Chapter 842-828. After the Yangtze River, Before the River, After the Yangtze River. (3)
‘He gave the score again and got upset.’
In the top of the third inning, Cole’s expression as he returned to the dugout after hitting a home run by Trout couldn’t have been good. Would it be like when we were competing with Alcantara for the most wins at the end of the season?
However, not many colleagues paid attention to Cole’s expression.
Why?
Because he was 2 points anyway.
Well, 2 points is a point you can get at any time as long as you don’t meet a Cy Young-level ace like Trilling or McClanahan.
For us, who achieved 121 wins based on overwhelming firepower throughout the season, two points were nothing.
‘Well, I guess I’ll have to please Ace a bit.’
Volpi, the leadoff hitter, walks to the plate holding the bat. I also walked to the waiting box while watching that. It seemed like he would have less time to please Volpi if he got on base,
“Out!”
Unfortunately, the at-bat comes back to me when I hit a fly to left field.
‘Your control wasn’t good, right?’
As he walks to the plate, he organizes Sandoval’s pitching pattern on the mound. Left-hander, averages 93-94 mph, slider is top-notch, other breaking balls are subpar.
Well, without even thinking about it too much, it was obvious that he was a left-handed pitcher who made a living with fastballs and sliders.
However, in his first at-bat, the ball was thrown in a completely different direction from the mitt, so he missed the swing and struck out.
‘Then, let’s go. Mr. Rossby.’
I have already agreed with Mr. Rossby to just listen to the pitch.
‘It’s a fastball.’
‘Okay.’
Mr. Rossby’s voice can be heard succinctly conveying only the pitch. The first pitch he chose was a fastball. Since it was a ball I saw a lot in my first at-bat, I waited for his ball with the intention of passing it as soon as it came into the zone, but unfortunately, it went wide, and the ball was called.
‘It’s a slider.’
‘Oh… Slider?’
After the first pitch went wide, he chose a slider as his next pitch. Even though the slider was his statement piece, he didn’t seem to want to use it as a deciding pitch for me, a right-handed hitter.
In that case, the balls he can use as decisive balls are curveballs and changeups.
But no matter how much I thought about it, I didn’t think he would throw a curveball or changeup into the zone. And since that would most likely result in a walk, and keeping up the momentum is important in playoff games like this, I decided to bat before the count got too high.
And the guy’s slider that was thrown.
It felt like the guy’s slider thrown from the top left cornered sharply downwards…
The guy’s ball was still on his shoulder, but I already felt where his slider was bending during my first at-bat, so I swung the ball quickly at the right time.
Ta – Aak!
What is the result…
‘Huh?’
The moment he throws the bat as if nothing has happened and is about to walk to first base, the batted ball gradually curves to the left.
‘Could it be a foul?’
Empty!
The thought of a foul disappears for a moment as the batted ball hits the pole and falls to the ground with a loud noise.
‘Phew, I was scared for no reason.’
Honestly, there’s nothing more embarrassing than not hitting a home run after flipping the bat, so I sigh in relief, and as I step on first base, Yankee Stadium fills with cheers.
-Waaaaa!!!!
-Ji! Ji! Ji! Ji! Ji!
I raised my hand as if responding to the fans, and then slowly walked around the base as I had always done.
‘Isn’t this enough to lose momentum?’
When I glanced back at the Angels’ dugout, unfortunately, the players remaining in the dugout did not look dispirited. So did the fielders who came out on the field.
‘Well, a few more injections will do.’
I was looking forward to the moment when the Angels players’ resolute expressions changed to despair, so I whetted my appetite.
*
[Ji Maeng-ho’s home run! 2:1! The New York Yankees are closely following by 1 point!]
[As expected of you! Honestly, the expression on Ji Maeng-ho’s face as he stepped into the batter’s box looked overflowing with confidence, didn’t he? I feel like I figured out how to deal with the starting pitcher from the first at-bat.]
[Yankees chasing one point! And now, the number 2 hitter is at bat. … Out! … Soto’s hit! Hit the fence! Meanwhile, Soto goes to second base! … Strike out! Sandoval strikes out Stanton and does not allow any more runs!]
[Sandoval shows good performance even after hitting a home run. In fact, Sandoval tends to collapse when he breaks down, but he didn’t seem to lose focus today since it’s the playoffs.]
[… Gerrit Call ends the inning with no runs! … Sandoval ends the inning with a three-way throw! The game now goes to the top of the 5th inning! … Gerrit Cole strikes out leadoff hitter Thais! Now Choi Joo-tae comes to the plate. In the previous two at-bats, he recorded a straight hit and a hit to third base.]
[You must be careful from now on. Is the third wheel dangerous?]
[… Choi Joo-tae’s batted ball! Between 1st and 2nd base! Exit! Choi Joo-tae creates a hit once again!]
[Wow, today’s strategy worked well. In fact, Choi Joo-tae’s season performance wasn’t that good, and he was a question mark as he started today, right? But when it comes to offense, he attacks, and when it comes to defense, he defends. It shows a good appearance.]
[… With Custard’s hit, runners are now on 1st and 3rd base with 2 outs. And then Trout comes to bat! … Trout’s batted ball! In front of left field! Trout’s timely hit adds 1 point! Today is totally Trout Day?! Trout releases all his resentment! Already showing a 3-hit game today! Score 3:1!]
