October 9, 1915
World Series Game Two
Phillies vs. Boston Red Sox
The National League fans in Philadelphia have always felt
that their club was cursed. From a
pre-World Series article in the Evening
Ledger: “The Phillies have always been hounded by various species of the
genus ‘jinx.’” There was the case of
Charlie Ferguson, the absolute phenom pitcher that was to lead the lowly
Phillies to their first pennant in 1888.
Ferguson’s had 24.0 pitching rWAR from 1885 to 1887, including a 10.7 during
the 1886 season. And that was just for
pitching. He also managed 6.1 rWAR at
the plate during that stretch. But, less
than two weeks into the 1888 season, Ferguson died from typhoid fever at the
age of twenty-five. Since his death the jinxed
Phillies developed a reputation as a club that shoots off to an early season
lead only to lose steam towards the finish line before finally blowing the
pennant escalating levels of futility.
The fans in 1915 knew all about the bad luck that started
with Charlie Ferguson and seemed to be infuse into the foundation of the Baker
Bowl. They knew they were pressing their
luck if they let their mind wonder to the visions of a world championship in
1915. They also took every chance they
could to attempt to read the tealeaves to see, exactly, when their luck would
run out. Despite winning the first game
of the series yesterday, there was an eerie suspicion floating around in the
crisp autumn air that the Phillies bad luck would appear at any moment. Did you know that nine of the ten teams that
won the coin flip that determined home field advantage in the World Series lost the World Series?! Well, guess who won the goddamn toss this
year? It was the Phillies. You can be damn sure the fans knew this and
that it tugged at the back of their minds leading up today’s game.[1]
The truly scary thing was that Erskine Mayer was given the
ball to start Game Two. Not that Mayer
was a bum or anything; he was just inconsistent. To start the year there was an honest debate
about which Phillies pitcher was better, Alexander or Mayer. And since late August he posted six wins and
a 1.70 ERA. But as well as Mayer pitched
during the bookends of his season, the middle was disastrous. He lost eight games in July and August with a
4.12 ERA and was almost benched by manager Pat Moran (the NL average ERA in
1915 was 2.75, so a 4.12 was much worse then than what it is now). So which version of Erskine Mayer would take
the mound in Game Two? The
mini-Alexander or the benchwarmer?
The Red Sox had 5’7”, 170-pound Rube Foster on the
mound. Foster was smack-dab in the
middle of his great, albeit brief, career, and 1915 was his best professional
season. He established himself as a star
the previous year when he won fourteen of the twenty-seven games he started and
posted a 1.70 ERA, good enough for second in the American League (his teammate
Dutch Leonard was first with a 0.96 ERA in 224.2 innings). In 1915 Foster won nineteen games, five of
which were shutouts, and kept his ERA to a miniscule 2.11. Like I said yesterday, this Red Sox team could
pitch. The question was whether the
Phillies offense could find a way to equalize the advantage.
There was a special guest in the audience at the Baker Bowl
this afternoon. President Woodrow Wilson
threw out the first pitch, the first time a president ever threw out the first
pitch in a World Series game. And it
happened in Philadelphia! Actually, this
was the first time a president ever threw out a first pitch in a professional
baseball game outside of Washington, D.C.
Look at all these funs facts we’re learning in this series!
Today’s starting lineup:
Boston Philadelphia
1. Harry Hooper RF 1.
Milt Stock 3B
2. Everett Scott SS 2.
Dave Bancroft SS
3. Tris Speaker CF 3.
Dode Paskert CF
4. Dick Hoblitzell 1B 4.
Gavvy Cravath RF
5. Duffy Lewis LF 5.
Fred Luderus 1B
6. Larry Gardner 3B 6.
Possum Whitted LF
7. Jack Barry 2B 7.
Bert Niehoff 2B
8. Pinch Thomas C 8.
Ed Burns C
9. Rube Foster P 9.
Erskine Mayer P
For the second game in a row, Harry Hooper lead off by
getting on base, this time drawing a walk from the already shaky Mayer. After a failed bunt attempt by Scott, Tris
Speaker shot a ball into right that sent Hooper to third. With Dick Hoblizell batting, the Red Sox
tried the now passé double steal.
Speaker broke for second but was gunned down by Burns. During the throw, Hooper took off for home,
hoping the catch the Phillies napping, but Bert Niehoff fired the ball home in
time to get Hooper had Burns not dropped the ball. Oh, but he did drop the ball! The catcher’s error gave Boston the early
lead. Hoblitzell singled to center, but
in a strange coincidence was caught trying to steal second, making it the
second time in two games that the Red Sox first inning ended with a runner
being tagged out on the base paths.
The Phillies were unable to strike a blow against Foster in
their half of the first. Stock grounded
out to short, Bancroft struck out, and Paskert rolled a ball over to first base
to retire the side. Mayer settled down a
bit in the second, striking out two Red Sox and allowing just one hit to Larry
Gardner before he was able to head back to the dugout. The Phillies second wasn’t any better than
the first. Cravath and Luderus struck
out in order and Whitted grounded to shortstop.
This wasn’t the way the Phillies hoped the afternoon would unfold. As we’ve seen at times this year, the
Phillies’ lineup was prone to elongated slumps, but the World Series was a hell
of time for them to lose their form.
Mayer and Foster showed why they were two of the best pitchers
in baseball during the early-middle stage of the game. Mayer didn’t let another Boston batter get
past first until the fifth inning.
