Fox's baseball drama centered on the first female MLB pitcher debuted Thursday.
Warning: Spoilers ahead from Thursday’s series premiere of Pitch. Do not proceed if you do not watch. We don’t want to ruin the surprise!
Welcome to the big leagues, Ginny Baker.
Fox’s baseball drama, Pitch, about the first female MLB pitcher -- brilliantly played by ET’s fall TV breakout star Kylie Bunbury -- made quite a splash with its Thursday debut, perfectly capturing the highs and lows of a young woman’s journey as a young girl with big-league aspirations to making it in the pros.
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But it was the heartbreaking family reveal at the end of the episode that put Ginny’s entire journey into perspective.
Throughout the episode, Ginny’s present-day struggles with the San Diego Padres is framed by flashbacks to her childhood, where we see her father, Bill Baker (Michael Beach), pushing her to her limits physically, mentally and emotionally.
Though we see Bill in the present day (in the stands at Ginny’s disastrous MLB debut, for instance), he doesn’t interact with others. Why?
Because Ginny’s father is dead.
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The devastating surprise comes after a teenage Ginny pitches her team to a state championship win, catching the eye of a Padres scout. Things are looking up for Ginny’s future, but her father, always with the tough love, says, “We ain’t done nothin’ yet.”
A young Ginny celebrates her hopeful future as her dad drives them home following the game. Suddenly, an oncoming car crashes head-on into their truck, her father suffering fatal injuries as a result.
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In the present day, following Ginny’s second MLB outing where she pitches superbly, Ginny meets her “father” out on the baseball field. “We did it, Pop,” she says with a smile, to which he repeats his signature line, “We ain’t done nothin’ yet.”
“It has a lot of heart,” Bunbury recently told ET. “You feel good and I think right now, with everything that is going on in the world, we need television and film like that -- things that inspire and empower, and Pitch definitely inspires and definitely empowers.”
What did you think of the series premiere of Pitch? Tell us your thoughts on Twitter by tweeting @etnow!
Pitch airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Fox.