The Genius Pitcher Dad Throws for His Daughter - Chapter 6

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 6
#06.
“Strike! Batter’s out!”
With the umpire’s call, I finished defending the bottom of the third inning and descended from the Mound.
I had thrown 42 pitches.
Four strikeouts, three groundballs, and two fly balls.
It was clean pitching—efficient and without allowing any baserunners.
“Hey, nice work out there.”
“Great pitching.”
“Well done.”
I high-fived the senior players who came to greet me as I entered the Dugout and took my seat.
“Phew….”
This was an away game, not a home game.
We’d traveled at night, rested briefly at the Dormitory, and now the game was being played starting in the afternoon.
Though the early morning air was still somewhat cool, May’s daytime brought weather warm enough to feel the heat. Under that sun, the players throwing and catching the ball couldn’t help but show fatigue on their faces.
Yet the moment we stepped onto the field, we focused completely.
That’s what being a professional means, and that’s why we’re paid.
And now, as that professional standing on the Mound, I wiped away sweat with a towel and smiled slightly to myself.
‘This really is wonderful.’
The absence of shoulder pain is truly excellent.
There was no pain even when throwing with full power, I could increase weight during strength training without difficulty, and I wasn’t waking up in the middle of the night from pain—all of it was wonderful.
And most importantly, the best part was being able to take the Mound with such peace of mind.
‘It’s been a while since I’ve pitched so freely.’
During my last appearance in Sangdong, I had no choice but to pitch while bearing shoulder pain. Yet as I naturally recovered my prime form, my velocity and pitch quality improved, allowing me to easily strike out opponents with pitches that caught them off guard.
But today’s game was different.
In the early innings, I threw exploratory pitches, but once I realized the opposing team remembered my last performance and was watching my first pitch carefully, I switched to aggressive pitching targeting only the strike zone.
The result was a scoreless outing. They would feel like they were facing a completely different pitcher from the one they remembered from my last appearance.
‘So I’ll need to vary things up now, won’t I?’
Purely aggressive pitching isn’t always the answer.
As evidence, when batters took pitches that stayed only within the strike zone and created fouls with their bats, my pitch count increased slightly.
To be precise, I threw 14 pitches per inning, which isn’t bad efficiency, but considering my average pitch count during my prime was 11, I wasted 3 pitches.
‘This is significant. It’s because my stamina is still insufficient.’
My current stamina is 58.
Though I’ve corrected my pitching form and recovered my shoulder, my stamina hasn’t increased yet.
Considering that stamina is normally built up gradually through consistent training, it’s normal that there’s been no change for me, having only returned to the past a week ago.
‘So far 42 pitches. That means I have 16 pitches remaining.’
I felt confident I could hold firm through defending the bottom of the fourth inning, but the fifth inning onward would be the problem.
It would be best to conserve as many pitches as possible this inning.
“Senior.”
“Yeah, Ho-jin?”
I called over to the Catcher, who sat resting in a chair with his gear half-removed. Then I spoke quietly.
“For the remaining two innings, I’d like to conserve my pitch count a bit more.”
It was simple.
All I needed to do was throw the ball to a spot where the batter had no choice but to extend his bat. I’d make him swing without hesitation, the pitch looking appetizing enough to attack.
“Got it. So just outside the hot zone?”
“Yes, please.”
“Understood.”
My control was still a bit off.
The reason I could request this confidently was because my velocity and stuff had recovered somewhat, making this approach possible.
It was likely a choice I could never have made without the experience from before I returned to the past.
“Out!”
Our team’s batting order in the top of the fourth inning also retired with three outs, and I grabbed my glove, heading toward the Mound.
Now it was time to take the field for the bottom of the fourth.
* * *
Manager Jang Chul-woo reviewed the past three innings.
Then he felt bewildered by how unexpectedly well Kang Ho-jin was pitching.
“Does this even make sense?”
Less than a month had passed.
In that time, Kang Ho-jin had become a completely different pitcher.
First of all, there was his pitching form.
He used to throw an extreme overhand pitch, but now he’d lowered his arm angle, and his velocity and stuff had increased.
He looked so different from his last appearance that the previous data was meaningless.
Of course, the batters had received information from the Scouting/Analysis Team and had some expectations, but there was something else.
His velocity was significantly better than his last appearance.
If a month ago it seemed like his body wasn’t loose and at his last appearance it seemed like his body was finally loosening up, today he looked completely loose.
“He’s throwing faster than the velocity we were told about.”
“The ball’s got nasty movement on it, doesn’t it?”
“How good is his spin rate relative to his velocity?!”
“Wow… I’ve never seen a changeup break and drop like that before!”
Evaluations of the pitcher flowed naturally from the mouths of the batters facing Kang Ho-jin.
Manager Jang Chul-woo’s assessment was the same.
Thinking of his previous form, he’d instructed them to definitely lay off the first pitch and then swing at pitches suited to them. The result was the current 0-0 score.
Not a single hit, not even a walk.
They were being completely toyed with.
To reverse the momentum somehow, he needed to pursue a change in approach, and since he couldn’t think of the opposing pitcher as the same pitcher from before, he moved directly.