[Haha! Who would dare say that this player is weak in the fall? It’s just that he hasn’t had a chance until now, but he shows off his batting skills like an active volcano in the Wild Card Series and Division Series!]
*
‘Okay, I got it today!’
3:1. There was still a 2-point difference, but Choi Joo-tae was half-confident in his mind that he would win today. That’s because Trout’s performance today was so destructive that it surpassed his prime.
Unfortunately, Cabrera, who came out as the 5th hitter today, was so good that all his batted balls were straight hits, so he didn’t get any extra points, but for some reason, I felt like Trout would be able to score an extra point for the team in his next at-bat. 〈 Br〉
‘I think I’ve felt this way once…’
And Choi Joo-tae tilted his head with a sense of déjà vu because he had the feeling somewhere that he would give up a point just by going out to bat.
‘Well, did you feel that way while watching Trout before?’
The Trout of a few years ago was enough of a hitter to give that feeling, so Choi Joo-tae got over that feeling of déjà vu and focused on the game. The batter who stood at bat was Verdugo, whose cheeks were slightly red, unlike his first at-bat.
Since Verdugo, whose cheeks were red, boasted a good hitting feel, Choi Joo-tae concentrated even more and waited for the match with Verdugo.
Perfect!
However, regardless of such concentration, Verdugo’s batted ball lands in front of the center fielder.
There was a moment of nervousness as the leadoff hitter got on base, but Sandoval, who was in good shape today, struck out Volpi and added to the out count.
And,
-Wow!!!!
Yankee Stadium shook as a batter walked to the plate. And looking at that, Choi Joo-tae was able to immediately realize where he got the deja vu he felt from Trout.
‘… ‘Why did I forget this?’
I feel like I’ll add more points any time I step up to bat… That feeling was exactly the feeling I felt while watching the batter currently at bat at the Olympics and WBC.
Of course, we watched as colleagues at the time, but now we are enemies.
When he was a colleague, he was extremely trustworthy, but now as an enemy, a drop of sweat runs down his spine due to his evil energy.
And with the drops of sweat flowing, the glorious moments with Ji Maeng-ho at the Olympics and WBC were replayed like a panorama in Choi Joo-tae’s mind.
‘Whenever Meng Hao shows this kind of momentum…’
Just like when he was leading his country to the championship, an ominous image of Sandoval’s pitch going over the fence keeps popping into my head.
Choi Joo-tae shook his head and tried to shake off the ominous imagination, but it didn’t take long for it to become reality.
Ta – Aak!
Because Ji Maeng-ho hit the outside ball lightly from the first pitch. Confident batting as if you already knew what pitch the pitcher was going to throw…
And Ji Maeng-ho’s ‘light’ contained a level of heaviness that was different from the ‘light’ of other hitters.
‘… ‘Are we done here?’
Trout showed a great performance today. However, if it had been Ji Maeng-ho, I think he would have completely broken the opponent’s will by hitting three runs with 2 outs and 1st and 3rd bases.
A hitter we look forward to more than Trout, who has been with us for over 10 years.
A batter who makes the expectations of his colleagues and the anxieties of his enemies a reality.
Perhaps, the players who will have to play against Meng Hao in the future will feel frustrated by Meng Hao’s overwhelming skills.
And it was clear that this period would be written as ‘Ji Maeng-ho’s era.’
I can hear the cheers of Yankees fans in my ears.
-Waaaaa!!!!!
Since it was the Yankees’ home, it was natural that the cheers were louder than when Trout was at bat, but to Choi Joo-tae, the cheers somehow felt like a scene welcoming the king of a new era.
“Senior, I thought you lost. “Be gentle.”
“…”
… Although it was a bit frivolous to call him a king.
*
-[ALDS] Yankees! 15:3 win in the first game!
… The Angels were the first to win. The Angels took the lead with Trout’s two-run home run… But the Yankees had Ji Maeng-ho. Ji Maeng-ho scored 1 run with a solo home run in the bottom of the 3rd inning and tied the game with a two-run home run in the bottom of the 5th inning…,
The Yankees gained momentum with Ji Maeng-ho’s home run, and home runs by Judge, Soto, and Hall…
Trout struggled, going 4-for-4 with 1 home run, 1 run, and 3 RBIs, but he could not handle the Yankees’ batting lineup on his own.
Meanwhile, Ji Maeng-ho recorded 4 hits in 5 at-bats, 2 home runs, 4 runs, and 5 RBIs in his first playoff game…
┗Trout’s butthole showㅠㅠㅠㅠ
┗┗ㅋㅋㅋ It was pitiful
┗ㅇㅅㅁㅎㅅ
┗┗ㅇㅅㅁㅎㅁㅎ
┗Just because Maeng Ho-shin hit a tying home run, the atmosphere in the stadium changed haha
┗Wow, what if Trout hits like that and still loses?
┗Still, it was tense and fun until episode 5 haha
┗The power difference was too big to begin with.
┗Wow, the Angels are so fucking bad, how did they come up here?
┗┗Honestly, if it weren’t for the Yankees, their power would be good. The batters have a good balance between old and new, and Detmers, as a pitcher, has 12 wins and 3 runs… If it weren’t for Detmers’ injury, it would have been possible, right?
┗┗The Texas kids lost in the middle of the game after getting hit by a fierce defender. If it weren’t for the Texas kids getting injured, Texas would have come out on top
┗┗I got promoted because I was good at itㅡ
┗┗I did well at Trout Burning in July haha