July 8, 1915
Phillies vs. Pittsburgh Pirates
Today the Phillies began a five-game series against their
intrastate rivals, the Pittsburgh Pirates.
After starting the season 5-12, Pittsburgh looked like a team of
washed-up stars and inexperienced youngsters that were not ready to compete for
the first division. The ERA of the entire
pitching staff was over 4, but the hitting was truly pitiful, scoring one or
fewer runs in 11 of the 17 games. But somehow
the Bucs of May and June pulled it all together, donned their picks and rope,
and slowly began an ascent of the standings.
They reeled off 27 wins in their next 43 games and threw their names
into the hat of club’s with potential to take home the pennant. The reversal in fortunes was a direct result
of the pitching staff subtracting a full run from its ERA. By the time they visited the Baker Bowl for
this series they mellowed out a bit, but still remained one of the top teams in
National League. They still had a great
one-two starting pitcher punch in Bob Harmon and Al Mamaux leading the
way. The Phillies were about to become
very familiar with these two stars.
Philadelphia spun its wheels in their previous stretch of
games against the New York Giants and Boston Braves, winning only two of their
past five matches. It’s been a total
team effort to throw away games against inferior opponents; the lineup was
anemic, averaging only 2.2 runs per game, and the normally proficient pitching
was unreliable. The two games they won
were on the backs of Grover Cleveland Alexander’s near no-hitter and Al
Demaree’s 10-inning shutout, in other words the Phillies won only when the other
team failed to score. The flipside of
Alex and Demaree was that George Chalmers and Erksine Mayer allowed opponents
scored five runs in each of the three losses, with Mayer, of course,
accomplishing the feat two days in a row.
While it is easy to identify the poor performance of the
hitters and pitchers in the box score, the Evening
Ledger proposed that the primary reason for the Phillies failure of late is
due to poor defense. “Playing batsmen
wrong and throwing to the wrong base on safe hits have been drawbacks. These facts do not show in the box score, but
they have lost games.” The Phillies
have, ironically, shown a propensity to succeed on plays that require quick
instincts, hard-hit balls that require a dive or an off-balance throw, but it
seemed that multiple times per game easy grounders eat up infielders. The extra runners due to errors put strain on
the staff and more often than not lead to runs.
These defensive lapses, much like the hitting slumps, have been a source
of frustration at varying times during the season. Consistency is required over the long haul to
win pennants in baseball. Philadelphia
might be looking down at rest of the National League instead of struggling to
stay close to the Cubs had they tied up their defensive loose ends much earlier
in the year.
Today’s pitching matchup favored the Pirates. They had Al Mamaux, their best young player,
on the mound against the Phillies Eppa Rixey.
Now, despite his 4-6 record, Rixey was not bad, as evidenced by his 2.52
ERA. Normally he would compare favorably
with almost any other pitcher in the NL, he was just unfortunate to have to
face the red-hot Mamaux today. Coming
into the game, the 21-year old Pirate was 11-4 with an Alexander-esque 1.84
ERA. In his last four outings he allowed
only three earned runs yet was 2-2, which shows that the Pirates were in the
same boat as the Phillies when it came to hitting and defense. As we will see, in a battle of inefficient
lineups it is best to have the advantage on the mound.
It took all of two innings for the Phillies defense to once
again fumble and cost the team the game.
After Rixey retired the Pirates in order in the first, he seemingly got
Pittsburgh slugger Doug Baird to pop up an easy out to the right side of the
infield. However, this is the Phillies,
and lately nothing was easy. It looked
like it was captain/first baseman Fred Luderus’ ball all the way, but he was
called off by second baseman Bert Niehoff, who then inexplicably pulled
up. Both players stared at each other
while the ball lay betwixt them. The
Phillies beat writers believed that, as captain, Luderus had the right to the
ball, but “to date, those in the press box have not heard Luderus’ voice. Perhaps if he called louder there would be
fewer mix-ups.” But Niehoff is not free
from blame. Apparently he has the
tendency to sprint after balls that out of his territory, causing confusion and
near collisions in the process. Both
must accept the blame, but their mistake was not the only one of the inning.
Later in the frame, Pirates’ all-time great Honus Wagner
nudged a one-out single that sent Baird to third. After a Rixey strikeout, Wagner and Baird
attempted a double steal to confuse the Phillies defense. Catcher Bill Killefer received the pitch and
fired a strike down to shortstop Dave Bancroft with plenty of time for him to nab
the quick-footed Wagner if only Bancroft held onto the damn ball! He did not and Baird scored yet another
unearned run against Philadelphia. The
batter, George Gibson, smacked the next pitch for a hit that scored Wagner and
the Pirates held a 2-0 lead with almost no fault going to poor Rixey.
Mamaux, meanwhile, had no trouble with the Phillies. He displayed a nice mixture of his popping
fastball and world-class 12-6 curveball and simply toyed with Philadelphia all
game. As the Evening World put it, “Are you still watching that fellow Mamux of
the Pirates? In the only National League
game of yesterday he shut out the powerful Phillies as if they had been
bushers.” The only noise made by the
Phillies lineup came in the eighth and ninth inning, but Mamaux was able to
pitch himself out of these jams to secure his fourth shutout on the year. Nine batters struck out against the
Pittsburgh wunderkind, one more than all of the Phillies to reach base in the
game. It was another embarrassing
performance in a week of embarrassing performances. The good news for the Phillies was that
Grover Cleveland Alexander toed the rubber tomorrow and, considering that the
Pirates are probably hitting just a poorly as the Phillies, there is a real
good chance that Alex will finally earn that elusive no-hitter.[1]
[1]
“Weak Fielding Starts Phillies Skidding – Three Games Donated,” Evening Ledger, July 9, 1915, accessed
July 8, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1G7hfRb.
No comments:
Post a Comment