Hit the Diamond

"Don't worry, Peridot. It's our sworn duty to protect anything that calls this planet home, and that includes clods like you."

"Hit the Diamond" is the 5th episode of the third season of Steven Universe and the 83rd episode overall.

Official Synopsis
Steven and the Gems play an old fashioned game of baseball.

Plot
Steven and the Gems are stunned to see a group of Homeworld Rubies emerge from the Roaming Eye tracking vessel. Steven is pulled away by Garnet to hide in the barn with the others, including a worried Peridot. This quells a surprised Lapis' doubts about Peridot being hunted down by Yellow Diamond. Steven tries to calm her down, but does so with little success. However, Garnet reassures Peridot that it is their sworn duty to protect all that call Earth home. Garnet announces that she has a plan and unfuses, forming Ruby and Sapphire. They plan for Ruby to infiltrate the Homeworld Rubies in hopes of disrupting them. The Ruby leader states that they have come to retrieve the leader of the Earth mission, and that their target must be close by. Our Ruby nervously points out that the target is not in the barn, in doing so exposes it. The Ruby leader notices the barn and decides that they should search it. Our Ruby volunteers to search the barn by herself. Ruby frantically tells them that they plan to search the barn. Sapphire calmly tells her to try to convince the Homeworld Rubies that the barn is a place where humans live. Ruby doesn't want to go alone, so Steven decides to come along with her, bringing along a bat given to him by Amethyst. Both of them try to convince the Homeworld Rubies that there are only humans in the barn. The Ruby leader is unconvinced so Steven tricks the Rubies, saying that in order to search the barn, they must beat the humans in a baseball match. The terms are that if the Homeworld Rubies win, they are allowed to search the barn and if they lose, they have to leave forever.The gems, except for Lapis, are shocked. Sapphire states that she saw this as a possibility, but is surprised that they're taking this path. Steven gets the gems to pretend to be humans, except for Peridot, who's to stay and hide which she nervously agrees to. Steven convinces Lapis to join, much to her disinterest and criticism of the plan. Steven announces the team of the humans, with the gems donning fake names. Afterwards the Rubies announce their team members. Steven explains the rules of baseball. Things are going well until Ruby and Sapphire become too caught up in being separated and spend all their time flirting, which eventually leads to the Rubies taking the lead.Steven tries to convince Ruby and Sapphire to stop flirting with each other. Sapphire becomes the batter, and does rather poorly. She gains two strikes and is unable to concentrate stating that all she wants to look at is Ruby. Ruby tells her that she can look at her "when she's running for home". The Ruby pitching ignites the ball and pitches with incredible force, and Sapphire hits it with all her might, freezing the bat in an attempt to prevent it from breaking. She scores a home run, running through all the bases. Approaching the last base, Sapphire tackles Ruby in euphoric laughter, accidentally fusing into Garnet and giving away their identities as Gems. The Homeworld Rubies are furious and fuse to form one gigantic Ruby. Peridot then reveals and attempts to surrender herself in exchange for the safety of her friends. The giant Ruby, much to Peridot's surprise, asks where Jasper is. Peridot is unable to answer but Steven covers for her and tells the Rubies that Jasper is on the planet Neptune. The Rubies, seemingly appeased, unfuse and get back in the tracking vessel, then depart for Neptune. Amethyst comments that the Rubies are dumb. Garnet smiles, saying, "Not all of them."

Characters

 * Steven
 * Garnet
 * Ruby
 * Sapphire
 * Amethyst
 * Pearl
 * Peridot
 * Lapis Lazuli
 * Ruby (Eyeball)
 * Ruby (Doc) (debut)
 * Ruby (Army) (debut)
 * Ruby (Navy) (debut)
 * Ruby (Leggy) (debut)
 * Ruby (Quintuple Fusion)  (debut)
 * Yellow Diamond (mentioned)
 * Jasper (mentioned)
 * Greg's Aunt and Uncle (pictured)

Objects

 * Roaming Eye
 * Baseball Equipment

Locations

 * The Barn
 * Gem Homeworld (mentioned)
 * Neptune (mentioned)

