Chapter 570 – Episode 562. The 100-Mile Man. (2)

Debut season: 10 wins, 6 losses, 2.71 ERA in 156.1 innings, 176 strikeouts, and 2nd place in Rookie of the Year award. In his second year, he recorded 15 wins, 8 losses, and an ERA of 2.31 in 179.2 innings, ranking second in ERA and being the strikeout king with 211 strikeouts, beating out prominent pitchers.

And in his third year, 14 wins and 5 losses, 222 is ranked 3rd in ERA and 1st in strikeouts after Crongs, who recorded an ERA of 1.96 with an ERA of 2.20 and 196 strikeouts in 180.1 innings, and Seonghyun, who recorded an ERA of 2.05. Few baseball fans were surprised by Sal’s pitcher.

Because the pitcher who recorded that performance was none other than Jang Woo-joo.

No fans expected the failure of Jang Woo-joo, who was rumored to have had his identity checked by numerous major league teams since his high school days and had been able to throw a ball 100 mph, and Jang Woo-joo grew steadily as those fans expected.

He has recorded a dream velocity of 100 mph in official games several times, and has established himself as the best fastball pitcher in the KBA League in name and reality by throwing a fastball at 163.6 km/h, the highest velocity record in the KBA League.

Experts’ evaluations were also similar. When selecting the five best pitchers in the league for the 2025 season, his name was always listed along with Seong Hyun, Kim Won-ho, Krongs, and Trey, and he was also evaluated as one of the top three starting pitchers in Korea.

And some even put Jang Woo-joo at the top of the domestic starting list.

Of course, Jang Woo-ju was not a pitcher without weaknesses. Some say that Jang Woo-joo’s pitch is only fast, does not have much movement, and does not have the heaviness of Kim Won-ho, while others say that it is too much to evaluate him as the best pitcher in Korea because his control is vague, and his breaking ball is not at the top of the league. .

However, such things are meaningless words in the face of overwhelming restraint. There is a reason why the 100-mile redemption was called the dream redemption.

… Like right now.

“Jitterbug! Strike~! Out!”

Bellingham, who was on the mound for the team’s 100th win, ended the top of the first inning with a three-way strike and continued in the bottom of the first inning. AT Thunders’ No. 1 hitter Kim Su-ho swung his bat at Jang Woo-joo’s third ball, but Jang Woo-joo’s ball passed through the top of Kim Su-ho’s bat and landed in the catcher’s mitt.

[Swing strikeout! 158, 159, 158! Jang Woo-joo strikes out Kim Su-ho with just three fastballs!]

“Hyung, how about Jang Woo-joo?”

“… It’s so fucking fast.”

A ball so fast that it brought out swear words from the mouth of Kim Su-ho, who is usually quiet and doesn’t swear much.

“Other than that, what else?”

“Under… “I need to die with three balls to find out.”

“Okay.”

Ki Ki-joo wanted to go to bat after hearing information about Jang Woo-joo from leadoff hitter Kim Su-ho today, but it was difficult to get useful information. Still, he couldn’t blame the No. 1 hitter. If three consecutive balls near 160 hit the zone, it was clear that he would also go into the dugout similarly.

‘The ball is fast, so I advance the timing as much as possible…’

There was no reason for a pitcher with a 100 mph fastball to throw a breaking ball, so Ki Ki-ju waited for the first pitch with only the fastball in his mind. But…,

Perfect!

[Weather caution: A foul is hit on the left side. The speed was 161.1 km/h.]

[The bat was pushed, right? Because Jang Woo-joo throws the ball so fast, even Ki Ki-joo, who has the best contact ability in the league, is behind the bat.]

The result is a late bat and a foul.

‘Did you get pushed back even though you swung this fast? Ha, fuck.’

Even though he was a pitcher who had faced him several times, Ki Ki-joo couldn’t get used to the restraint, and like Kim Soo-ho who returned to the dugout, Ki Ki-joo couldn’t help but curse in his mind. However, Jang Woo-joo was lifting his leg without any time to regroup, and Ki Ki-joo, who was not yet ready, had no choice but to let the ball go.

