Chapter 761 – Episode 748. Yankees Captain. (1)

“Hey, Ji!”

“What? “Cronx?”

“Haha, it’s been a while.”

Training time before the game against Toronto. When I heard a voice calling me, I turned my head and saw Chronx approaching me. As for the rotation, Crongs was originally the starting pitcher today, but since the starting pitcher was changed, I also asked Crongs why he didn’t show up today.

“Aren’t you coming today? “I was a little expecting to be with you?”

To be honest, I was looking forward to a showdown with Crongs, but I was a little disappointed that he didn’t appear.

After he had a bad batting performance against Arizona, he was able to record only 3 hits in 12 at-bats in the next four games against the Angels. Of course, he tolerated his poor batting skills and got six walks and hit two home runs, but I still felt that his batting skills were not very good these days.

However, the feeling of hitting was so amazing that even if I was struggling, I would return to normal like a ghost after hitting 3 or 4 hits. And I chose Crongs, who throws a familiar ball, as the sacrifice.

Currently, Crongs was performing well, recording 4 wins, 4 losses, and an ERA in the 3-point range. Perhaps because he hit a lot of Crongs’ balls during practice games in Korea, Crongs was the perfect sacrifice to regain his batting skills. Br〉

I was thinking of regaining my hitting ability by sacrificing him, but it was a shame that he didn’t play in today’s game.

“It’s because my shoulder is uncomfortable. You know. For pitchers like us, our shoulders are our life.”

“Okay? “You look fine?”

“You have to be careful when you feel like this, Ji.”

“Well, since it’s your body, you should know better.”

In Korea, Crongs, who never missed a rotation and did not hesitate to pitch in the bullpen in important games, is having a sore shoulder.

I was a little worried for a moment because of the friendship we had had for a while. When I looked at this guy’s eyes, I remembered Verdugo, who had been staring at me a few days ago, and I felt bad.

If I had to pick one person who was annoying in the quiet locker room after I gave him a bunch of advice, it was definitely Verdugo.

It’s not like I danced to music in the locker room like I used to or got angry with the manager and coach, but Verdugo has been strange enough these days to the point where I think it’s better.

‘Why is that bastard slapping me and looking at me? ‘Do you want to play a game?’

In particular, when he slapped himself and looked at me as if he was pledging revenge, the thought of wanting to kill him unconsciously occurred to me.

I, the epitome of kindness, felt murderous intent, so there was no need to explain the level of irritation I felt. The reason why I’m not feeling good at batting these days is probably because of that guy’s influence.

‘… Should I just hit it one more time? Fuck.’

This time, I thought about doing it quietly in a place where no one was around, but the team’s current performance was pretty good, and they were performing well even after Verdugo, so I held back.

“Are your eyes scary? Haha, it’s a shame it hurts, but I think it’s a good thing that I can’t stop Ji in this state.”

“Okay, take care of yourself. “I need to get it right sometime.”

“Well, if there’s a chance…”

Watching him speak, it seemed like he could throw the ball, but it was really disappointing.

Anyway, after sending Crongs away and training a little more, it was time for the game to begin.

Cole, who took the mound as a starter, quickly finished the top of the first inning and entered the bottom of the first inning.

Eflin, who replaced Crongs as the starter, was seen on the mound.

I heard that he was a starting pitcher who won 10 games for two years in a row until last year, but due to an injury, he switched to the bullpen this season and recorded an ERA of 0.66 in 13.2 innings.

I heard that he was getting a feel for himself by improving his physical condition in the bullpen under the manager’s management, and seeing as he came in as a replacement starter in place of Crongs, it seemed like he was in shape to pitch 3-4 innings.

‘Tsk, it looked quite tricky when I watched the video. Under… It’s nice because I’m used to Chronx. He says he’s sick, but there’s nothing I can do about it. Mr. Rossby?’

‘It’s two-minded. ‘Body side.’

‘Okay.’

