I told Noah my concerns as we took a seat in the dugout.
Noah just shrugged. "You can't be good all the time. Ya know how I told you that succeeding at the plate three out of ten appearances makes someone an excellent batter? Well for pitchers, they'll come across rough starts every now and then. If superstars didn't, then we would have quite a few pitchers with ERA's under one."
I waited a second as we watched Daniel stepped up to the plate, before asking, "What does ERA stand for?"
Noah let out a laugh. "Sorry, I keep forgetting. ERA stands for Earned Run Average. Basically how many runs given up per nine innings."
"Shouldn't it be seven innings?"
Noah shrugged. "It could. Some high schools do. But when colleges start scouting you, they'll do it by nine like a normal game. They play nine innings in college ball so why would they want to know what your ERA is over seven innings?"
"Oh." I didn't understand, but I didn't want to continue this conversation so I let it be.
Daniel snuck a grounder passed the second baseman and safely reached first base for a single. Tony got up to bat and Sean moved to the on deck circle. Noah switched out his hat for a helmet and I followed suit. Tony hit a grounder to third, but Daniel already had a good lead so they were unable to try for a double play, but was still able to get Tony out at first.
Sean got in the righty's box. Noah grabbed his bat and excitedly stepped into the in deck circle. I grabbed my bat and slowly walked over to stand at the edge of the dugout.
"Are you feeling okay?" The proximity of the questioner made me jump in surprise. Zeke stared down at me, not even bothered by my reaction. After staring blankly at him for a minute, he asked again. "You has that collision earlier. Does your chest hurt at all?"
I shook my head, no. "I'm okay."
"Any trouble breathing? Dad said to make sure you weren't wheezing or struggling."
I felt a little warm inside and out, at the care the Atkins always show. Noah was number one. Then Mr. and Mrs. Atkins closely followed. They took me in unconditionally and showed concern that I've only received from doctors. My eyes started to sting so I quickly looked away and tried to not cry. I'm a teenager. I shouldn't be crying so easily.
"Jake?" Zeke questioned.
"I'm okay. It doesn't hurt." At least the bruise didn't. My heart inside was aching though. How could this family of strangers take me in and care more than my own family could?
"What's going on?" Coach came over. "Why does it look like you're bullying Jake? He looks like he's about to cry."
Coach's voice was a bit loud and caught the attention of the dugout.
"Hey Captain, don't be mean to Bambi!"
"Yea, Bambi is too cute to be picked on!"
"Pick on someone your own size!"
I felt the heat rushed to my face, no doubt turning me into a tomato. Ah, so embarrassing. Why is it always me?
"I was just asking about his bruise." Zeke replied nonchalant about the teasing.
Coach stepped in front of me and put a hand on my shoulder. "Are you alright? I didn't think it would hurt enough to make you tear up. I can replace you and let you get some rest."
"I'm not crying!" I looked up defiantly. I rubbed the corner of my eyes. "Nothing's wrong. I'm completely fine."
Sean hit a short fly ball to left field for the second out of the inning, moving Noah to the plate and letting me escape this embarrassing situation. I could still hear some of the guys laughing and mentioning 'bambi' as I stood in the circle for practice swings.
Noah fought at the plate, defending it well by fouling anything close and then letting balls pass. He earned a walk and jogged to first. By his posture I could tell he wasn't satisfied. I guess he wasn't aiming for a walk like I used to.
I walked around the catcher and umpire so I could step in the lefty's box. I was happy that Zeke didn't make me hold back anymore. Earning a walk isn't as fun as getting a hit. It doesn't cause excitement within the player, dugout or fans. It's just a free base.
The pitcher looked tired as we were a little more than halfway through the game. Either his stamina was weak or his pitch count is higher than I think. He started me off with some balls out of the zone giving me a 2-0 count before he finally gave me something close. I was able to hit a single to right field, but it didn't go far enough to let Daniel try for the plate.
Bases loaded, two outs, Mahki stepped up to bat. Mahki has been in a slump for quite a bit now. Even with his hit last inning, he was still thrown out so technically he hasn't reached base safely since last Saturday in game two. This at bat wasn't any better. He struck out, swinging, leaving the three of us stranded on base. That would have been the perfect time for Zeke to bat. He would have been able to send us home and take the lead back with one good swing. Instead, we're still losing 6-3 going into the fifth.
We jogged back to the dugout to grab our gloves as the rest of the team took the field, eager to start this inning. Even Garret, who has been 'off' for the whole afternoon on the mound.
"Why's everyone so excited?" Noah asked Jason as we put our helmets away and slapped on our hats.
Jason grinned. "Zeke said he would treat the team to pizza tonight if Garret can shut them down this inning."
"That's it..?" Noah raised an eyebrow.
Jason's smile got even bigger. "He also said he would talk to coach so we wouldn't have practice tomorrow if we also pull off the win."
Noah rolled his eyes, grabbed his glove and took the field. I was right beside him as we jogged to second.
"Never trust Zeke." Noah said in a low tone to me.
"What? Why? You don't think he'll do as he says?" I was surprised. Zeke seemed pretty straightforward to me.
Noah gave me a look from the corner of his eye. "He doesn't have a job so where would he get money for the pizza? It's obviously going to be on mom and dads tab. As for no practice tomorrow…?" He took a step closer to me and whispered in his glove. "For his college visit, we have to leave tomorrow because he'll get to sit in on a college class as part of the visit. So with the five us missing, why would coach still have practice? Three of us are starters and we make up like 25% of the team. AND Zeke is the captain."
"So he's…lying?"
Noah put his hand down and shook his head. "More like trying to inspire the team. But he's always trying to bribe them with things that are already a given. Hence why you should never trust Zeke. At least…not with things like this."
I nodded as we moved to our appropriate spots.
The ump called for the game to resume and Garret got set. Even though I didn't find anything special about having pizza for dinner or missing practice tomorrow, Garret was definitely hyped up. He threw his cutter consecutively, getting the fifth, sixth, and seventh batters to strikeout. Three up, three down.
I stared at Garret's back in amazement as I followed him to the dugout. His cutter was similar to a fastball besides the sideways break in towards a right handed batter; making it hard for batters to distinguish.
"He can't do it all the time." Noah read my mind, making me flinch.
I gave him a weak smile of embarrassment as we both sat down. Most of the team was crowding Garret on the other side as he was getting ready for his at bat.
"He doesn't throw a cutter like he should." Noah continued. "I heard the twins talk about it with dad before on if they could learn how to throw a cutter from Garret. But dad said something about how he's different and how he adds an extra flick of the wrist or something. I don't know how it's bad for him, but I think he's only allowed to throw a certain amount a week."
Oh. More problems for pitchers to worry about.
