Chapter 806 – Episode 793. Oh, My Back Hurts! (2)

Perfect!

‘Write… I couldn’t turn my back properly.’

From what I could see during training, the pain was almost gone, but since I had been batting lightly for almost a week, it was difficult to bat as I normally did as soon as I entered the game. Did I unconsciously save myself?

This time, perhaps due to the influence, the batted ball is caught in front of the fence, increasing the out count.

After that, Giants’ starter Springs shut out Judge and Soto, ending the inning with a three-and-out. And in the top of the second inning, I felt like I had to go out to the field and protect the infield, but until today, there was a suggestion from the manager that I should play as a designated hitter, so I had no choice but to accept the offer and do as much as I could while playing defense. All I could do was raise my voice and cheer.

“Singer! Let’s stop it and go!”

Of course, I was cheering loudly to create the atmosphere in the dugout, but I was a little bored because I knew that no matter how much I cheered, if I was concentrating on the game inside the ground, my voice would not be heard.

‘Tsk, I really need to ask you to play defense starting tomorrow. Other people don’t know how to play designated hitter. It’s so boring.’

Regardless of my boredom, Singer, who started today, finished the inning cleanly, and the bottom of the second inning came. In the bottom of the second inning, leadoff hitter Stanton hit a single, but the score did not go up as the next three hitters were out in succession.

In a situation where it was expected to lead to a pitcher’s battle, it was the San Francisco Giants who broke the balance of 0 first. Starting with Schmitz, the leadoff hitter and opposing shortstop, hitting a double, the Giants’ score goes up with a base hit and a sacrifice hit.

Fortunately, Singer did not allow any more runs, and the score was 1:0 by the end of the third inning. And when Volpi, the leadoff hitter, struck out, Scantlebury, who replaced me as a second baseman, hit a hit, leaving me with one out and one on first base.

‘As light as possible, as light as possible.’

If I tried to force my back, my swing form could have been ruined, so I decided to gradually regain that feeling through training, and then went to bat with the mindset of hitting as lightly as possible.

I’ve seen enough of his pitches in power analysis videos, first at-bats, and standby at-bats, so I entered the timing roughly.

“Ball.”

“Strike!”

“Ball.”

I slowly waited for his ball and picked it out, and in a two-ball, one-strike situation, the flat ball headed toward me.

‘… Lightly!’

Ta – Aak!

I didn’t put much effort into it and hit it lightly, but the timing was probably right, so I avoided the third baseman’s jumping catch with a line drive and flew toward the left fence. Looking at the angle of the hit, it wasn’t a hit that would go over, so I went around first base at full speed to second base.

‘I didn’t catch it!’

‘Okay!’

And when I was about to return to second base, I heard Mr. Rossby’s voice saying that he couldn’t catch it. I glanced toward left field and saw that the ball was being fumbled. Scantlebury, who was already a runner on first base, was running toward home, so I wasted no time stepping on second base and running to third base.

‘… Sliding will be okay, right?’

I wasn’t sliding head first because of back pain, but I felt like I would get out if I didn’t go in head first, so I flew toward third base with my hands outstretched,

“Safe!”

Safe was declared.

“Ji! It was fantastic base running! But is your back okay?”

“Yes. It doesn’t hurt that much.”

And fortunately, I didn’t feel any major pain in my back. As the injury was minor, it was clear that the pain was felt only when I turned my back sharply. Of course, it was a tricky injury for a hitter who had to keep turning his back every time he made a swing.

Anyway, my triple balanced the game, and now Judge was at bat. But I didn’t have many expectations. Perhaps it was an aftereffect of winning the Home Run Derby, but since the second half of the season began, he had been quietly struggling, hitting only one home run in 10 games.

‘Just let it go into the groove.’

… For a moment, I thought,

Perfect!

The judge hit the ball like an old man’s piss, and as soon as I heard the sound, I ran toward home.

-Wow!!!!

When I stepped on the home run and looked around the ground, the right fielder was holding the batting ball. A batted ball like Jersey’s old man’s pee foot succeeded in passing through the infield.