The guy’s first pitch is a two-seam to the body. It was my first time meeting a pitcher, so I had to wait for a while.

“Strike!”

The two-seamer at 93.4 miles (150 km/h) hit the strike zone precisely.

‘Write…’

Normally, no matter how long I had waited, if it had been a ball with this much velocity, the bat would have gone out right away, but perhaps because the feeling of hitting was not good, I hesitated without knowing. If it had been a slow breaking ball he would have just seen it and hit it…

‘It’s a four-seam. Outside.’

‘A fastball again? As expected, it’s close to the major leagues…’

And in the last few games, he must have already figured out that my fastball timing wasn’t right, so he kept throwing fastballs.

“Strike!”

The situation is two strikes.

‘Two-centered. Outside.’

‘Fuck, I’m going to put you in the zone again.’

Now is the time to swing unconditionally,

Perfect!

I swung the bat right at the ball that came into the zone, and the ball ended up being a grounder in front of the pitcher.

‘Run! Run!’

… Pretty quickly.

After being hit off the bat, the ball was fired at a speed that made it impossible to reach with the glove. It hit Eflin’s spike and bounced toward the shortstop.

And the shortstop is now away to catch the batted ball toward the middle!

“Second base!”

Before I even heard the first base coach’s shout, I had already stepped on first base and turned toward second base. There is a slump in batting, but there is no slump in feet! You can see the third baseman and left fielder running to catch the bounced ball.

And the third baseman catches the rolling ball.

‘Idiot! ‘I should have let the left fielder catch it!’

But, that was his mistake!

When the third baseman catches the ball, he has to turn around to throw it to second base, which delays the timing. If the left fielder had caught and thrown the ball, he would have been able to aim for the same timing…,

“Safe!”

After catching the ball, turning around, and throwing the ball. I couldn’t catch myself doing all these movements.

“Nice!”

It wasn’t a clean double, but when I wasn’t hitting well, each hit was precious, so I raised my hand and celebrated.

“Tsk…”

I laughed at the fielders who clicked their tongues at my intense celebration and grabbed a base-running glove. Now it was time to run.

2nd base with no outs. Although it was not a situation to run, the player currently at bat was stopped.

And Judge was an annoying hitter differently than Verdugo these days.

Why?

Because I was just terrible at baseball.

Judge’s performance in the last 10 games is a batting average of .133 and 3 home runs. Judge’s OPS, which was close to 1.3, dropped to 1 point, and his batting average, which had been boasting of .306-7, fell to .209.

If I wasn’t really older, if I wasn’t the captain, would this be a performance I would want to beat up?

There was also a way to tell Judge the type of pitch at second base, but Mr. Rossby didn’t want that. Mr. Rossby’s goal is for me to become the best player in Major League history. Mr. Rossby could not use that method because he viewed all players playing in the major leagues as his competitors.

In particular, Jersey was a strong competitor.

Well, it seemed to me that it would be possible to continue like this without any checks, but I didn’t want to do something that Mr. Rossby didn’t like.

Anyway, my chance to score first could have been lost if I trusted Judge, who has a better hitting feel than me these days, so I prepared to run to third base.

“Safe!”

And the result is three leaves.

Perfect!

After that, he was able to score the first run by taking advantage of Judge’s ground ball to shortstop and hitting home.

‘Look at what happens when you hit the ball. If I was on second base, I almost wouldn’t have made it to third base.’

I sighed at Judge’s poor batting, but anyway, 1 point is 1 point. I sat on the bench, giving high-fives to my colleagues.

“Judge, it was a good team bet.”

“…”

Judge probably didn’t like that kind of batting, so he just nodded and sat down on the bench when he was comforted. No, I tried to sit down.

However, after the incident, as they always did, they started cheering loudly for Soto near the railing.

“Let’s go! Juan!”

And since the judge raises his voice, other players follow the captain and raise their voices.

‘Tsk, that’s good, but I’m good at baseball.’

