Pitch perfect

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This article was published 21/09/2016 (3301 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In this most antagonistic of autumns, our American neighbours are grappling with a big issue: is the United States ready for a female president?

In the realm of prime-time TV drama, another gender-barrier question — obviously, given its fictional nature, of a much less pressing nature — is about to be broached: can a woman step onto the big-league pitcher’s mound and throw strikes?

There probably isn’t a more heavily hyped new entry — thanks in large part to its endless promotion during Fox’s coverage of baseball and football games — in the fall TV season than Pitch, the new Fox drama that follows a female baseball star’s quest to be the first of her gender to crack a Major League Baseball roster.

Ambitious in its conception and polished in its presentation, this new series (which premières Thursday at 8 p.m. on Fox and Global) opens with a promising first episode that brings plenty of narrative heat but also tosses a couple of effective changeups to keep viewers guessing.

Its première, at least, shows promise it might be able to live up to all the promotional hype.

Pitch’s storyline revolves around Ginny Baker (impressive newcomer Kylie Bunbury), a gifted pitcher who has spent nearly five years honing her game in the minors and has now — accompanied by a crush of media attention and fan excitement — been called up to MLB’s San Diego Padres to join the team’s starting rotation while another hurler recovers from injury.

The team’s owner (Bob Balaban) views the call-up as a huge public relations and revenue-generation opportunity, but field manager Al Luongo (Dan Lauria) thinks it’s a stunt that will upset the chemistry in his testosterone-fuelled and ego-driven locker room.

They’re both right, of course. So it’s up to Ginny to figure out a way to prove her presence on the mound, wearing the No. 43 jersey (one more than Jackie Robinson’s 42) is more than a gimmick.

Pitch does a good job of explaining — through a series of flashback sequences — Ginny’s journey to the big leagues, driven constantly by a demanding father (Michael Beach) who recognized her athletic gifts early and invested every ounce of his energy and emotion in making sure she would fully live up to her potential.

But most of the series première’s focus is on Ginny’s big-league debut and the pressure-cooker environment it creates, for both the first female pitcher and her variously reluctant teammates.

She has the immediate support of Blip Sanders (Mo McRae), who played alongside her for a couple of minor-league seasons before becoming a major-leaguer, but it takes longer for her to win over the (fictional) Padres’ biggest star, catcher/slugger/captain Mike Lawson (Mark-Paul Gosselaar, who looks like he was born for this role).

It isn’t until Lawson realizes helping Ginny succeed might provide him with a much-needed late-career boost that he becomes fully invested in pushing her toward the win column.

The biggest challenge facing any show set in a sporting context is getting the game action right and, on this count, Pitch sends its opening episode straight over the plate. All the beats feel genuine, which allows viewers to focus their attention on Ginny’s emotional ride without being distracted by clumsy mechanical details.

The payoff in Pitch’s season opener is satisfying, though there’s an off-speed moment near the end of the hour some viewers might think is a bit too much of a stretch. But with that out of the way, it’s time for this show’s real work to begin — like a major-league team looking ahead to 161 more games after an opening-night win, Pitch has a long season ahead of it and will have to prove, with each subsequent outing, it deserves to still be in the running when the regular season concludes.

brad.oswald@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @BradOswald