Hit the Bad Luck Away

“Out!” His knee pain jumped to ninety-one. He refused a stretcher, but allowed Han and Lin to support him from both sides. “Captain, weren't you the one who said people aren't parts?” Lin asked. “That's why both of you are carrying me,” Tang hissed through the pain. “One man doesn't get all the bargain.” Han opened the bottom of the eleventh with a single. Lin came up with Luck 16 against the new pitcher's eighty-two. He had no trade. It felt wonderful. He shortened his swing and sent an ordinary sinker into right for an ordinary single, the product of ten thousand repetitions. Han raced to third. When the throw missed the cutoff by a step, Lin took second.