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Chapter 18
Middle Reliever (8)
Thanks to Han Min-woo’s excellent pitching, the 6th and 7th innings ended scoreless.
The score was 5–6. The Stings were still leading by one.
The twist came in the 8th.
The 3rd hitter Cho Woo-chan, the 4th hitter Victor, and the 5th hitter Kang Sung-han all hit safely to load the bases with no outs, and then the 6th hitter, Kwon Jun-seo, ripped a bases-clearing double.
The score flipped to 8–6.
“They scored in the 8th? Seriously?”
Just like yesterday, Han Min-woo was watching the game on TV from the rehab room. He took a deep breath.
He couldn’t shake the no way… really? feeling.
“Easy, easy. Stretch it slowly. If you snap it back, you’ll overload the muscle.”
“Nnnggggh…”
“Oh? They took the lead. Hey, Min-woo. If it ends like this, don’t you become the winning pitcher? You rascal. No wonder you couldn’t take your eyes off the TV.”
The conditioning coach laughed heartily and patted Min-woo’s left shoulder.
Winning pitcher.
Among team sports, pitchers are the only ones who can have “wins” recorded as an individual stat.
If the Wolves held on and won this game, Han Min-woo would earn the first win of his entire first-team career.
Don’t get ahead of yourself. You might not get that first win.
The game wasn’t over yet. If they gave up a tying run or a comeback in the bottom of the 8th or 9th, the win would slip to another pitcher.
All he could do was hope the pitchers coming in after him finished the job cleanly.
This feels awful.
Watching the TV with his chest tightening, Min-woo let out a crooked laugh.
He had to entrust his win to someone else.
The fact that all he could do now was sit here and pray really pissed him off. It was suffocating not being able to protect what was his with his own hands.
Someday, I swear…
There was only one way for a pitcher to fully protect his own win.
To start the game—and stay on the mound until the very end.
I’ll become a starter. No matter what.
Han Min-woo’s eyes burned with resolve.
Someday, he would become a starting pitcher and finish the game with his own hand.
“Focus! Pull that band farther back!”
“Nnnnnnngh!”
Bottom of the 8th. To shut down the Stings’ offense, the Wolves brought in their setup man, Myung Sang-woo.
“As expected, they’re going to the ‘must-win’ group. Here in the bottom of the 8th, taking the mound for the Wolves is Myung Sang-woo.”
“This season he’s pitched in 35 games, thrown 34.1 innings, with a 2.20 ERA. So far, he’s recorded 13 holds and 2 saves.”
“Unlike Han Min-woo, who relies on delicate command and precise pitching, Myung Sang-woo is the type who just overpowers batters with pure strength. And yet he’s only given up three home runs all year.”
“He’s been overshadowed by Kim Deok-min, but on any other team he’d absolutely be qualified to be a closer. That’s how nasty his stuff is. He’s probably one of the very few relievers interim manager Kim Young-seung fully trusts.”
Myung Sang-woo’s greatest weapon was his two-seam fastball, which topped out at 151 km/h.
It had such wicked movement that the ball was notorious for its “dirty” finish.
From a hitter’s perspective, even when you put the bat on it, it was hard to get solid contact.
Sang-woo sunbae’s two-seamer is definitely A-grade stuff.
As someone who had personally thrown A-grade pitches, Min-woo knew exactly how lethal that was.
And now the Stings’ lineup had rolled over into the bottom of the order.
Among the batters coming up in the bottom of the 8th, not one managed to solve Myung Sang-woo’s pitches.
5th hitter Park Sang-woo – grounder to short, out.
6th hitter Choi Shin-hyuk – grounder to second, out.
7th hitter Yeon Min-soo – comebacker to the mound, out.
The bottom of the 8th ended without a single baserunner allowed.
“Nice pitch!”
“Good work out there, Sang-woo hyung.”
“Man, our pitchers are just killing it today!”
Han Min-woo, giving Myung a high-five as he strode back in proudly, couldn’t help but be impressed.
I want to throw a two-seamer like that too.
The two-seam fastball was the perfect pitch for inducing ground balls.
It looked like a four-seamer coming in, then just before it reached the hitter, it dropped—not enough to completely miss the bat, but just enough to avoid the barrel and ruin clean contact.
A pitch that was hard to hit solidly even when you knew it was coming.
From a pitcher’s standpoint, there was no more attractive weapon.
Now we just have to get through the bottom of the 9th.
Min-woo headed down the corridor behind the dugout that led to the bullpen.
The lead was 2 runs.
In this situation, there was only one pitcher who’d be loosening up out there.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
That’s terrifying…
The sound echoing from beyond the corridor was thunderous—like artillery shells exploding.
When he stepped into the bullpen, he saw a pitcher throwing to the bullpen catcher.
The strange thing was how small his frame looked compared to the violence of the sound.
How does someone with that body throw something that scary?
Kim Deok-min.
The Wolves’ closer.
Han Min-woo still couldn’t fully wrap his head around it.
This guy was really a closer?
It was only natural to have doubts.
“Uh… M-Min-woo, you’re here? Good job on those 6th and 7th innings.”
A timid voice. Slightly shrunken shoulders. Eyes cast downward.
He didn’t exude even a hint of confidence.
That wasn’t how a team’s closer was supposed to look.
To be able to carry the burden of closing games, you needed that unshakeable belief and toughness—I’m shutting this door, no matter what.