‘Anyway, I’m lucky.’

Usually, when you hit a lucky ball like this, you get out of a slump… Hoping that this hit will help Judge get out of his slump, he goes into the dugout and shares the joy of the comeback with his teammates.

‘It would be perfect if I just gave one more point…’

However, despite my wishes,

“Strike out!”

“Out!”

The inning ends with Soto striking out and Stanton hitting a grounder to second base.

‘Well, I’m sure Singer will be able to block it well since he turned it around.’

*

[Top of the 5th inning, Singer still on the mound. … Ah, let’s go! Luciano hits a solo home run that widens the score! The San Francisco Giants extend their lead to 3 points! … Ah, the player is being replaced here. The changed pitcher is Buddy. Appeared in 26 games this season, with an ERA of 5.24 and 2 wins and 2 losses in 34.1 innings… … Save the inning. The game now goes to the bottom of the 5th inning! … The lead batter in the bottom of the 5th inning is Volpi.]

[Wolfi’s performance isn’t very good these days, right? Until June, he was showing good performance with an OPS in the mid-0.8 range, but now his OPS has dropped to 0.718 due to the physical burden of the shortstop position. Is Volpi on the rebound? .]

[As I speak, Volpi’s batted ball goes out to the second baseman! Now at bat is Scantlebury, who had a hit today. … Oh, I get a walk. And this batter, Ji Maeng-ho, comes to bat.]

[Ji Maeng-ho’s performance hasn’t been that good since the second half of the season started, right? His batting average dropped from .400 to .399, and he hit only two home runs in nine games in the second half of the season. Although he hit a home run in yesterday’s game, experts are wondering if something is wrong with Ji Maeng-ho’s body…]

[The moment I tell you! Ji Maeng-ho’s sharp batted ball cuts into left-center! The batted ball that hits the fence and bounces out is the center fielder! Got it! But even Scantlebury’s home! Ji Maeng-ho’s timely double to make up for one point! The Yankees trail by 2 points!]

[… Wow, even though his condition doesn’t seem to be good, he can make a hit like this. After all, Ji Maeng-ho is a player, so I would like to tell you that.]

[Now it’s a jersey at bat.]

[Jersey is also not in good condition in the second half of the season, is he? During the second half of the year, he had uncharacteristic performance, batting .143 with 1 home run and 4 RBIs…]

[Judge’s first pitch hit! Cut right and center! Ji Maeng-ho goes all the way home! Judge all the way to second base! The New York Yankees record consecutive timely doubles! Score 5:4!]

[… Haha, it’s really strange because everything I say seems to be the opposite. … Soto has been performing well since the second half of the season began…]

[Out! Springer catches Soto!]

[… Stanton continued to play his role in the second half…]

[Out! Ending the inning! Springer gave up the chasing score, but did not give up the tie!]

[Uhm… I’ve been watching baseball for over 40 years, and as expected, baseball doesn’t go as expected.]

[Then we go to the top of the 6th inning!]

*

In the bottom of the 5th inning, we trailed by 2 runs and the game remained at a tight score of 5:4 until the 4th at-bat came in the bottom of the 7th.

And now in front of me was a familiar face looking at me from the mound. The familiar face was Shin Su-ho, whom he had faced tirelessly over the past four years.

‘It was a shame we couldn’t meet each other yesterday, but today we meet.’

When I gently touch his helmet to say hello, Suho also touches his hat and greets me.

‘I guess I have time to say hello. That’s a bit fortunate.’

After Younghwan left for the major league, Suho, who became Korea’s best closer, tried out for the major league with me, and was currently pitching 52.1 innings in 36 games in the major league, recording 5 wins, 3 losses, and an ERA of 4.82. Br〉

In Korea, Su-ho, who was raised in a noble position as a closing pitcher, was almost like a pitcher in the early days of his advancement to the major leagues and had to move around the bullpen, recording a miserable ERA of around 6–7 points. Recently, he seems to have come to his senses in 10 games. He recorded an ERA of 1.89, and thanks to that, he seemed to have time to say hello to me during the game.

