Chapter 602 – Episode 589. 2026 WBC. (4)
Perfect!
“Second!”
As soon as the bat hit the ball, Joo-tae instinctively called second base, and I ran to the batted ball even faster than him and easily caught the batted ball sent by Taiwan’s third batter.
And naturally throws a throw to first base…
“Out!”
As the throw goes into Siwoo’s outstretched mitt, the first base umpire simultaneously shouts an outcall. Three out with this.
“Good!”
“Wonho, let’s just stay like this today!”
Wonho ended the bottom of the first inning by cleanly striking out Taiwan’s 1st, 2nd, and 3rd batters with ground balls.
Unlike the long beginning of the first inning, the bottom of the first inning ended neatly and quickly.
“That bastard wants me to die? Suho, please bother me a little more!”
And the other meaning of saying that the opponent’s attack ended quickly is that the pitcher did not have time to rest!
Chen Jianhao, who threw 30 pitches starting in the first inning, looked like he came on the mound without even having time to wipe off his sweat. The batter here is Kim Su-ho. The Suho senior I saw for over 3 years was never a hitter who made pitchers feel comfortable in situations like this.
“Ball!”
“Ball!”
“Foul!”
“Foul!”
“Ball!”
“Foul!”
“Foul!”
As if inspired by my hitting, Senior Suho started to clear Chen Jianhao’s balls, and his pitch count started to increase once again.
“Swing strike! Out!”
The result was an out, but he threw out 8 balls, bringing the number of pitches to 42.
‘Hmm, are there 23 left? Now, the remaining batters are Kim Jeong-hyun and Joo-tae sunbae… If only one person gets on base and leaves, it will be my turn as well. If you catch 4 each, you get 8. Then, since there are 50, even if I don’t increase the number of pitches, it will go down in the 3rd or 4th inning?’
It was a satisfactory result to have already scored the first run and to get the starter in the 3rd or 4th inning, so I didn’t think there would be any need to try to increase the number of pitches the next time the batter came back. Then, the important thing now is to find the original hitting timing.
‘Mr. Rossby. Let’s practice a little.’
‘To be a bother.’
I quickly called Mr. Rossby and started practicing returning the timing of my hitting to match Chen Jianhao’s ball. And a few times in my mind, when I hit that guy’s ball…,
“Mind! It’s your turn soon.”
“Okay.”
“Anyway, dude… Even on the team, he just sleeps even when he comes to the national team. “Can you sleep in this situation?”
“It’s not slept, it’s meditation. A little!”
… Seongtae called me. The situation is two outs and no runners. Senior Joo Tae was walking towards the batter’s box. Now I had to head to the waiting box, so I packed my bat and left the dugout.
‘Tsk, I think that bastard figured it out by the end of the first episode. But, well, the impact isn’t that bad. Okay, let’s go.’
The time it took to get my hitting back was short, but my first match with Chen Jianhao was also short, so my hitting got back to a fairly good level.
Perfect!
And as if he was aware of my condition, senior Joo Tae hit Chen Jianhao’s fifth ball, creating a hit that went over the shortstop’s head.
-Wow!!
-Choi Joo-tae! Choi Joo-tae! Choi Joo-tae!
‘Of course he’s a major-leaguer! Yes, I have the status of the major league, but being out twice in a row is not a good idea!’
Now the situation is 2 outs and 1st base. As soon as I step up to bat, the guy once again emits fire from his eyes.
‘Ha, if you look at me like this, I want to keep bothering you…’
Chen Jianhao has thrown only 50 balls so far. To be honest, if I wanted to, I could have dismissed him after this inning, but it would have been a nuisance for a hitter like me to dedicate himself to the team more than this, so I thought about training with Mr. Rossby in my mind and kept his timing in mind. It was engraved on.
‘Fastball.’
‘First pitch fastball… Are you saying you want to come in right away?’
In the first at-bat between him and me, he was bullied a lot by me, so this time, there was a chance that he would get a quick win by putting the ball in the strike zone from the first pitch. Therefore, you must not let your guard down.
I erased all my thoughts and waited for him to give the ball. And…,
Ta-ah!
… As expected, the ball entered the zone and I flew it over the fence nicely. The direction is the left pole!
‘… Should I skip it? Write, move on!’
“… Foul!”
However, the loud voice of the third base umpire declares a foul.
‘Ah, that was a bit early. Ugh, normally this would be a ball I would just throw away, but why did I throw it away in my first at-bat?’
If the timing had been right, it would have been delivered cleanly to the outfield stands, but the timing wasn’t perfect yet, so it was a bit disappointing. However, regrets are only temporary. There was still a lot of left on the count, so I erased the regret from my mind and waited for Mr. Rossby’s words again.
‘… It’s a forkball.’
Although Battery’s ball combination took a bit of time, the ball they chose was a standard high fastball followed by a forkball combination.
‘Fuck, if you’re going to throw it so obviously, why are you wasting your time?’
I was a little irritated because it was a combination that was too obvious for what I had thought about, but I quickly calmed down and calmly picked out his second ball.
“Ball.”
The result is a ball that falls low. The situation became one ball, one strike, and battery concerns became longer again.
‘Slider.’
After much deliberation, the ball he chose was a slider, a scratchy ball today. As a guy who needed to make the inning last as long as possible, I didn’t want to waste the ball, so I decided to aim for this ball.