And yet there was a reason Kim Deok-min was in the closer role.
“Yes, sunbae. I’m counting on you for the 9th.”
“Y-yeah…”
Kim gave the slightest nod. The bullpen coach smirked wryly and patted his shoulder.
“Let’s go, Deok-min. Side retired, inning change.”
“Yes, sir.”
The top of the 9th passed without any runs scored, and Kim Deok-min, with his meek posture, walked out of the bullpen.
He was still a mystery.
In a different way than the thug-faced goofball Cho Woo-chan, or Pig Lee Jung, who loved to drop savage truths, this guy was peculiar in his own right.
Once he reached the mound, Kim Deok-min let out a massive roar.
“Aaaaaagh! I’m gonna kill you all!”
Min-woo and the bullpen coach both chuckled helplessly at the sight.
Does he have split personality…?
The bullpen coach apparently had the same thought. His expression looked almost identical to Min-woo’s.
Kim Deok-min.
This timid, undersized man turned into a beast the moment he stepped onto the mound.
“Alright! Let’s get this started!”
At his booming shout, the infielders gave awkward smiles.
“Y-yeah.”
“Okay, sir.”└ Yeah, that’s the kind of fire you want from a closer.
└ I think Kim Deok-min is the most hyped guy on the Wolves.
└ He must be hot-blooded off the field too, right? Other fielders look scared stiff when he comes in lol
└ His face looks so gentle, the contrast is amazing lol I love it.
└ The Wolves suck at baseball tbh, but their setup man + closer are better than most teams’. If they’re winning after the 8th, I can finally relax~
└ Their bullpen is like a waterbed, man, agreed.
└ 26 games, 28.2 IP, 1.79 ERA, that’s insane ㄷㄷ Only two blown saves, wow.
Domination.
That was the only way to describe what Kim Deok-min did to the Stings’ lineup.
None of their hitters managed to solve his pitches.
How many A-grade pitches does this guy have?
The reason an A-grade two-seamer like Myung Sang-woo’s could be “stuck” in the setup role was simple.
Kim Deok-min’s main weapon was the fastball.
And yet, the Stings’ hitters couldn’t touch him.
Because he wasn’t throwing just one kind of fastball.
Four-seam, two-seam, cutter… As a hitter, your brain would explode.
Every one of those pitches was either A-grade or close to it.
Just dealing with one elite four-seamer was hard enough. But these guys had to figure out whether the ball coming in was a four-seam, a two-seam, or a cutter.
If they guessed wrong, they might swing and roll over into a ground ball, or snap their bat.
Worst case, they’d end up hitting into a double play.
“The No. 1 hitter, Yoon Kang-min’s bat shatters! Ah—shortstop Park Joon-young bobbles it! He picks it up, throws—out or safe? It’s… out! Yoon Kang-min takes off his helmet in frustration.”
“No. 2 hitter Jin Sang-heon grounds it to second. Ha Yoon-min fields and throws to first—ouuut!”
“Game set! The score is 8–6, the Wolves take Game 3 and secure the series win!”
The white ball landed in first baseman Kang Sung-han’s glove.
The players who’d been leaning on the dugout fence cheering stormed the field with a roar.
Left behind on the bench, Han Min-woo let out a long sigh.
Phew…
They’d won.
The game was over.
Min-woo stared down at his own palm.
It had taken… a very long time.
It had taken five years to earn this one win.
It wasn’t a win as a starter—it was a relief win he’d gotten thanks to some luck—but Min-woo didn’t care.
Today’s victory was the result of him refusing to give up, all the way to the end.
I never imagined a moment like this would actually come…
Those years had been filled with despair.
To a once top-tier prospect whose wings had been broken, people offered a mix of sympathy-flavored contempt and mockery.
Reality had been even colder.
A 13.14 ERA. The fan-given nickname “designated loser.” The barrage of insults every time he took the mound.
All those moments remained stuck in his heart like thorns.
Even thinking about them now made his chest ache faintly.
“Han Min-woo. Congratulations on your first win.”
At that moment, chief coach Kim Young-seung approached and handed him a ball.
As if in a trance, Min-woo accepted it.
There was a bit of dirt on the baseball.
“That’s the ball used for the final out of the game. It only became meaningful because you held those two innings scoreless.”
“Ah…”“You worked hard today.”
Patting his left shoulder, Kim Young-seung headed out toward the field.
Min-woo hurriedly stood and bowed deeply.
Thank you.
Every time he’d been given a chance, he’d thrown with everything he had.
That’s why he’d been able to win.
But the one who had given him that golden opportunity—no matter what anyone said—was the man right in front of him, chief coach Kim Young-seung.
“You punk. They say it’s your first win, huh? Congrats!”
“H-h-hyung! Congrats on your first win!”
“Sunbae, sincere congratulations. I should have fielded a grounder for you in a game like this…”
“M-Min-woo… congrats… I, I protected your first win…”
His teammates came over to congratulate him.
Cho Woo-chan messed up his hair, and Ha Yoon-min poured water over his head.
The cold sensation felt incredibly good.
But the people celebrating his first career win weren’t just his teammates.
Ding!
[You’ve recorded your first career win. As a bonus, you have received 1,000 points!]
[Our sincerest congratulations!]
[- From all of us at BnB -]A bonus? They’re giving me a thousand points?
In every way, it was the perfect day.
