Chapter 812 – Episode 799. Subway Series.
“Mets? Poor team. “Because it’s a team that makes a lot of money and is always in the playoff zone.”
Judge’s assessment of the Mets was simple. Poor team.
Although it was a team based in New York, it felt like they were seen as a slightly inferior team rather than a rival. For some reason, it felt like Hancheol was watching AT until I came in?
‘When I think about it, it’s really similar to AT. ‘I spend a lot of money, but it’s similar to not being able to go to fall baseball games.’
The only thing better than AT is that the Mets have at least made the playoffs. Looking at their record, they haven’t been invited to the playoffs once since missing the wild card in 2022, but they still went once, so that was better than AT.
“Then I guess I can do it comfortably?”
“No, we have to show the poor New Yorkers, not the Yankees, what a great team the Yankees are. “We have a duty to give happiness to those poor New Yorkers.”
“What does that mean?”
“What does it mean? “It means we have to turn Mets fans into our fans.”
“… “Change your cheering team?”
“Well, we can’t change those who are already Mets fans to their core, but with the advice of friends and family, couldn’t we change the fans who are lightly sucking on that gloomy team into our fans? “As long as we win.”
Well, since they were regional rivals, there seemed to be a sense of rivalry. When you see Judge say something like this. And Judge’s mood in saying those words was similar to Soyoung’s words that the Children’s Day Series must be won.
Soyoung always said that she had to win the Children’s Day Series to turn young fans into AT fans.
‘Well, they meet at most four times a year, so the match-up must be like a Children’s Day series.’
… I went into the game thinking that. The atmosphere in the stadium was not as violent as when we played against Boston, but it was more tense than other games.
But honestly, the atmosphere was more tense because Rodon was the starter in today’s game. This is because Rodon, who had been making quality starts for 4 consecutive games, was in poor condition again, allowing 6 runs in 5 innings, 5 earned runs, 3 runs in 5 innings, and 7 runs in 3 innings in 3 games.
Of course, I still didn’t think I would lose. If our starter was Rodon, our opponent’s starter was Ramudio.
Who is La Mudio? I don’t know either. He was a replacement starter in the major league when Munaya was injured. He was 23 years old and appeared in 4 games, recording 1 win, 3 losses, and an ERA of 5.40.
In other words, he was a fresh rookie with little record.
His main weapons are a fastball that goes between 96 and 98 mph, a sinker, and a splitter. Perhaps because he was a rookie pitcher, his fastball was definitely fast, but compared to that, the perfection of his breaking ball was not that high, so it seemed like he wouldn’t be such a difficult pitcher if he just got used to fastballs.
‘Well, you’ll have to stick with it to find out.’
What level is this guy’s fastball?
I started the game with such curiosity,
“Out!”
“Out!”
“Out!”
The game started with Rodon cleanly throwing out a strike in the top of the first inning.
‘What is it? Is today the day?’
Rodon has been giving up a lot of runs these days, but when he was pitching well, he would go 7 scoreless innings and even give up 1 run, so it wasn’t anything special. However, even then, Rodon suddenly gave up many runs in the 3rd and 4th inning, so he needed to score as quickly as possible to stabilize Rodon.
‘Shall we take the lead first?’
As I went to bat with that promise in mind, the umpire was looking at me slightly from behind his usual position.
“Hello. But, can you see the ball clearly if you’re so far back?”
“… I usually look at it this way, so don’t worry about it.”
“Yes.”
Wow, I don’t think it was in that position at the beginning of the first inning…
Although I was worried about the referee’s position, it didn’t matter where the referee was as long as I could see the ball, so I put the question in the back of my mind and prepared to hit.
‘It’s a fastball. Outward and high.’
‘Okay.’
There isn’t much video, and since it was my first time meeting a pitcher, I decided to watch the first pitch and watched him hit the ball.
“Ball.”
‘Oh, 98 miles (157.7 km/h)? It’s definitely fast.’
And the speed of the thrown ball is 98 mph. It was definitely a fast ball as seen in the video. Seeing as he threw meaningless balls that hit about 3 zones above, it seemed like he didn’t have much control, as he gave up 10 walks in 20 innings.
‘Then I’ll have to watch it slowly to check the type of pitch.’
There was no reason to rush to a player with poor control and a fast ball, so I decided to watch and wait for his ball unless he came into the middle of the zone.
And,
“Ball.”
“Ball.”
“Base on balls!”
… As I expected, no, he showed much worse control than I expected and gave up a straight walk.
‘Hmm… The sinker doesn’t seem to break much, and the splitter is too noticeable.’
Is this a helmet that looks young?
For some reason, I thought for a moment that I would win today’s game easily.
