Ch 197

One.

Championship series.

It is literally a stage to determine the champions of the league.

This stage, which was held in a best-of-seven system, was a stage full of value by its very existence.

Isn’t that the stage to become a league champion?

That’s why major league clubs make commemorative rings to commemorate when they win a championship series.

It does make a mark that the championship series stage is worth it.

– Championship series? To be honest, it doesn’t matter. I don’t even know where I got my championship ring.

However, the world did not attach great value or meaning to the championship series stage.

– Is that right? Of course, being a league champion is no joke. It’s the result of hard work. But the world doesn’t remember anything like a league champion.

In fact, the world didn’t remember the American League and National League champions as champions at the end of the season.

– At the end of the season, there are only two left. World Series winners and runners-up.

Instead, I only remember them as the World Series winner and runner-up.

– Next to the World Series winning ring, the Championship Series winning ring will be a souvenir, but the Championship Series winning ring without the World Series winning ring is not a souvenir, it’s a wound, a wound. If it feels like a souvenir, then it’s time to retire.

Therefore, the sense of frustration and defeat felt by the World Series runners-up team was indescribable.

Even though he is a champion, he is treated like a loser who misses what he wants in front of him, rather than being treated as a champion.

– Anyway, one team goes crazy once runner-up like that. Is it enough to make a deal with the devil to win the World Series?

The Dodgers did.

In 2017, they were National League champions, but the world only remembered them as the sacrifice that gave the Astros their first World Series win, and yet another slipped loser in front of the World Series.

The Dodgers prepared for the 2018 season amidst that misery.

– It’s enough to deal with the devil, but it’s not about bending your pride.

Naturally, the Dodgers who met the Mets were not the Dodgers who were crushed by Jinyong Lee during the regular season.

They were willing to sell their souls to catch the Mets.

Moreover, the world favored the Dodgers rather than the Mets.

[The Dodgers have an advantage over the Mets in regular season relatives!]

It was natural.

First of all, the Dodgers were a team with worldwide popularity that could not be compared to the Mets.

There were twice as many journalists who would side with the Dodgers as those who would side with the Mets.

At the same time, major league officials and players hoped for it.

– If you hand over the World Series title to the Mets here, you have to think that there is no World Series win as long as Howman stays with the Mets.

– Please, if the Dodgers stop it…

I hope the Dodgers stop Jinyong Lee.

May you inflict as much damage as possible on this overpowering monster.

But the world didn’t know.

“So what do you want to say?”

– Well, that’s right. The Championship Series isn’t a big deal, so just finish it cleanly.

That Jinyong Lee has a reason more desperate to win the World Series than the Dodgers.

“Yes.”

So the first round started.

2.

city field.

Two emotions coexisted in the home stadium of the Mets, where the championship series was held again for the first time in three years since 2015.

“downpour!”

Above all else, there was a passion for a reliable pitcher, and the opposite of that enthusiasm.

“Oh, I’m strangely anxious.”

“I mean, I’m strangely anxious too.”

Anxiety, that feeling existed in the hearts of the Mets fans who filled the city field.

“Somehow it feels like 2015.”

The cause of that anxiety was none other than the 2015 season.

The Mets that year were truly amazing Mets, not mockery.

He had an amazing and amazing season, and even met the Cubs in the Championship Series, who had been behind the rest of the regular season, and went on to the World Series stage by defeating them 4-0.

“It was the worst back then.”

“It wasn’t the worst.”

However, on the World Series stage, the Mets met the Royals and suffered a devastating defeat.

And for the devastating defeat, the masters gave many reasons.

“The curse of that damn championship series sweep…”

One of those dogs was the Curse of the Championship Series Sweep.

A curse that states that a team that swept in the Championship Series and made it to the World Series cannot win.

Of course, it was a curse of absurd content.

A curse that is absurd, unreasonable, and uncommon.

“Even so, I can’t claim to lose one….”

But Major League Baseball was a world full of such curses.

Right away, the Cubs suffered from the curse of the goat for more than a century, and the Red Sox had to work hard and toil to break the curse of the Bambino.

From that point of view, it was reasonable for Mets fans to feel anxious right now.

And that uneasiness spread to the Mets, too.

“Are you sure you will win today?”

“Anyway. It’s a game with Lee!”

I was confident enough to win today’s match.

But underneath that confidence, a lot of anxiety was sprouting up.

