1919 AL - Games of Wednesday, 6 August

Tigers 9, Nationals 6: Ty Cobb had five hits and scored three runs, but it was the Washington defense that decided the game as two 11th-inning errors led to three unearned runs that handed the Tigers the decision. Detroit trailed 5-2 after only three innings, but their first four men reached in 5th (including Cobb, who had already recorded his third hit of the game) and a single, two RBI groundouts, and a wild pitch followed to produce four runs to put the Tigers in the lead. When the Nationals answered with one in the 6th to tie the score again it looked like this might be a "last-team-to-hit-wins" sort of afternoon, but quality relief from Eric Erickson and Doc Ayers put a lid on the scoring into extra frames. Cobb started the 11th with a base hit then, with one away, Harry Heilmann hit a bounding ball to second which Hal Janvrin couldn't come up with and Ira Flagstead hit a fly ball to medium-deep left which rebounded off the heel of Patsy Gharrity's glove for a two-base error the pushed across the tie-breaking run. The damage was fatally and immediately compounded when Bob Jones ripped a double that scored both of the men who had reached on miscues; Ayers stumbled a bit in the bottom half, loading the bases on two singles and a walk, but he struck out the unfortunate Gharrity and got Sam Agnew to ground into a game-ending force play. Bobby Veach and Joe Judge each had three hits. [box]

1919 AL - Games of Tuesday, 5 August

Indians 11, Red Sox 2: Cleveland erupted for nine runs in the middle innings behind Bill Wambsganss' four hits and Larry Gardner's three RBI. Cleveland led by a slim 1-0 margin as they came to bat in the top of the 5th against the young Boston hurler Waite Hoyt (4-1, but a double and two walks after one man was out loaded the bases and then Ray Chapman and Tris Speaker whacked two-run singles to finish off a five-run inning. There was more to come in the 7th as Gardner doubled with the bases loaded and Wambsganss doubled him home as part of a four-run outburst. One the other side Jim Bagby (11-11) was slicing through the Sox - Boston scored twice in the 8th with the assistance of Gardner's throwing error, but were held otherwise hitless over the final five innings. Wambsganss had a busy day in addition to his four base hits, being caught twice attempting to steal and making an error in the field. [box]

1919 AL - Games of Monday, 4 August

Athletics 10, Browns 9: A back-and-forth tussle in which no lead appeared safe was settled when Philadelphia scored five times in the bottom of the 7th and that lead turned out to be one bridge too far for St. Louis. The score was 5-4 in favor of the Athletics after six, and there had already been three lead changes, when the Browns came back to go on top again. Ken Williams' three-run homer (4) in the top of the 7th turned the score around once more but, unsurprisingly, given both the way the day had gone and the state of the back end of the Athletics pitching staff, this was not fated to last. In the bottom half, Dave Davenport was chased after allowing two of the first three men to reach base and a run to score on Whitey Witt's triple. Bert Gallia took his place atop the slab but Witt beat the throw home from third on a ground ball to Wally Gerber at shortstop to tie the game, Gallia walked Cy Perkins, and Walt Kinney singled in the go-ahead run for the A's. They weren't done quite yet, as Merlin Kopp walked and Tillie Walker delivered a big two-run double to make the score 10-7. This turned out to be barely enough, as Cleveland scored twice in the 8th Kinney, but the young lefty held on for dear life, putting two Browns aboard in the 9th before escaping on Hank Severeid's game-ending groundout to short. Five players had three hits in a game that featured twenty-none total safeties, eight of which went for extra bases. [box]

1919 AL Players of the Week - 3 August

The Batter and Pitcher of the Week in the American League for the week of 28 July - 3 August are (* denotes a League-leading total) . . .

1919 AL - Games of Sunday, 3 August

Indians 3, Nationals 1: Washington went hitless in nine at-bats with runners in scoring position, and Ray Chapman had three hits, a run batted in and a stolen base to lead Cleveland to a win away from home. A groundout by Bill Wambsganss scored Larry Gardner from third after the thirdbaseman's triple in the 4th and gave Cleveland a 2-1 lead against Jim Shaw (11-12), and Washington would then squander a number of golden opportunities to close the score in the late innings. In the 6th a single and a sacrifice put the tying run at second with one out, but Stan Coveleski got Patsy Gharrity to ground out and then fanned Howie Shanks. In the bottom of the 9th, with the Indians now up by a pair, Buzz Murphy led off with a triple and it seemed (to the Griffith Stadium crowd, at least) as if the Nats were well on their way to a comeback - but Coveleski (9-12), 6th in the AL in strikeouts, but with only one in the contest thus far, whiffed Gharrity, Shanks and pinch-hitter Joe Leonard in succession to slam the door shut in style. [box]

1919 AL - Games of Saturday, 2 August

Results of the games played on the 100th day of the 1919 American League season . . .

Indians 6, Nationals 4: Despite being outhit by a count of thirteen to seven, Cleveland took advantage of their opportunities (and some help from the Nationals) to outscore Washington in front of their home crowd in D.C. The Indians scored twice on Eric Erickson (4-6) wild pitches in the 4th, and pushed across runs in both the 6th and 7th that initially reached base due to fielding errors. Elmer Myers was in regular difficulty on the hill for Cleveland, but Washington struggled to come up with the big hit and Myers (8-1) somehow survived thirteen hits and five walks, loaded the bases with one out in the 9th for drama, to pitch a complete game. Buzz Murphy had three hits for the Nationals. [box]

1919 AL - Games of Friday, 1 August

Yankees 5, Tigers 2: Wally Pipp stroked three singles and crossed the plate each time, and George Mogridge tap-danced around twelve Tiger hits as New York won at home. Pipp singled and scored on Muddy Ruel's grounder in the 2nd, on Ping Bodie's grounder in the 4th, and on Bodie's triple in the 6th, with the latter extending the Yankees' lead to 5-1. Mogridge (2-5) put two men aboard yet held Detroit off the board in the 4th, 5th and 6th, limiting the Tigers to one hit in nine attempts with runners in scoring position. Eleven of the twelve DET hits were singles, with Harry Heilmann's RBI triple in the 7th their only long hit; Heilmann and Eddie Ainsmith each had three of those safeties. [box]

1919 AL - Statistical leaders through 31 July

Statistical Leaders in the American League at the close of the season's third month, with two left to play . . .

