I sent the leadoff batter back with a strikeout, but the inning wasn’t over yet. To make matters worse, the next batter was the fourth batter for the Yours Dragons, I Sion.
What a headache.
I Sion was a hitter with top-tier contact ability. I couldn’t let my guard down.
Swish—.
The knuckleball cut through the air. I Sion extended his bat. The ball narrowly grazed the end of the bat and slipped away to the outside.
“Strike!”
Ryu Jae-yul caught the ball and signaled with his eyes. He was telling me not to worry and just throw.
The second pitch was another knuckleball. The ball shot from my fingertips and sharply bit the outside corner.
On the third pitch, I Sion swung again. But the bat missed, and the umpire spread his arms.
“Strike three, out!”
Strikeout.
This is insane. Chae Gang-u. To think I struck out even the cleanup hitter. My dopamine was going off. In my current state, no batter was intimidating.
And it was true. I struck out the fifth batter as well and came down from the mound.
As soon as I entered the dugout, the Hawks veterans went wild.
“Gang-u, you were amazing!”
Baek Seong-chan patted my back, and
“Ah, you punk. I had faith in you?!”
Min Hyo-seop ruffled my hair. Yun Dong-hyeok and Jin Gang-ho, along with every Hawks player, tossed in a word or two saying I did well.
“Thank you!”
I took off my cap to greet them and then headed for the bench where Ryu Jae-yul was sitting.
“Nice work.”
I said, patting his shoulder lightly, and Ryu Jae-yul nodded.
“Chae Gang-u.”
“What?”
“You weren’t nervous, right?”
“Nervous? Not me.”
I picked up a water bottle beside me and continued as if it were obvious.
“I’m built for big games.”
“Ha.”
Ryu Jae-yul clicked his tongue.
“I just realized God is fair.”
“What nonsense are you spouting now?”
“Sure, you may lack brains, but in exchange your mentality is strong and your stamina is good, right? Since your head doesn’t work, your body picked up the slack.”
I couldn’t tell if that was a compliment or an insult.
“I mean well.”
“Mean well?!”
I thunked the water bottle down on Ryu Jae-yul’s head.
“Hey!!”
“You’ve got a good head but a bad body, so I kindly splashed some water on you to cool your head? Ah. Wait, aren’t you not supposed to pour water on a machine?”
“Huh?”
The annoyance on Ryu Jae-yul’s face as he’d been shaking his head froze over.
“Why?”
I turned my head to where Ryu Jae-yul was looking. The eighth inning had already ended.
“That was fast.”
I patted Ryu Jae-yul’s shoulder as he muttered regretfully and got up from my seat.
“Let’s go.”
I hadn’t been able to rest properly, but that was even better. My shoulder, properly warmed up, was in perfect condition to throw.
I climbed onto the mound with ease. Soon, the ninth inning began. And my pitching was perfect. Just like in the eighth, no one could lay a hand on my ball.
In the KBO, where knuckleballs were all but extinct, facing a knuckleballer who could control his velocity at will must have been a first for the hitters too.
Thanks to the batters who couldn’t get their timing at all, I ended the top of the ninth with a three-up-three-down inning.
Thanks to the Yours batters who kept striking out, the momentum shifted. Our team’s bats started to come alive. But the comeback fell short.