Chapter 72

Brock, Al and Josh stood in the dugout while the Giants took the field. Brock had to chuckle when San Francisco's second baseman had a throw from third bounce off his chest. The guy picked the ball up and threw it to home before turning his attention back to what had distracted him in the first place: a parade of comely women walking down the aisle to sit along the third base line.

It appeared the whole group had made their appearance for the series opener and it appeared they had coordinated their outfit selections. All of them wore tight, short skirts and blouses open at the neck. Even Esmi and Mandy were dressed similarly. Esmi was chatting with Susan and Tara as they walked to their seats. Mandy followed behind with Randi. Meredith was talking with Emmy and Melanie was conferring with Jen. Even Hailey and Karen were with them – and dressed in the same fashion. Chris brought up the rear with two other bodyguards mixed into the group.

The women in the lead saw the three players standing outside the dugout and, after a hasty conference; the group waved and blew them a kiss.

"If we're in a tight race in the last game, I'm going to have them show up in bikinis," LaCross said from behind the group, startling the players.

"I was thinking we could have lingerie night," Josh put in. "We close with the Padres at home. Can you imagine those 20-year-old kids trying to play if that group wandered down in their bras and panties?"

"I can't imagine you guys playing much better," LaCross said as he tacked the preliminary lineup to the wall. Brock found he was playing right field that night.

"I put you as far away from the distractions as I could," LaCross said when he saw Brock run his finger down the card. "The Giants have five lefties they'll start against Udo tonight. I figure you'll get some work in out there."

"Is Cesar cool with this?" Brock asked Al when the manager had ducked back into the clubhouse.

"He seems to be," Al answered. "I don't know what LaCross said to you but he pretty much told us that it was going to be this way no matter if we were alright with it or not."

"Yeah, that's what I got, too," Brock replied. Josh nodded his agreement. He had spoken to the manager when he first arrived, at the same time Wade and Broderick Williams had been pulled into the office.

"So you think he'll give me some pointers?" Brock asked.

"He'll help you out," Al confirmed. "I'll let you know if you need to move, too. Don't worry about it. You did fine in Tampa and they're a lot better than these guys."

The lineup had Milton leading off and playing left field; Hartman batting second and playing second; Wade playing first and batting third; Al in center and hitting cleanup; Josh at third and hitting fifth; Brock in right and batting sixth; Driesbach at short in the seven spot and Sanchez catching and hitting eighth.

On paper, it looked good, particularly with Udo on the mound. The kid didn't have the stuff to be a staff ace but he certain had shown he had the make-up. He had battled through injuries and overwork to post a 13-6 record. His ERA was just above 3.00. Just as importantly, his control was much improved from the year before. He averaged less than two walks a game.

If nothing else, the series in Miami had given the bullpen a rest. LaCross hadn't used any of his regulars in three days, a respite that every team sorely needed this late in the year. Selecting a spot starter for the last game in Miami had given his starting staff and extra day off, too.

The Giants were in the opposite boat. Although the Padres had a far worse record than the Marlins, they had given the Giants a battle in every contest.

Al suggested taking up a collection to send to the Padres players but everyone figured the owner would intercept the money and put it in his pocket. It's what he'd done with the luxury tax money the team received from higher-revenue clubs, rather than invest it in better players as it was intended.

Worse yet for San Francisco, the last three games of the series had been slugfests, meaning the manager had run though his relievers in short order. The last game, a 10-9 win for the Padres, had taken 13 innings to complete. The Giants had been left with only their starting rotation unused and one of their top relievers had wound up pitching three innings and throwing close to 50 pitches.

But it was Giants-Dodgers, one of the fiercest rivalries in sports. So all bets were off about which way the series would go.

Playing right field for an early evening game in late September wasn't as easy as everyone seemed to think it would be. The alternating shadows and sunlight made every fly ball an adventure for Brock. Twice he reacted when the ball was hit to center instead of right. He tried sunglasses but that made it even more difficult to see. While the batter was in the sun, every field position past the catcher was in the shade.

He broached the subject with Cesar and Al in the dugout.

"Nothing you can do for it," Cesar said with a shrug. "It's something only experience can help you with. Your instincts will eventually tell you where the ball is going."

That information wasn't the least bit helpful.

Brock's lack of experience cost the team in the third. Udo walked the No. 8 hitter in Giants lineup and the pitcher sacrificed him to second. Jergens struck out the leadoff hitter and worked the No. 2 guy in the lineup into a 1-2 hole.

The fourth pitch of the at-bat looked like a strike to everyone in the stadium but the home plate umpire. The batter even started to walk back to the dugout before the ump declared it was Ball Two. Frustrated, Udo left a pitch out over the plate and the hitter got enough wood on the ball to send it toward right field.

Brock's first reaction was to take two steps backward at the sound of the bat hitting the ball. It was something John Milton had drilled into him during their brief lessons on playing the outfield: a misplayed ball in front of you is a single; a misplayed ball behind you is a triple.

