling slider after fooling the eye with a high fastball. A combination that can be said to be the standard for ball mixing. Moon Ki-taek watched Tinie’s pitch with a trembling heart.

And…,

“Jitterbug! Strike!”

A strike call is heard along with the sound of the cool wind. Ji Maeng-ho missed the swing at the falling slider.

‘Okay, okay. I guess they didn’t expect Lee Yong-gi to throw a slider as usual here. Rather, because you believed in Lee Yong-gi, you thought the fastball would come again, right? Yes? Ji Maengho! It would be you. Because you are that kind of guy. Yes, if he were normal, he would never miss a ball like this. His condition is definitely overloaded right now.’

Ji Maeng-ho constantly collects data, studies, and works hard to find out what kind of ball combination is used by each team and each catcher in each situation. The image of the guy trying to predict the pitcher’s ball is as clear as if it were drawn by eye.

However, too much information can sometimes be toxic. Since he was a guy who completely analyzed Lee Yong-gi, it was clear that he had just missed a swing.

If so, there is only one reason why he looks different from usual these days. It was clear that his computer-like predictive ability had made an error due to pitchers not throwing according to the data, or pitchers giving up on ball combinations and just pushing with force.

‘Slider again.’

After two strikes, batters tend to hit fastballs, and the rule of thumb is to throw a breaking ball to strike out such a batter. This time too, Moon Ki-taek asked Tinie for a breaking ball that fell as expected.

Ta – Aak!

And Ji Maeng-ho coolly turns the bat and sends the batted ball over the fence, as if he had expected such a ball. Like a devil who reads the pitcher’s mind, Ji Maeng-ho noticed the ball combination that was going as expected and threw the ball over the fence, but Moon Ki-taek was smiling.

‘Okay, a trap is being laid to catch him.’

As this competition continues, imaginary numbers are bound to pile up in his head. The dummy data accumulated like that was sure to complicate Ji Maeng-ho’s mind.

A trap set up by giving up a bone for the Korean series.

‘Enjoy the moment. Because that will strangle you in the Korean series.’

… Moon Ki-taek was having a pleasant dream.