June 7, 1915
Phillies @ St. Louis Cardinals
Athletics vs. St. Louis Browns
Coming off of yesterday’s loss, the Phillies looked to
bounce back with a win in the third game of their four game series with the St.
Louis Cardinals. Eppa Rixey, who was
only making his fourth appearance in the past month, was given the start for
Philadelphia. His was a case of
inconsistencies. His first three starts
this season resulted in an ERA of 1.73 in 26 innings, yet he received two hard-luck
losses to the Dodgers to make his record 1-2.
I don’t know if it was a decision based on his record or if it was just
the way the rotation was rolling, but Rixey didn’t get another start for almost
three weeks and when he did it did not go as he planned. He allowed nine runs in 11 and two-thirds
innings in two starts, and while all of those runs weren’t charged to him, the
10 walks and 13 hits let us know he was pitching poorly. It’s a bit ironic that after his nice start
to the season he was pulled from the rotation yet when he was pitching poorly
Pat Moran went to him routinely. Oh
well, I’m not here to judge Moran’s decisions; just let you all know what he
did.
Rixey’s opponent on the mound was Hank Robinson, who had a
strange career in the big leagues. He
got his first chance in 1911 at the age of 23 when he was given five games of
relieve appearances in Pittsburgh. Over
the next two seasons he complied 7.4 WAR and 2.33 ERA for the Pirates, both
excellent numbers that should have foretold a successful career in the big
leagues, but he was traded to St. Louis after the 1913 season and was never
quite the same. He bounced back and
forth from the rotation to the bullpen and never found a groove. He didn’t play in 1916 or 1917 but made a
comeback of sorts when he was given 48 innings to pitch for the Yankees in
1918, after which he retired from baseball at the age of 30. In 1915 he was still an effective pitcher and
came into today’s game with 2.45 ERA.
In the top of the first the Phillies kicked off the
scoring. Bobby Byrne worked out a walk,
allowing Beals Becker to drive him in when he laced a double off of Robinson to
make the score 1-0 Phillies. Rixey, however,
was not made confident by the early lead.
He walked the first batter he saw, allowed him to steal second, walked
another batter, and threw a wild pitch in the first. With first and third with two out Rixey
reached back for a little extra to strike out Cozy Dolan. After such a poor display of pitching and
major threat, the Cardinals still had no runs and not hits.
In the second St. Louis broke through. With two outs Frank Snyder roped a single to
center and was followed by a walk to Robinson.
You know what happens when you walk the pitcher, right? They always score. Robinson followed Snyder home on Art Butler’s
triple to left field, making the score 2-1 Cardinals. The teams traded zeros until the bottom of
the sixth when the Cardinals made it 3-1.
Rixey was still in the form that he exhibited in his last three games:
lots of hits, lots of walks, lots of runs, but only a few were charged to
him. Still, Moran kept him in the
contest, so Eppa must have been showing him something. Meanwhile, as his team gave him an insurance
run, Hank Robinson must have felt the win coming on. He was on fire and the Phillies were not;
since the first inning the Phillies had only managed one other hit. And now with a two run lead there was only
the formality of getting nine more outs against this struggling lineup.[1]
Oh but the Baseball Gods smiled upon the Phillies on this
afternoon. Robinson gave up two singles
to start the inning, and after a fielder’s choice filled the bases with
Phillies, the wheels really came off for St. Louis. Miller Huggins tried to bring in two other
pitchers to bail out Robinson but the onslaught was on this inning. Dave Bancroft, Bobby Byrne, and Gavvy Cravath
all hit singles with the bases-loaded as the Phillies put up six runs in the
seventh inning. There were the bats that
had been in hiding for all of May! All
of a sudden the team was hitting on all cylinders and taking it to an inferior
club. It was the first time in a week
that the Phillies scored more than three runs; today they would almost triple
that amount, winning the game 8-4. Both
teams scored a run in the ninth inning but after the rally in the seventh it
was no contest.[2]
How do you like that for a big win for the home team?! It was the first time since early May that a
loss after a win didn’t result in many more losses. They won three of their last four games and,
with the Cubs idle today, sat only one and half games out from reclaiming first
place. And the good news was that after
tomorrow’s finale against the Cardinals, the Phillies would travel up to the West
Side Grounds to play the Cubs in their second series for first place (the Cubs
didn’t move into Wrigley Field until 1916, though the park was operational in
1915 as the grounds for the Federal League Chicago Whales). The even better news was that the first game
of the Cubs series was Grover Cleveland Alexander’s day in the rotation. But we are getting a little ahead of
ourselves here. They still had to play
one more game with the Cardinals. Erskine
Mayer was scheduled to lead the Phillies in their last game in St. Louis until
late July.
[1]
“Eppa Rixey Begins On The Mound For The Phils Today,” Evening Ledger, June 7, 1915, accessed June 7, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1BSBEsH.
[2]
“Three Phillies Pinch Hit,” The Sun,
June 8, 1915, accessed June 7, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1GiC4hv.
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