Finally, it was time for the game to continue. The pitcher stepped on the rubber, and Sean stepped into the lefty's batter's box. He was 1-2 today, with a single and a run scored from the first inning. Sean was able to continue his hitting streak to another game, but it didn't mean much to me. If anything, I didn't have any faith for him to get another hit today. Sean hasn't had a multi-hit game as far as I know.
The new pitcher came in high and fast, getting Sean to whiff on the first pitch for strike one. Then he got Sean to chase an outside pitch for strike two. I frowned and studied the guy on the mound. He was better than the starter, so why wasn't he put on to begin with? He followed up with another high fastball; this time Sean got a piece of it. His bat got underneath and popped it directly up and the pitcher took a step back and easily caught it for the second out. Three pitches for one out. Very efficient.
Zeke took over. He stepped in the batters box, facing the kid on the mound without fear. Which makes sense. As the best in the county, who would he fear?
The pitcher didn't step on the rubber, but instead, walked a little back, off the mound, and used the cleat cleaner. Odd. Why would you need to use it on a dry evening like this? It's not like the field is wet. The catcher approached him before I could figure it out. They both raised their gloves to cover their mouths and spoke in low voices, so everyone else was unable to hear. It was a short conversation and soon enough, the catcher jogged back to his spot.
Unexpectedly, he didn't squat behind the plate. Instead, he held his right hand all the way out towards the lefty's box. The pitcher got set, did his motion and threw the ball all the way out to the catchers hand for ball one.
The crowd started to get loud with a mix of boo's and cheers, almost as if they were confused on what to do. Well, same here. I turned to Coach Luis to see what he had to say about it.
Coach Luis felt my stare and faced me. "What? Never seen an intentional walk before?"
I mean, I have. I shrugged. I just have never heard a crowd so divided.
Coach ignored me and turned his attention back to Zeke at the plate. Zeke was served four balls, way outside and got his walk. I moved to second, Noah moved to third, and Kelvin scored a run to make the score: 5-1.
Julian comes up with bases loaded, still two outs, bottom of the fourth. The catcher went back to his squat and the pitcher got set. Like he did to Sean, this pitcher faced Julian with some serious fastballs. Julian also struggled and ended up flying out to the left fielder, therefore ending the inning. Everyone jogged back to their respective dugouts.
I caught up to Noah and we went to our bags to switch gears. "That was weird." I mumbled.
Noah looked at me. "What? What was weird?"
I shrugged. "Everything?"
Noah eyebrows lifted. "You wanna stop being so generic? Give me some specifics."
I pushed my hair back and put on my cap. "The pitcher." I began. "Everything about him. He's better than the starter. Then, he intentionally walked Zeke with the bases loaded? Just...I don't know. It's odd."
Noah laughed. "There's probably a dozen reasons he didn't start the game. Maybe he pitched earlier this week? Maybe they're restricting his pitch count so he can start later this week? Who knows." We grabbed our gloves and headed back to the field. "As for the intentional walk? Maybe he knew Zeke is unbeatable and wanted to lessen the amount of runs scored..?"
We went to our respective spots and started fielding the grounders Julian was rolling out. Dave was already on the mound, throwing warmup with Kelvin behind the plate. He was going to start with batters nine, one, and two. He easily took care of them with a groundout to first, and two strikeouts. In the fifth, we couldn't get much going. Mahki grounded out. Dave flew out to center. Kelvin walked. And Chris popped out.
Top of the sixth: Batter three had a walk and a groundout so far. Dave didn't start off wary of the heart of the lineup at all. He just started pitching as hard as he could and got the guy to strikeout on three straight pitches. Batter four had a line out and groundout so he had a good eye in my opinion. Dave started off with a couple of strikes, but after the batter fouled a few, Dave became more wild and walked the cleanup hitter.
Kelvin gave out the signs to watch for a steal or a hit-and-run. Noah inched closer to second base and I moved more towards first since Julian was stuck on the bag, trying to hold the runner close by.
Batter five had a walk and a groundout to first. Dave started off with two bad balls giving the batter a 2-0 count. Kelvin signed for a check throw and Dave complied. The runner was still close enough to the base and didn't need to slide or dive back. Dave got the ball back and took a deep breath before facing the batter again. He threw a strike right down the middle. The batter swung and connected, sending the ball my way.
I got low and stretched out my gloved hand. The ball went in the glove, and I brought the gloved hand to my throwing hand. I took the ball out and threw to Noah at second base to get the advancing runner. Noah caught it, tagged the base, and started to throw to first. The runner came in sliding and his legs tangled with Noah's. Noah crumpled to the ground and didn't get the throw off. I ran to him and started to help him up as the runner jogged to his dugout.
"You okay?" I asked, worried. I looked him over, but could only see a bunch of dirt on his uniform.
"Yea, no biggie. It wasn't a hard slide. Just a well-timed one." Noah groaned as he saw the batter safely on first. "That could have been a double play. Unlucky."
"You okay?" Dave came off the mound to check on Noah as well. "That was a bit dirty."
"Just a play in the game." Noah handed Dave the ball. "Sorry. Could have been a double play."
Dave pushed Noah's hat down. "I'll just have to strike the next one out for ya." He walked back to the mound.
Noah fixed his cap and saw me still standing there. "What is it?"
I looked at my hands. "Was I too slow?"
"Don't be silly. That happens often in baseball." He patted my shoulder, reassuring me. "Get back to your spot now. There's only two outs."
I did what I was told, but still felt something pulling at me. Luckily, Dave did what he said he would do, striking out the next batter and ending their offense. We jogged back to our dugout.