“Strike!”

The speed recorded on the electronic display board was 157.6 km/h. It was a slower speed than before, but there was no time to prepare, so the count was two strikes.

‘What, you mean there’s no need to exchange autographs? Well, what’s the need to worry about throwing 160? You just have to plug it into the zone. Okay, just throw it one more time like before.’

However, Ki Ki-ju is also one of the hitters who are considered to have the best contact ability in Korean baseball history. After seeing two fast balls in a row, he started to notice some timing. And once again, Jang Woo-ju was lifting his leg as if there was no need to exchange signs.

‘The tempo is fast. In this case, there is a high probability that it is a fastball.’

Jang Woo-joo makes a pitching motion at a fast tempo like before. Ki Ki-joo decided that Jang Woo-joo’s third ball was also a fastball and waited for the ball according to the timing of the fastball.

And when the ball flew out of Jang Woo-soo’s hand, the bat was swung at a faster time than when he hit a foul in his first at-bat.

‘… ‘Huh?’

However, contrary to the meteorologist’s expectations, Jang Woo-ju’s ball seems to have stopped in midair. Ki Ki-joo’s timing of hitting was too fast, and he tried to stop the bat by putting strength on his waist, but he couldn’t stop the bat that had already passed home plate, and Jang Woo-joo’s ball only fell after Ki Ki-joo’s bat passed home plate and stuck in the mitt.〈 Br〉

“Swing strike! Out!”

[Swing strikeout! The timing of the weather warning is perfectly captured with the curve!]

[Your posture has completely collapsed, right? This is the power of 100 miles. Even if you don’t throw a breaking ball, it’s hard to hit, but if a breaking ball is mixed in, you’re bound to strike out no matter how good the pitcher is.]

Fastball, fastball and curveball. It was a ball combination that would only be used on an elementary school baseball team, but the result of combining that ball combination with an overwhelmingly fast ball was perfect. Even the weatherman broke his posture and made a missed swing.

[Now Williams, the third batter, comes to bat.]

[Williams is also a very good hitter, right? Excluding Ji Maeng-ho, who is an off-standard hitter, he is a hitter with a contact ability that is among the top five in the league, along with Ki Ki-ju, who came before him.]

After Jang Woo-joo got two outs, the batter who came to bat was Williams, a mercenary batter.

‘I’m not a pitcher with very good vertical movement anyway. He’s the type of pitcher that’s prevalent in his hometown…’

Williams came to the plate with a confident expression. It is said that he throws 160, but even in the minor leagues, there were one or two pitchers on the team who could throw at this speed. Williams’ weakness is his pitching ability, which is poor compared to his contact ability. However, the pitching patterns of pitchers who throw fastballs were obvious.

‘I’m going to throw it in the zone anyway.’

A fastball that enters the zone. Pitchers who throw fastballs tend to throw the ball in the zone without paying attention to the corner work, as if it were a report in Jeonga. Therefore, the ball Williams is aiming for is a fastball.

‘It’s coming!’

And just as Williams expected, Jang Woo-joo threw the ball into the zone. Without even knowing that Williams was aiming for the ball.

Perfect!

However, the sound coming from the bat was completely different from what Williams expected.

‘Uh… ?’

A batted ball rolls toward the second baseman with a sound as if it had been hit. The future second baseman caught the ball lightly and threw the ball to first base, and before Williams even got halfway to first base, the first base umpire’s hand went up, and he was called out.

A ball hit farther forward than expected. Williams looked at the electronic display board with a puzzled expression. The speed recorded on the electronic display board was 144.3 km/h. Only after confirming his restraint did Williams know what was going on.

‘Fuck! ‘It was a change-up!’

A changeup that completely fools Williams.

Because Jang Woo-soo’s changeup was not as perfect as Seong-hyeon’s, there was a slight difference when he threw the ball, but even such a small gap was meaningless in the face of his overwhelming velocity.

In order to respond to Jang Woo-ju’s fast ball, there was no time to worry about such small gaps.

