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.

Synopsis
Steven and the Gems engage in 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 abolishes a surprised Lapis Lazuli's 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. Steven convinces Lapis to join, much to her disinterest. Steven announces the team of the humans, with the gems donning fake names. Meanwhile the Rubies announce their team members. Steven explains the rules of baseball. Things are going well until Ruby and Sapphire begin flirting with each other, this 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 homerun and runs all the bases.

Approaching the last base, Sapphire tackles Ruby in euphoric laughter, accidentally fusing as 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 the planet Neptune.

Characters

 * Steven
 * Garnet
 * Ruby
 * Sapphire
 * Amethyst
 * Pearl
 * Peridot
 * Lapis Lazuli
 * Several Rubies
 * "Eyeball"
 * "Doc"
 * "Army"
 * "Navy"
 * "Leggy"
 * Yellow Diamond (mentioned)
 * Jasper (mentioned)

Objects

 * Roaming Eye

Locations

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

Music

 * TBA

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."
 * This is the first time Garnet has been shown to voluntarily unfuse.
 * Sapphire's legs are shown for the first time.
 * 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.

Cultural References

 * "Hit the diamond" is a popular expression used to mean "play baseball". The bases are in the shape of a diamond when viewed from overhead, 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.

Continuity

 * The Ruby troops all don the same hairstyle as the Ruby guards in "The Answer".
 * Lapis' human name, "Bob", is a reference to Steven's line "No prob, Bob" from "Ocean Gem".
 * 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.

Videos
Hit the Diamond