Considering that I didn’t cheer much before, I think my education worked well, but honestly, if I had to choose between a guy who couldn’t play baseball and only cheered and a guy who was good at baseball but didn’t cheer, I would pick the guy who was good at baseball as my teammate. It was better.

Well, the effort wasn’t worth it, so I went to the railing and started cheering loudly for Soto.

“Going Soto!”

Because Soto was a guy you could root for.

There is one reason why the team is doing well even when me and Judge are struggling.

This was because Soto was taking center stage in the batting lineup. Soto, who fluctuated around the OPS of 1.15, continued to show his ups and downs,

Ta – Aak!

… He got his hands up as he hit a sharp double down the right field.

‘After all, it’s Soto!’

After that, Stanton once again made us look forward to a big hit, but he was caught in front of the fence and two outs.

However, while he was packing his gloves, Hall, who played as the 5th hitter today, made a technical hit, resulting in an extra point.

‘Well, I guess I’ll easily win today.’

*

[A situation where Ji Maeng-ho’s lucky double was followed by a stolen third base with no outs on third base. And this is where Jersey comes in.]

[Judge, your hitting isn’t very good these days, is it? In the last 10 games, he has a batting average of .133 and 0.682 with an OPS of 0.682, and has only hit 3 home runs during the same period. Performance like this does not live up to the name Jersey.]

[The moment I spoke, the judge hit, and the ball hit the shortstop. After seeing Bichette’s home, I decided it was too late and sent him to first base. Judge’s hit is handled by the shortstop. One out.]

[As expected, Judge’s batting skills have not been very good recently. I can’t believe I missed this ball. A ball like this should have gone over the fence…]

‘Fuck.’

Judge, who made a ground ball to shortstop with no outs on third base, could not help but swear in his head on his way back to the dugout. Even though he thought about it, it was because he didn’t like the batted ball he made.

“Judge, it was a good team bet.”

“…”

The coach offered words of consolation to himself after hitting a ground ball to shortstop, but Judge was in no condition to accept such consolation.

‘… Oh, that’s right.’

However, that doesn’t mean he can’t keep it to himself. After Judge was told to go for the win, he approached the railing as he always did.

“Let’s go! Juan!”

And then they raised their voices and started cheering for Soto as he stood at bat.

After Ji Maeng-ho’s incident with Verdugo’s fan in the locker room, Judge desperately felt the need to unite the team.

To win, the team must unite. However, Judge, who was already so used to this situation, had no idea how to keep the team together. So, like now, he just did what he could, one by one.

If he took the initiative and cheered for himself, the team would follow, and Judge was waiting for a good idea to come up that would unite the team, taking such small steps one step at a time.

However, it was not for nothing that he was told not to do things he had not done before.

Baseball was a sport that dealt with 0.1 seconds, and batters and pitchers were creatures like elaborate machines. Even the smallest thing can cause a deviation in the design.

A batsman is a living being who, like Verdugo, can come to his senses and improve his hitting ability by ruminating on the pain of being hit, and even a batter like Ji Maeng-ho who is recording absurd results can suffer for several days if his timing is off once. A batter was also a creature who regained his batting ability with a lucky double.

Baseball is a sport in which such trivial things change the batter’s batting feel, and that is why baseball players blindly believed in routines.

Keeping a routine means reminding yourself of the good times and at the same time not allowing any small deviations.

It’s not for nothing that baseball players keep strange routines.

And, in a sport called baseball, where it is common for things to go wrong over even the smallest of things, going to the plate with concerns other than baseball was enough to make one’s batting sense go awry.

Judge’s mind was currently filled with the thought that he had to lead by example, and this thought was reflected at the plate, and he was in a state of strength, thinking that he had to do a little better.

It was probably a bit of pressure, so it was not surprising that Judge’s batting skills were declining.

[… A timely hit from the hole with two outs! Yankees lead 2:0!]

“Great! Let’s go! Yankees!”

But Judge just raised his voice from the dugout without even knowing what his problem was.