Chapter 780 - V3 ch15 (1/2)
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.
”You're 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.