June 6, 1915
Phillies @ St. Louis Cardinals
Well, we have another entrant into the World War and the
Ottomans are not going to be happy about it.
Romania’s King Ferdinand I announced his country’s mobilization would
commence immediately and that his troops would join on the side of the
Allies. This was a stab in the back of
sorts to the Central Powers because Romania had signed a defensive treaty with
Austria-Hungary in 1883. But Romania
stated they would not being joining the Central Powers because they saw
Austria-Hungary as the aggressors and therefore the treaty did not bind them to
war. Plus there was that sweet sweet
Transylvania land in Austria-Hungary that Romania really wanted back. So, with the promise of lands to be gain,
Romania started up its war machine.
Other news filtered through the channels that Bulgaria was also thinking
about shedding its neutral cloak. There
was no word as to which side the Bulgarians would join but the country had
taken an anti-Russian stance recently and was tied by treaties with the Central
Powers. They were kind of enemies with
every other country in that region, though, so they were a bit of a wild card. There were lands they wanted from the Allies
but their hatred for the Ottomans ran really deep. And as we’ve seen with Romania, those
treaties that seem so secure on paper sometimes don’t stand the test of
war. If Bulgaria declared for the Allies
it would effectively signal the end of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans were already very weak and
barely holding on as an international power before the war started. Now if they were cut off from their allies
and surrounded by enemies in the east, there wasn’t much hope for them.[1]
Yesterday we saw that St. Louis Cardinals’ manager Miller
Huggins didn’t want to pitch his ace, Bill Doak, because he thought it would be
a wasted effort against the Phillies Grover Cleveland Alexander. It turns out that waiting to play Doak was
the correct move because Alexander was unbeatable and almost unhittable
yesterday. Today Doak did his best impression of Alexander the Great.
St. Louis jumped out to an early lead when Bob Bescher
doubled in the first and was later driven in by Dots Miller. Actually this was just the start of George Chalmers rough day as starter for the Phillies. He was
pounded in all three innings he was in the game and was lucky that he only let
up two runs. He was relieved without
getting an out in the third after giving up six hits to the 11 batters he
faced. Al Demaree was called in from the
bullpen, and while he let up a third run in the third innings, he settled in
nicely and pitched a great game for the final six innings.
Meanwhile the Phillies had all kinds of trouble handling
Doak. They only had one hit of the
Cardinals’ ace through the first six innings.
In the seventh, Fred Luderus tried his best to get a rally started when
he rocked a Doak pitch for a triple, but it did not ignite this stagnant
offense. He did, however, score on a
sacrifice fly by Bud Weiser. Doak
allowed two more hits but no more runs and the game ended with a 3-1 victory
for St. Louis.[2]
[3]
This loss was a setback, for sure. The offense was still a problem that probably
kept Pat Moran up at night and the pitching failed the club today. Both are not great signs. But if you take this loss in context it takes
on a less dire meaning. The Phillies
lost an away game to one of the best pitchers in the National League after
traveling two days prior. That’s all
this game was. The line between win and
loss in professional baseball is extremely thin and sometimes the game just
doesn’t go your way. Today was one of
those days and nothing more. Now if they
came out tomorrow and put up a second bad effort in a row, well then we’d have
a concerning situation on our hand. For
today the club took it lumps and the sooner they put this game behind them the
better.
[1]
“Rumania Issues Mobilization Order,” The
Sun, June 7, 1915, accessed June 5, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1BP48nh.
[2]
“Doak Too Much For Phillies,” The Sun,
June 7, 1915, accessed June 5, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1EZXg6D.
[3]
“Cardinals Beat Phillies,” New York
Tribune, June 7, 1915, accessed June 5, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1FZX76W.
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