The next day, Malcolm and Sanjay walked to practice. Malcolm told him about going over to Matt’s house and that Matt would be coming over to hang out after practice.
“You sure about that?” Sanjay said. “Matt’s kind of intense.”
“He’s actually pretty nice,” Malcolm said. “You’ll see.”
When they arrived at the ballfield, Coach Fitz looked serious. He gathered the team around him.
“Listen, we’ve got our biggest game of the year coming up,” Coach said. “The Goliaths are in first place. They’ve got some of the strongest hitters in the league. They hit two home runs against the Waves last week. So, we need to play our best game of the season to win.”
Practice was busy. Coach Fitz worked the team hard. They practiced several in-game scenarios. The team worked on stealing bases and hitting the cut-off man on throws in from the outfield. The stakes were high. Everyone wanted to beat the Goliaths.
At the end of practice, Coach Fitz had a few final notes for the Lions. He ended by saying, “Malcolm, it’s your turn in the rotation to pitch.”
Malcolm gulped. He’d have to come up with something special to beat the Goliaths. The last time he pitched against them, he gave up six runs!
“You can do it, Malcolm,” Matt said. “We’ve got your back.”
Sanjay’s mouth dropped open. The rest of the team looked at each other. Did they hear that right? Matt Staats had something nice to say… to Malcolm?
“Thanks, Matt,” Malcolm said.
After practice, Matt and Sanjay joined Malcolm in his garage. Malcolm showed Matt his statistics on the computer, and then the boys went to the backyard to play catch.
“What am I going to do to slow down the Goliaths?” Malcolm wondered aloud. “They crushed me last time.”
“Yeah, it was ugly,” Sanjay added. Malcolm jokingly threw his glove at his friend.
“Remember what you told me about why you like science?” Matt chimed in. “There are many ways to solve a problem in baseball too. My dad’s favorite player is Jim Waveland—”
“The knuckleball pitcher?” Malcolm said. “How does that help?”
“Well, the Goliaths are expecting you to pitch the same way you did last time,” Matt said. “Why not change it up and catch them off guard? Do you think you could throw a knuckleball?”
Malcolm was intrigued. He had studied how to throw a knuckleball but had never really considered using the pitch in a game. It was a pitch that went slow and fluttered unpredictably as it approached the plate. Hitters usually had a hard time trying to hit it. It was also difficult to master as a pitcher. But it would be a good way to slow down the scary Goliaths lineup.
“We’re going to find out,” Malcolm said. “Come over tomorrow and we’ll work on it.”