Well, just yesterday, he showed good pitching by allowing no runs in one inning, so he deserved to have some leeway.

However, those facts had nothing to do with me.

Because Suho’s ball is something I’ve been tired of seeing for the past four years.

“Strike!”

Suho’s fastball, which feels a bit like a stick because he’s seen a lot of pitches from major league pitchers, lands in the zone.

‘The gang is still the same.’

Even in the major leagues, they throw strikes from the first pitch to me, who is an ecosystem disruptor. It seemed like Suho hyung’s toughness, who had gone head-to-head with me in the Korean Series, was still the same.

Looking at that proud appearance, I remembered having a light dinner with Suho after the game yesterday, but I couldn’t just ignore it.

‘Brother, I’m sorry. ‘I’m in a bit of a hurry right now.’

I also couldn’t afford to be lazy because I’ve been stuck in the last few games due to a back injury.

‘It’s a slider. Outside.’

‘Okay.’

Suho’s slider boasted a fast velocity of mid to high 140s, but it was a slider that didn’t have much of a bend like a cutter. And I’ve seen him so many times over the past four years that I already had the perfect timing for that slider in my head.

Ta – Aak!

Unfortunately for Su-ho, the lightly spun ball disappears over the left wall.

‘No matter how hard I turn my back properly, I can’t get over this.’

When I saw Suho with his head down on the mound, I felt disappointed as my motivation for entering the Major League and as a teammate on the national team, but the world of competition is cold-hearted, so I rounded the base and headed home.

And when the score was tied, the Giants began to fall little by little. Suho finished the inning well, but Moore, who took the mound in the bottom of the 8th inning, allowed a comeback by hitting a home run to Vientos, and in the top of the 9th, Miller, our closing pitcher, got on base with a single, but immediately doubled. The game ended by leading the play.

After the game ended, the main character of the interview with the decorated player was me, who scored 5 runs on his own by going 3 hits in 4 at-bats, 1 home run, 3 runs scored, and 3 RBIs.

“Hello! Ji! … So next question. There were experts who said that the batting average was sluggish these days, with the batting average falling below .400. Did Ji know that?”

“Yes. Actually, I haven’t been able to swing properly the past few days due to a bad back, but as you can see from my batting today, I’ve completely recovered. So, I should take this opportunity to apologize to the pitchers who will face me next time.”

“Yes? Why?”

“Once the second half of the season started, I showed a little mercy to the pitchers I met, but there will be no such mercy anymore. If you don’t want to get hit, avoid it. “I warned you.”

To be honest, the injury was almost completely recovered, but I felt like I needed some time to improve my batting skills, so I answered the question with the hope that the pitchers would avoid me after watching my interview.

Haha. As expected, it’s Ji’s remark. So, we will end today’s interview with the distinguished athlete here. Until now…”

‘I warned you this much, but you won’t compete with me. Well, that’s okay in its own way.’

After the interview with the Distinguished Player was over, I entered Stargram while preparing to fly to Houston, and a malicious comment on Jia’s recent post caught my eye.

┗Wow, how beautiful is Ji Maeng-ho’s waist? It’s disgusting to think that such a slut pretends to be innocent

‘Ugh, are there still idiots like this? I guess I should say something harsh.’

I wanted to file a complaint, but since Jia stayed silent, I felt like I was giving something away if I said I would file a complaint. To be honest, it was something that any intelligent modern person could easily resolve through conversation, so I didn’t think I would spend money on a lawyer to file a complaint. It was a shame, so I scolded the malicious commenter as politely as I could.

┗┗@MHooooo.4: ㅇㅇ It’s better than Negeum. If you tease them, sue them for defamation. When I go to Korea, I’ll see your face haha

┗┗If a public figure says something like this… I will really sue you.

┗┗@MHooooo.4: Fuck public figures. I’ll break your head with a ball. If you’re going to sue, then sue. But be careful, if you leave a malicious comment on Jia’s stargram one more time, I’ll find you.

I hit a home run, and I also taught a harsh lesson as an adult to the idiot who left malicious comments on Jia’s stargram.

It wasn’t perfect, but it was a pretty good day.