1919 AL - Games of Thursday, 31 July

Red Sox 2, Tigers 1: Ossie Vitt's two-out single in the bottom of the 11th scored an unearned run that ended a tense affair at Fenway Park. Doc Ayers and Waite Hoyt (making his first major-league start) had spent the afternoon locked up in a tight game that saw each man repeatedly wriggle free of tight spots as they stranded a combined twenty-five base runners, with one DET run in the 3rd and one BOS run in the 4th the only blemishes on their ledgers. Boston loaded the bases in the 6th and 7th, and Detroit put two aboard in each of the 5th, 6th and 7th, but there was to be no further scoring into extra innings, with both starters continuing to carry the mail. The Tigers had the go-ahead run gunned down at the plate from left field by Babe Ruth with two away in the 10th, and Boston drew two walks in the bottom half, but the 11th inning came along with the score still tied at one. The 19-year-old Hoyt pitched a perfect inning, but Ayers got into trouble with one away in the bottom of the inning - Everett Scott reached when his grounder snuck through the legs of Bob Jones at third base and Hoyt then grounded a ball up the middle and into center field to push Scott to second. That was enough for Ayers, said Hughie Jennings, and George Cunningham came on to get Harry Hooper to ground out to second base with the runners moving up 90 feet. This brought up Vitt, hitless on the day and only hitting .230 on the season, but Ossie roped one over the second-base bag and onto the outfield grass and Scott skipped home to end the game. Bobby Veach and the young Hoyt had three hits apiece in what will surely be a memorable day for the young Schoolboy out of Brooklyn. [box]

1919 AL - Games of Wednesday, 30 July

Indians 5, Athletics 4: Today it was Cleveland's turn to pull the rug out from under Philadelphia at the very end, scoring three times in the 9th inning to reverse the outcome at the final hurdle. Hi Jasper (3-3) and Walt Kinney (4-10) pitched scoreless ball for four innings before Ray Chapman's two-run single in the 5th put the Indians ahead, but the A's answered with one in the 5th, on four straight singles, and two in the 7th on Tillie Walker's 7th home run to take their turn in front. It remained 3-2 PHA until the last inning, when two doubles and two Athletic errors sparked a three-run rally; Joe Harris' two-out, two-run double jumped the Indians in the lead again, and George Uhle came on to pitch a hitless final inning to make that edge stick. Harris had four hits on the day, three of them going for two bases, and Cy Perkins collected three safeties for Philadelphia. [box]

1919 AL - Ruth's chase for the all-time home run record

Player	Year	Team	GP	HR
Williamson, Ed	1884	Chicago NL	107	27
Freeman, Buck	1899	Washington NL	155	25
Pfeffer, Fred	1884	Chicago NL	112	25
Cravath, Gavvy	1915	Philadelphia NL	150	24
Dalrymple, Abner	1884	Chicago NL	111	22
Anson, Cap	1884	Chicago NL	112	21
Schulte, Frank	1911	Chicago NL	154	21
Ruth, Babe	1919	Boston AL	78	20
Thompson, Sam	1889	Philadelphia NL	128	20

1919 AL - Games of Tuesday, 29 July

Red Sox 5, Tigers 2: Paul Musser continued his fine run of form as a stopgap starting pitcher, and Babe Ruth hit his 20th home run of the season to lead Boston to victory over Detroit. Since coming into the rotation ten days ago to help pick up the slack from the missing (and now traded) Carl Mays, Musser has made three starts, winning all of them, and has tossed 18.2 innings with a 2.41 ERA. On this afternoon, Musser (3-0) pitched into the 7th, allowing just one earned run while striking out seven Tigers, and also tripling in a pair of runs in the 2nd to give the Sox the lead for good. Ruth became just the ninth man in big-league annals to reach twenty homers in a season, and the first in the history of the American League (Socks Seybold having previously set the AL high-water mark with 16 for the Athletics in 1902). The young slugger needs just eight long balls to break the major-league mark of 27 set by Ed Williamson of the Chicago Nationals in 1884, although many experts consider that record to be suspect due to the peculiar home field dimensions at Lake Front Park in those days, and point instead to Buck Freeman's 25 four-baggers for the 1899 NL Senators as the rightful total of record. [box]

1919 AL - Stalemate over, Mays dealt to Yankees

After a protracted feud with the Boston club that dates back to salary squabbles in the offseason, Carl Mays has gotten his wish and been moved to a new home. He was traded to New York today in exchange for right-handed pitchers Allen Russell and Bob McGraw as well as $40,000 cash. The 28-year-old submarining right-hander, who has long carried a reputation as an unpopular and abrasive personality, bickered with club owner Harry Frazee over salary demands into the spring of this season and then walked out on the club two weeks ago after telling scribes "I am getting out. … maybe there will be a trade or a sale of my services. I do not care where I go.” Frazee had been working the telegraph lines to find a deal that suited the Red Sox, and after AL President Ban Johnson's concerns over the precedent set by the trade were overruled by the other owners in the circuit, a swap was finalized with Jacob Ruppert's club.