“Pitch” Episode 10: Finale

Earlier recaps: Episode 1 / Episode 2 / Episode 3 / Episode 4 / Episode 5 / Episode 6 / Episode 7 / Episode 8 / Episode 9.

Welcome to our recap of the 10th episode of Pitch, entitled “Don’t Say It”. As always, there are spoilers, so proceed with caution.

Ginny Baker (Kylie Bunbury) has thrown seven no-hit innings on 102 pitches. Per tradition, no one in the ballpark is daring to name what’s happening, and, despite Ginny’s protests, none of her teammates will talk to her. Will Ginny be able — or even allowed — to finish what she’s started?

Before we can find out, we have to see what happened over the past 36 hours to bring Ginny to this point. We go back to the morning following her date with the billionaire on whom she bailed in order to go have an awkward moment with Mike (Mark-Paul Gosselaar). Evelyn (Meagan Holder) comes to Ginny’s hotel room for details about the former, but instead Ginny (reluctantly) regales her with details about the latter.

At Petco Park, analytics guy Ross (Josh Peck) has made a discovery about Ginny’s workload, and has determined that she should be shut down immediately. Ginny relies extremely heavily on her screwball, throwing it a whopping 48% of the time. (“More than 7% higher than anybody else throws their specialty pitch,” Ross observes.) Ross notes that the screwball puts an inordinate amount of strain on an arm, meaning that even though Ginny hasn’t hit a standard innings limit or pitch count for the season, she’s been overworked.

Amelia (Ali Larter) briefs Ginny on her plans for the day. She has an interview with noted journalist and noted ex-wife of Mike, Rachel Patrick (Joanna Garcia Swisher). Amelia has also begun shopping Ginny’s memoirs. Ginny bids Amelia and Evelyn farewell, and leaves for the park.

Evelyn informs Amelia about the issue she’s had with Ginny’s brother, Will (B.J. Britt), and their plans to start a restaurant. Evelyn dreads having to tell Ginny and deal with Will. Amelia promises to take care of both things.

Mike arrives in the Padres clubhouse to stilted fanfare. A couple of his teammates seem glad he’s back after nearly getting traded, but there’s definite friction, especially with Blip (Mo McRae), who is upset to learn that it wasn’t Mike who called off the trade. There’s also friction between Mike and Ginny vis-a-vis the night before, but they try to ignore it, insisting they don’t need to talk about it.

Mike heads to the manager’s office, where he finds out the Padres’ plans to shut Ginny down. Bench coach Buck (Jack McGee) objects, since Ginny’s velocity hasn’t decreased, but GM Oscar (Mark Consuelos) counters that her “RPMs are lower.” (The preferred term is “spin rate,” Oscar.) Mike thinks it wouldn’t be fair to Ginny to shut her down now. Blip, however, notes that he’s actually seen Ginny pitch in September, and that she “kinda ran out of gas.” Of course, this would have been some five years ago or so, and pitchers build endurance with age and experience. Also, Oscar probably shouldn’t be relying on five-year-old scouting reports from his outfielder in making such decisions.

Mike tells Ginny she’s being shut down. Ginny storms into president Charlie’s (Kevin Connolly) office to confront him about it, but he’s unaware of this decision. Oscar and Ross arrive to explain the situation. Ginny declares that her arm feels great, and reminds Oscar that, since women’s ligaments function differently than men’s, there’s not really precedent for predicting the impact the pitch may have on her arm. Charlie’s compromise is to give Ginny one more start.

Amelia and Will try to console Ginny about her season coming to an abrupt end, but seem more focused on how it benefits them. When Ginny leaves, Amelia confronts Will about the missing money, threatening to tell Ginny if he doesn’t.

Ginny sits down for her interview with Rachel. With regard to her place in sports, Ginny claims that it’s more apt that’s she’s discussed alongside Blake Snell and Michael Fulmer, who are also 23-year-old rookie pitchers, rather than all-time great female athletes. After wrapping up, Rachel and Ginny run into Mike. Ginny gives the ex-couple their space, and Rachel reveals to Mike that she and her fiancé have broken up. Ginny texts the blown-off billionaire to propose a date do-over.

Mike fears he’s lost the clubhouse, but manager Al (Dan Lauria) assures him that he’ll get them back. Al also notes that he doesn’t think Mike really wanted to leave the Padres for Chicago. He compares the Cubs to a “new girl,” “one that makes you laugh, and feel young,” and claims that Mike “went there in a moment of weakness.” Unbeknownst to Al, his words pretty accurately capture the situation with Ginny as well.

“Besides, the Cubs’ll never win it,” Al adds. I see what you did there, Pitch writers.

