PITCH “Scratch” Recap

By Ruby Campos

A Night of Almosts

Still reeling from the bombshell Mike dropped at the end of the last episode, the only thing anyone seems to be able to talk about is the likelihood the likelihood of him actually leaving the Padres for the Cubs. No one on the team wants him to go, in fact the only one who seems to want Mike to go is Charlie, but he’s more interested in making successful trades and deals than the actual players. In fact, throughout the episode, it is difficult to tell how Mike even feels about the imminent trade.

Meanwhile on Ginny’s front, she is working with a gaming company and doing some shots for animation when the CEO of the company asks her out on a date. She seems interested in him but turns him down anyways, saying she simply doesn’t have the time.

Later at Blip and Evelyn’s house, Will and Evelyn finally decide to officially go through with Will’s sports bar idea that he introduced in the previous episode. Blip and Evelyn also reprimand Ginny a bit for turning down the billionaire CEO and tell her she needs to go out and have fun for once.

Amelia hears about Will and Evelyn’s business plans starting to come through and finds out that Ginny wrote her brother a check to get him started. Knowing about Will’s past businesses and not being related to him, Amelia is very wary about Ginny investing her own money into something that will most likely fail. Ginny however, pays no attention to Amelia’s concerns. She also tries to voice those concerns to Will’s new business partner, Evelyn but she assures her that she has everything under control.

After finding her cleats nailed to her cubby, and figuring this was Mike’s way of saying goodbye, she goes to talk to him and try to convince him to stay on the team. The catcher tells the rookie that he hasn’t won a world series yet and probably won’t if he stays with the Padres. Ginny argues that he could win a world series if he stayed for the rest of the season since they have a good shot at winning this time around, but this only seems to make him crankier. As she decides to leave him alone, she asks if she made any impact on his decision and he shoots back at her that he feels better about going to the Cubs. After this unsuccessful attempt at getting her teammate to stay, Ginny decides to go out to dinner with Noah, the CEO from the gaming company.

With it looking like Mike’s last game as a Padre, a huge crowd comes out to watch him do some warm up hits before the game. Ginny is still angry about Mike leaving the team and Blip reminds her that Mike was still there for her when she tried to leave the game. She realizes how unfair she’s been acting and talks to Mike as he continues to miss the balls. She helps bring up his spirits and his hitting becomes better, reminding everyone that they are still a great team despite everything that is going on.

Just before the game starts, Charlie and Oscar talk to the Cubs’ manager and his main request is that Mike doesn’t play in this game because he doesn’t want him to be injured when he comes to Chicago the next day. Charlie and Oscar have a disagreement about this request, Charlie is more than willing to take Mike out of the game but Oscar knows how important this game is for everyone in the stands and the team itself.

So of course, Mike gets taken out of the game and he’s forced to pace around the pit and watch rather than play his last game as a Padre, and make occasional pleads to Al to let him in. Ginny, knowing how important this is, grabs the attention of a camera man and tells Mike to put a helmet on anyways. The crowd sees what looks like a player getting ready to bat and starts cheering his name. Al almost has no choice but to let him play. The triumphant moment dies down quickly when Mike strikes out, ending the game but rises up again as the crowd cheers and chants his name at the close of his last game ever as a San Diego Padre.

The team’s spirits are put to rest after the game and Ginny goes on her date, but not before lying to Mike, saying she’s doing something with her brother.

The date however, does go quite well, Noah reserved a whole restaurant for the two of them and informs her that she can order literally anything she wants, they’ll make it for her. They laugh over shared stories when Ginny gets a text from Mike telling her what bar he’s at. Meanwhile, Evelyn calls Amelia for some help when she finds some discrepancies in the restaurant’s budget even after talking to Will about it.

Thinking that its some sort of goodbye party for Mike, Ginny is surprised that she’s the only other player at the bar and jokes with him that it looks like they’re on a date. The two joke about what they’ll miss about each other and really seem to be enjoying themselves. As Ginny is about to get into her car, Mike confesses that it was in fact him who nailed her cleats and they embrace in a hug. They linger in the moment for way longer than is normal for two friends and it looks like they’re going to kiss when Oscar conveniently calls and stops them. It turns out that the trade fell through and Mike is staying on the team. Instead of jumping for joy, the two simply gape at each other, because of the news or of what they were about to do seconds before Oscar’s call?

Catch the season finale of Pitch next Thursday at 9/8c on FOX.