Chapter 808 – Episode 795. A Familiar Face. (2)

The faster the ball, the better. For a baseball player, this was nothing short of common sense. I don’t know if he has Maddux’s level of control, but no matter how good the breaking ball is, in the end, it is the fast ball that makes the breaking ball work, so it is natural for any pitcher to want to throw a fast ball.

And Wonho, like any ordinary pitcher, believed what he said and always tried to throw fast balls. That mindset was the same when preparing for his major league debut. During last year’s semi-playoffs, Wonho was able to gain some insight into speed control, but he did not have the courage to change his pitching style ahead of the important event of his major league debut.

And it wasn’t because Wonho was a coward. The Major League was not an easy place to do as we had done so far, and it was difficult for anyone to take on a new challenge in such a situation.

Of course, even if he did what he was good at, the Major League was not an easy place, and Wonho had an earned run average in the 5 to 6 range, and he was criticized for failing in the early days of his debut.

The more Wonho did this, the faster he tried to throw the ball, and as he tried to throw the ball faster, his control also faltered, repeating a vicious cycle.

However, his moment of enlightenment was bound to come suddenly, and at one point, Wonho recalled his memories from the semi-playoffs. Because his stamina was low, he threw 130 pitches, but I still remember AT’s batters not being able to hit his balls properly, except for Ji Maeng-ho, who hit a home run.

The shocking performance of an ERA in the 5-point range was a time when something needed to change, so Wonho recalled those memories and began throwing slow pitches with occasional adjustments in speed and speed, and the attempt was quite successful.

So much so that he has won 5 of his last 10 games.

A slow ball, which is slower than a fastball but faster than a changeup and has less deflection, could have been considered a missed throw, but since it was a ball thrown occasionally, it could be played by disrupting the batter’s timing, and the slower it was thrown, the more free the ball was.

Wonho, who succeeded in controlling the fastball, gradually gained a feel for it by slowly throwing breaking balls while maintaining the sense of his hands that had been excellent since he was young.

Of course, there were many such monster hitters in the major leagues, so pitches thrown with speed control were not invincible. The ball he threw like that went over the fence without any resistance, and there were times when he gave up a lot of runs, but Wonho steadily improved his performance,

The moment he met his old friend, he threw a slow pitch and boasted about his accomplishments. Because we added a bit of fun to it, the ball ended up hitting us a lot.

Anyway, Won-ho, who boasted about his accomplishments to Meng-ho, threw a slow-paced fastball as a winning shot to catch Meng-ho,

[Ji Maeng-ho retires with a fly to center field!]

‘Yes, it works for Meng Hao as well. ‘My direction is not wrong.’

He proved to himself that his efforts were correct by throwing out Ji Maeng-ho, his old friend and the best hitter he considered.

[… Grab the jersey! … Kim Won-ho strikes out Stanton! … The Yankees’ offense in the top of the second inning is 5th hitter Hall, who returned from injury. … Strike! Out! … Kim Won-ho strikes out Vientos! … Kim Won-ho catches Verdugo with a ground ball to second base and achieves a three-run inning!]

Wonho, who gained confidence by catching Maengho, gave up a walk until the second inning, but blocked the pitch perfectly until the second inning.

[… Torrance’s batted ball gets stuck in the infield. Throw to first base, out. … Verdugo retires with a fly to right field. Two out. And now Ji Maeng-ho comes to bat.]

It was his second at-bat against Ji Maeng-ho.

‘First pitch is a curveball.’

I knew that Meng Hao liked curves. He also knew that curves that enter the zone will fly over the fence mercilessly.

But even so, the reason he threw the curve was to instill the fact that he could throw the curve at any time. Because it was advantageous for the pitcher to plant as many possible scenarios in the batter’s mind.

Even though Meng Hao is good at hitting, if he doesn’t throw a curveball, he will be reducing his chances of winning in an already disadvantageous fight.

“Ball.”

‘You must be a ghost to skip this.’

