episode_0435

[With Ji Maeng-ho’s 1st inning two-run and 5th inning three-run home runs, the AT Thunders take the first game of the doubleheader! We will return for the second game in about 30 minutes.]

“What? You hit two home runs in the first game? Already at 48 home runs?”

Having rested as a pinch hitter in the first game of the doubleheader, Ju Seung-cheol was astonished when he returned to the locker room and checked Ji Maeng-ho’s performance. It wasn’t that big of a gap between them before the series started…

“No matter how literary it is, hitting four already… Ugh. I should just avoid it like usual.”

Ju Seung-cheol lightly blamed the UG players in his mind. While sitting in the locker room looking at his phone, An Si-hoon, the most senior player on the team, approached him after sensing something odd in Ju Seung-cheol’s expression.

“What? Were you looking up AT articles?”

“I wasn’t looking them up. They just came up.”

“Hey, don’t worry too much about the Home Run King title. It’ll only mess with your form for no reason. The opponent is Ji Maeng-ho, after all.”

“Well, I…”

Home Run King… Until the first half of the season, it was a title Ju Seung-cheol hadn’t paid any attention to. Despite leading in almost all batting statistics for nearly a month while Ji Maeng-ho was suspended, Ju Seung-cheol believed that once Ji Maeng-ho returned, he would eventually take all those titles.

However, his mindset changed after the Olympics. Following the exhilarating home runs during the Olympics, he felt like he had broken some kind of barrier, and indeed, his performance had been steadily improving. In just over a month, he had hit over 15 home runs.

And the title of Home Run King began to come into view.

The title of Home Run King was an ambitious one. Despite winning the Golden Glove for three consecutive years since his debut and aiming for 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases each season, except for the injury-plagued last year, Ju Seung-cheol had never been able to clinch such titles.

Yet now, the Home Run King title was within reach.

If someone were to ask Ju Seung-cheol which title among all the titles in the league he coveted the most, he could answer without hesitation that it was the Home Run King title.

Until Ji Maeng-ho appeared, the term “home run” in Korea referred to his father, Ju Hyeong-jin.

Wanting to get even closer to the record set by his father, who had been the Home Run King for eight consecutive years, the title of Home Run King meant even more to Ju Seung-cheol. It was a record he wanted to achieve at least once before going to the United States.

But he thought it was a dream he couldn’t fulfill since Ji Maeng-ho’s debut. He respected Ji Maeng-ho so much that he felt Ji Maeng-ho was above him.

The Home Run King title he had thought of this way was now inching closer as pitchers bypassed Ji Maeng-ho, and he himself recorded good performances.

‘After this season ends and I go to the majors, competing like this will probably be impossible anymore… Perhaps, my only chance in life to beat Ji Maeng-ho…’

He didn’t want to miss this opportunity. He wanted to defeat Ji Maeng-ho and go to the Major Leagues.

Currently, the team was in third place. They were about four games behind the second-place team, the Volcano Falcons, and about eight games behind the fourth-place team, the Silla Triggers. It was a tough ranking to turn around.

That’s why Ju Seung-cheol made a choice. He decided to sacrifice his batting average and aim for power hitting. The reason he could maintain a batting average close to .350 this season was that there were more pitches to drive compared to previous seasons, but the probability of those driven balls turning into home runs was low. Especially at Jamsil Stadium.

[In the bottom of the 1st inning, Han Cheol Grizzlies’ attack… …With two outs, the 3rd batter, player Ju Seung-cheol, steps up to the plate.]

Crack—Boom!

[This hit is big! It’s a big one! Center fielder catches it! Warning track hit! It fell slightly short of leaving the vast Jamsil Stadium.]

[A swing that seems to have been aimed as if it were two outs, right?]

“Did I pull too much?”

In his first at-bat in the bottom of the 1st inning, he pulled a ball that he would usually drive, but the result was an out. However, the contact was solid.

“Let’s not rush, it’s just the first at-bat.”

Moving on to his second at-bat. With runners on first and second with one out, a scoring opportunity presented itself before Ju Seung-cheol. He patiently waited for the pitcher’s pitch.

“Ball.”

The first pitch was outside. Ju Seung-cheol, who was aiming for a home run, let the outside pitch go by. Although he thought he could have hit a single over the second baseman if he had made contact, that wasn’t a concern for Ju Seung-cheol, who was aiming for a home run.

“Ball.”

“Strike!”

After a few back-and-forth exchanges, the pitch Ju Seung-cheol had been waiting for finally came. A tantalizing pitch that, if pulled, could have flown over the outfield fence!

Without hesitation, Ju Seung-cheol swung at that pitch.

Thwack!

“Huh?”

[Ju Seung-cheol’s second at-bat from 1st and 2nd, he hits it! A pulled hit towards the shortstop! 6-4-3! The Hyun Sung Mad Cats prevent a crisis with a double play!]

“Seung-cheol, your swing was too big.”

“…Sorry.”

The pulled hit turned into a groundout to the shortstop, resulting in a double play. It was a ball he might have hit under normal circumstances, but the inside pitch was too tempting to resist.

