Chapter 600 – Episode 587. 2026 WBC. (2)

‘It’s a curve.’

‘… You don’t have to tell me.’

Top of the second inning, one out, bases loaded. Mr. Rossby told me the pitch, but in this situation, Mr. Rossby’s voice was only disturbing my mind, so I covered Mr. Rossby’s mouth.

Hehe, try flying over the fence this time.’

Mr. Rossby was subtly teasing me, but he couldn’t really refute it. As Mr. Rossby said, he could only hit a double in his first at-bat against Laos’ starting pitcher. To be honest, if I were to make an excuse, the Laotian pitcher’s breaking ball was poor.

They told me it was a slider, so I swung it thinking it was a slider, but I guess it’s like a shit ball between a slider and a fastball. I tried hitting the ball, which wasn’t curved or fast, but the timing wasn’t right, so the result was a hit that exceeded the height of the second baseman.

Because the right fielder’s defense wasn’t very good, he ran to second base and hit a double, but it was a shame that he couldn’t hit a home run against the Laotian pitcher.

To be honest, I felt it even when I was doing a power analysis, but the country that I don’t understand how it entered the WBC was Laos. Is this the result of forcibly increasing the number of participating countries in the preliminary round to 24?

Of course, Laos did not put up an ace against us, who had a high chance of advancing to first place in the preliminary round, but even so, it cannot be denied that the level was low.

We were ahead by a large score from the first inning, matching the level difference. The score we scored in the first inning was 6 points. Since all the out-counted balls were straight hits, it was safe to say that we were hitting Laos hard.

I can’t hit a home run in a situation where I’m hitting hard like that? I felt like I could already hear other players teasing me. So what we need now is a home run. And in order to hit a home run, it was better without Mr. Rossby.

A ball that doesn’t break easily anyway. If I just hear what kind of ball it is, my mind becomes dizzy.

“Ball.”

And as I expected, the ball hit the ground so slowly that I couldn’t tell if it was a curve or an Arirang ball…

‘Whoa… Okay, I’ll finish it quickly, so I don’t have to use too many pitchers.’

Against these countries, my job was to make them comfortable by giving them a cold game in the 5th inning, so I focused my concentration and waited for the pitcher’s ball.

“Ball.”

But as if my efforts were in vain, the second ball also missed ridiculously. Looking at the trajectory, it looked like a fastball, but the speed was 134 km/h.

‘They say Ace reaches the low 140s, but the velocity is so slow that I can’t concentrate. Tsk.’

I regained my concentration and waited until the third ball, but it ended up being a ball and the count became three balls, no strikes.

‘Now I have to throw one into the zone. You don’t like walks, right? Right?’

However, no matter how much a pitcher throws 130, a pitcher is still a pitcher. Unless there was a lack of control, pitchers were designed to throw strikes here. And as if I was right, his eyes were full of fighting spirit.

‘Yes, you would like to compete against this body, the best hitter in the world. Because that’s a pitcher.’

There is only one ball that a pitcher like this will throw. Since it was a fastball that would be in the zone even if I was hit, I timed my bet based on the speed of his fastball and waited for his ball.

“Wow!”

Along with the sound of the guy cheering, a fastball so slow that it makes you yawn comes flying toward the borderline near your body. And my bat comes to meet that guy.

Ta – Aak!

The ball, hit in the right place at the right time, flies toward the ceiling of Gocheok Dome and then falls toward the outfield seats.

A clean home run. Honestly, there were a lot of guys in the league who would skip me when it came to three-ball situations, but I hit a strike like a man? He was much better than most of the pitchers currently playing in the KBA.

It was rude not to thank the pitcher for such a great game, so I threw the bat, gave him a thumbs up in return, and walked toward first base.

Seeing him trembling and shedding a tear of joy at the sight of me like that, it seemed like he was also touched by my shout-out.

‘Wow, even respect. Ji Maeng-ho, you cool bastard.’

With this home run, the score is now 12:0. In the bottom of the fifth inning, with three runs remaining in a cold game, my second at-bat ended with a bases-loaded home run, and after that I went to bat two more times, but got one intentional pitch and one walk, leading to our first at-bat. The game ended with an overwhelming score of 18:0.

Have you hit the first button perfectly? However, after the game…,

-Ji Maeng-ho, where is your spirit as a partner? Controversy over mocking a Laotian pitcher by raising a thumbs up!

… A ridiculous and slanderous article was published, but even such a slanderous article could not stop our path. In the game against England played the next day, the game ended in a cold game with a 15-point lead after 5 innings.

It seemed like Japan or the United States had published such a slanderous article in an attempt to sway us, who were contenders for the championship, but our team was not one to be shaken to that extent.

