July 9, 1915
Phillies vs. Pittsburgh Pirates
Athletics @ St. Louis Browns
Late last night the German government gave an official reply
to President Woodrow Wilson’s request to end unrestricted submarine
warfare. Germany, possibly buoyed by
resounding victories on the Eastern Front that allowed them to move corps to
the west to assist in the invasion of France, did not budge on their position
that submarines were necessary in order to balance the naval war against Great
Britain. Obviously the news was unsatisfactory
to those in the United States, but an official response from Wilson would have
to wait a few days until he returned from his summer home in New Hampshire and
could meet with the cabinet. We know
with the benefit of hindsight that the US was still years away from sending troops
to Europe, but in 1915 this news must have felt like the nation was on the
precipice of war.
There was pleasant news filtering in from the telegraph
wires concerning the Athletics. As they
pushed further west on their month-long road trip, today opening a series in
St. Louis, reports were that Mack’s club was playing better ball than it had
all year. In fact, a win in today’s game
on the back of pitcher Bullet Joe Bush against Branch Rickey’s Browns made it
six wins out of the last eight games played for Philadelphia, their best
stretch of the season to date! Were things
turning around? Sure this year was lost,
but did Mack finally bring together the young talent he desired to put the
Athletics back in pennant contending form for the future? It sure looked that way! But don’t get too excited, unless you’re up
for some schadenfreude. After today the
A’s aren’t going to get six wins again until August 20. That’s almost two full months from now! The rest of the season is going to be pure
agony for A’s fans as they’ll watch their favorite club go 15-66. In the Athletics previous 14 years of
existence the worst they ever did over an 81 game stretch was 31-50, meaning
that the 1915 edition would have had to more double their win total for the
rest of the year just to be tie the
previous record for wretchedness. It’s
just an astounding turnaround from the teams that won the American League
pennant four out of the past five years.
Not even the Phillies of the late-2000s fell so fast from greatness.
Even with the threat of war and the Athletics western
winning streak there was only one thing Phillies fans wanted to say: Happy
Alexander Day! That’s right, Grover
Cleveland Alexander was on the hill in Philadelphia in the midst of one of the
hottest stretches ever for a pitcher, but I’ll get to that later. Today Old Pete faced a struggling Pirates
offense that actually closely resembled that of his teammates. Both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh had the potential to put up a lot of runs, but
more often than not they struggle to provide any offense against above-average
pitching. Alexander certainly had
visions of that no-hitter he’s been chasing dancing through his head, but his
opponent, Bob Harmon, was probably daydreaming about the exact same outcome.
While nobody was on Alexander’s level for the entirety of
1915, at this point in the season Bob Harmon was close. Harmon came into the game with a 9-5 record,
1.80 ERA, and 1.08 WHIP. As great as
those stats are, they don’t take into account Pittsburgh’s terrible start to
the season that cost him some wins and earned runs due to poor play around
him. In his last seven outings Harman’s
stats improved to 5-1, 0.78 ERA, and 0.88 WHIP.
Not good for a Phillies lineup that recently dipped back into a
slump. To make hitting more difficult
for both clubs (as if facing two of the best pitchers in the National League
wasn’t enough), the storm clouds over the Baker Bowl meant the blazing
fastballs and looping curves would fade into the gray afternoon. I hope you like pitching duels!
The game started according to the script. Alexander retired the Pirates in order and
gave way to Harmon, who matched the effort.
Back and forth the aces battled, each pitched with a determination that
comes from knowing that a single mistake could lead to a run that could cost
his team the game. There was no such
thing as a hard-hit ball or a run-scoring threat for either team, just lots and
lots of outs. When Alexander stepped off
the mound in the top of the fifth he still had not allowed a hit, a situation
the big Nebraskan was quite familiar with.
For the past month Alex toed the rubber with no-hit stuff but did not
ever get the luck that is needed to complete the feat. In the bottom of the fifth, Bob Harmon’s luck
ran out.
The Phillies mounted two offensive threats, one in the fifth
and one in the sixth, each resulting in a run.
Gavvy Cravath upped his team-leading RBI total when he hit a groundball
that allowed Dave Bancroft to hustle in from third. Alexander not only pitched one of his best
games of the season but he also got into the offensive action with two hits,
one of which was a double that scored captain Fred Luderus to make the score
2-0. At the end of six innings Alex had
everything he needed to complete the no-hitter, all that was left was nine more
outs.
The seventh inning belonged to Alex. A few weak outs put the Pirates down in
order. The eighth started with yet
another out, five more to go. Honus
Wagner stepped to the plate, already 0 for 2 with an error that lead to one of
the Phillies runs. In his 19th
season in the majors, the 41-year old Wagner was not the Hall-of-Fame-level
offensive threat that he was in his youth and actually had a surprisingly bad
season slash line of .230/.293/.357.
Maybe the thought that the Flying Dutchman was all washed was in
Alexander’s head on his 1-2 pitch. No
need for deception, old Honus can’t hit the fastball anymore. Well, Wagner’s skills may have eroded but his
smarts had not. He must have bet on
Alex’s hubris because when that belt-high fastball came in he smashed it over
the left field fence for a home run.
There goes the no-hitter, there goes the shutout, and now the Phillies
lead is down to one. In each of
Alexander’s close calls with history there was one momentary lapse of judgment,
but he always reset his sights and finished the job he started. Today was no different. Max Carey hit a single in the ninth but it went
nowhere. The Phillies and Alex won the
game 2-1.
Now, about that Alexander streak I teased earlier. Today was his eighth win in a row (this is
ignoring the tie against the Giants).
While that is a difficult enough task to accomplish, the real test of
his greatness is his ability to prevent base runners. He’s surrendered only 34 hits, averaging less
that four per game, and this includes a game in which he let up nine to Boston
because, by all accounts, he let up on the gas due to his team giving him a
huge early lead. His WHIP during this
stretch was 0.54, or the equivalent of one base runner every other inning. Opponents were slashing .121/.162/.167. By the looks of it Grover Cleveland Alexander
was almost literally unhittable. The Evening Ledger proclaimed it “the most
remarkable pitching streak ever known in baseball” and noted that the only
pitcher they could find on record that even came close to Alex was Smoky Joe
Wood of the Red Sox, who let up 40 hits in seven games back in 1912. Philadelphia was already conversant with
great pitching due to the many Hall of Famers the Athletics had trotted out for
the past 15 years (Eddie Plank, Chief Bender, Rube Wadell, etc.), but in a
twist of irony it was the Phillies that had the best of them all.[1]
[1]
“Griffith Adopts Mack Policy And Will Tear Up Senators,” Evening Ledger, July 10, 1915, accessed July 9, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1IMxeuh.
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