If the changeup flies at a speed similar to the fastball to a certain extent, even if it is not perfect, batters have no choice but to be fooled by Jang Woo-joo, who has a 100 mph fastball.

[Jang Woo-joo catches Williams on the first pitch with a ground ball to second base and ends the bottom of the first inning with a three-way throw!]

[It was a changeup just now, right? 144 km/h. That’s amazing. Other pitchers’ average fastball velocity is Jang Woo-joo’s changeup velocity. Haha. Along with Ji Maeng-ho, he is truly a blessing to Korean baseball.]

‘Good. I’m in great condition today. Now you just have to be careful, Meng Hao.’

However, Jang Woo-ju, who blocked AT’s heavy hitters with a three-way retreat, could not let down his guard. Because Ji Maeng-ho still remained. Additionally, Bellingham’s pitching was unusual. I heard that he had a week’s rest before throwing today’s game, and Bellingham was hitting powerful balls during the rest period.

[… Out! Although one batter got on base, Bellingham blocked the second inning with no runs! The game now heads to the bottom of the second inning.]

Bellingham also showed good pitching in the bottom of the second inning with a 0-0 situation.

‘Okay. It doesn’t come easy… Is this it? I guess I should do it too.’

Jang Woo-joo, who was about to face Ji Maeng-ho in his first match of the day, actually smiled and went up to the mound. Even before he went to bed yesterday, his heart, which had been trembling at the thought of dealing with Ji Meng-ho, had calmed down.

In fact, all the matches against Ji Maeng-ho so far, except for the Blue Dragon Cup finals, were matches that had little to do with the team’s performance. The game against Ji Maeng-ho so far was not a fall baseball game, but just a regular season game.

However, this is the final game for the team to advance to fall baseball. This was a familiar situation to Jang Woo-ju, who had been playing ace since elementary school, and he would always lead his team to victory by showing his best pitching every time. Except for that one game where I met Ji Maeng-ho in high school.

Even in the Olympic finals against Japan, Jang Woo-joo got so excited on his own that he hit back-to-back home runs and hit a bases-loaded ball. He recorded perfect pitching in three innings, excluding one walk, and was ranked among the best pitchers in the history of Korean baseball. There was also a record of pitching that was on the rise.

Jang Woo-joo that day was clearly a perfect pitcher until he got excited by helping the batters score.

Just like today when you carry the team’s fate on your shoulders.

Besides, I wasn’t letting my guard down today. The memory of facing Ji Maeng-ho in the Blue Dragon Cup final and the memory of falling down in the Olympic final made Jang Woo-ju stronger.

Jang Woo-joo was usually playful and boastful, but now the ‘pitcher’ Jang Woo-joo who came up to face Ji Maeng-ho was a completely different person from the usual Jang Woo-joo.

The extreme situation where the team’s advancement to the fall baseball season was at stake was what awakened Jang Woo-joo, who had ace instincts.

‘Look at his eyes. It’s bloody.’

And it was the same for Ji Maeng-ho, the batter in front of Jang Woo-joo. He has a murderous look in his eyes that doesn’t make you think of him as a fun older man who enjoys orgies and flirts with women. The murderous intent to kill himself seemed to appear in his eyes.

However, Jang Woo-joo was not intimidated by those eyes and did what he had to do.

‘As much as possible, so that Meng Hao doesn’t have time to think.’

In order to not give Ji Maeng-ho, the world’s best Guess hitter, time to think, Jang Woo-joo and the battery coach had already decided on the ball mix to face Ji Maeng-ho in the dugout, so there was no worry about what ball to throw as the first pitch.

The first pitch chosen by the three people was a slider that went outside. Just a few seconds after the second inning began, Jang Woo-joo lifted his leg to throw the ball.

The perfect sensation of seeing a baseball slipping out of your hand and hitting the ball at your fingertips.

Ta – Aak!

… And, Ji Maeng-ho swings the bat at perfect timing as if he knew it.

‘Fuck you mom!’

In the absurd situation where the first pitch came out, Jang Woo-joo cursed and turned his head in the direction of the hit.