Reds 2, Cardinals 0: Edd Roush doubled in a pair of runs and Hod Eller whitewashed the punchless Cards on four hits as Cincinnati won for the sixth time in seven games to start the season. Bill Sherdel put in a fine performance on the mound for St. Louis, despite four errors behind that included a pair by Rogers Hornsby, but he couldn't hold back the red-hot (.393, League-leading ten RBI) Roush; the Reds' center-fielder hammered one over the head of RF Jack Smith with two men on and two out in the 5th to score the only runs of the contest. Meanwhile, the Cardinals were helpless against Eller - they stroked singles in each of the first two innings, and stolen bases that put those runners into scoring position, but failed to score on both occasions and then managed just two hits over the final seven frames. Eller set down twelve men in a row at one stretch and fanned six while walking only two. [box]
1919 NL - Games of Wednesday, 30 April
Giants 15, Braves 8: New York erupted for nine runs in the 8th inning to turn a narrow deficit into a comfortable win in Boston. The Braves scored four times in the 1st behind two singles, two walks and a three-run triple by Walter Holke, but New York closed to within 6-5 by scoring twice in the 7th when they started the inning with four straight singles. In the 8th, a single and double started the frame and then, after a strikeout, three straight singles scored four runs; two batters later, Lew McCarty delivered the coup de grace with a bases-loaded triple that made it an eight-run inning. George Burns had four hits and scored three times, Hal Chase had three RBI and McCarty had four. [box]
1919 NL - Games of Tuesday, 29 April
Cubs 3, Cardinals 2: Dode Paskert's sacrifice fly sent Max Flack home with the winning run in the bottom of the 13th inning as Chicago outlasted St. Louis after escaping defeat at the last regulation hurdle. The winless Cards got out front first, scoring twice in the 2nd when Gene Paulette and Joe Schultz singled and later scored on Jakie May's two-out triple. But that was the last noise that St. Louis would make against Hippo Vaughn, and Chicago had room to work its way back into the game. Les Mann homered to lead off the 4th to cut the deficit in half, but May matched Vaughn's zeros through the middle innings; he pitched out of a bases-loaded mess in the 8th, but would not be so fortunate in the 9th. After a walk, a single and a sacrifice, the Cubs had the tying and winning runs in scoring position with one out and Branch Rickey decided to walk Mann to load the bases and set up the force at any base. But May could not keep the ball over the plate, and Paskert worked a walk that tied the game. One batter too late, perhaps, May got Fred Merkle to bounce into a 5-2-3 twin killing to send the game to extra frames. St. Louis got two on with two outs in the top of the 13th without scoring and the home team got to work quickly in the bottom of the inning. Max Flack drew a walk to start, and stole second base immediately. Charlie Hollocher singled him to third and, one out later, Paskert lifted the ball to deep center field and the Cardinals could only watch as the winning run tagged for home. [box]
1919 NL - Games of Monday, 28 April
Braves 5, Giants 4: Buck Herzog's single capped a two-out bases-empty rally in the bottom of the 9th inning as Boston brought the city to its feet with the climax to a game that saw them trail early, take a mid-game lead and then throw that away in the late innings. The Giants scored twice before the Braves even touched their bats, with a walk, stolen base, single and double leading to a pair of 1st-inning runs. It was tough sledding in the early innings for the Boston hitters against Red Causey, but they finally made a mark in the 5th when Walter Holke led off with a free pass, stole second and took third on a wild throw, and scored on Art Wilson's base hit. It was in the next inning, though, that the Braves really figured Causey out - Herzog started the inning with a triple and and Ray Powell singled him across, then a walk and Jim Riggert's knock scored another. When Larry Doyle failed to corral Rabbit Maranville's grounder with two outs and Bostons on second and third, another run crossed the plate and it appeared as if the home side were in the clear behind Dick Rudolph, who had held the Giants scoreless since the opening inning. But, in the 8th, NY struck back after the first three men reached on safe hits and Benny Kauff hit a run-scoring fly ball that tied the game. Fred Toney retired the first two Braves in the 9th, but pinch-hitter Johnny Rawlings singled, as did Joe Kelly, and a wild pitch moved the runners up by ninety feet. With Rawlings dancing off of third base, Herzog rapped one down the line and off the first-base bag into shallow right field to end the game. [box]
1919 NL - Games of Sunday, 27 April
Cubs 2, Cardinals 0: Max Flack drove home the Cub's first run, and scored their second, as Lefty Tyler shut out the winless Cardinals at Weeghman Park. Flack's two-out single scored Bill Killefer from second in the 3rd inning, and then he singled, stole second and went to third on Frank Snyder's wild throw in the 8th before Charlie Hollocher brought him across with a two-out base hit. Tyler scattered six hits and two walks, allowing a runner into scoring position with fewer than two outs only once and retiring ten of the final twelve Cards to close out the game. [box]
What If? 1930 Athletics vs 1977 Phillies
The 1930 Philadelphia Athletics won 102 games, and the second of three consecutive American League pennants, but this was probably the least dominant of those teams; they may not have even been the best club in the AL that season, as Washington actually had a better Pythagorean record despite finishing eight games back. They still had peak Cochrane (137 wRC+), Simmons (171 wRC+) and Foxx (157 wRC+) in the middle of the lineup, and Lefty Grove (185 ERA+) had one of his greatest seasons, but the supporting cast wasn't quite as good in 1930; Grove, especially, was left on an island when the pitching staff got much less quality from George Earnshaw and Rube Walberg.