Music

 * Hit the Diamond (soundtrack)
 * The Magic Glory of Sports

Trivia

 * This episode's name was first revealed in the episode listing on the Cartoon Network website.
 * Promotional content for the episode was first shown on Cartoon Network's mobile application, "Cartoon Network Anything."
 * Rubies are revealed to be typically somewhat inane:
 * The leader of the Rubies forgets to count herself when accounting for her troops, nor did the other Rubies notice, allowing Ruby to pretend to be one of them without too much diligence.
 * They all believed that they needed to play baseball to search the barn.
 * They did not notice that the disguised Gems were using Gem abilities.
 * They were easily fooled by Steven's claims that Jasper, the "leader" of the Earth mission, is on Neptune, a planet 2.7 - 2.9 billion miles (4.3 billion-4.7 billion km) away.
 * In the episode's ending credits, the five Rubies are given designated nicknames:
 * Eyeball, the Ruby with her gemstone placed where her left eye would be.
 * Doc, the Ruby with her gemstone placed on her chest.
 * Army, the Ruby with her gemstone placed on her left shoulder.
 * Navy, the Ruby with her gemstone placed on her navel.
 * Leggy, the Ruby with her gemstone placed on her left leg.
 * As seen in the concept art by Rebecca Sugar, Steven is the one who named them.
 * The concept art also reveals that Leggy was made the day before the episode.
 * Additionally, in the concept art, it was shown that Eyeball originally had her gem on her right eyeball, and Leggy originally had her gem on her right leg.
 * This episode first premiered on Cartoon Network France.
 * This episode is the first episode to not be bundled with any other episode on services like iTunes and Google Play.
 * Aivi Tran revealed in a comment on SoundCloud that the soundtrack that plays during Sapphire's homerun is called "The Magic Glory of Sports."

Controversy
There was controversy when this episode aired in Sweden. This is because several lines were changed to reduce the extent of Ruby and Sapphire's romance. For example, Lapis saying Ruby and Sapphire were "flirting" was dubbed in Swedish using a word that translates to "chatting". Other lines included Sapphire's line, "But all I want to look at is you" being changed to "I can't concentrate", and Ruby's line, "You can look at me when you're running for home" being changed to "Think about when you're running for home". Swedish fans of the show were outraged, as Sweden is very progressive in terms of LGBT acceptance. There was a petition to have the lines redubbed which gained thousands of signatures. However, currently, no change has been made.

Cultural References

 * "Hit the diamond" is a popular expression used to mean "play baseball". The bases are arranged in the shape of a diamond when viewed from overhead (as seen here), so the "diamond" is the field.
 * While Steven explains the rules of baseball to the Rubies, an instrumental version of the song "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" is played. The song is performed at most professional baseball games and is closely associated with the game.
 * This episode bears similarities to the Samurai Champloo episode, "Baseball Blues".

Continuity

 * The Ruby troops all don the same hairstyle as the Ruby guards in "The Answer".
 * This is the first time Garnet has been shown to voluntarily unfuse.
 * Lapis' human name, "Bob", is a reference to Steven's line "No prob, Bob" from "Ocean Gem".
 * Sapphire's legs are shown for the first time.
 * Jasper is revealed to have been the leader of Peridot's mission to Earth.

Errors

 * Ruby's gem is missing in multiple shots.
 * When Army punches her after she strikes out at the start of the game.
 * While she watches Sapphire hit the ball at the end of the game.
 * When Doc is suggesting that the rubies should check the barn.
 * After the Homeworld Rubies fuse and inquire about Jasper, the Fused Homeworld Ruby's gem on her eyeball has different cut; however, this may just be that the eyeball can rotate the gem. The cut is shown to have a diamond rather than a square in the center; the latter being a regular cut for a Ruby.
 * Army doesn't have a uni-brow in some shots.
 * Lapis' left arm is missing in one scene.
 * When Ruby and Sapphire accidentally fused, Sapphire's gem has the same cut as Ruby's.
 * Additionally, in the same shot, after Ruby's hat falls off, her headband is nowhere to be seen.
 * When Steven lifts the box off of Peridot, the box is facing upside-down. However, in the next scene, the box is facing right side-up.
 * When Eyeball first gets out of the Roaming Eye, she is using her left hand. In her next scene, she is using her right.
 * When Garnet is being formed, Ruby and Sapphire's gem placements are swapped.
 * After Sapphire freezes the bat and hits the ball, the ice from the bat disappears when she throws it and runs.

Videos
Hit the Diamond Hit the Diamond