Of course, I was still reluctant to throw it in the zone, so I dropped a curveball, but Meng Hao was staring at his ball without moving.

‘Splitter.’

The ball Wonho chose this time was a splitter, which was used as a deciding ball by other batters. Since he knew that Meng Hao had a high rate of missing true throws, he planned to use a slow-paced ball as the deciding ball against Meng Hao.

“Ball.”

However, when the ball fell about 1.5 zones below, Meng Hao again picked his ball like a ghost.

‘It’s not easy either. Let’s go two-seam this time.’

Now that we’ve thrown breaking balls, it’s time to scare them with a fastball.

“Strike!”

As the two-seamer bends from the outside to the inside passes through the strike zone, Meng Hao nods his head as if he knew something. But Wonho didn’t care. That was just a gesture to provoke the pitcher.

‘This time it’s a splitter.’

Ta – Aak!

“Foul!”

‘… Wow, if I had gone a little higher, I would have been in big trouble.’

There was a large foul home run, but the ball count was two balls, two strikes. Wonho felt that it was now his turn to throw the deciding ball.

‘Let’s go with the fastball. To the high zone outside.’

So Wonho threw his winning ball,

‘… ‘It’s done!’

The moment I saw Meng Hao’s swing, I was filled with joy. Judging from Maengho’s swing, which we saw tens of thousands of times to block Maengho during the KBA days, the timing of the bat being swung now was completely tailored to his fastball.

However, in that split second, Meng Hao’s bat stops slightly and then returns.

Perfect!

‘Did you survive this?!’

That monster-like guy had forced the timing of the bat to slow down with the strength of his waist.

Of course, even so, it wasn’t a good swing, so Meng Hao’s hit went toward the front of the mound. Wonho saw the direction of the batted ball and instinctively stretched out his glove, but Maengho’s batted ball was faster than expected and passed the mound.

‘Holy shit!’

And the batted ball that passed by him passed between the shortstop and second baseman and landed in front of the center fielder. A perfect hit despite poor timing. Meng Hao enters first base.

‘Out, how many outs were there?’

And Wonho, who was watching the scene, quickly turned his head and checked his electronic display. My PTSD took over when Maengho went to first base.

‘Phew, two outs.’

If it had been one out, that monster would have stolen third base and easily scored one point.

Wonho was thankful that there were two outs in this situation.

Of course, that gratitude didn’t last long. Because Judge came to bat after Meng Hao.

‘It’s really a mountain beyond a mountain…’

After dealing with Ji Maeng-ho, the next step is Jeoji. I felt like cursing at this unfair situation.

However, the only time a pitcher on the mound expresses emotions is when he prevents a crisis or hits a home run.

Wonho gathered his mental strength and threw the ball towards the judge.

“Safe!”

Meanwhile, Meng Ho steals second base, but there are already two outs. He thought about skipping the game, but then Soto was waiting, so he put that thought aside and threw the ball back toward the judge.

“Base on balls!”

‘Fuck, are you filtering this? I’m going crazy. Really.’

However, Wonho’s pitch, which he did his best, led to an unintentional walk, and Soto came to the plate.

“Base on balls!”

However, Soto also picked off the ball, and before we knew it, the situation was up with two outs and bases loaded. I was a little afraid of Stanton’s presence filling the batter’s box, but I felt at ease perhaps because it was after Ji Maeng-ho, Judge, and Soto came to bat.

‘I gave him two walks, so there’s a good chance he’ll go for the first pitch here. Then, keep it as close to the borderline as possible and throw a slow fastball…’

Perfect!

[Stanton’s batted ball! Second baseman! Catch it! Toss to second base! Out! Kim Won-ho prevents the crisis with bases loaded with 2 outs!]

[The ball just came in a bit slow at 86.8 miles (139.7 km/h), but Stanton was unable to make a good hit because his control was so good.]

“It was good!!”

Wonho, who caught Stanton as he intended, roared.

And as if in response to Wonho’s roar, in the bottom of the third inning, Houston’s batting line, which had been idle during games 1 and 2 of the series, began to fire up.

