Chapter 767 – 754. Okay, Alcantara Analysis Complete. (1)

“Strike!”

‘What kind of two-seamer can go 99 miles (159.3 km/h)?’

It certainly seemed like a light throw, but Alcantara’s two-seam hit the strike zone at a speed of 99 mph.

‘Good. Let’s give up the two-seam mentality.’

To be honest, I wasn’t confident that a two-seamer with this much speed and movement would be able to hit a good hit by hitting the bat accurately. If you hit something, you may get a true hit, but baseball is a sport of probability. I didn’t want to lose a precious at-bat in a fight with low odds.

‘It’s a four-seam. Outside.’

‘Fuck…’

The problem was that this guy’s four-seamer sometimes came in with a tailing movement, and sometimes it felt like it was rising upward. Even if you exclude the two-seamer, isn’t the four-seam pitch not easy? At least it didn’t have as much movement as a two-seamer, so if you were aiming for this ball, the odds weren’t that high.

What I felt while training with Mr. Rossby was that the slider was the easiest to hit, followed by the high-speed changeup, then the four-seam, and then the two-seam, so I wanted to aim for the slider whenever possible. And fortunately, because I was a right-handed hitter, there was a high chance that the deciding ball would come as a slider.

So, for now I just hope the ball gets thrown.

“Ball.”

And fortunately, Alcantara’s ball was hit high outside and the ball was declared.

‘Tsk, I guess the analysis is done. ‘If you see balls like this flying often these days.’

These days, there are more pitchers throwing balls like this, and perhaps because it’s the major league, the analysis is definitely faster.

Two months after my major league debut, my swing mechanism made me weak to high balls outside, and in fact, the position where I had the worst batting average was the position that Alcantara had just targeted. In particular, if a ball traveling close to 100 mph came into this zone, it was difficult for me to check whether it was a ball or a strike.

Probably, if I hadn’t planned on holding back this time, I would have definitely swung the bat.

Still, thanks to my patience, the count was one ball, one strike.

‘It’s two-minded. ‘Body side’

‘Okay.’

Are you planning on only throwing fastballs until there are two strikes? If I hadn’t been the number one hitter, I would have had a sense of what the ball mix was and what he was going to throw today’s deciding ball, but at times like this, I felt a little resentful of being the number one hitter.

If I threw a fastball after two strikes, I would be at a disadvantage because I had to bat for all pitches similar to John’s. In order to prevent that, I had to bat if a good ball came in.

Now that I can pick and hit good balls, I’m in a slightly better situation than with two strikes…

To be honest, I was reluctant to bet on a two-seamer, but if a good ball comes, I decide to bet and wait for the guy’s pitch.

But fortunately, there was no need to throw a bat at the two-seamer.

“Ball.”

Because his throw-seam was close to his body. I was surprised, but I didn’t want to show weakness, so I didn’t move a muscle as I watched the ball, and the catcher seemed impressed by that and spoke up first.

“Oh, manly? “I didn’t even flinch.”

“If you throw a ball like this one more time, I’ll break your head, motherfucker.”

To be honest, I wanted to see this ball fly once more and hit it in the advantageous situation of a three-ball, one-strike situation, so I responded harshly to the catcher’s words and provoked him,

“Haha, it’s hot?”

The catcher smiles and hands the ball to the pitcher. I heard he was also from Dominica, and the fact that he was unusually relaxed as someone from South America explained how much the catcher believed in Alcantara.

‘Four-seam, outside.’

‘Sweet, it’s not easy either.’

And the choice is outside. Even though there was no sign of a hit, the fact that he chose the outside seemed like he wanted to get two strikes with this ball.

If so, now is the time to bet.

‘There’s nothing we can do about it.’

The fourth ball of the guy who waited and decided to just swing and miss when it was thrown outside the zone.

‘… What!’

Perfect!

It came into the zone as I expected, but this ball came a little slower than the balls I’ve thrown so far and ended up hitting too far in front.

“Foul!”

And the penalty for hitting the ball in front is a foul. The sharply flown batted ball missed the foul line.

‘Even if only two balls had been hit from behind, it would have been a double hit…’

With a feeling of disappointment, I checked the guy’s speed and the speed recorded on the electronic display board was 96.3 miles (154.9 km/h). In absolute terms, it was a fast ball, but the timing was not right as the ball flew in the high 90s and then this ball flew.

‘It’s a slider. Outside.’

‘But this is fortunate. Is it really slim against right-handed batters?’

I thought what would happen if a fastball came his way again this time, but fortunately the ball he chose was a slider. Even if it was Alcantara, throwing fastballs five times in a row seemed burdensome.

‘Still, I’m glad the foul ball was sharp. If I had thrown a faster ball just now, it would have been the minimum timing for a long hit, so I wouldn’t have been able to avoid throwing a breaking ball here.’

Could it be that hitting a foul ball was actually a blessing in disguise?

Anyway, this is an opportunity. It was clear that he would throw it lower than the zone because he had enough ball count. But I had to trick my eyes, so it wouldn’t be one bounce, but about 0.5 to 1.5 balls in the zone.

It was a difficult position to hit, but since there was no guarantee that the next ball would be a slider, I decided to take advantage of this opportunity.

