The Hitting Zone
chapter-780

The twins were also excited to know that practice was canceled so we could watch game three from start to finish. Kyle invited Marie, but she said the girls still had practice and she didn't want to come over sweaty. Dave got the idea to invite some of the guys instead. It started with Garret and a few other pitchers that they knew.

Then it grew. Noah invited Andy and told him to bring some friends if he wanted. I sent Sean and Mitchell a text in our Spanish group chat. They agreed to come and our living room just filled up for the game three watch party.

"Well, look at this!" Mom exclaimed as she walked in the doorway of the living room. "A full house again!"

"Hey, Mom!" Dave jumped up. "Did you bring the pizza?"

"I did!" She jerked her thumb to the kitchen. "Already set them on the kitchen table. Why don't you go get the paper plates and napkins out?"

"Thanks, Mom!" Dave left first.

"Thanks, Mom!"

"Thanks, Mrs. Atkins!"

"Yeah, thanks!"

The room of almost twenty-five echoed.

"No problem." She smiled. "Waters can be found on the kitchen counter or in the fridge. I'll be in the office if you boys need anything." She waved and left.

"Your mom is so cool." Jason said, getting up from the floor. "My mom would stress out having this many boys over for dinner."

"Meh." Noah shrugged. "She's used to it. We were always a house full of boys. What's a few more? As long as we don't break anything, she's happy."

We got up and went to the kitchen for food and drink, returning to the living room just as the second inning was beginning. The first inning was uneventful for both teams. So was the second. And third. Fourth, fifth, and sixth. It was a pitcher duel.

"Why the heck is Jeremy so unlucky??" Noah groaned as we watched the Tampa shortstop make a diving stop on Jeremy's line drive. "That could have easily been a double!"

"You have to remind yourself that Tampa is in a do-or-die position." Garret said. "If they lose this game, they're done for the season."

"You think the A's are taking it easy?" Dave asked.

"Maybe not 'easy'. But they definitely don't have the same feeling as the A's." Garret answered. "Plus, you can't deny the Tampa pitcher's skill today. He's just totally dominating, throwing at the corners like that."

The A's pitcher wasn't doing that bad either, but was pulled in the sixth inning after giving up back to back hits. The replacement just made things worse, giving up a walk and then more hits, putting us in a 0-4 hole. The living room seemed to get quiet as we watched the A's come up on multiple innings.

Only Jack Maberry hitting a homerun in the top of the ninth could give us some hope. But, it wasn't enough. The A's lost 1-4, and everyone left our house in low spirits.

"I can't believe we missed out on practice for that." Noah said with disgust as we worked on our homework. He pulled out his phone. "I'm going to text Jeremy myself."

I reached out to stop him. "Don't you think he feels bad enough..?" I asked. "Would you like it if the twins told you, you need to play better?"

Noah sighed and put his phone down. "Yea, I guess. It would be like kicking him when he's down." He grinned at me. "But don't think I'll just let this slide. I'll bring it up in the future to give him a hard time. How can a MVP player just come up empty like this?"

I smiled and gave a small laugh. "You're the one that says bad games happen."

"Yea...to humans." He scoffed.

Noah's bad mood last all night, all Tuesday, and throughout Wednesday, up until game four started. The A's used Tuesday as a travel day, and didn't start game four until 6:30pm. That meant we had to practice and do our homework before settling down to watch in the living room. We didn't invite all the guys like we did Monday, but some still came over like Garret, Bryce, Brian, and Jason.

Mom didn't order pizza again and instead cooked up some sides like mashed potatoes and green beans, while having dad grill some steaks.

"I think I really might move in." Garret said happily as he cut up his steak.

"You act like you don't get to eat at home." Dave rolled his eyes.

Garret shrugged. "It's a different feeling when you're eating with friends. You were born with brothers. You don't know what it's like to be on your own."

"I like eating here too." I told Garret.

Garret poked me in the side. "Yep...looks like it."

Noah laughed. "Are you calling him fat?"

"It does look like he's finally put on some weight." Garret nodded.

I crossed my arms over my stomach, not liking the stares.

Garret laughed. "It's a good thing. You have to have some extra weight so you can go through a growth spurt. Look at Noah. He's losing some of his face fat as he grows."

Noah sat up straighter. "5'8". Six feet isn't too far."

Kyle laughed. "Ha! I was six feet tall my sophomore year. You'll have to wait until your senior year at the rate you're going."

"Maybe you won't even reach six feet." Dave suggested with a smirk.

Noah rolled his eyes. "I'm just starting to go through puberty. I have time. Plus, Mom and Dad are both over six feet tall. I better get to be that tall."

The atmosphere was much lighter than Monday's. It helped that the A's got up early thanks to a three-run homer from Jack Maberry. We watched and cheered from the couch as the A's won game four 6-2. They won their first series and would get to move on to the American League Championship Series.

"They're going to play the Yankees!" Noah shouted as the game came to an end.

"Thank god they won game four. If they had to play a game five, that would give the yanks even more time off to rest." Dave shook his head. "It's going to be tough. The Yankees have a good team this year."

"Yea, because they blow through their salary cap and choose to pay the luxury tax." Kyle shook his head. "So annoying. I wish it didn't come down to who pays the most for the best players."

"We just paid a lot for Jeremy." I pointed out.

"That's different." Kyle told me.

Noah pulled me away. "Don't bother getting into it with them. They just love hating the Yankees. I can't imagine what would it be like if they got picked to play there. I would tell every news outlet how much they used to bash the Yankees."

I followed him upstairs. "When do they play against them? Who's home first?"

"I'll look it up." Noah shrugged. "It'll probably be harder or at least more expensive for Jeremy to get tickets to any of these games."

"Why?" I asked, pulling out my phone once we got to our room.

"Because it's the Yankees! Their fans are everywhere and will drive up the ticket prices." He sighed. "But I won't be too greedy. As long as the A's win then I'll obediently watch from home."

Obediently? I laughed.