vs. Sundbyberg

I was late to the game and caked in alcohol. Since I was pitching on 3 days rest,and the only chance we had was if I went 9 innings, I decided "warming up" was overrated. I did my stretches, made about 15 throws, and marched out to the mound. My catcher was Alexis, our usual starting shortstop. He took a while to get on the field, causing the ump to limit me to four warm-up pitches. This is how I began the game against the best team in the league.

In the first inning there were 2 hard hits off me. I've given up maybe 3 hard hits in two other starts. Luckily, you could park a Buick in the strike zone, so that helped. Also, there was an error and an unearned run. The 2nd inning, the leadoff batter hit a triple and I struck out the next two guys. The next batter hit a soft ball to our third baseman who made a poor throw, before the final batter of the inning struck out. Two unearned runs. Things were uneventful in the third, but the unbelievable happened in the bottom of the fourth.

For starters, I got on base with an infield single to the hole at short. I'm pretty sure it skyrocketed my average about .100 points. Then, I stole second. Wait, it gets even more unbelievable. The batter behind me gets his own infield single and steals second. Our next guy gets out, but Joaquin whacks a triple! Holy God we're tied. Our next batter walks, and then gets in a run-down that scores Joaquin. We're ahead? Hot damn! Now it's up to a fully warmed-up me to hold the lead. Here comes our 2nd win!

I blew it pretty quick. In the top of the 5th, the first batter reached on an error and stole second. I got the next two outs which put the guy on third, but walked the next batter. He stole second as well. The following batter hit a single which lead to two more unearned runs, and a string of expletives from me while the ball was in flight. After making all the women in the stands blush (they were there for the other team), I struck out the final batter of the inning.

I didn't give up another run and pitched the complete game. I got up again with 2 outs and a man on second in the bottom of the 9th. My beloved Buick-sized strike zone came back to bite me and I struck out looking. It was a ball, but it was a strike all night. We lost 4-3. I struck out 14, walked 1, and gave up 9 hits. I was also 1-4 at the plate. Apparently there's 5 players from the Swedish National on Sundbyberg too. I haven't seen the Swedish National team play, but I'm pretty sure my Sagecocks could take them. Or at least it would be close.