Second Chance at Bat, page 30
* * *
They finished their lunch in silence and walked quietly back to the hotel. Joe waved to Joey and Howie and boarded the bus to the ballpark. Joe felt relieved that he could brace Joey for the legal separation the day after the season ended. He felt remarkably light and energized for the game. Getting back into relationship meant exactly that. He had to manage this relationship as a soon-to-be single parent. They could build from here.
* * *
"Why not? I think it could work." Doc said to Clay and Joe when they talked about mixing it up a little bit. Usually Julio would be part of the conversation but he was absent. Doc said he was sick and not coming to the game.
* * *
Harmon Ennis agreed, "In the right spots, I think it will produce outs. I think your pitch count will go down and not up. It'll be like the first time in Miami, they won't know whether to shit or wind their watch."
* * *
Joe always liked that phrase and used it himself from time to time. As they finished warm-ups ,Joe felt very calm and focused. The brawl was in the past, but that didn't mean both teams weren't going to compete. This kind of surprise would add to the head games. Even if it meant for only one game, that was enough.
* * *
During the National Anthem, Joe was able to locate Joey and Howie in the visitors section. Every team tried to make a safety area around the family of their visiting opponents where there was less chance of getting doused with a beer or berated by the hometown hooligans, but it didn't always work out that way.
* * *
Joe went out to the mound with a lead in the bottom of the first inning. Rueben scooped up an easy grounder for out number one. A soft liner to Taylor became the second out. Joe finished the inning by taking a soft toss from Ellis leading him to the first base bag. He tipped his cap to the Reading contingent in the stands.
* * *
Clay settled next to his battery mate on the bench. "It's nastier than usual, but they are making good contact." Like a doctor with a diagnosis, Triandos wasn't sugar-coating anything.
* * *
Vic Sievers was no less succinct."It's like they were swatting flies out there."
* * *
Joe ended their half of the inning by swinging at a slider in the dirt.
* * *
In the home second, Lee hit a towering fly to Gonzalez in Left. Richards made a nice pick on a ball in the hole and his throw beat the runner by a step. A swinging strike three ended the inning. Joe made eye contact with Joey and Howie as he trotted into the dugout.
* * *
The Phils nearly batted around with Clay hitting into a double play to end the top of the third. Joe went out on the mound with a four run lead.
* * *
Seven, eight and the pitcher made it interesting by hitting pop-outs down the opposite foul lines sending Weinstein and Cater to circus catches in fair territory. They avoided collisions with Gonzalez and Taylor respectively. Once through the line-up and the Mets were dialing in on the no-seamer.
* * *
Joe hit the second pitch on the screws to the shortstop who didn't move an inch. Gonzalez and Cater struck out. Joe drained an energy drink before taking the mound in the surprise inning.
* * *
Nobody was paying attention to his warm up fastballs or curveballs as the hitters were getting helmets, gloves and lumber.
* * *
The lead off hitter in the fourth was not ready for the 88 mph fastball at the knees followed by a knuckler and a curveball that bent him outward as he lunged at the ball that started on the outside corner and drifted towards Bayonne. The two-hole hitter watched this from the on-deck circle and approached the plate looking for guidance from the third base coach who went through a series of signs and offered no verbal encouragement. He looked at two knuckleballs for strikes and lunged at a curve that was well off the plate. It took only four pitches to dispatch the third hitter. Lee was left on the on-deck circle. Joe had awoken the sleeping bear. As he made his way off the mound. Howie and Joey were pumping their arms in the air like truckers on the air-horn.
* * *
Tony Covington sent a towering fly ball to the track for the last out of the top-half of the fifth. The wind pushed the ball back into play. Joe took comfort in this as it would take a mammoth shot on his slow-pitch knuckle ball.
* * *
Lee's stance gave Clay all he needed to know, so he signaled Joe to feed him a steady diet of no-seamers. The swings reminded everybody what it was like when Average Joe first burst on the baseball scene. As the next two batters made their way into the box and changed their stances during their at-bats, Clay was able to direct what pitch he wanted and where. Joe obliged. In two short innings, good wood was a thing of the past.
* * *
Both teams were huddling in the dugouts. the topic was what Joe was going to throw. The Phillies could settle on knuckleballs for the rest of the contest and with the wind blowing in, it would take an awful lot of base hits to overcome their lead that could still grow. The Mets had to think about getting just one hit with a pitcher that was dealing.
* * *
Clay said, "I like this approach. We haven't seen any decent contact since the first inning. They are trying to play catch up."
* * *
Vic Sievers. "Let's not get cute out there. Keep on doing what your doing."
* * *
Joe and Clay nodded.
* * *
Doc visited between hitters. "Pound the strike zone and get ahead of them early in the count."