The 1977 Philadelphia Phillies won 101 games, but were denied the franchise's first trip to the World Series in almost thirty years by the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series. Those 101 wins were a franchise co-record until 2011 and, while the the 1976 team might have been a little better, this was still one of the all-time great Phillie teams. They had the best offense in the NL that year behind Mike Schmidt (155 wRC+) and Greg Luzinski (157 wRC+), and big platoon seasons from Bake McBride (152 wRC+) and Richie Hebner (130 wRC+), but the pitching relied on Steve Carlton (153 ERA+) and a deep, effective bullpen that pitched almost 400 innings of sub-3 ERA baseball while bailing out the rest of a mediocre starting rotation.
So What If these two clubs met for Philadelphia bragging rights? Would the A's roll behind Grove and their Hall of Fame hitters, or would the Phillies use the long ball and their pen to weather the storm . . .
1919 NL - Games of Saturday, 26 April
Pirates 1, Cubs 0: Fritz Mollwitz singled home George Cutshaw in the 5th inning to give the Pirates the lead, and Babe Adams made it stand up by holding Chicago to five hits and retiring nine of the final team men to face him. Adams and Phil Douglas locked up in a pitcher's duel from the outset, with Douglas allowing only one Pittsburgh hit over the first four innings while Adams was giving up but two. In the 5th, though, Cutshaw led off the inning with a double down the right-field line and moved to third base on a groundout before Mollwitz hit a shot towards first base that caromed off the bag and into shallow right field for an RBI single. Pittsburgh would get just one safe hit against Douglas the rest of the way, but that would be enough as the Cubs failed to place a mark against Adams; Charlie Pick doubled with one out in the 5th, and Charlie Hollocher tripled with two away in the 6th, but in neither case could the Chicagos find a way to push the runner across home plate. Adams got six straight ground balls to skip through the 7th and 8th, and when Hollocher was caught trying to steal second after singling with one gone in the 9th that was the final gasp for the home club. [box]
1919 NL - Games of Friday, 25 April
Cubs 2, Pirates 1: After ten innings of scoreless baseball, the two clubs traded blows in the 11th with Chicago having the final say on Pete Kilduff's two-out RBI triple. Erskine Mayer and Speed Martin were insoluble for the better part of two hours in front of a tense Chicago crowd; double play grounders erased an early threat for each team and Pittsburgh left the tying run at second in the 9th while Mayer was setting down ten Cubs in succession over the late innings. The pitching protagonists were still plying their trades as the 11th inning got underway, and the Pirates cracked Martin's code first - with one out, George Cutshaw walked, stole second, and scored on Tony Boeckel's base hit. But Les Mann led off the bottom half with a two-bagger and Chicago was still in the hunt. He was bunted to third by Dode Paskert and scored the tying run when Fred Merkle lofted fly ball to medium-deep left field. Charlie Pick singled to keep the line moving, and Kilduff laced one over the head of Southworth which the Pittsburgh outfielder could not chase down before Pick had scampered home as Kilduff was sliding safely into a cloud of dust at third base. Merkle and Boeckle each had three hits. [box]
1919 NL - Games of Thursday, 24 April
Giants 10, Phillies 0: New York rapped seventeen hits and took advantage of four Philadelphia fielding errors, yet Rube Benton needed almost none of it as he spun a two-hit shutout at the Phillies. The home team managed only singles in the 1st by Davey Bancroft and the 7th by Gavy Cravath, and could coax only two free passes from the hard-throwing left-hander while sending just four men over the minimum 27 to the plate. Although they didn't quite know it yet, the Giants put the game away with two-spots in the 2nd and 3rd, Benton chipping in with an RBI single and Hal Chase hitting for three bases and scoring a run. The Phils began to phail in the phield in the late innings, making errors in the 5th, 7th and 8th that led to five unearned runs as NY piled on to reach double digits on Heinie Zimmerman's two-run single in the penultimate inning. George Burns had four of the Giant hits, and Zimmerman, Larry Doyle and Art Fletcher had three apiece. [box]
1919 NL - Games of Wednesday, 23 April
Phillies 5, Giants 4: Gavy Cravath blooped a game-winning hit into left field with one away in the bottom of the 9th as Philadelphia avoided an epic collapse in its home opener at the Baker Bowl. The Phillies held a 4-1 lead into the 9th inning behind the fine pitching of Elmer Jacobs, six stolen bases and a two-run home run by Cy Williams but Jacobs couldn't finish off New Yrok. Art Fletcher led off the final inning for the visitors with a home run and Lew McCarty followed with a single to bring the tying run to the plate. That run was represented by pinch-hitter George Kelly, and "High Pockets" drove a ball into the left-field sets to tie the game before Jacobs had recorded an out in the inning. The young right-hander retired the next three men, and then his teammates went to work. With Jean Dubuc taking the mound in relief of Jesse Barnes, Phils backstop Bert Adams drilled a one-out triple past to outstretched glove of CF Bennie Kauff and the slugging Cravath was called upon to hit for Jacobs. The long ball was not the biggest worry for the NY outfield, but they were paying deep enough for the five-time home run king that his dying quail fell onto the grass well in front of the charging George Burns and Adams skipped home with the winning run. [box]
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