Within a second, Brock knew that was the case this time. He sprinted forward in a vain attempt to make up for his mistake but the ball hit the grass 10 feet in front of him. The runner on second scored with ease as Brock disgustedly threw the ball back to Driesbach, who was covering second base.

Udo got out of the inning with no more damage but Brock was still irritated when he got back to the dugout and sought out the pitcher to apologize.

"It's not your fault I walked the leadoff hitter," Udo replied. Brock knew that other pitchers on the staff probably wouldn't have been as forgiving.

"Yeah, still, you should have gotten out of it," Brock told him. "I completely fucked that one up."

"He broke his bat," Udo said. "I thought it was hit harder than it was, too, and I was a lot closer than you were. Don't worry about it."

Brock nodded his thanks at being let off the hook but he still dwelled on the mistake. It wouldn't go down in the book as an error but he was certain that it probably should have.

"Forget about it," Cesar urged. He had come down the dugout to sit beside Brock when he saw how upset the outfielder was. "That one is finished. You can't go back and fix it and you can't take it with you to the plate. I've been where you are. I've sat here and rehashed plays I should have made and plays that I shouldn't until the whole game got away from me."

"You would have caught it," Brock declared.

"Probably," Cesar admitted. "Today, I probably would have caught it. The second time I played the position and the first time in this stadium in the afternoon, there's no way I would have. Look, you've had no real instruction on playing out there. So I'll give you a quick run through. Your eyes see how hard the batter swung; your ears hear the sound the bat made. Your brain puts those two things together and tells your muscles to either move backward or move forward. That's the first reaction. In the millisecond from first reaction to second, your eyes and ears take in a thousand more pieces of information. They relay it to the brain and your brain tells you to move left or right, back or forward.

"You have about three or four seconds from the time the ball is hit to get to where it is going to land. Yes, if your brain had interpreted the signals correctly, you would have caught the ball. But it had no frame of reference to put it into perspective. The batter swung like he meant it. The bat sounded like he hit it solidly. Your brain has seen those signs before and it meant a ball was hit well.

"Now it knows what a broken bat sounds like. It will take that in and use it the next time it has to process similar stimuli. What you have to do is stop over-thinking the play. Trust your instincts out there. If your mind tells you to go back, go back. If it tells you to go forward, go forward. But you do not have enough time to evaluate and ponder each little bit of information. Inaction is worse than any action you might take. It was far better that you misjudged a ball hit in front of you than one hit behind you. Regardless, that play isn't coming back so stop thinking about it and start thinking about the next one."

Cesar was one of the team's main jokers. He was the one who gave the shaving cream pies as a guy did a TV interview. He was the one who would blow a bubble and then set the gum on top of an unsuspecting teammate's hat. He was not known as a guy who would give serious advice on a subject so Brock tried to take his words to heart. Still, they didn't lessen the disappointment that he felt about allowing a run to cross.

The Giants held the one-run lead through the fifth inning. The Dodgers had gotten hits, putting two runners aboard in the third and fourth innings, but they hadn't been able to cross the plate and tie the game. The Giants pitcher had induced inning-ending double plays both times Los Angeles had put runners in scoring position with less than two outs. But his pitch count was getting up there and the Giants bullpen was running on fumes.

Josh led off the Dodgers sixth by working a full count before flying to left. That brought Brock to the plate with one away and no one on.

The first pitch was in the dirt and the second just caught the outside corner to even the count at one ball, one strike. Brock took the third pitch for Strike Two. He thought it was even farther outside that the second pitch but he didn't say anything to the umpire. This umpire was known to have a shifting strike zone, depending on the pitcher and the hitter.

The fourth pitch was down and in for Ball Two but the next one was close enough that Brock had to swing. He knew he couldn't do much with it so he did what he could to foul it off in order to stay at the plate. He caught a little bit of the ball and sent it toward the Dodgers' dugout.

The next offering was similar and Brock did the same thing. The pitcher was content to keep the ball on the outer portion of the plate. If he crossed up and came inside, Brock probably would strike out. The at-bat lasted for seven more pitches. Brock would foul off the ones that were outside the strike zone but that he was pretty sure the umpire would call Strike Three. He worked the count to three-and-two and the pitcher was clearly frustrated. The 15th pitch of the at-bat was well out of the strike zone and Brock trotted to first base with a walk.

The pitcher glared at him the whole way up the baseline and didn't move his hands from his hips until San Francisco's pitching coach came out to the mound for a visit. The visit didn't seem to calm the pitcher down any because his first pitch to Matt Driesbach was outside.

Brock stood at first and glanced to the third base for the signs. There was a chance LaCross would put on the hit and run or maybe even have Driesbach sacrifice – but Brock doubted it. Danys Sanchez and his .202 batting average was in the eighth spot and Udo Jergens was in the ninth. Giving up an out to put a runner into scoring position when you had no one to drive him home was a non-starter.

