The Genius Pitcher Dad Throws for His Daughter - Chapter 96

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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 96
#96.
“First pitch! Strike! What?! 157 kilometers! We’ve got 157 on the board!”
Caster Jung Jae-hyuk shouted in amazement.
Beside him, Choi Dong-yeon, who had been watching with a relaxed expression, dropped his jaw before finally closing it and continuing.
“Kang Ho-jin was throwing a four-seam fastball at 150 kilometers even during the exhibition games. What on earth happened in just a few days?”
Kang Ho-jin’s fastball velocity had originally been established in the early 150-kilometer range, as was known.
That didn’t mean he constantly threw 150-kilometer pitches. He threw with appropriate speed control, and he was the type of pitcher who used various breaking balls to perfectly steal the timing from opposing batters.
Why else hadn’t he set a single-game strikeout record in the game against the Daegu Salamanders? That day’s pitching style had truly showcased Kang Ho-jin’s real charm.
But now his velocity had increased.
A full 5 kilometers higher.
It made me think the effects of starting Spring Training a month earlier than others and attending Spring Camp were now manifesting.
“The second pitch also registered at 157 kilometers. This is no coincidence.”
“Phew. Even though he threw it right down the middle with audacity, from the batter’s perspective it’s faster than what they expected. Matching the timing will be difficult.”
Following the first pitch, the second pitch was also a four-seam fastball aimed at the center, and the batter was already down to two strikes in an instant.
Now, determined to make contact on the third pitch somehow, the batter pressed himself against the batter’s box, trying to watch the ball as long as possible and position himself to hit an outside pitch.
As if mocking such a batter, Kang Ho-jin’s pitch was a four-seam fastball that hugged the inside corner.
“With the third pitch resulting in a strikeout, the first K is achieved, and a fan in the Third Base Stands holds up a sketchbook with a K written on it.”
“Indeed, most pitchers feel burdened throwing inside when they see a batter pressing up like that. They know it could hit the batter if something goes wrong. But Kang Ho-jin doesn’t hesitate and just competes. He’s a gambler with remarkable guts.”
The first batter stepped away, and the second batter took the batter’s box.
Kang Ho-jin began throwing fast pitches in succession, as expected.
“Strike!”
“Ball!”
“Strike! Two!”
“Swing! Batter out!”
There were no breaking balls.
As if his four-seam fastball alone was sufficient, this time he threw borderline pitches, moving his four-seam fastball back and forth between inside and outside, and cleanly drew the bat out in just four pitches.
The third batter that followed was also a four-seam fastball duel.
Tick—!
The second pitch was a ball breaking away on the outside, and the ball caught the end of the bat, rolling toward the pitcher. Kang Ho-jin fielded it cleanly and threw to First Base.
“Out!”
As Kang Ho-jin came down after completing clean fielding following his pitching, the fans cheered and welcomed him.
“Kang Ho-jin! Kang Ho-jin! Kang Ho-jin!”
Score: 2-0.
The game had only just begun.
* * *
As inning after inning passed, Hyun Myung-su’s eyes and trembling body calmed down.
“Huff! Huff!”
Rather, his combat strength was steadily increasing.
In his first at-bat, he struck out looking in a daze.
He seemed somewhat absent-minded, yet whenever he crouched behind the Catcher’s Position with his mask on, he channeled absolute focus.
Four-seam fastball, low and inside.
Especially Myung-su—he always smiled at the corners of his mouth whenever he caught my four-seam fastball.
As if he’d just received a pitch that was absolutely unhittable, he glanced at the Batter with a bewildered expression before throwing the ball back to me.
After repeating this a few times, my tension seemed to ease.
And I stopped throwing only four-seam fastballs when I faced the sixth Batter.
Crack!
Whether luck blessed him or not, a fortunate hit erupted—the first Batter to reach First Base.
Fortunately, he was a large man, so there was no concern about stolen bases. I gave him just a quick visual warning before turning my head away.
Now it was time to start mixing things up.
Against the seventh Batter, I threw a slider as my first pitch.
I happened to throw a backdoor slider to the right-handed Batter, and it caught the bottom corner so perfectly that from the Batter’s perspective, it was a maddening strike.
As I wondered what to throw next, Myung-su, now completely in rhythm, flashed his signals.
Low and inside changeup.
Seeing the signal pressed twice, he was calling for a kick changeup. The location would definitely be low and inside, but in terms of movement, it would start toward the inside before curving back toward the center.
“Swing! Two!”
Even I had to admit it was a bizarre movement.
And I exhaled a small sigh of relief.
Truth be told, I couldn’t deny that the kick changeup was an incredible pitch, but I still couldn’t throw it perfectly. Between the grip and the fact that I’d only been practicing it recently, sometimes the vertical or horizontal movement fell short, turning it into a flat, mediocre pitch.
And then Myung-su threw a gamble signal.
Forkball. Low and center.
Pressing the low signal twice meant driving it straight into Home Plate.
I wondered if it was really necessary to go that far, but to boost our junior’s confidence and ease the tension, I accepted the call.
And I threw the forkball—still very much lacking in acquisition and the lowest-ranked pitch in my arsenal.
Whoosh!
“Swing! Out!”
The pitch was closer to a wild throw, buried straight into Home Plate, and the Batter’s bat merely flailed at it.