‘Come!’
The guy’s left foot rises high. And as I watched that, I also began to set the timing with the clock inside me.
‘… Two, three! ‘Now!’
The guy’s slider quickly bends and goes out… And the feeling of the bat following its trajectory!
Ta – Aak!
I wasn’t able to get the timing right on the first pitch, but this time I got the feeling that I definitely got the timing right.
-Waaaaa!!!!!
The audience gathered at Gocheok Dome also seemed to feel the same way as me and began to resonate with my batted ball. And the name call explodes.
-Ji Maeng-ho! Ji Maengho! Ji Maengho!
As I watched the batted ball clearly go over the fence, I raised my hand for the crowd and then walked towards first base.
‘This gives us 4 points… If this happens, today’s game is over.”
The team’s ace came out, and they were up by 4 points. And there are about 15 pitches remaining. Actually, I was feeling it ever since Siwoo hit a timely hit with 2 RBIs, but this one hit was almost like driving a wedge.
“Nice!”
“Meng Hao! I believed it!”
“Ji Maeng-ho! Ji Maengho! Ji Maeng-ho!”
The atmosphere in the dugout was already at its peak, as my teammates who watched my home run in the dugout also had similar thoughts as I did.
“Seniors, take it easy. Comfortably. Wonho! You can throw comfortably too!”
And seeing Wonho smiling slightly as he came up from the starting mound with his country’s first place in the preliminary round at stake, it seemed like this atmosphere would not change until the end of the game.
*
-South Korea wins 8:2 against enemy Taiwan! Advance to first place in the preliminary round!
… The game began to tilt from the beginning of the game. Ji Maeng-ho, who was at bat with one out in the top of the first inning, succeeded in getting on base after a 15-pitch game, taking advantage of the third baseman’s error, and took the lead by two runs thanks to Joo Seung-cheol’s base hit and Choi Si-woo’s two RBI hit. And in the top of the second inning, the national team increased the score to 4:0 with Ji Maeng-ho’s two-run home run…
… Meanwhile, Ji Maeng-ho recorded a batting average of 0.714, 4 walks, and 3 home runs in the preliminary round…
┗ㅋㅋㅋ Today, Fierce Tiger really looked like a devilㅋㅋㅋ
┗┗ㄹㅇㅋㅋㅋㅋ The Taiwanese pitcher was going to cryㅋㅋㅋ
┗From now on, don’t publish articles about first place in the preliminary round haha
┗The fierce god of defense is crazyㄷㄷ 70% lol
┗┗I posted this after defeating Laos and England haha
┗┗No offense. Hitting a home run against Chen Jianhao seems like a bad idea? LOL
┗┗He’s a guy who hits home runs against Otani and Cole, but he looks like a dick.
┗┗ㄹㅇㅋ
-The first round of 16 in WBC history, who will be Korea’s opponent?
… South Korea will face China, which ranked third in Group D. … Korea has Choi Joong-hoon, the left-handed ace of the Hyunsung Madcats, as the starting pitcher, while China has Choi Jung-hoon, a left-handed ace playing for the Miami Marlins’ affiliated Single A team, the Beloit Snappers…
… If the dominant teams win, it is highly likely that Korea will face Dominica in the quarterfinals and Cuba in the semifinals. … Meanwhile, there is a possibility that the United States and Japan will face each other in the semifinals…
┗Kkongseung ㅅㅅㅅㅅ
┗┗It’s a 1st win, so there should be an advantage like this haha
┗Ah, fuck, it’s China. Let’s not just get injured
┗┗ Wow, how did those bastards come up?
┗┗Daejinppal. I came up to 3rd place by doing pull-ups haha
┗ㅋㅋㅋ Shit, we always beat both the US and Japan to get to the finals, but this time, the two of us are tied ㅅㅅㅅ
┗┗But Dominica and Cuba are also strong teams, so you shouldn’t let down your guard
┗┗ㄹㅇ It’s not strange if they suddenly make it to the quarterfinals. It’s a serious punch because they all called major league players.
-Korea! Completely defeated China, 11:0 cold win in 7 innings!
… South Korea successfully advanced to the quarterfinals with an 11:0 victory over China, Asia’s fiercest enemy, in the round of 16. Korea’s batting line, which filled most of its lineup with candidates to conserve stamina, still boasted its destructive power and defeated China…
Meanwhile, Joo Hyeong-jin, coach of the Korean national baseball team, expressed his thoughts ahead of the quarterfinals held in Australia and the match against South American powerhouse Dominica, saying, “I will do my best for the honor of Korea’s first WBC championship.” …
┗Asia’s ambush, China haha
┗Dominica is tough.
┗So the quarterfinals and onward will all be played in Australia?
┗┗ㅇㅇ All the way to the finals in Australia
┗┗Are you going to go and stay for a day and then go straight to the quarterfinals? It must be hard to adjust to jet lag.
┗┗? Hojunde’s excuse for adjusting to jet lag haha
┗┗This bastard is saying it’s not his business. Athletes are affected by every single thing, but when they go overseas, they all have a hard time adjusting to the time lag. Don’t act like you know what you don’t know and just stay still.
┗┗Ah. ㅇㅋ You are right ㅇㅇ