July 7, 1915
Phillies vs. New York Giants
Phillies vs. New York Giants
Athletics @ New York Yankees
Athletics @ New York Yankees
It appeared that the Germans were planning a massive
two-pronged assault on the Allied troops in the west. Reports from Switzerland and France
maintained that as many as 10 German corps shipped from battling the Russians
in the east to the fronts near Calais and Alsace in France. American military experts predicted that, now
that the Central Powers had countered last year’s Russian advance and pushed
the battlefronts back to a position similar to those at the onset of Russian
mobilization, Germany would attempt to smash the French with a full force and
leave the eastern front to the Austrians.
Not that the Allies were particularly fearful of the news; Germany tried
the same tactics the previous year and was unable to break through the
line. Still, it looked like the fighting
was about to get ramped up along a front that had already seen some of the
worst devastation the world had ever known.[1]
For the Phillies, today’s doubleheader against the Giants
was their chance to redeem themselves for yesterday’s flat showing. After being pulled in the third inning of
yesterday’s game when he surrendered five runs, Erskine Mayer asked manager Pat
Moran for a second chance to get after the rivals from New York. As the Evening
Ledger proclaimed in its evening edition, printed too early to get the full
account of the game, Mayer’s pitching “seemed to have little terror for the
Giants today.” He was given a lead in
the second when Fred Luderus and Bill Killefer singled in a run each, but Mayer’s
difficulties with the Giants lineup surfaced again in the third. Five of the six men to come to the plate for
the New Yorkers reached base and three crossed home plate to give the Giants
the lead. It probably should have been
worse for Mayer but he was bailed out by two poor base running decisions.
The Phillies had to fight back all game, but when it was all
said and done, a combination of bad defense and poor pitching failed them and
they lost 5-4. Twice the Phillies
scratched out a run against the seemingly rejuvenated Christy Mathewson only to
have errors throw the lead away. Mayer
pitched fine, not great, and ultimately took the complete game lose. He gave up only two earned runs, though the
12 hits he surrendered and three unearned runs told the true story of the
beating. Over the 12 innings he pitched
in the past two days, he gave up 19 hits and 10 runs while only striking out
three batters. Obviously the Phillies
second ace did not feel particularly well this week and this Evening Ledger headline says it all: “Mathewson
Had Little But Nerve; Mayer Had Nothing.”
Maybe the Giants did terrorize him, after all.
In one of those twists of the script that makes baseball so
much fun, the two clubs that belted a combined 49 hits in the past two games
found themselves mired in a pitchers duel in the doubleheader’s second
game. Al Demaree, who had not won a game
since April 19th and had pitched to a 4.50 ERA since then, was given
his first opportunity to start since he surrendered 5 hits and 7 runs in 1.1
innings the last time he faced the Giants on June 24. As an article in the paper stated, “The
impression was general that Demaree was about through as a high-class
twirler.” But today he showed what kind
of stuff he had! Through nine innings of
work Demaree scattered seven hits, worked himself out of jams with precision
and skill, and kept the Giants off the board.
He would have cruised to an easy win if only his opponent on this day
wasn’t Jeff Tesreau.
The Phillies were baffled by Tesreau’s mix of fastballs and
curves for most of the evening. Inning
after inning the Phillies sent three men to the plate and the Ozark Bear Hunter
(which is the simply fantastic nickname the New York papers used to referred to
Tesreau) sent them right back to the dugout.
By the halfway point the lack of any solid contact proved the Phillies
had no beat on this kid and a perfect game was a plausible outcome. Poor Demaree was probably sitting on the pine
wondering what the hell he had to do to win a game as he watched his teammates
fail time after time. In the bottom of
the ninth, with the score still tied 0-0, Fred Luderus stepped to the plate and
rolled one over to first basemen Fred Merkle for what should have been another
easy out except Tesreau forgot to cover first!
The Phillies first hit to break up the perfect game ironically came
because Tesreau just didn’t get off the mound to field his position fast
enough! What a heart breaker for the
Giants! Grover Cleveland Alexander was
probably watching on the bench saying, “I feel ya, bud.” The one lucky break was all the Phillies
could manage, in fact Luderus was doubled up so Tesreau faced the minimum through
nine, and the game needed to be settled in what has to be the worst possible
way for a player: extra innings in the second game of a doubleheader on getaway
day.
Demaree took care of his business in the top of the 10th. His 10 no-run innings lowered his season ERA
from 3.76 to 3.18 and was in line for the ever evasive win if the Phillies
could just get one measly run. Bobby
Byrne led off with a single to get things cooking. Possum Whitted smacked a one-out double that
moved Byrne only 90 feet away from victory.
Next up was Gavvy Cravath. Big
Gavvy Cravath, RBI leader! Well, Gavvy
did what Gavvy does, smoked a single the scored Byrne, give the Phillies a
hard-earned victory, and got Al Demaree off the schneid. Poor Jeff Tesreau was given the loss, but he
deserved a better outcome. In an awful
twist, Tesreau finished 1915 with 19 wins, one victory shy of his third
straight 20-win season. He had to look
back at this game when the season was over and wonder how it slipped away.[2]
Well, this series against New York did not go as the
Phillies expected. Coming off of their
stretch in Brooklyn where they barely engineered runs, who would have thought
the Giants capable of splitting a series against the hot-handed Phillies? But rivalry games have a way of making all
clubs equal. Even after getting pounded
yesterday, the hope was that Philadelphia would take care of business in
today’s doubleheader, maybe get a little luck with a Cubs loss, and pull to
within 0.5 games of first place. None of
those things happened. Chicago’s win in
Pittsburgh meant the Phillies actually dropped a 0.5 game and now sat 2.5 games
back. It’s been a frustrating two weeks
of Philadelphia surrounding first place but unable to make the pounce to take
it back.
As an aside, today marks a strange day in the standings. New York’s win yesterday vaulted them into
seventh place and sent the Boston Braves into last in the National League. Hmm…Boston Braves…in last place around July 4…where
have you heard this before? Last year,
that’s where you’ve heard this before, when the 1914 Braves were the Miracle
Braves that went from last place to World Series champions in three
months. Guess what, my friends? History is about to (almost) repeat itself. A little foreshadowing: it’s not the Cubs or
the Cardinals or the Dodgers that will pose the biggest threat to the Phillies
pennant hopes, it’s the Braves. Boston
will have the best record in the National League from today until the end of
the season, but this phenomenon only is true today. Tomorrow the Phillies will regain the best
record going forward. While this is
mostly just a fun statistical quirk, it does show that the Braves are about to
go on a significant winning streak. I’ve
never heard that Boston almost did the last-to-first miracle in back-to-back
seasons until I just looked at the standings.
See, you think you know everything about a subject until you stumble
upon a little gem like that.
[1]
“Germany Rushes Veterans From East For Great Dash On Calais And Alsace,” Evening Ledger, July 7, 1915, accessed
July 7, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1eCs9Zb.
[2]
“Beantown Classic On Braves and Their Spurious Fame,” Evening Ledger, July 8, 1915, accessed July 7, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1RiB0RA.
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