Pursuit Squad (2)
The next afternoon.
The Wolves players, having arrived at the Stings' home stadium, Gwangju Champions Field, unpacked their gear in the visiting locker room and grumbled.
"Ugh, I'm exhausted. I kept waking up on the bus, so I barely slept at the accommodation."
"Hey, you over there. Unpack and move it!"
"Phew, it's steaming hot. How nice would it be if today's game got rained out?"
"Hyung, are you okay? You're already dripping with sweat. What am I supposed to do if a guy who usually handles the heat well is already trying to die?"
"Wait till you get older. Friday road trips are seriously the worst. It'd be better to come on Tuesday instead."
It was already mid-July. The hottest time of the year.
A scorching sun beat down from the sky, and the heat rising from the ground made even breathing difficult. Heat haze was rising from the seats in the stands.
It was weather where just sitting still and breathing drained your stamina rapidly. In such weather, they had to throw, hit, and run for nearly half the day.
Perhaps because of that, the players' faces were full of irritation.
However, despite such weather, Han Min-woo's expression wasn't bad.
'From tomorrow, I can throw the ball again.'
Because he pitched 3 innings as a long reliever on Wednesday, he was unable to play in games for two days.
He could go up on the mound. He could play in a game and earn points. He could hear the cheers of the crowd.
Those thoughts made Han Min-woo's heart swell with excitement.
'I should start with the daily quest right away.'
Having unpacked all his gear in the locker room, Han Min-woo started running along the outside of the stadium.
[
'I want to fill all 10 special ability slots before this season ends.'
Daily quests were given randomly, but on average, he earned about 100 points a day.
Since there were about 57 games left until the end of the season, the points he could earn just from daily quests were 5,700.
Currently, he had 7 special ability slots left, so he needed about 1,300 additional points to fill them all.
In other words, if Han Min-woo played in games and earned just over 1,300 points, all the slots would be filled.
'That's definitely possible.'
Han Min-woo nodded with a satisfied expression.
Just filling the slots would be enough to survive in the first team. From then on, he would be able to save points and continue upgrading them.
That was the reason Han Min-woo couldn't help but be happy even while running in the sweltering heat.
As he was running about a lap around the baseball stadium, someone tagged along behind Han Min-woo.
"Hyung, hyung, hyung. Can I run with you too?"
It was Ha Yoon-min, the Wolves' second baseman who was always bickering with Yoon Jae-hyun.
Han Min-woo gave a light nod.
"Yeah, fall in behind."
"Yessir! Thank youuu. The weather is really hot today, right?"
"Yeah."
"Did you eat? The food here is delicious. I guess that's why they say food is from Jeolla-do."
"I suppose so."
Ha Yoon-min, who had latched on behind him, started chattering non-stop. Han Min-woo replied with a dry voice.
He was a really talkative guy.
Just from running 5 laps, Han Min-woo could roughly tell what Ha Yoon-min liked and disliked.
If he hadn't become a baseball player, Ha Yoon-min would have been able to make a living with that mouth. If he did something like YouTube, at least the audio wouldn't be empty.
Around the time Han Min-woo was thinking, 'If he just kept his mouth shut, the stamina loss from running would decrease by half...', Ha Yoon-min suddenly said,
"But hyung, hyung. It's really been a long time since I saw you."
"You know me?"
"Of course. You were flying around during your high school days."
An answer mixed with pure admiration, without any sarcasm.
At Ha Yoon-min's words, Han Min-woo unknowingly smiled bitterly.
It was a natural reaction that came out whenever he heard such words. Because he had heard them so many times.
'I was truly the best back then.'
"I thought you'd obviously go to the US. Major League scouts came in droves, causing a huge fuss."
Right. It was like that back then.
He received immense praise, with people saying Korea's second Park had emerged, or that he was a pitcher who could surpass Ryu.
Despite that, he did not declare his entry into the Major Leagues and received the Dolphins' first-round designation.
Why?
Because he didn't want to bear the risk. He thought it wouldn't be too late to go after building up experience and a foundation in Korean professional baseball.
So to speak, he was overly confident.
'Even though I ended up like this now.'
Han Min-woo, who was having self-deprecating thoughts, let out a chuckle.
Well, it didn't matter.
He was still playing baseball, after all.
"Min-woo hyung, can I join too?"
"Yeah. Come here, Jae-hyun."
About 30 minutes after Han Min-woo and Ha Yoon-min started running, Yoon Jae-hyun joined in.
Ha Yoon-min sneered at him.
"Hey, aren't you going to acknowledge me?"
"I did earlier."
"Oh, right. Hi. But why are you 30 minutes late? Were you afraid your stamina would give out? Huh? Huh?"
Ha Yoon-min poked Yoon Jae-hyun's side with his elbow.
To him, Yoon Jae-hyun answered cynically.
"Did you happen to drink yesterday?"
"What are you talking about? We arrived late at night."
"If you didn't even drink, why are you spouting nonsense."
It was a remark that could sound a bit prickly.
However, Ha Yoon-min continued to yap without taking any damage. Yoon Jae-hyun didn't seem to have said it out of annoyance either.
"Yeah, Mr. .200 batting average. Not listening, not listening."
"Can't hear? Should I make you hear? You hit on our older sister who came to cheer during the Golden Lion Tournament and got reject—"
"Ah! I didn't hit on her, you crazy bastard!"
The two bickered for a while. Han Min-woo, who was running in front, made a fed-up expression.
'Here they go again.'
Whenever Yoon Jae-hyun and Ha Yoon-min met, they would growl at each other.