The only remaining qualifying match is against Taiwan. Taiwan, like us, also had two wins, so this game was scheduled to be the deciding match for first place. If we went up to second place, we could face the team ranked first in the preliminary round in the round of 16 if we were unlucky, and if we matched up with the top players in each group, it wouldn’t be surprising if any surprises occurred, so this match was quite important.

So, they probably wrote that article to shake us up from the preliminaries. Of course, it had no effect on us.

“… What are you thinking like that? Still, I guess you’re a little nervous about the match against Taiwan?”

“Hey, are you going to be nervous about Taiwan? Senior Sangju, I think the article was published by the Japanese side.”

“… Huh?”

“Well, there’s an article talking about the spirit of partnership. Hmm… After all, it looks more like Japan than America? Couldn’t Japan have published such an article to hinder us?”

“What bullshit?”

“Otherwise, there is no reason to publish such an article at this time.”

“You bastard, it’s true you’re not nervous. “What kind of game are you thinking about like that before?”

“Hey, senior. How can an Olympic gold medalist be nervous on a stage like this? Are you really nervous?”

“Get out.”

“Okay. Let’s go. To the game.”

Senior Sangju seemed to be slightly trembling. Well, it wasn’t that I didn’t understand. The pitcher that Taiwan selected as the starting pitcher today was Jianhao Chen, who is currently playing in the Major League. Yesterday, when I was doing a power analysis, I saw that the name looked familiar, so I looked it up and found out that it was the same guy who started as a starter in the finals at the last Asian Games.

The guy who throws a fastball in the low to mid 150 km/h range, as well as a slider, change-up, and forkball, is a pitcher who is currently a 4-5 starting pitcher in the major leagues and can be considered Taiwan’s ace.

The reason why ace Chen Jianhao came out on the last day of the preliminaries was because the pitch count was limited to 65 pitches, so it seemed like he planned to go up to first place and then catch teams that were weaker than I in second or third place in the preliminaries and pitch again in the quarterfinals.

Our starting pitcher against him is Kim Won-ho. Although he was a little short of Korea’s ace, Wonho was also a pitcher who was not inferior to Sung Hyun, Jung Woo-sung, or Jang Woo-sung, so if the batters did their job, we were ahead in the matchup.

No matter who sees it, we are better at batting because we have ‘I’.

When I entered the dugout with the intention of attacking Taiwan’s starting pitcher, several players and the manager and coaches were gathered there. And other players arriving in the dugout since I came in.

“Sorry. “I was a little late because of the routine.”

Finally, when today’s starting pitcher Wonho, who was muttering to himself with his headset on in the locker room, arrived at the dugout, coach Joo Hyung-jin, who was newly appointed for this WBC, opened his mouth.

“Did you know that the pitch limit for the preliminaries is 65 pitches? Let’s get off as quickly as possible and go comfortably.”

Just like the previous games, a concise word… To be honest, when I heard that director Geum-Hyeon Lee was retiring and the director position would be changed, I was a little worried, but wouldn’t it be reassuring to see Joo Hyung-Jin at least? I knew him when he was the batting coach for the national team, but I really liked the way he was cool and didn’t talk long, like a man from Gyeongsang Province.

‘I wish Seungcheol was half as much as my dad… Oh, is it only half the resemblance in terms of baseball skills?’

“You cursed at me, right?”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

… Just be quick-witted.

“Hmm… Well, you know that you are setting a table in front of me today as well, right?”

“Fuck you.”

“Oh… You bastard, you can’t even break her fingers…”

It was funny to see Seungcheol reacting violently when I raised his middle finger as usual, but it seemed like he would really break it if I kept holding it, so I decided to lower my finger and get the opinion of a batter who had recently dealt with him in person.

“Bro, but how was that guy last year? Have you met him?”

“Well, I met him once, but I felt like his command and control were okay? But it seems like the situation was just that. Oh, it must be hard to think about the Asian Games, right? That guy’s changeup has really improved since last year. Does it have nothing to do with you?”

“Asian Games? I don’t even remember? Well, when I watched the video, the changeup looked good. “If you throw it, I’ll be grateful.”

First, it is confirmed that the changeup has improved. Since his changeup has improved, there was a high possibility that he would throw it against me as well. Because there must be the pride of a major-leaguer. If you pass it once, you won’t be able to throw it again.

‘Then the first at-bat will be important. It would be nice if senior Joo-tae gets on base.’

The important thing in taking the lead is to take the lead. Senior Joo Tae’s major league performance last year was poor, perhaps due to his age, but looking at his performance during training and when he played against Laos or England, it did not seem to have worsened much, so it was worth putting high hopes on.

And senior Joo-tae must have had expectations of me as well, so he came up to me before going out to bat with the bat.

“Meng Hao, I will prepare a delicious meal for you, so enjoy it.”

“Of course, senior.”

After finishing my conversation with the number one hitter, I walked to the waiting box with the bat to attack in the top of the first inning.