The signs from the third base confused Brock - to the point that he removed his batting helmet and wiped his brow. It was the team's sign that a base runner didn't understand the signs and wanted them repeated. A batter would back out of the box and run his hand up the barrel of the bat if he was unsure of what the coach wanted.

The third base coach didn't repeat the signs. He simply nodded his head toward the batter. That meant the base runner hadn't misinterpreted the signals so the coach wasn't going to repeat them and let the other team know something might be in the works.

The coach had given the signal for Brock to steal second base. He had stolen five bases in seven attempts as a rookie but all of those came after he was moved to the second spot in the order. Four of his five stolen bases had come as the back-end of a double-steal, with Milton taking third and Brock moving to second. He was only 1-for-3 in straight steal attempts the year before and he hadn't attempted a stolen base yet this season.

Still, he did his best to act normal as he took his lead. It was only as the pitcher went into his stretch that Brock understood the reasoning behind LaCross' move. The pitcher didn't even glance back over his shoulder when he came to a set position. As soon as he made another move, Brock took off for second.

The pitch was inside but Driesbach swung at it anyway. He had no intention of making contact. He simply wanted to ensure the catcher had something else to consider as he shifted to catch the pitch and made a throw to second. The catcher was already out of his crouch by the time the ball reached him and his throw to second was accurate.

If the pitcher had taken even a moment to freeze Brock at first with a glance over his shoulder, Brock would have been out by five feet. But with the extra jump afforded from the pitcher's negligence, Brock was able to slide in feet first under the tag. Still, the play was a lot closer than it probably should have been. Milton or even Al would have taken second without a throw in the circumstances.

The crowd cheered when the umpire gave the "safe" sign. Brock asked for time out and stood up to dust the dirt off his pants. He got a smattering of applause from the third base seats when he bent forward facing away from them to get the dirt off his lower leg. The Giants second baseman had taken the throw and offered a smile. It was the same guy who had almost gotten brained by a ball during warm-ups because the women behind third base had distracted him.

"We need that by the Bay," he remarked.

"It's a shame we close up there this year," Brock joked. "Our last home game is bikini night for them."

The man had started to move back to his position but stopped and turned toward the base.

"No way!" he said. "Man, I might skip our last series just to come down here for that."

Brock offered a chuckle as the second baseman resumed his position, shaking his head all the way back to his spot between first and second.

The pitcher was more cognizant of the runner now that Brock was on second but Brock was staying put. The play at second had been close enough that he would probably be out by 20 feet if he tried to steal third (it was a much shorter throw for the catcher).

After another called strike, Driesbach took a swing at the 1-2 offering. He got over top of the ball and drove it into the dirt in front of home plate. Brock was off to third as soon as the ball was hit; glancing in at the catcher to make sure the guy didn't try to throw to where Brock was headed. The ball had shot straight into the air almost 20 feet and the catcher had just fielded it when Brock was only a few feet from third. The guy took a look in Brock's direction and shifted to throw to first. Driesbach was running hard from the outset, staying in foul territory but close to the line. The catcher's glance to third made the throw to first more difficult and it tailed away from the baseman at the end. The first baseman had to stretch to catch the ball and barely kept his foot on the base.

His momentum caused him to pull off the base after the out was recorded and he stumbled trying to keep his feet beneath him. Brock had rounded third to watch the throw. When the first baseman had been forced to lunge, Brock took off toward home. The first baseman was a lefty, so he had to regain his balance, turn his body and make a throw before Brock covered the 85 feet that separated him from a tie ballgame.

Once again, the play was closer than Brock had thought it would be. Twenty feet from home plate, Brock realized the catcher had no plans to move from the base path. The man was a few feet in front of home plate toward third base as he awaited the return throw. Brock lowered his shoulder and set himself for the inevitable collision.

He pictured the catcher as a linebacker and recalled all the times he had lowered his shoulder to gain an extra yard when playing high school football. But Brock was larger and stronger than the last time he had worn a football helmet. He also had 80 feet of momentum behind him.

The ball arrived at almost the same instant as Brock did. Brock's shoulder hit the catcher's left arm and continued onward to his chest, driving the man backward. The impact caused the ball to ricochet off the catcher's mitt and into the catcher's face. Both men lay sprawled atop home plate as the ball caromed to the backstop.

Brock had to shift the supine catcher's legs to touch the plate to record the run. The catcher had removed his mask to make a play on the batter so the ball striking his mouth and nose had caused some damage. Brock wasn't sure but he thought he might have seen one of the man's teeth mixed in with the blood that was streaming from the guy's face. Brock didn't gloat over his fallen opponent. He simply grabbed his batting helmet that had flown off from the force of the collision and headed back to the dugout while the Giants training staff hustled onto the field.