“Strike! Out!”
“Out!”
“Out!”
Lamudio ended the inning by striking out Judge and hitting Soto and Stanton with outfield flies, as if it were someone else who had thrown the ball to him.
‘… Why are there all these bastards? Ah, I didn’t want to run because it was so hot, but if it’s like this, I have to run.’
As expected, today’s game didn’t seem to be easy.
*
[… Strike! Out! Rodon sent out two batters with two outs, but ended the top of the second inning by striking out Lindor! … Ramudio creates a clean three-way inning! The balance of 0:0 is maintained until the end of the second inning.]
[If you look at Lamudio’s game record, he allowed 5 runs in 4 innings in his debut game, and 5 runs in 4 innings in the next game. In the third game, he allowed 1 run in 6 innings, and in the fourth game, he allowed 1 run in 6 innings, showing his youth. He was showing the ups and downs of a player, right?]
[It was like that, right?]
[However, looking at the way he did not allow anyone to get on base in today’s game except for one walk given to Ji Maeng-ho, I think it was just a period of adaptation rather than ups and downs. He throws a fastball with an average speed of 97 mph, and although it is still too early to tell, we may be seeing the birth of another star.]
[Haha, that could be possible.]
[If you block the Yankees’ hard hitting line, the probability of that happening will be higher, right? I’m looking forward to it.]
[Now, in the top of the third inning, we go to the Mets’ offense. … Catch the second baseman and throw to first base. One out. … Strike! Out! … Strike! Out! Carlos Rodon ends the inning with a three-way throw! You seem to be in good condition today!]
*
“Out!”
“Out!”
Volpi, the 8th batter, and Torrance, the 9th batter, are out and my turn at bat comes back. Even though I got on base with a walk, the fact that my at-bat came back with two outs in the bottom of the third inning meant that all other batters except me failed to get on base,
Just as I thought after the end of the first inning that today’s game would not be easy, it meant that today’s game was not going easy.
Fortunately, Rodon is working hard, but he doesn’t know when he will collapse, so he feels a bit chased.
‘It’s a fastball. ‘Low on the body.’
And the pitcher chose a ball that went well today. In his first at-bat, he aimed for the high outside zone and gave up a straight walk, but it seemed like he had changed the ball mix against me.
“Strike!”
‘Write… 99.8 miles (160.6 km/h)?’
In addition, today, for the first time, I saw a ball exceeding 160 km/h hit near my knee, so it seemed like my pitching rhythm had improved.
‘So, were you scared?’
‘It’s scary. It’s not the first time I’ve seen it.’
Although I needed to prepare in advance to easily hit a ball exceeding 160 km/h, I wasn’t scared. Among the bullpens, the major leagues were filled with guys who threw that level of pitches, and after spending half a season in the major leagues, I knew some ways to target those guys.
The method is to aim for breaking balls.
For a pitcher who throws a fastball close to 100 mph to play in the bullpen, it meant that there was a weakness somewhere, and although there were some players with stamina issues, most of them were pitchers with a weakness to breaking balls.
And Ramudio, who is now starting, had similar results to those bullpen pitchers. Is this a pitcher who has a powerful fastball, but has problems with breaking balls?
Other players had no idea how the fast ball was mixed with the breaking ball, but unlike those players, I was able to perfectly know the timing of the breaking ball.
‘It’s a splitter. ‘Body side.’
‘Okay.’
… Like now.
His splitter is a fast splitter close to 90-92 mph (144.8-148 km/h). However, as a young player, the angle was not that large, and balls with a speed of 90 to 92 mph, which did not have a large angle, were my prey.
‘Come!’
If the ball is just outside the strike zone, prepare to swing and wait for the guy’s ball.
And,
‘… ‘Two three!’
The guy’s ball was thrown to a slightly high position, perfect for hitting.
Ta – Aak!
The batted ball flies toward left center of Yankee Stadium. A perfect home run without even needing to see the destination of the hit. Without even checking the location of the batted ball, I lifted the bat, aimed it at him, recoiled as if shooting a gun, and then threw the bat.
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”
And just as I intended, he started swearing and shaking.
‘Hehe, if I shake things up like this, the other players will feel a little more comfortable, right?’
The younger a player is, the more likely he is to get upset when something like this happens.
I circled the base hoping he would get excited and shake,
“Strike! Out!”
‘… Are you angry?’
He vented his anger by striking out Judge, who came out behind me. Well, it didn’t go as I intended, but the score was 1:0 anyway.
The game was turning into a pitcher’s battle, which was unusual for a match between Rodon and a rookie pitcher with many ups and downs, but my home run put us ahead anyway, and the Major League Subway Series began in earnest.