It was a foul ball situation, so Myung-su quickly brought it to the Batter’s body, and the Umpire’s out call rang out once more. I stepped down from the Mound and headed toward the Dugout.
“Senior, that was excellent.”
Myung-su approached me and gave me a thumbs up.
“Feeling less tense now?”
“Huh? Ah… yeah, I guess I am.”
He murmured something mysterious, then sat down beside me with his catcher’s gear half-removed.
So I asked him.
“How does it feel catching them?”
“The breaking balls, you mean?”
“My sense is that today it’s the slider.”
“I agree completely.”
Strangely, the slider felt more responsive in my hand.
Against right-handed Batters, I’d throw backdoor sliders; against left-handed Batters, I’d throw pitches that moved increasingly away. Mixing in the occasional curveball would give us a strategy to catch them off-guard.
“By the way, Senior Pitcher.”
“Hmm?”
“Your fastball velocity has increased tremendously.”
“Well, I got plenty of rest.”
After skipping all the exhibition games and getting proper rest, I figured I should show at least this much improvement.
I could push it higher immediately, but I’d rather increase my velocity gradually to confuse opposing teams as they begin to study my patterns.
If raising velocity doesn’t work, I can always upgrade the ranking of my pitch types.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes, Senior Pitcher.”
I headed to the Mound with Myung-su, who had put on his Catcher’s gear and stood up.
“Kang Ho-jin! Kang Ho-jin! Kang Ho-jin!”
I waved once at the fans cheering for me from the Third Base Cheering Section before heading to the Mound.
The game had only reached the third inning.
* * *
Dolphins Community.
With the opening ceremony underway, many fans had turned on the broadcast and were enjoying conversations in the community.
Of course, at first they wrote critical posts about the Manager for starting Kang Ho-jin in the opening game.
They posted comments saying they couldn’t understand his choice—questioning whether he was throwing away the first game regardless of the rebuilding phase.
But that didn’t last long.
The moment the first pitch’s 157 km appeared on the Scoreboard, they changed their attitude.
– Wow! Look at the wisdom of our brilliant Manager Bong!
– He was deliberately adjusting his condition!
– How did his velocity increase this much in just a few months?! This is what a true homegrown ace looks like, seriously!
While it wasn’t the league’s highest velocity, and he certainly wasn’t throwing 160 km like the Foreign Pitchers, it was still impressive.
But fans had an obsession with homegrown aces.
Especially for the Dolphins, and particularly for those who held memories of a homegrown ace who had won Rookie of the Year, there was no choice but to be thrilled.
And as the following innings progressed and I began mixing in breaking balls, the community erupted again.
– Wow! Look at that slider angle! Insane!
└ He really learned well from Ga Jin-heo. Almost the same level.
└ This is a proper pitch, a real pitch!
└ Look at that razor-sharp control!
– The curveball is still amazing. Look how it drops.
└ Stock market crash curveball.
└ Cryptocurrency crash curveball.
└ My report card crash curveball.
└ You idiot, go study first.
Since the slider was catching well that day, I began increasing the ratio of four-seam fastballs to sliders, and with the occasional curveball mixed in, the batters could do nothing but helplessly give up outs.
Of course, that didn’t mean I wasn’t allowing any hits.
Proving that my slider control still wasn’t perfect, there were walks. When I threw the kick changeup, it sometimes came in flat, resulting in hits.
But all of this didn’t happen at once—it happened sporadically, and by the end of the seventh inning, I had allowed only five hits and two walks.
Kang Ho-jin continued to keep the scoreboard clean, having struck out nine batters so far.
It was the moment when additional runs were desperately needed to lighten the starting pitcher’s burden, and I found myself hoping for the offense to deliver.
Crack!
The cleanly driven ball shot past Third Base and rolled fiercely toward the Fences.
As Myung-su’s double put him in scoring position in an instant, the Dolphins executed intelligent baseball.
Crack!
Crack!
With two consecutive outfield flies, Myung-su advanced from Second Base to Third Base via tag-up, then scored the go-ahead run.
Only then did the opposing team’s coaching staff spring into action.
The Foreign Pitcher trudged down from the Mound with a disappointed expression, and the Bullpen was brought into the game.
In the subsequent at-bats, the Dolphins proved why they dominated in the spring.
Boom!
Riding a wave of consecutive hits and home runs, the Dolphins erupted for nine runs in a single inning.
Bottom of the eighth.
Kang Ho-jin took the Mound once more, and as if to prove he’d rested well on the Bench, he unleashed another 157-kilometer fastball, swiftly recording three outs.
And now came Changwon Griffins’ final chance.
Kang Ho-jin took the Mound again, and a deep sigh rippled through the Griffins Cheering Section.
Fans rose from their seats one by one and began leaving the Baseball Stadium.
Considering Kang Ho-jin’s performance over eight innings, victory in the ninth seemed impossible—and with a nine-run deficit, it was even more hopeless.
And Kang Ho-jin proved it, needing just ten pitches to secure the final three outs.
Nine innings of shutout pitching, 104 pitches thrown, 12 strikeouts, 6 hits allowed, 2 walks.
Kang Ho-jin achieved a complete-game shutout victory in the season opener, clenching both fists and raising them triumphantly to the sky.

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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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