That didn't mean they had a bad relationship. No, looking at it another way, they were words that could only be said because they were close friends.
From the listener's perspective, the content was so childish it was hard to listen to.
'I really wish the two of them would train separately.'
Han Min-woo let it go in one ear and out the other, silently continuing his run.
Their mouths stopped when another person joined.
"Hey, hey. You're noisy. They'll probably hear you even in the Stings' dugout. Why? Are you trying to announce it to the whole neighborhood?"
"Ki-jung sunbaenim."
"Hello, sunbae."
Pi Ki-jung, the Wolves' starting catcher, latched on beside them and let out a sigh.
"Yoon-min, haven't you been hitless lately? Even for calling someone a .200 hitter, it seems like you'll be dropping to .200 soon too?"
"..."
At Pi Ki-jung's words, Ha Yoon-min, who had been moving non-stop, clamped his mouth shut for the first time.
'There's actually someone who can shut that mouth?'
Han Min-woo admired inwardly.
"Yoon Jae-hyun. You made an error recently, didn't you? Didn't you?"
"Y-yes, that's right."
Yoon Jae-hyun hung his head.
Pi Ki-jung drove the point home to the two of them.
"You're both total scrubs. Go do some more training, and stop bothering Min-woo for nothing."
"Cough. Should I go do some batting practice..."
"I think I'll go take some fungo practice."
To the third-year pro rookies, the authority of a 15th-year senior was immense.
They couldn't even talk back to being called scrubs.
Ha Yoon-min and Yoon Jae-hyun disappeared into the dugout with bitter expressions.
Pi Ki-jung, who had easily brushed them off, patted Han Min-woo's left shoulder and encouraged him.
"You're working hard. It's really nice to see you trying so hard. It's tough facing batters with shit pitches, isn't it?"
Han Min-woo smiled awkwardly.
'Is he... encouraging me?'
Looking at the context, it was encouragement. The problem was that from the listener's perspective, it didn't sound like praise at all.
Suddenly, the words Cho Woo-chan had said at the meat restaurant came to mind.
'The kid is nice, he is. So if Ki-jung says anything, don't take it too much to heart.'
It was what the coach had said about Pi Ki-jung when explaining the characteristics of each of the starting players.
At the time, he didn't know what those words meant, but experiencing it firsthand, he could understand Pi Ki-jung's personality.
'Ki-jung sunbae is a fact thug.'
There are occasionally such people.
People who mention the facts as they are, without sugarcoating or packaging them.
It's not that they do it out of malice. It's just that person's disposition.
Pi Ki-jung put his arm around Han Min-woo's shoulder.
"Are you busy? We need to talk too. You might come up in this Stings series, right?"
"Ah, yes..."
"Which location do you usually like to pitch to?"
"I like the low inside..."
"That's unexpected. Kids with slow velocity usually can't throw inside the zone. I was really surprised when you caught strikes with shit pitches against Ji-hoon, you know?"
"..."
In that sense, it seemed like he'd be hearing the term "shit pitches" quite often for a while.
-Hello, fans who love professional baseball. Today, the first game of the weekend three-game series between the Stings and the Wolves will be held here at Gwangju Champions Field.
-The weather has gotten really hot. As much as the weather, each team's ranking competition is also heating up.
-Usually, by around July, the rankings tend to be somewhat set. But right now, it's impossible to predict how the rankings will change. It wouldn't be strange if the order from 1st to 8th place changed in any way.
-The ones who ignited that ranking competition are the Stings. As befitting a traditional powerhouse with the most brilliant history, their strength lies in their sticky batting lineup and pitching staff.
-In their last 20 games, they have 13 wins, 1 draw, and 6 losses, and are currently on a 4-game winning streak. Their momentum is truly fearsome. In particular, Yoon Kang-min, Jin Sang-heon, and Oh Jae-sung. The performances of these three players can be called the driving forces behind the Stings' winning streak.
-The Wolves, who will face such Stings, are also in a very good mood recently. They came after winning the series against the Crocodiles in the midweek three-game series. Up until the second game, it seemed like they were losing helplessly, but they eventually pulled off a comeback win, and even in the third game, after repeated comebacks, they finally displayed their late-game strength to bring home the victory.
-The game gap with 9th and 8th place has widened quite a bit, but it's not too late yet. If they can maintain a winning percentage of over 50% from now on, fall baseball isn't necessarily impossible.
-In that sense, let's watch how today's game unfolds.
The Wolves' winning streak ended at two.
Both teams played well in the first game.
Hits came out every inning, and there were a couple of big home runs. On the other hand, there were no errors.
The pitchers pitched well too. They didn't allow consecutive hits, nor did they allow a large number of runs.
Nevertheless, there was only one reason the Wolves had to lose.
The Stings were stickier. They didn't lose their focus and tenaciously hung on until the end.
In the end, the score was 5 to 4, a Wolves defeat.
The atmosphere was similar in the second game held the next day.
-Strikeout! Abelán spins the 8th batter Myeong Seok-hun around with a sinker!
-He hit it! Fly ball to center field, Moon Cheol-woo comes down and handles it easily. Runner left on first! Kwak Seung-deok is tying up the Stings batting lineup until the bottom of the 4th inning. A masterful pitcher's duel is unfolding at Champions Field today!
0 to 0 until the end of the 4th inning.
Both starting pitchers didn't allow a single run to the opposing team.
It was on a knife's edge.
Especially, the pressure on the pitchers was beyond words.
A situation where a single mistake could lead to the team's defeat.
Head Coach Kim Young-seung crossed his arms and pondered.
'Who should I put in after Kwak Seung-deok?'