The Genius Pitcher Dad Throws for His Daughter - Chapter 109

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 109
#109.
Tuesday, the first game of the midweek three-game series.
Jamsil Baseball Stadium was packed with fans.
Both teams’ cheering sections worked to amp up the atmosphere for the fans sitting directly in front of the stands.
This three-game series was especially important for both teams.
1st-place Seoul Dragons faced 3rd-place Busan Dolphins, while 2nd-place Suwon Wolves took on 4th-place Incheon Sharks.
Over the weekend, the Dragons would face the Sharks and the Dolphins would meet the Wolves, making this week a rotating showcase of the top four teams—significant shifts in standings were expected.
With only a one-game gap between 1st and 2nd place, the Dolphins sitting three games back, and the Sharks just one game behind, the competition was bound to be fierce.
Many experts praised this week’s games as a preview of the true strength of the top four teams and an early glimpse of the postseason.
Of course, exactly one team received a different reaction from everyone else.
– Pfft! The Dolphins in the postseason?
└ Lol, no wonder variety shows are dying.
└ The greatest comedy of the past 27 years.
└ I’m an expert too, and the Dolphins aren’t it.
└ It’s funny how armchair experts sound more credible.
└ Screw this. Why are you doing this to us?
As fans of other teams began piling on, angry Dolphins fans wept.
It went without saying that Dolphins fans had strong firepower in their responses.
They possessed enough force to overwhelm most other teams’ fans, but they didn’t counter every single comment.
Just one thing: team performance.
It wasn’t that they wouldn’t argue—it was that they couldn’t, knowing that fighting over it would only wound themselves further.
And so the game time arrived, and fans gathered one by one in front of their televisions.
* * *
Choi Jin-ha is a diligent type.
More precisely, he’s a senior who approaches everything with sincerity, and whenever he feels his own shortcomings, he works just as hard to overcome them.
Of course, it’s undeniable that baseball isn’t a sport solved by effort alone—it requires a certain degree of talent.
In that regard, Choi Jin-ha definitely possesses talent.
“Wow… Senior, that’s no joke.”
Choi Jin-ha actively exploits the pitch clock—that brief window of time—to steal the batter’s timing.
In truth, this isn’t an easy thing to do.
The fact that a pitcher can only throw after the batter steps into the box, combined with having to deliver the pitch within mere seconds, makes it difficult for most pitchers to time it right.
The reason most pitchers throw immediately after the batter settles in and receives the sign from the catcher is simple.
They either don’t pay attention to the pitch clock or it’s become habitual from doing it that way all along.
But Choi Jin-ha’s talent in deliberately exploiting this window is undeniable.
“If he could just develop a solid third pitch, that would be perfect.”
“Huh? Senior, he already has three—four-seam fastball, curveball, changeup.”
“Come on, you know what I mean.”
I do know.
The senior’s four-seam fastball is a straight stick.
The issue is that this isn’t a fastball with tremendous spin rate that travels straight—it’s a pitch that fails to generate vertical movement due to problems with spin efficiency and rotation axis.
Throwing such a bland four-seam fastball, batters eagerly swung away, and thanks to that, Senior Pitcher’s first win last year came in the late stages of the first half after I joined the 1st Team.
Senior Pitcher throws that bland four-seam fastball at the edge of the Strike Zone, uses a changeup thrown from the same arm angle to steal the batter’s timing, or pulls out a curveball to target the edge of the Strike Zone once more.
That’s why Senior Pitcher is searching for a different fastball variant to replace that bland four-seam.
In a way, it’s exactly like me.
I too wanted to master another fastball type, and Senior Pitcher felt the same way.
Surprisingly, despite both of us learning from Pitching Coach Baek Sa-jun, neither of us has made real progress.
If anything, Senior Pitcher Choi Jin-ha is even further behind than I am.
“Tsk, if only we could nail down a few more details…”
At least the two-seam fastball Senior Pitcher throws shows actual two-seam movement. It definitely curves toward same-handed batters and sinks, but the sinking trajectory is so poor it could pass for a four-seam.
“Try putting a bit more force into your middle finger, Senior.”
“Should I?”
Senior Pitcher Choi Jin-ha grips the two-seam fastball again and throws.
The first few pitches showed little difference from before, but suddenly the dropping trajectory began to increase.
“Huh?!”
Senior Pitcher’s face showed surprise.
His face was full of desire to make this his own.
“Ho-jin, how did you know that?”
“Huh? Just a feeling, I guess?”
“Wow, that’s insane!”
Senior Pitcher’s face showed he’d found a breakthrough.
Then, as if asking if there was anything else I could tell him, I reluctantly offered one more piece of advice.
“What if you spread your fingers a bit wider?”
“Hmm. I don’t spread them as much as I thought. I should try that.”
He placed the ball in his glove, forced his fingers to spread a bit wider, and threw—the two-seam fastball dropped in a crazy trajectory.
“S-Senior?”
Myung-su tried to catch the ball but missed it, then turned his head and stared blankly.
Senior Pitcher also looked at me with astonishment, and I too stared in amazement at the ball burying itself in the corner over there.
“….”
We couldn’t say anything and just looked at each other.
