Last night, Sam's 3-11 baseball team had its first playoff game. He assured me in the afternoon that they were going to lose; his team was last in the league, playing against the #3 seed. Their opponent has an amazing player: you know how it is with athletes at this age, if they're good, they're really good, usually at everything. He'd shut down our team twice lately, going 4 or 5 innings out of 6, giving up almost nothing (this in a league where an ERA of 9.00 or lower is outstanding). The parents simply referred to this kid as The Pitcher; we all know who we meant. He reminded me of Juan Marichal out there. An unusual throwing motion, but still beautifully fluid, with a look of ease. He smiles a lot, and with good reason; in fact, he seems like a really nice, and certainly very talented, kid.
But the Fates had some wily tricks up their sleeves last night. The Pitcher apparently had a pre-game collision during warm-ups, and didn't start on the mound. (He was still the leadoff hitter, and smoked one over our CFer's head, but, in a moment full of portent, was thrown out trying stretch it home after he was safe at third but the throw got by our team's thirdbaseman ... we don't need to name who was playing third then, right?)
Anyways, it was 5-5 after 4. Our team was away, and The Pitcher came on to start the 5th. The parents groaned. "Here's comes Papelbon" quipped one. It felt like a moral victory to me: we'd forced the other team to use their best, when it seemed like they were trying to save him for the next game, hoping to beat our squad without using him up (the league has strict rules about pitch counts allowed by age per week).
With one out, Sam came up. After a couple of pitches, he swung, and bounced one to the right of the mound. Did I mention The Pitcher is a great fielder too? Well he is, but this time, he couldn't quite get a clean handle on it. Sam ran hard down the line, and beat out the throw by a whisker. He looked back around after crossing first, and was visibly surprised ~ maybe even stunned ~ to see the umpire had called him safe.
Long story short: Sam scored the go ahead run that inning as we went ahead 7-5. But the other team touched our ace reliever for 2 in the bottom of the fifth to tie it again. In the 6th, The Pitcher ~ perhaps still smarting from the pregame collision? ~ walked the first 3 hitters and was relieved. With 2 outs, we were ahead 8-7 when Sam came up again, and delivered another infield hit to make it 9-7. Our ace struck out the side in the bottom of the 6th, and our 3-11 team, is now 4-11, and undefeated in the playoffs ;-). Go CM&B!
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