But he couldn’t give up.

“Swing, strikeout! Ju Seung-cheol struck out by Lee Jun-ho!”

“Today, Ju Seung-cheol, who has recorded 0 hits in 3 at-bats, in his fourth at-bat… Oh, the ball is hit high! Shortstop catches it. Three outs, the game moves to the top of the 7th inning.”

He struck out in his third at-bat and hit a fly ball to the infield in his fourth at-bat, but Ju Seung-cheol was not disheartened. In a game, there are days when you go hitless in five at-bats, but eventually, if he hits a home run, it’s his victory.

“Just once, just need to hit it once.”

With that mantra in mind, Ju Seung-cheol stepped into the batter’s box for his fifth at-bat.

“In the bottom of the 9th, one out. With the score tied 3-3, Ju Seung-cheol’s at-bat is up next. His performance in today’s game: 0 hits in 4 at-bats.”

“Player Ju Seung-cheol, you don’t seem to be in good shape today. However, don’t let your guard down just because your performance hasn’t been good so far, considering that Ju Seung-cheol ranks 2nd in batting average, home runs, and RBIs.”

In the bottom of the 9th, with Hyun Sung’s pitcher struggling, Shin Dong-hyun emerged as the new closer in place of Kwon Yul. Despite rumors that his pitches lacked velocity, he threw a challenging fastball reaching up to 154 km/h as a sidearm pitcher, making it tough for right-handed batters.

A pitcher of the two-pitch type, throwing a changeup that seems to break inside and a slider breaking outside for right-handed batters. The pitch Ju Seung-cheol was anticipating was the changeup breaking inside.

And as the first pitch was thrown,

Crack!

“Ju Seung-cheol! He hit the first pitch!”

Throughout the game, Ju Seung-cheol, who had been missing the ball, finally made solid contact, hitting the ball right down the middle for the first time in this game.

“Ju Seung-cheol’s hit! Over the fence! Ju Seung-cheol’s walk-off home run! Ju Seung-cheol, who was hitless in 4 at-bats, becomes the hero of today’s game!”

“Wow, he really pulled that one nicely. Ju Seung-cheol’s boldness in swinging at the first pitch was impressive.”

“Phew… If I hadn’t hit this one this time…”

After finishing the game and receiving his teammates’ water baptism, Ju Seungcheol secretly let out a sigh of relief. He had thought that even hitting just one would be his victory, but recording four at-bats with no hits made him wonder if he was heading in the wrong direction.

“Player Ju Seungcheol! It’s time for the post-game interview!”

“Yes, just a moment.”

As the interview with another player ended and they returned to the locker room, Ju Seungcheol immediately turned on his smartphone to check baseball news.

“I added one today, so I had 44, and Maengho had 48 before the game started, right?”

Unlocking his phone and opening the baseball news tab, instead of seeing his own picture after the game-winning hit, there was a photo of Ji Maengho.

– Ji Maengho! Four home runs in a day! Surpasses 50 home runs milestone!

…Ji Maengho hit two home runs in the day game and another two in the night game, reaching the milestone of 50 home runs for the season….

“…What? He hit two more? No matter how you look at it as literature, this is….”

Feeling a sense of disappointment, he realized that while he had given up team batting to try and increase his home run count, pulling one out by sheer force, Maengho in the video effortlessly added two more home runs by just flicking them away.

Despite the differences between Jamsil Stadium and Moonhak Stadium, hitting four home runs in a single day was not an easy feat…. Watching that, he began to feel pitifully inadequate, entering the batter’s box only focusing on hitting one home run and forgetting about the team’s victory.

“…Yeah, this is Ji Maengho.”

After the Olympics ended, he realized that the gap with Ji Maengho had not narrowed; it was merely wishful thinking. And what he saw was reality. The reality that he couldn’t surpass Ji Maengho.

“Forget about all that nonsense, Seungcheol. Just play like you always do.”

With a bitter smile, Ju Seungcheol’s teammate spoke to him and picked up the bat that he was about to put in his bag.

“Seungcheol? Where are you going?”

“I’m going to practice batting at the indoor training facility.”

“Wow, relentless. Going to train even after finishing the game? You’re something else….”

He needed to regain his feel in case his swing form had been compromised by today’s futile efforts. And so, Ju Seungcheol didn’t stop swinging the bat until late into the night.

*

“What? This guy hit again? Is he crazy? Last year, the second-place home run hitter was Jincheol senior with 44…. Did this guy take some kind of performance-enhancing drugs again?”

In this series, where pitchers oddly seemed to challenge hitters head-on, hitting home runs wasn’t difficult, but if Seungcheol was setting this pace, it wouldn’t be strange for him to catch up at any time. I hit five home runs in this series. At this rate, it was a foregone conclusion that avoiding a showdown with him from the next series onwards was inevitable.

“Sigh…. But I can’t just not hit forcibly. That’s why being a superstar is tough.”

It seemed like I had to hit more home runs tomorrow to make sure Seungcheol couldn’t catch up.