Whoosh, swish.
He gave the sign himself.
The third base Coach received it and quickly relayed it to the batter, who nodded in acknowledgment.
“Play ball.”
As the bottom of the fourth inning began, the batter stepped into the box, and the moment the pitcher threw, he laid down his bat.
Tick—!
A surprise bunt.
The Busan Dolphins’ infield erupted into frantic motion, caught completely off-guard by the unexpected timing and the bunt they’d failed to anticipate.
The first baseman and third baseman charged forward while the second baseman sprinted to back up first base.
“Mine! Mine!”
Yet it was the pitcher on the Mound who moved first, faster than anyone else.
As if it were second nature, he bounded forward, snatched the ball, and without hesitation fired it to the second baseman covering first base.
“Out!”
An unfortunate but perfectly timed out.
Since this was a genuine surprise bunt rather than a premeditated play, the ball hadn’t lost enough speed and rolled directly to the pitcher, resulting in an easy out.
“Huh, he’s handling the next play smoothly too?”
Why is a surprise bunt called a surprise bunt in the first place?
It’s precisely because it comes at an unexpected moment, designed to rattle not just the pitcher but the entire infield—which is why we deployed it.
But it’s frustrating that the pitcher handled it so effortlessly, as if he’d anticipated it.
Still, this was only the beginning of our strategy to shake him.
Swish! Swoosh—! Swish!
The batter nodded at the next sign.
The play was simple: feign a bunt to rattle the pitcher’s nerves and move the opposing infield, then lay the bat down as he wound up and pull it back the moment he released the pitch.
“Strike!”
But the ball cut through the strike zone, and Jang Chul-woo clicked his tongue in frustration.
“Should’ve just gone for a full swing.”
That pitch had traveled right down the middle of the strike zone.
Had we let it go, it might have been a perfect pitch to hit, which made the miss all the more regrettable.
What’s done is done; I immediately relayed the next sign.
This time too, it started with a bunt motion like before, but when the ball came down the middle, the batter didn’t hesitate and swung.
Whoosh—!
“Swing!”
The batter’s bat sliced through empty air.
What had looked like a fastball suddenly dropped to the side as if someone had grabbed it by the scruff and yanked it away, evading the bat and settling into the catcher’s glove.
The count ran up quickly, and when I had no choice but to signal for a full swing, the result was the same—another whiff against a pitch that dropped.
“Tch, dammit.”
Would the outcome have been different if I’d left it to the batter’s judgment? Or should I be grateful we at least burned three pitches this way?
Jang Chul-woo pushed the swirling thoughts from his mind and continued to observe.
‘What happened in the past month?’
Kang Ho-jin’s sudden transformation left him with nagging doubts.
When what he’d dismissed as mere stubbornness from the opposing manager yielded unexpected results, he began to wonder if his own coaching methods might be flawed.
Meanwhile, the batter made contact with a curve on the first pitch, sending it toward right field, and he simply shook his head.
‘I underestimated him.’
It was Jang Chul-woo’s mistake for preparing based solely on his previous appearance, and his complacency in assuming the team’s lineup could overcome him despite his changes had proven costly.
‘Still, we have to keep grinding away.’
That was the team color of the Suwon Wolves, and it was Manager Jang Chul-woo preparing for the next inning.
‘I wasn’t overstepping my bounds, was I?’
An uneasy feeling settled over me.
* * *
The opposing team’s strategy in the fourth inning was predictable.
‘After all, this Manager would eventually rise to the 1st Team.’
Precisely when I finished my rehabilitation and moved up from the 2nd Team to the 1st Team, the Suwon Wolves under Manager Jang Chul-woo were the first opponent I faced.
Because of that, I recalled the timing and method of the opposing team’s tactics, and thanks to that, I easily defended against the surprise bunt.
‘The Manager does enjoy rattling the opposing pitcher.’
Whenever a pitcher showed even the slightest sign of wavering, he would seize upon it relentlessly—a Manager who earned high praise for being perfectly suited to his team.
Therefore, when facing the Suwon Wolves, if I showed any signs of wavering, I had to bite back just as hard to survive against this team.
‘Well, at least I conserved my pitch count.’
I had prepared for fourteen pitches, but finishing with seven was quite advantageous.
With this, I could now look beyond the fifth inning and aim for the sixth, and for that I was simply grateful.
Sitting comfortably on the bench and watching the Ground, three sounds reached my ears.
Crack!
Three singles, the leadoff batter advancing, advancing again, and then crossing home plate for the opening run.
As if that was the signal, our batting line suddenly erupted, achieving a big inning in an instant, and I headed to the Mound with a comfortable 5-0 score at my back.
“Swinging strike three!”
“Ball!”
“Out!”
“Out!”
A strikeout on the changeup, a walk that went to five pitches, and a clean double play on the first pitch of the next batter to finish the inning smoothly.
“Good work. Let’s call it here for today.”
“Yes, sir. Thank you for your hard work.”
My stamina had dropped at just the right moment, and I was wondering what to do, but I was simply grateful for the Manager’s decision as I sat on the bench and waited for the game to end.
– Points have been awarded.
Points arrived that could make my body 100% perfect.

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