‘But if you lose in a match that doesn’t play Liga…’

‘It’s the worst that Liga plays too many games.’

‘The Dodgers chose Seeley. I’m going to play with the risk of losing to the Mets today.’

‘Tomorrow, in Game 2, the Dodgers are going to fight with all their might against us who have no team.’

It was because the situation was different from that of the Division series.

‘It’s different from the Division series. Lee isn’t backing him up.’

Unlike in the Division Series, Lee Jin-yong’s dignity could no longer be borrowed, and, crucially, in the Championship Series, there was nothing strange about what happened.

actually happened

In Game 1 of the National League Championship Series, something unexpected happened.

3.

In baseball, it is not often the case that scores are given at the beginning of a game.

In particular, there are few games that score points in one round.

First of all, baseball was a sport that was more advantageous to pitchers than hitters in terms of hits.

For this reason, the batters used the early game as the stage for the search game.

Whoa!

However, Jinyong Lee lightly ignored that fact.

– ah!

In the beginning of the first inning, Jin-yong Lee, who climbed onto the mound as a pitcher and finished the inning with a three-way strike, was the first to be at the plate as a hitter at the end of the first inning.

In that at-bat, he hit the first pitch that Ken Robinson threw.

– It passed.

And in one breath, he blew Ken Robinson’s ball over the fence.

– lee! He scored an early game-breaking score.

It was a situation that not everyone expected or even imagined.

‘Did it pass?’

‘Is the lead hitter a home run in the first inning?’

‘Aiming for Chogu?’

In that situation, Citi Field could not even prepare for it.

Without even cheering, they stared blankly at what was happening in front of their eyes.

And I looked at Jinyong Lee, who started base running.

It was the same with Jinyong Lee.

Jinyong Lee, who started base running, began to look at the audience, nowhere else.

When I stepped on the first base, I looked at the first-base crowd, and when I went to the second base, I looked at the outfield crowd and then the third-base crowd.

The last moment he stepped on home base, he stood upright for a moment and looked at the crowd behind the catcher’s seat.

Jinyong Lee’s eyes seemed to say something like this.

‘ah!’

Don’t believe in curses!

‘I see!’

Instead, trust me!

At that fact, the hearts of Mets fans filled with anxiety began to pound and break the anxiety.

Then the Mets fans shouted.

wow!

It was then that belated shouts began to fill the city field.

At the sound, Jin-yong Lee shook his head, and Jin-ho Kim, seeing that, smiled.

– I can’t do it anymore, to captivate the fans there at once… Great, great.

Even Kim Jin-ho was genuinely admiring what Lee Jin-yong showed.

“Yes?”

On the other hand, Jinyong Lee tilted his head at Jinho Kim’s question.

“What do you mean?”

– yes?

Kim Jin-ho also tilted his head.

– No, didn’t you hit a home run a while ago and tell the crowd with your eyes?

“What?”

– Trust me and follow me.

“Am I?”

– Didn’t you feel that way?

At Kim Jin-ho’s words, Lee Jin-yong said with an expression that he did not understand English.

“You just didn’t come out and look?”

At that sincere answer, Jin-ho Kim looked at Jin-yong Lee without saying a word with a puzzled expression.

– Oh, you bastard really…

With those words, Kim Jin-ho said the Dodgers’ dugout, looking at Ken Robinson, who was bowing his head on the mound.

– Isn’t that too much? Should I have looked at Chogu?

At Jinho Kim’s words, Jinyong Lee said while looking at the mound.

“It was the Dodgers who said they would give up Game 1 first, not me.”

After those words, Jinyong Lee spat out to himself in a low voice.

“Then you will have to pay the price for giving up.”

It was like a roaring beast.

4.

Game 1 of the Championship Series between the Mets and the Dodgers went as expected.

– out! Strike out! lee! He struck out his seventh match today!

The Mets, with Jinyong Lee at the forefront, were absolutely perfect and did not allow the Dodgers to score.

– Hit! lee! He hits a two-run just-in-time hit for his undisputed victory once again!

In that situation, the Mets’ batting line, led by Jinyong Lee, consistently scored points every inning against the Dodgers, who put a pitcher, not an ace, on the mound.

– The ball floats high. Can’t stretch far. Lee calls out. lee! In the beginning of the sixth inning, the Dodgers still failed to score. The score is 6-0.

