July 12, 1915
Phillies vs. Pittsburgh Pirates
Phillies vs. Pittsburgh Pirates
It was another doubleheader day for the Phillies, making
this their third in a little more than a week.
Doubleheaders haven’t worked out in the Phillies favor this season; they
are 3-7 after having split three and being swept in two; they have yet to take
both games in a doubleheader. Pittsburgh
faired a little better, earning a 5-6 record and, conversely, have not yet been
swept in both games. Fred Clarke, manager
of the Pirates, claimed that Philadelphia’s management was unfair to schedule
this doubleheader for today since they knew Pittsburgh was going to be engaged
in two more later this week. But Philadelphia had self-preservation to think
of; what did they care if the Pirates had to overextend their pitching staff so
long as Pat Moran could pitch his on a regular rotation?
Game one started rough for the Phillies. On the hill was Erskine Mayer, who hoped that
he would regain his pitching dexterity on the heels of his two worst starts of
the year. In the first inning Mayer was
still searching for his skills as Pittsburgh hit him hard and took an early 1-0
lead. Maybe once the pressure that built
up before the start subsided Mayer had a moment to catch his breath in the dugout
give himself a stern talking to, or maybe it was just one of those strange,
unexplainable things that happens in baseball, but the Phillies star came out
in the second inning as a completely different person. Pirates hitters couldn’t pick up his pitches
and made out after out. When all was
said and done Mayer allowed nine scattered hits and only two earned runs. But could his teammates support him with enough runs to take the early afternoon match?
The Pirates pitcher was George McQuillian, who happened to
be a former (and future) Phillie.
Hailing from Paterson, New Jersey and the son of two Irish immigrants,
McQuillian was “the Doc Gooden of the Deadball Era.” As a 24-year old rookie in 1908 he set the
National League on fire by winning 24 games, posting a 1.53 ERA in almost 360
innings (157 ERA+), and earning a whooping 9.4 rWAR. His sheer dominance as a rookie turned heads
and baseball experts named him the heir to Christy Mathewson as the best
pitcher in the game. But McQuillian
maybe liked to party a little too much.
While pitching in a Cuban winter ball league in 1908-09 he contracted
“jaundice,” which was most likely venereal disease, and when he returned to the
states he faced divorce papers from his wife, who claimed the budding star was
a raging alcoholic. His condition
worsened over the next few years and beat writers used euphemisms like “refusal
to take care of himself” and “careless disregard for training rules” to hint at
while never directly mentioning his alcohol abuse. Fed up with his antics, the Phillies traded
him Cincinnati in 1910. Philadelphia
received Hans Lobert, a fan favorite that they traded to New York for Al
Demaree and Milt Stock before the 1915 season, and Dode Paskert, whom we know
is a bench outfielder on the 1915 club that has filled in admirably.
Before he even pitched a game in Cincinnati McQuillian was a
mess. He needed to be treated for
advanced syphilis during spring training and managed to swindle a poor jeweler
into giving him $270 worth of jewelry on credit (the 2015 equivalent of about
$6,000) that he didn't pay back for years. His alcoholism finally caught
up to him in 1911 and he was never the same pitcher he was when he was being
compared favorably to Mathewson. He
bounced around the minors for a few years, pitched average to below replacement-level
ball for the Pirates and Phillies, and finally found himself out of the league
after a few bad games with Cleveland in 1918.[1]
When the Phillies faced him, McQuillian was in the midst of possibly his last good stretch of baseball.
He certainly had the magic today.
Only eight Phillies were able to get on base through the first seven
innings. Their former teammate wasn’t
striking out Philadelphia’s hitters so much as he was inducing weak hits
throughout the game. The only trouble he
saw with one out in the bottom of the ninth, ahead 2-0, when Beals Becker
smashed a home run to cut the lead to one.
Clarke pulled him after the homer for Wilbur Cooper, who promptly nailed
down the save (even though saves wasn’t an official stat). Pittsburgh took game one 2-1.
The Phillies stared down a familiar face on the mound for
the second game. Young Al Mamaux made
his second start in the series for Pittsburgh, and while this one wasn’t quite
as good as his six-hit shutout from four days ago, he showed that he was a
pitcher to be feared on the Senior Circuit.
He picked up right where he left off by shutting the Phillies out for
the first four innings of the game.
Meanwhile George Chalmers had all kinds of trouble with the Pirates
lineup. Pittsburgh once again jumped on
the Phillies from the start, scoring two in the top of the first. When Chalmers allowed his fourth run and
sixth hit through only 4.1 innings, Pat Moran found it necessary to relieve him
with Eppa Rixey. Rixey pitched great,
but the damage was already done.
Philadelphia squeezed out two runs, but once the lead was cut to two, Mamaux straightened up and shut the Phillies down for the rest of the
game. Pittsburgh swept their second
doubleheader of the year by winning game two 4-2.[2]
Just when it looks like the Phillies are about to finally
steal control of first from the Cubs they go and lose two to the Pirates. Luckily for them Brooklyn finished up a
series sweep of Chicago, leaving the Phillies only one game out of first place. The Cubs lost seven of their last 10 games
and were all but giving their top spot away to whoever wanted it. As it was, that list of possible contenders
had grown a bit over the past week or two.
Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Brooklyn, and Pittsburgh were all now
within three games of first place. “The
National League has been in existence for almost twoscore years, but never has
it had such a pennant race as it is enjoying this year,” proclaimed the Evening Ledger. It certainly was exciting. Almost all teams were relatively equal to the
others. Not that they were all great
teams, but there was parity that allowed the clubs to each have a period of time
where they were the best team. As we’ll
see at the end of the year, the Phillies were the only team to go wire to wire
playing above average ball. But, man,
right now the Phillies were playing like they already unpacked their golf clubs
and were ready for an offseason on the links.
Or, you know, probably they had to work a second job in the offseason,
but you get my point. With the Pirates
series now complete with a disappointing 2-3 result, it was time for the
western clubs to visit Philadelphia. The
first of the bunch was the Cardinals, followed by Chicago and Cincinnati. These next three series were the last chance
for the Phillies to turn this home stand around and put some much needed wins
on the board before they take a two-week road trip out west. One piece of good news: tomorrow is Alexander
Day!
[1]
Eric Enders, “George McQuillian,” SABR Bio Project, accessed July 10, 2015, http://bit.ly/1fu9v74.
[2]
“Five National League Teams In Desperate Battle For Lead,” Evening Ledger, July 13, 1915, accessed July 10, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1fufcBP.
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