Ginny enlists Eliot (Tim Jo) to help her track down billionaire Noah (Tyler Hilton). Eliot manages to pinpoint Noah’s location through what can only be described as cyberstalking. It turns out that Noah is performing at an open-mic night. Good Lord, the man is a tech billionaire and a singer-songwriter.

Ginny and Noah pick up where they left off with last night’s date. It goes well, and they end up going back to Ginny’s hotel room. Mike also heads to the hotel, but it’s not Ginny he’s there for — it’s Rachel.

The next morning, things look considerably rosier for Noah and Ginny than they do for Mike and Rachel. Noah’s already making plans for them to travel together in the offseason, which he admits is moving fast, but hey, he’s feeling it, I guess. Meanwhile, Mike offers to leave Rachel a ticket for that day’s game, but she doesn’t think it’s such a good idea. (He still does it, and she still shows up.)

Evelyn tells Blip about what happened with Will, and Blip is relieved, since now they can focus on having another kid. Not only does Evelyn not want to have another kid, she’s planning on continuing with the restaurant plans without Will.

Will tells Ginny about his confrontation with Amelia, but isn’t completely forthcoming about his shady business dealings. Ginny sees through his lies, and withdraws her support of his business, telling him he needs to leave town so he can get himself straight.

Amelia visits Ginny before her start, and Ginny lashes out at her for talking to Will against her wishes. When Amelia insists that Ginny needs her, Ginny objects that it’s the other way around: “If you hadn’t come along when you did, I would be exactly where I am today, and probably happier.” Harsh. It’s the final straw for Amelia, who departs, but not before telling Ginny she’ll regret those words.

Ginny takes the hill and, in spite of all of her distractions, pitches the game of her young life (soundtracked by “Uptown Funk“), sailing smoothly through seven hitless innings.

In the bottom of the seventh, the Padres lead the Dodgers, 1-0, and have runners on first and second. One of Ginny’s teammates, mired in an 0-for-23 slump, pops up, and takes his anger out on a water cooler, Joe Blanton style. Both Blip and Mike try to calm him down. Blip demands that Mike back off, and the two of them nearly come to blows.

Oscar has decided that it’s time for Ginny to come out of the game, and, somehow, calls Al to tell him to remove her. (As far as I know, you can’t actually call the dugout phone from an outside line.) Oscar seems to have switched places with Charlie in this episode. Usually Charlie is the unfeeling numbers guy who cares more about data than emotions. In any event, Al will have none of it — perhaps he was aware of what happened with Dave Roberts and Ross Stripling earlier this year.

The Padres fail to score, and Ginny returns to the mound, despite Oscar’s orders. She strikes out the first batter, then throws four straight balls to walk the next. Mike heads to the mound for a pep talk, but this time, Ginny’s the one who gives the speech. She’s tired of being told what to do by everyone in her life, especially the men. From now on, she’s calling the shots, and she starts by instructing Mike to get back behind the plate.

The following batter pops up into foul territory, and Mike makes a nice sliding catch for the out. The next batter bunts, and Ginny makes an awkward throw to first. He’s out, but it might have been an exceptionally costly out. Ginny goes down clutching her elbow, and exits the game.

Amelia is at the airport when she sees what happened on TV. Rather than go back to Ginny, she continues boarding her plane. Where is she going?

The episode ends with Ginny going in for an MRI. We won’t know her fate until next season (should there be a next season). It’s hard to see how, realistically, the results could be anything but devastating.

That’s it for the first season of Pitch. What did you think of the show as a whole? And, should Pitch get a second season, do you plan to keep watching?

Feel free to share any thoughts about the finale, or anything else about the show. It’s been a lot of fun getting the FanGraphs community’s reactions and observations.

Random notes:

• Per Baseball Savant, Hector Santiago is the only pitcher who threw a screwball last year, and those accounted for less than 1% of his pitches — obviously nowhere close to Ginny’s purported 48%. That number even seems high for pitchers who used the screwball as their signature pitch. The “7% higher” offspeed pitch usage stat is pretty accurate, though.
• Ginny’s comment about men’s and women’s ligaments is an interesting one. Pitch has occasionally, and in passing, brought up how Ginny’s biology sets her apart from her teammates as an athlete. While it likely wouldn’t be especially compelling television to explore that in depth, making note of that from time to time makes the show feel more realistic.
• This New York Times article from 2011 mentions that, at Busch Stadium, one dugout phone calls the bullpen while the other calls the press box. I would imagine most (if not all) dugout phones work similarly. That’s just one reason why Oscar calling the dugout phone didn’t feel believable.
• The TV chyron at the airport states that the Padres won on a two-hit shutout, indicating the San Diego bullpen blew the no-hitter in the ninth. As Dick Enberg mentions, the Padres have never had a no-hitter. They are the only current MLB franchise without one.