In the end, after the sixth inning, the Dodgers’ defeat was so dark that it could no longer be overlaid with anything else.

– The Dodgers put Ken Robinson back on the mound.

Under such circumstances, the Dodgers placed starting pitcher Ken Robinson on the mound, who gave up six runs in five innings.

It wasn’t a strange move.

“There is no need to waste a pitcher here.”

“For the Dodgers, the more innings Ken Robinson played, the more business left over.”

“If you’re going to lose, it might be better to lose like this neatly.”

From the Dodgers point of view, in a game where they were prepared to lose rather than win in the first place, there was no reason to rush and consume pitchers in this situation where the score had already been scored.

“Senior, I think Lee Jin-yong will easily win a shutout.”

It was a moment more certain than ever that Jinyong Lee’s first postseason win was recorded as a shutout.

“Then what about the title of the article?”

It is enough to decide early on the title of the article to be used after the match.

Hwang Sun-woo answered the junior reporter’s question.

“Let’s see more.”

“You want to see more?”

“I don’t think Lee Jin-yong will be satisfied with a shutout today.”

“Yes?”

Hwang Seon-woo asked a question while still concentrating on the game at the appearance of a junior reporter questioning.

“How is Jinyong Lee’s grade this year?”

The younger reporter answered the question without hesitation.

“35 wins 0 losses, 0 ERA! It’s a record that will never happen again in MLB history.”

Grades that are far-fetched just by listening to them.

However, Hwang Seon-woo did not express much emotion in those words.

It wasn’t the answer he wanted.

“Not that, but a blow.”

“A blow? Wait.”

At Hwang Seon-woo’s question, a junior reporter immediately traced the memory in his head.

“The batting average was definitely 40–5 pennies… it was 14 homers and 42 RBIs or something.”

“If Jinyong Lee had played full-time as a batter rather than a pitcher, what kind of results do you think he would have achieved?”

In response to Hwang Seon-woo’s question, the junior reporter said without much thought.

“It must have been huge.”

“The Dodgers have put out a poor pitcher now against a team where that hitter was placed as the number one hitter.”

Hwang Seon-woo, who was talking, said while looking at Lee Jin-yong’s reflection on TV and now he is preparing to stand at the plate.

“He pitched 49 pitches in six innings. In addition, today’s game was digested with only his right hand. Here, if the score gap is eight points, the Mets have two options.”

“Two?”

“Give Jinyong Lee his first shutout in the championship series, or give him another chance to come out tomorrow.”

At those words, the junior reporter swallowed his saliva without realizing it.

A few minutes later, Caster’s voice was heard in the press room.

– Fly away! lee! He once again hits a home run, no a down run.

Everyone exclaimed in admiration for that fact.

“I think it would be better to debut as a hitter next season.”

“If this is enough, I think it would be better to just move to the American League and then start playing as a designated hitter!”

“It is the second coming of Babe Ruth. He was the best pitcher and the best hitter.”

But the admiration did not last long.

“uh?”

“Why isn’t Howman come out?”

Because Jinyong Lee wasn’t on the mound when the inning ended and the 7th started.

5.

– The match is over. 8-2, Mets win Game 1 of the Championship Series.

The moment the Mets take Game 1 of the Championship Series.

But at that moment, people’s attention was not towards the Mets’ victory.

Everyone was interested in one thing.

– How did you only pitch 6 innings?

– No, the guy who said he wanted to throw a full baton like he was eating rice went down the mound on his own?

– To miss a chance to shut down the championship series for the first time, isn’t it like Howman?

The reason Jinyong Lee went down the mound so early was what everyone was wondering about.

Naturally, during the interview time prepared after the victory in the first match, the reporters were the first to ask that question.

“Why did you only pitch six innings today?”

To that question, Jinyong Lee answered with an expression on his face.

He looked like he didn’t understand the question.

With that expression on his face, he spoke to Lee Young-ye, and Lee Young-ye immediately translated.

“I asked if he really asked the question out of curiosity.”

At that moment, all the reporters fell into silence.

In fact, everyone knew.

The reason Jinyong Lee went down the mound at that moment was that there was only one reason he didn’t have to play the rest of the innings.

“Are you going to start tomorrow?”

To that question, Jinyong Lee gave an answer that everyone could understand, so much that he didn’t even need an interpreter.

“downpour!”

End