[Altuve’s three-run home run with two outs! Houston leads 3-0! … Alvarez advances to first base on foot! … Diaz’s batted ball goes to right-center! Now the situation is 2 outs, 2nd and 3rd bases! … Mount Castle’s batting! It lands next to center field! Even the runner on third base and the runner on second base who have already started! Coming home! Mount Castle’s 2 RBI hit at the right time! Houston is now ahead 5-0!]

‘Good. ‘Let’s grab today’s game!’

With 5 runs on his back, Wonho came on the mound in the top of the 4th inning, and although there was an accident where Verdugo hit a home run, he ended the 4th inning without giving up any more points.

[… Houston Astros add 2 runs in the bottom of the 4th inning! As soon as the Yankees catch up, they open the gap again! Score 7:1!]

In the top of the 5th inning, Houston added 2 more points.

“Strike! Out!”

Wonho, who cleanly struck out leadoff hitter Volpi, once again welcomed Maengho on the mound.

‘Whoa… Let’s stick together.’

In this way, Wonho strengthened his resolve to face Maengho, which could possibly be his last match of the season, as there were no remaining series against the Yankees.

*

‘Baby, look at the confidence on your face?’

Seeing Wonho smiling on the mound made me a little angry. It was almost certain that the game would be 7:1 anyway, but it seemed like we had to see Wonho frown.

‘Smile a lot, because you’ve figured it all out.’

Wonho’s pattern today was obvious. Right now, Wonho is very excited because he likes his new toy. He was standing on the mound pretending to have an expressionless expression, but is Wonho’s expression too familiar?

Having watched Wonho for nearly 10 years, I was able to recognize his condition right away.

It was the same in the first and second at-bats, and seeing that he threw a slow ball as the deciding ball, it was obvious that the pattern would be repeated in this at-bat as well. Perhaps this time as well, he will throw a slow ball that others thought was a true throw.

Well, we could change the ball mix, but I didn’t think it would be necessary to use that move when the gap was as high as 6 points.

‘It’s a splitter.’

‘Okay.’

And seeing him throw a splitter from the first pitch made my thoughts almost clear. Wonho’s splitter has been Wonho’s defining pitch since his days in Korea. And since the deciding ball is more powerful if it is hidden as much as possible, there is a high possibility that the deciding ball that Wonho throws will be a slow fastball.

‘Okay, I’ll play with you.’

Since I read Wonho’s ball formula in advance, I didn’t have to wait in frustration.

Perfect!

“Foul!”

Balls that come near the zone are kicked away as usual,

“Ball.”

After picking out balls that went outside the zone as usual and creating a two-strike situation so that Wonho wouldn’t feel uncomfortable, Wonho chose the ball I thought of.

‘It’s two-minded. Outside.’

‘Okay.’

Previously, I missed the timing because I thought it was a ball in the mid to high 150s, but this time I was timing it at a speed in the low 130s, so I didn’t miss the timing.

‘It’s coming!’

And as I expected, Wonho’s slightly slow two-seamer rolls in from the outside to the inside.

‘… ‘Two three!’

Ta – Aak!

And if you only know, a fastball in the low 130s is a ball that just begs to be hit. It was hit so cleanly that I couldn’t feel any impact in my hand, and without realizing that the batted ball was high in the sky, it flew toward the line drive castle and only slowly began to sink near the fence.

Empty!

You can hear the sound of a ball hitting the tracks of the Loco Train, a famous feature in the left outfield of Minute Maid Park.

“Wow, shit…”

… With Wonho’s low swear words.

‘It was a good try. It’s Wonho. But it was too obvious. Cheek combination.’

If I had mixed it up a little more, it wouldn’t have been read to me. If that were the case, it would probably have been more difficult to deal with.

‘It’s been a while since I’ll give you a baseball lesson.’

After today’s game, I threw the bat with the intention of using the remaining time to give Wonho feedback and headed to first base.