[CHAPTER XXI]
AIR-TIGHT PITCHING
O’Connor had a big reputation throughout the league as a heavy batter, and he was. But Joe and Jim had noticed that he invariably swung at comparatively low balls. High ones he did not like, so, of course, Jim was careful to give him nothing but high balls. O’Connor waited grimly for one to come across that was to his liking, but he waited in vain. Two strikes had been called on him, with no balls, and he realized that the time for waiting had gone by. The next one that Jim pitched was a high fast one that just clipped the corner of the plate. “Str-r-rike three,” chanted the umpire, and O’Connor threw his bat to the ground and walked over to the dugout.
“What’s the matter?” inquired Mylert, as the discomfited batsman passed him. “It looked as though you were standing there waiting for next Christmas to come. I thought you said you were going to win this game.”
O’Connor glared at him, but could not think of a fitting reply. The next man to face Jim was Jenkins. Jenkins was not a heavy batter, but when he did connect with the ball he was so fast on the bases that he often stretched an ordinary one base hit into a two-bagger. But his speed availed him little to-day, for he never got away from the home plate. Three times he swung wildly at the whispering breezes, and then retired sheepishly to the bench. The next man up fouled to Mylert for an easy out, and the Pittsburghs’ half of the inning was over, with no runs scored by either side.
“Good work, Jim,” chortled Robson. “Hold ’em down tight, and in a little while we’ll blow their pitcher out of the box. The kid’s good, all right, but he lacks steadiness. If we can once get a man or two on the sacks, he’ll blow up with a bang that they can hear over in Hoboken.”
But it was not an easy thing to “get a man or two on the sacks.” Miles seemed to get better and better as the innings began to mount up, and the game settled down into a spectacular pitchers’ duel. As the end of the fourth inning the score still stood nothing to nothing, and bade fair to stay that way. The mightiest batsmen on both sides were mowed down one after the other.
In spite of the gnawing anxiety that bit at his heart whenever he thought of his missing chum, Jim was pitching the game of his life.