Jimmy swung at the first ball, disdained the next two, had a second strike called on him, started for the next and changed his mind and was glad of it and was finally passed when what Saylor had meant for a strike over the inner corner went wrong. With two on bases, Brooks was the man of the hour, but Brooks was no hitter and only stood there while Saylor fooled him on two slow ones that went for strikes, wasted a wide one on him and then made him bite at a drop that actually dusted the plate. Although Brooks played the game to the last and sped for his base the ball was recovered by the catcher and got there well ahead of him.
Dud had as much hope of hitting safely as he had of knocking out a home-run. And he knew very well that he would be doing only what was expected of him if he struck out as badly as Brooks. But he wanted very much to do something a little better than that. As he dug his toes and faced Saylor, he recalled Ben Myatt’s remark that a pitcher who could hit was pretty useful. And Dud wanted to make himself just that! And so he tried as hard as he knew how to keep his eyes on the pitcher and study him and then on the ball, and study that, and so see if—
“One ball!” said the umpire.
Dud took a breath. All right so far. It had been too high and he had known it. He wondered if Saylor would try it again or—
“Str-r-r-ike!”
Well, that had certainly fooled him! He thought surely it was going wide. Saylor had some curve on that one! Dud glued his eyes to the ball once more, swung and missed.
“Str-r-rike two!”
That was awful! He was as good as gone now! Unless—
“Two balls!”
Perhaps Saylor would miss it this time. Then it would be three balls and two strikes and Saylor would have to pitch! Just why Dud offered at the next delivery he didn’t know then and couldn’t have explained later. It had all the ear-marks of a fast one on the outside of the plate, but for some reason Dud let go at it, and [the ball, curving inward, met his bat fairly and screeched off into short center], low enough to have been speared by second-baseman had he been two yards nearer its path and long enough to send Boynton and Jimmy hustling home. Jimmy beat out that throw by inches only, but beat it nevertheless, while Dud, seeing his chance, streaked to second. And Grafton went fairly delirious with joy!