“Come on, Harry!” he called, cupping his hands to his mouth to make a megaphone.
Harry dug in. The next pitch was a fastball, but Harry was ready. He sent a long fly to left, where the Giants’ fielder was parked under it.
As soon as the Giants player caught the ball, Derek took off for home. The throw came in way too late. 2–0, Yankees! And they’d gotten the second run without even getting a hit!
Ryan struck out to end the Yankees’ half of the inning, but now, at least, the Yanks had a bit of a cushion. If their pitching held up, they would pull off the biggest upset of the entire season!
Harry had already thrown a lot of pitches in the first three innings. Now it started to show. He walked the first two men he faced, wasting thirteen pitches in the process. Derek knew the coach would have to make a pitching change soon, because Harry was clearly running out of bullets and gas.
Coach K called time and jogged out to the mound. Derek walked closer to hear the conversation. “You okay, Hicks?”
“I’m good,” Harry answered, looking down at the ground. He sure didn’t seem good, Derek observed.
“All right, go get ’em,” Coach K said with a pat on Harry’s shoulder, and he headed back to the bench.
Harry struck out the next batter by fooling him on a series of pitches. But the third strike got away from Miles, who’d come in to replace JJ behind the plate. Although he tagged the hitter out, both runners advanced without a throw, and now it was second and third with one out.
That wound up hurting the Yankees on the very next pitch. The hitter lofted a fly ball to Vijay, in right. He caught it for the second out, but the runner scored from third easily, to make it a 2–1 game. Meanwhile, the runner at second advanced to third.
Derek concentrated as hard as he could, just hoping that Harry would find some magic to get them out of this inning with only the one run.
But the magic they needed turned out to be in Derek’s glove. The batter hit a pop fly to shallow left. It wasn’t deep enough for Tre’ to come in from left and catch it. It wasn’t hit high enough for Pete to get there from third.
It was up to him, and Derek was already running full tilt, looking back over his shoulder as he went, trying to keep the ball in his sights. He heard everyone screaming as he leapt forward, his arm outstretched to the limit. The ball hit the webbing, then shook loose and flew back into the air!
Derek rolled over twice, and saw the ball coming back down just to his left. He reached out—and came down with it!
Three outs! And the Yankees were still in the lead, 2–1!
“Play of the game, Jeter!” Coach K said as Derek’s teammates all gathered around to high-five him.
“Let’s go!” he told them. “It’s not over yet!” And to Avery, who already had a bat in her hands, ready to lead off, Derek said, “Come on, Ave—get us started!”
After switching around to hit righty against the Giants’ lefty reliever, Avery let the first two pitches go by, getting a good look at the reliever’s style.
Then, with a 1–1 count, she jumped on a fastball and lined a double to right center! As she reached second, she lifted both arms in the air, then pointed to Derek and the others.
“Way to go!” Derek yelled back at her. “That’s it!”
The mood was electric on the Yankees bench, and when JJ worked a walk, the voltage went even higher.
Tre’ would normally have been up next. But for the fifth inning, Coach had made his mandatory substitutions. Tre’, a much better hitter, had to watch from the bench as Miles struck out.
Elliott was next. He swung weakly at two pitches, then got hit in the arm with a changeup. “Ow!” he yelled, but nevertheless, he was smiling as he jogged down to first.
Now the bases were full of Yankees. Vijay would have been up, but he’d been replaced by Norman, who didn’t get that many at bats, and wasn’t used to hitting lefty pitching.
Norman ducked out of the way of two pitches that wound up curving in for strikes. Then he whiffed at a fastball way outside to end the Yankees’ half of the inning, stranding three runners and dashing the team’s hopes.
As Avery came back to the dugout, Derek tried to give her a fist bump for getting that clutch hit, but she ignored him, lost in her own frustration.
Coach K came up to her. “Mullins,” he said. “You’re pitching the fifth. Get out there and warm up.”
Avery had been okay today, until that moment. But as Coach K walked away from her, Derek saw her wince and falter, clutching her stomach again.
“Hey,” he said. “What’s up with you, anyway? You should be seeing a doctor about that.”
“NOT NOW!” she growled at him through gritted teeth. After grabbing a ball from the bench, she slammed it into her mitt and headed off toward the mound, leaving Derek staring after her.
Chapter Ten FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL
Derek could tell that Avery was in high-tension mode. Her shoulders were high up, almost to her ears, a sure sign she wasn’t feeling loose and easy.
But Derek didn’t need to see all that to know. Because he knew her, and he had some idea of what she was going through inside.
The Giants were watching as she warmed up, making quiet jokes about her, and cracking one another up. Pretty cocky for a team that’s losing, Derek thought.
But he understood why. The Giants hadn’t lost all year. Why shouldn’t they expect to win every time they took the field? A one-run deficit? That was not going to faze them. And a girl pitching? They