* * *
Ennis made like he was getting a drink and paused in front of the battery mates."Make sure to exaggerate your range of motion between outs and when you up to bat. Want to stay loose out there."
* * *
Joe nodded.
* * *
Artie strolled by, "Your pitch count is great. Your strike to ball ratio is over 4 to 1.
* * *
Joe nodded again.
* * *
Ellis offered Joe some Double-Bubble. "Hey D We have your back, go out there and have fun".
* * *
Joe accepted the gift with a fist bump. The 800 pound Gorilla in the dugout is the perfect game, Joe thought as he put on his batting gloves and helmet. He made his way to the on deck circle.
* * *
He waved his bat to Howie and Joey and they waved back. He stretched his hammies and hip flexors. Joe waggled the bat over his head followed by figure 8s. Stretch and stay loose. Stretch and stay loose.
* * *
Clay popped up and with two outs Joe wasn't sure what to expect. He corkscrewed on the first slider, watched a fastball nip the inside corner and swung like a rusty gate at the second slider that kicked up dirt.
* * *
Clay trotted out to Joe with his cap and glove and said, "Ain't nothing to it but to do it".
* * *
He was happy just to take the sign, throw to the glove. It was pitch and catch, one batter at a time.
* * *
Joe had the bottom of the order coming up. He stretched. He threw fastballs and curves in warm-ups. First pitch was hit back to Joe for an ground out. The number eight hitter was a late season call up playing his first game in the major leagues and he was looking for his first hit. The young man looked to be no older than Joey, Hot Shot or Tommy Callahan. Joe missed with a knuckleball. He got the ball back and threw from the stretch another knuckleball that the kid fouled off. The young man is a crisp uniform with a high number on the back had choked up and stood in a crouch reminiscent of the best hitter that the game had even seen. Joe's next no-seamer baffled him completely for strike two. Hitting right-handed, he fouled off a curve that came in on his hands and would have been ball two. Ball two came in the form of a floater that even got away from Clay. He fouled off a knuckler and another one and yet another one. Each time, the fouls were getting more desperate. Joe got his sign and threw the fastball that was a little low and it froze the rookie who was given a reprieve and he had a full count.
* * *
Joe walked to the back of the mound. Let the kid think about this next pitch. Joe came back to the rubber and stared in for the sign. Clay dropped down the fist. Knuckleball. Joe stretched and tossed the tenth pitch of this at-bat it like he had thousands of times in the last 13 years. Most of them to boys that could be this kid's country cousin. The rookie crouched even more as the ball made its way to the plate, its movement was a guess to Joe, Clay, the rookie and the umpire. Clay held his glove right where he caught it. He froze the mitt. Later on replay, and slo-motion and from two different camera angles, it looked like it passed outside of the strike zone before finding the mitt just behind it. A gutsy take by the youngster, an even gutsier call by Blue, who in recent years had taken some heat on questionable calls that ended perfect game bids, but it was a ball four that was called ball four. The standing room only crowd that was out of their seats for this improbable duel, rained down their applause like a heavy thunderstorm onto the field.
* * *
Clay trotted out to the mound and dropped the ball in Joe's glove. "It was too close, I won't know until we see it on replay."
* * *
Joe took three deep breaths, and tried to put immortality behind him while he looked in for the sign. After taking a first pitch strike, the pinch-hitter for the pitcher hit into an easy double play and Joe was back on the bench next to Clay.
* * *
"Give him credit Joe, he didn't chase two balls that were close enough to be strikes. He fouled off a couple of your nastiest no-seamers before laying off the last one. The call could have gone either way. I held my glove there long enough to give Blue my opinion."
* * *
Joe wasn't second guessing Clay or the umpire He had total confidence in his catcher and his fielders. His mind was clear and he was happy that nobody was hitting his fastball or curve. He felt strong and loose. "Its the guys that aren't married to their swing that have the best chance of adjusting. We've always said that. He didn't hit any of them fair. He just outlasted me. Last time, I looked they didn't take any of our runs of the board for walking him, did they?" With that Joe sat down with only a little of the what- might-have-beens. He still wanted to get nine more outs. One more time through the line-up.
* * *
The Phillies tacked on a couple of more runs on the first reliever before the second one recorded the final out of the top of the Seventh. Joe and Clay sat together for the playing of God Bless America. As they were heading up the steps onto the field, Joe look at Clay and said, "I'd like to dance with the girl I brought for the rest of the night."
* * *
Clay nodded in understanding. Joe was sure that neither of them wanted to jinx this opportunity.
* * *
Joe stood on the mound at Citi-Field and took it all in. His warm-ups were a couple of each pitch he threw that night. The Mets dugout was staring at the warm-ups now as if they trying to read tea leaves. After Clay's throw to second and with the ball zipping around the horn, it was Ellis who looked Joe dead in the eye and said. "Do it. Just do it."
before giving him the rock.