It was a situation we couldn’t believe even seeing with our own eyes, and it was Coach’s shout that broke this silence.
“Jin-ha. It’s almost time for the game to start.”
As the starting pitcher who needs to prepare on the Mound today rather than in the Bullpen, it’s time to move.
Of course, since the opposing team’s defense comes first, it wasn’t about going out immediately but rather the pre-game ceremony before the game started.
“Geez….”
Being dragged along by Coach’s hand, Senior Pitcher Choi Jin-ha still couldn’t take his eyes off me, and I too burned the trajectory I’d just witnessed into my mind, thinking even more deeply about how to throw a two-seam fastball.
‘I really did teach him the way I throw the two-seam, didn’t I?’
It fit perfectly, like a custom-tailored suit.
And I felt slightly absurd.
Here I was, unable to master the two-seam fastball myself, yet I’d taught someone else a two-seam that was good enough to use as a decisive pitch.
I let out a hollow laugh, feeling both deflated and oddly disappointed.
Then I left the Bullpen and took a seat on the Bench.
It was to gather information about the opposing lineup I’d have to face tomorrow.
As I sat there watching the Ground, my eyes met Byun Hee-su’s in the distance.
He winked.
I nodded in response to his greeting and refocused on the game.
‘Wow… he’s using it right away?!’
Choi Jin-ha threw the two-seam fastball he’d just learned from the very first pitch.
The result was a grounder straight to the Second Base, securing the first out.
Tick!
Tick!
When the bottom of the first inning ended, Choi Jin-ha came into the Dugout with a radiant smile.
“This pitch is killer, Ho-jin.”
“Ha, haha. Sure is.”
Three pitches, three outs.
Two-seam fastballs poured from Choi Jin-ha’s hand in earnest.
* * *
The Seoul Dragons batters sat on the Bench with expressions of utter bewilderment.
“What’s wrong with him?”
That single question said it all.
Normally, Choi Jin-ha threw a bland four-seam fastball, a changeup, and a curveball.
Those pitches mostly targeted the edges of the Strike Zone, and he scattered them in all directions as if some calamity had fallen in the center.
But today was different.
First, the ball came flying toward the center of the zone.
“Swing!”
Thinking it was a four-seamer, batters swung, but the ball curved toward their bodies and then sank. At first, they thought it was just a detailed variation of the four-seam, but by the third inning, they realized it wasn’t a four-seamer at all—it was a two-seamer.
The second shock came from this new pitch type, the two-seamer.
According to existing data, it was a pitch he didn’t throw, and it was also one he hadn’t shown even once during the first two games of the season.
For such a two-seamer to suddenly trace a perfect trajectory as if he’d studied it for months and enter the Strike Zone was nothing short of a curveball for the batters.
On top of that, his changeup showed no difference from when he threw the two-seamer, and the occasional curveballs he threw were clearly on the outer edge—pitches that would only lead to poor results if touched.
Even when batters called time with the count at one strike, he continued pitching without hesitation, and with his characteristic quick tempo, he created even more devastating deliveries.
The Dragons’ game plan crumbled in an instant.
Rather, the problem was that the two-seamer caused them to swing mindlessly through three innings, reducing his pitch count.
Perhaps that’s why Choi Jin-ha achieved his career best.
8.1 innings, 1 run allowed, 103 pitches, 4 hits, 1 walk.
He came down from the Mound having achieved a dominant start—his personal record.
The score was 2-1.
With the Dolphins’ batting line having built this precious lead one run at a time, the Clutch Team was activated.
Kim Jin-ho took the mound to face a left-handed batter, but when the opposing team used a pinch hitter who was right-handed, he confidently struck out three batters on three pitches. Jo Sang-hyuk then came up and also retired the left-handed batter with three pitches to close out the seventh.
In the eighth, Jo Sang-hyuk faced one more batter, and Jung Ji-hoon deleted two batters to continue the relay. In the ninth, Choi Sung-hyuk finished the inning with 13 pitches and three strikeouts, securing the save.
The Dolphins, not the Dragons, won the first game, and the Sharks, sitting in fourth place, also took down the Wolves—the standings already shifting on the first day of the week.
And the next day.
The Dragons’ batters came to the plate determined to win at all costs, but the moment Kang Ho-jin took the mound and threw his first pitch, they understood.
“Wow… is this what the Wolves’ lineup felt last year?”
What came from Kang Ho-jin’s hand was none other than Byun Hee-su’s signature changeup—a kick changeup, no less—and all three batters in the top of the order were completely fooled.
Nine pitches, three ground balls.
Every batted ball that should have gone to shortstop, pitcher, and second base instead headed toward first base, ending the inning.
The Dragons’ coaching staff, Manager, and batters all turned to look at Byun Hee-su.
“See? I told you so.”
That they needed to be careful about the changeup, that it seemed like it would be his main weapon.
But everyone had dismissed it, and now that the lid was off, they were left speechless watching him rely so heavily on the changeup.
Byun Hee-su glanced at the batters’ faces, then quietly slipped into the Locker Room when he saw Manager’s expression turn demonic.
It was a decision made out of concern that some of that heat might come his way.
Probably the fastest decision he’d made all day.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————