June 22, 1915
Phillies @ New York Giants
If you like offense, this game was not for you. Two of the top pitchers in the National
League, Grover Cleveland Alexander and Rube Marquard, put on a dazzling
pitching clinic at the Polo Grounds this afternoon. The game began with an ominous sky, gray and
brooding, threating to wreck this remarkable matchup. Hitters would have had trouble with these two
aces anyway, but the reporters made note that the ball coming to the plate had
a similar color to the sky, and with the sunlight blocked out by rain clouds,
there was almost no chance for the offenses.
Curveballs looked to break by feet, fastball zoomed past with force, and
the batters marched from the dugout to the plate only to do an about face
before returning their seat on the pine.
This was Alexander’s third start against the rival Giants
and his second in Manhattan. His record
was 2-1, but the loss came during in early May when the Phillies weren’t
hitting and the measly three runs he let up couldn’t be matched by his
teammates. His ERA against New York was
1.73, which, inconceivably, was bad
compared to every other team he had faced.
In his 118 innings against the National League he posted a 1.43
ERA. It may have had something to do
with Alexander’s ability to strike the rest of the league out at a rate of 7.17
K/9 while the Giants weren’t quite as baffled by him, only going down on
strikes at 4.85 K/9. But then again it
wasn’t the Giants pitching, but the offense that was the reason the club
resided in seventh place coming into the day.
New York’s batters scored the fourth most runs in the National
League. Even so, Alexander knew this was
a rivalry game and that he would have to reach down for a little extra just to
ensure a victory.
Alexander’s counterpart was Rube Marquard, or as he was
known for a time, the “$11,000 Lemon.”
The 21-year old Marquard, a fireballer from Cleveland that was supposed
to be the next Christy Mathewson, signed with the Giants in 1908 and, because
of the continuous high praise John McGraw had for Rube, the press dubbed him
the “$11,000 Peach.” Obviously, things
soured (pun intended). By 1910, he was
9-18 with a 3.15 ERA (85 ERA+) and his peach had turned into a lemon. No longer was Marqaurd the heir to the
Giants’ ace throne, in fact he was more likely to be cut and out of the league
all together. But then Mathewson taught
him his famous screwball to add to his fastball/curveball combo and all of a
sudden Marqaurd’s repertoire became devastating. He won 73 games from 1911 to 1913 with a 2.52
ERA (131 ERA+) and, along with Mathewson, became half of the best pitching duo
in baseball. It took a little time, but
Marquard lived up to the hype and was the top left-handed pitcher in the
league. His exploits made him very popular
around the country; he would do promotions, advertise products, write newspaper
columns, and even starred in a movie called “Rube Marquard Wins.” In about three years Marquard went from
busted out prospect to the face of professional baseball.
But just as quickly as success came, it was gone, as
Marquard struggled through a 12-22 1914 season.
In 1915 he was 6-3 with a 3.46 ERA.
Not great. He was frustrating at
this point in his career because he could go out there and no-hit the Dodgers
in his first game of the season but in his next two starts let up 21 hits, 8
walks, and have a 8.31 ERA. His
struggles continued well past today’s game and by August he was sold to the
Brooklyn Dodgers. His career resurrected
under manager Wilber Robinson, and while he never matched the success of those
three wonderful years with the Giants, he was a very good pitcher until he
retired in 1925.[1]
What we had today was, as The Sun called it, the “best pitching duel of the year,” but that
didn’t start until the second inning. In
the first the Phillies had Bobby Byrne take a walk before Gavvy Carvath’s
triple to give them the 1-0 lead. But,
in an unusual moment of deficiency, Alexander gave up a one-out double to
former-Phillie Hans Lobert and a RBI single to Larry Doyle to level the game at
one. That, my dear readers, was all the
scoring that occurred today.
Marquard was brilliant on the rubber. Showing almost no signs of his previous
failures this season, he shut the Phillies out for the remainder of the
game. Philadelphia did get a man to
first in every inning except the fourth, but poor decisions and great defense
kept them from evolving into run-scoring threats. Possum Whitted was caught napping in his lead
from first and was picked off by Rube.
Dode Paskert, called in as a pinch runner for Milt Stock in the seventh,
ran into an out when he tried to steal second on Giants’ catcher, Chief
Meyers. Dave Bancroft had the
distinction of getting two precious singles off of Marquard only to be retired
by getting picked off at first and
caught stealing. These mental mistakes
kill teams, especially when the opposing pitcher makes base runners rare
commodities. It most likely would have
sunk the Phillies today except for…
Grover Cleveland Alexander.
The man knew how to one-up everyone he pitched against. Oh, Rube Marquard is going to shutout a team
for eight straight innings? Well
Alexander is going to no-hit his opponents for the remainder of the game. And that’s just what he did. He gave up a walk to Fred Merkle in the second
and Dave Robertson in the fourth, hit Meyers with a pitch in the eighth, but
otherwise put the Giants down in order over and over. I guess so much for New York having some
special knowledge on Alex. The Sun had this nice quip about
Alexander’s performance and Meyer’s beanball in particular: “As only two
safeties (singles) were made off G(rover) the G(reat), he hit Giants almost as
often as Giants hit him.” At the end of
the ninth, having yet again taken New York down 1-2-3, Alexander completed his
commanding exposition only allowing five Giants to reach base in the entire
game.[2] [3] [4]
I’m sure you’re saying, “But wait. If Marquard didn’t let up a run and Alexander
didn’t let up a hit, how could the game be over?” Well, we have ourselves a good old-fashioned
baseball tie. The setting sun and the
rain clouds caused the game to be called due to darkness and it officially went
down as a 1-1 tie. That wonderful
pitcher’s duel? Didn’t happen. The stats for the men counted, but there was
no decision made on the outcome, so both pitchers went home a little sour. I’m sure neither club was excited to have had
a start from a top-tier pitcher wasted on a tie. New York actually benefitted from the result
as they were bumped over the Dodgers, who lost in Boston. The Phillies remained mired in third,
two-and-half games back of the league-leading Cubs and actually closer in
record to the fourth place Pirates. They’d
get back at it tomorrow against the Giants, hopefully one team would find a way
to score more runs so we don’t have to sit in this awkward state of non-play,
again.
[2]
William B. Hanna, “Each Side Scores Early, Then Quits For The Day,” The Sun, June 23, 1915, accessed June
22, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1K75fqw.
[3]
“Alexander Fails To Win After Holding Giants Hitless Eight Innings,” The Evening World, June 23, 1915,
accessed June 22, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1K6wSyu.
[4]
“Darkness Halts Phillies-Giants Game In Ninth,” Evening Ledger, June 22, 1915, accessed June 22, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1SD9lZ3.
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