* * *
The lead off hitter was taking a different stance and kept that stance through the four pitches it took Joe to strike him out. The second man in the order exaggerated his swings, he was showing confidence to all. Richards charged in and called Clay and Joe off of a foul pop for out number two. With Lee on deck, Joe focused on Clay's mitt and a first pitch grounder to Weinstein ended the seventh. Six more to go.
* * *
Joe batted in the eighth and also grounded to short shop. Usually a burner down the line. Joe ran at 3/4 speed. No time to pull a hamstring.
* * *
Back on the mound, he knew the Mets were playing to spoil his no-hitter. The drama increased as Hank Lee stepped into the box. Joe had thought about drilling him in the ribs again, but that didn't serve any purpose and would deflect attention from the true matter at hand. His last two warm-ups had been curve balls to help Lee remember that time in front of a national audience.
* * *
On an 0-2 count, Joe was not going to throw a waste pitch and Clay wanted the no-seamer. Joe threw it and completed his delivery. Hank "Bruiser" Lee took a vicious cut and slammed a line drive back up the middle. Joe reached out with his bare hand catching a piece of it. Octavio Taylor was off on the crack of the bat and had seen it clearly, no thought went into the adjustment he made as the line drive was now deflected towards his side of the hole. Joe hand had taken most of the steam out of the ball and it started skipping along the infield dirt. Taylor laid out and back-handed the ball before it reached the safety of the cooling outfield turf. From his knees, he fired a bullet to Ellis Long on his glove side, allowing Ellis to stretch out and snag it before Lee's foot hit the bag. Blue got it right and the number one out was recorded. Clay circled out of his first base sprint on the back-up to Joe at the mound. Doc was out of the dugout along with Harmon and the trainer. Richards came in from third as did Weinstein who had gone into the hole behind Taylor. Octavio was last to go the gathering. Joe was first to give him a hand bump. Yeah it stings, that was stupid. I hope its not broken. Save a no-hitter and go out for the season when they need you the most. Stupido.
* * *
The ball had ricocheted off of the meaty part of his palm below his pinky finger. It began to swell immediately.
* * *
Doc asked first, "How bad is it?"
* * *
The trainer was holding Joe's hand out but wasn't about to probe until he heard the answer.
* * *
Joe gave him the honest answer. "It hurts like hell."
* * *
The trainer added, "We won't know until we look at the X-rays".
* * *
"What is it with you and the Bruiser anyway?" Ellis asked with a smile trying to add a little levity to the situation.
* * *
"Well, he didn't get the bag the last time either as I recall." answered Clay.
Joe had no thoughts of cute retorts as his hand was throbbing.
* * *
The umpire joined the circle and peered in over Dick Richard's shoulder.
* * *
Doc made the command decision. "I don't care if you have to underhand it up there. Get five more and we can amputate later." A bad joke, but it spoke volumes. He wasn't taking the ball out of a guy's hand that was throwing a no-hitter, no matter how much it swelled up. The baseball gods would never forgive him.
* * *
Joe couldn't grip his knuckleball without the pressure on the side seam from his pinky, but he could still throw the now slower fastball and even slower curve.
* * *
His second pitch, a low inside fastball to the next guy was a 9 iron to dead centerfield. Covington went back to the track and gloved it a foot from the wall. The wind pushed it back into play.
* * *
Joe turned and smiled. He was throwing batting practice to major leaguers. All the pressure was off of his shoulders. They had to get the hit. They had to find spots between fielders to drop a base hit. If they get a hit, he hits the showers and gets the hand looked at.
* * *
The next batter, a lefty got a steady diet of curve balls and took the last one the opposite way. Weinstein took the one-hopper between he and Richards and jump-threw a one-hopper to Ellis who scooped it out of the dirt for the third out. Three more to go.
* * *
Joe turned towards the stands and gave a thumbs up to Joey and Howie. The pinky curled in and the motion was more like a surfer signaling a gnarly wave was approaching.
* * *
The ice pack for the hand and warm-up jacket for the shoulder was waiting for him at his perch next to Vic.
* * *
The Phillies were flying around the dugout, they wanted to rush the top of the ninth before Joe's hand worsened. The Mets were not tardy, but certainly weren't going to cooperate. The hitters got up to the plate and were hacking. Three ground outs on 6 pitches and Joe slid the jacket off and left the leaky ice bag on Vic's knee. "I'll be back for that in a couple minutes, okay Vic?" Joe smiled. There had been zero conversation on the bench about his hand or the hitters he would face or the weather or where they would be going eat after the game. The last time Joe had a no-hitter was at Phantasy Camp and he didn't know it until Champy told him that he lost it. Nobody wanted to ruin his concentration.