And the guy’s fifth ball that was thrown. His ball went down as expected, and I was able to make contact with his ball by bending my knees as much as possible to hit the low ball.

Perfect!

It wasn’t a straight hit, but the ball flew at a fairly fast speed, so I was confident it was a hit and ran toward first base.

-Waaaaa!!!

However, the size of the cheers that could be heard in my ears was not the size of a hit, or even a hit by a player on the away team.

‘Run!’

And along with Mr. Rossby’s voice, a white object passes quickly before my eyes.

‘Huh?!’

Bang!

“Out!”

‘Fuck, did they catch this?!’

If you hit a ball like this, it was enough to be a hit… No, in Korea, the ball would have been a hit. But the result was a grounder to shortstop. Alcantara applauds the shortstop.

“Oh, shit.”

“The defense was good. “You know something like this can’t be helped, right Ji?”

As I threw my helmet on the ground in frustration, the first base coach tapped me on the shoulder. But of course, the hit was stolen, so there was no way I could let go of my frustration like this.

‘Fuck, I hit my cheek for no reason, I was in a hurry.’

I would have had better results if I had made a full count and then waited for a walk or hit a ball that came into the zone… The more I thought about it, the more I got annoyed at myself for being scared and swinging the bat in the first place.

“Ji, that was a good hit.”

When I came into the dugout, my teammates consoled me by saying it was a good hit, but in baseball, a ‘good hit’ is only a hit that produces results.

‘Mr. Rossby, let’s try a few more tests with today’s data.’

In the next at-bat, I helped Mr. Rossby to make a really ‘good batted ball’,

‘No, I think it would be better to just watch for now than that. You’re so scared right now, like a fucking god.’

‘…’

Mr. Rossby dissuaded me. I was definitely a little scared, as Mr. Rossby said. When we met at international competitions, we were lucky enough to achieve results, and when we trained with Mr. Rossby, there were almost no true hits.

Yes, I admit it. Honestly, me and Alcantara were not compatible.

First, the ball was very fast, the movement was arbitrary, and the control and command were good enough to even control the borderline. If one of the three wasn’t there, I would have just hit him, but he and I didn’t get along very well.

All I could do was swing the bat and hope I was lucky enough to hit the sweet spot like I did when we met in international competitions.

Or pray that you are not feeling well.

“Out!”

“Strike! Out!”

… Seeing as Judge and Soto were lightly outed, it didn’t seem like they were in bad shape either.

‘Well, how many hitters are good with that bastard? That’s why I won the Cy Young twice.’

In 2025, he could only play in 20 games due to injury and not receive the Cy Young. Otherwise, he could have won two Cy Youngs in a row and a total of three Cy Youngs in his career.

That wasn’t all. According to what I heard during the power analysis class, he performed well last year, recording 16 wins with an ERA of 2.36. He was one of the best pitchers in the NL along with Strider and Ohtani, and although his pitching WAR was minimal, he was the best among NL pitchers. It was high.

Alcantara probably would have won the Cy Young last year even if Strider hadn’t recorded 21 wins.

‘So, did you feel anything while watching?’

‘Well, the analysis is over.’

‘So what is the conclusion?’

‘I can’t play that.’

‘… ‘Bloody hell.’

‘As it is now.’

‘… Huh?’

Yeah, I didn’t think I could hit that guy’s ball unless I was lucky.

However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a way.

Hitting here means making a true hit that can result in a home run.

However, he could touch the ball as long as he didn’t hit it on target. Even if the movement is perfect, as long as you know the pitch, you are bound to get hit by the bat to some extent.

There is no hitter who is a good match for him. His only compatibility is with himself, who is in poor condition.

And, I knew how to make him feel bad. In a way that only I, who knows the pitch type in advance on the planet, can do.

‘Let’s keep it short from the next at-bat.’

Honestly, if it were Korea, I wouldn’t have used this method, but the batters behind me are Judge, Soto, and Stanton. If I could keep him in bad shape, Judge and Soto were hitters who could score enough points.

Stanton also had a room there.

No matter how confident Alcantara is in his physical strength, there is a limit to the pitches a pitcher can throw. And even if the number of pitches was not the limit, as the number of pitches increased, the condition was bound to get worse.

Now that the first inning is over, he has thrown 23 balls. Soto, who struck out, took out a lot of balls, so I felt like I could get him out in the 5th or 6th inning if I worked harder. Well, my batting skills may be messed up, but there were people on our team who would hit even if it wasn’t me.

‘You’ve been throwing the ball messily up until now, right? Now I’ll deal with you in a more messy way.’

*

– Alcantara. No. 22, S/15 B/8 Pitch/23

(S=Pitch that becomes a strike, B=Pitch that becomes a ball, Pitch=Number of pitches.)

[Alcantara strikes out Soto and ends the inning with a three-way strike. … Gilbert also ends the first inning with a three-way strike. … Gilbert sent out a runner in scoring position, but finished the bottom of the third inning cleanly.]

[The two pitchers, Alcantara and Gilbert, are showing a tight pitching battle, sending out only one batter until the third inning, and it is a performance worthy of the top teams in each league.]

[The game now goes to the top of the 4th inning. On the mound is Alcantara, who has shown perfect pitching to date. And Ji Maeng-ho comes to bat.]

-Alcantara, No. 22, S/33 B/18 Pitch/51