Foster, for his part, didn’t let a Phillie get on base through four and only allowed two batted balls to leave the
infield. Game Two of the series looked
like it would stay true to the form established in the first game; few hits
were tallied, let alone runs, as the pitchers dueled it out on the mound. One of them was going to make a mistake, and
the Phillie rooters just crossed their fingers hoping Mayer and Burns’ misplay
in the first wouldn’t decide it.
Gavvy Cravath took his second turn at the plate to start off
the fifth and promptly got his team off the schneid with a double to left. Now the Phillies were in business! Next up was team captain Fred Luderus. Foster went into the stretch and delivered a
belt high pitch that Luderus drove to the wall in right-centerfield. Cravath hustled around third to tie the game
at one while Luderus stood at second, the hero with a double. With the way Foster had pitched up until this
inning, there was a good chance this was going to be the best shot the Phillies
had to eclipse the Red Sox. Possum
Whitted grounded to short, continuing the Phillies’ agonizingly groundball with
runners on trend, and was unable to move Luderus along. Niehoff then hit a rocket that went straight
into Hoblitzell’s glove for the second out.
It was up to Burns to knock in the duck on the pond, but he couldn’t
even put the ball in play. With a runner
on second and no outs, the Phillies failed to take advantage of Boston’s first
mistake of the game.
Sadly, Foster wouldn’t look back. He was the dominant force of the second half
of this game. The Phillies only managed
one more base runner through the eighth.
Luckily for Philadelphia, though, Mayer matched Foster inning for
inning. Sure the Red Sox pounded out a
few hits, but through the eighth none made it past second base. Mayer deserves a lot of credit for his
performance in this game. He held the
vaunted Red Sox lineup to just one run on eight hits through eight
innings. He kept his team in the game
despite the fact that Foster turned the lineup into mincemeat. Going into the ninth, the Phillies had an
even chance to win this game.
Larry Gardner led off the ninth inning for Boston with a
single to left for his second hit of the day.
But this was nothing new for Mayer in this game, as was said there were
ten base runners and only one run for Boston, so there was no reason to
panic. True to form, Mayer worked a
pop-up to center from Barry and a weak tapper back to the mound from Hal
Janvrin, who came in to play shortstop in the seventh. Gardner moved up to second on Janvrin’s out,
so the Sox had a runner on second with two outs and Rube Foster coming to the
plate. Once again we see that managers
during this era of baseball did not feel the need to boost their offense by
pinch-hitting for the pitcher late in a tight game. To be fair, Foster already had a double and
single to his name and was probably the best hitter in Boston’s lineup this
afternoon. Still, he’s a pitcher that
hit .268 on the year, so it’s a wonder that he wasn’t lifted for a pinch hitter. Then again, I’m looking at this situation 100
years after the fact and obviously Bill Carrigan knew how to manage his club. Here’s how Chandler D. Richter of the Evening Ledger described what followed:
“[Mayer] owes his defeat to his own careless pitching to Foster. Foster, like many pitchers, is a weak curve
ball hitter, and made many wild and unsuccessful attempts to his curve balls
during the game. But for some unknown
reason, after Mayer got two strikes on the Red Sox pitcher, he grooved a fast
ball.” Foster sent the ill-advised
fastball back through the box for the go-ahead RBI single. Oh, you can just feel the disappointment from
the crowd as their club watched the Red Sox dugout celebrate to an almost
silent stadium. Two strikes on the
pitcher and Mayer made a mistake keeping a fastball up. What a way to blow the tied game. As soon as he threw it Mayer probably thought
to himself, “Well, I shouldn’t have done that.”[2]
The Phillies still had the bottom of the ninth and the top
of the order was due up. Foster first faced
Milt Stock, who sent a high fly ball to left that was easily caught by Duffy
Lewis. One out. Next up was Dave Bancroft; owner of one of
the three measly hits the Phils managed to get today. The young shortstop wasn’t even able to put
the ball in play; a strikeout was out number two. The fate of the Phillies hung on Dode
Paskert, but he wasn’t up the challenge, either. Foster got him to pop the ball up to
centerfield and the Red Sox won the game 2-1.
As disappointing as a loss in this game is, it was only one
loss. There was still plenty of time for
the Phillies to figure it out and take the series. But the offensive display (pun intended!) put
on in front of their hometown (and the president!) was pitiful. Foster, yes, is one of the best in the game,
but you almost get the sense that the Phillies played a little stiff out there,
like they were afraid to make a mistake.
Maybe it spooked the team a bit when Burns’ dropped ball that led to
Boston’s first run. They certainly
weren’t playing up to their normal standard of hitting, especially considering
the tear they went on for the month prior to the World Series. Or maybe things were finally falling into the
rightful place. Maybe the Red Sox,
seasoned in the juices of the rigorous American League pennant race, were
finally exerting their dominance over the inferior Phillies. Only time would tell. But wasting the great pitching effort from
Erskine Mayer was a real blow to Philadelphia’s chance. Tomorrow the two clubs would travel up north
to chilly Boston to resume the series on October 11. The bad news for Philadelphia was they had to
face Dutch Leonard, the same Dutch Leonard that had a 0.96 ERA in 1914 and won
fifteen games with a 2.36 ERA in 1915.
The good news, however, was the Grover Cleveland Alexander would start
Game Three.
[1]
“Jinx Upon Ball Club That Wins Toss For Series,” Evening Ledger, October 8, 1915, accessed October 9, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1L3sDne.
[2]
Chandler D. Richter, “Phils Beaten By Foster, Who Pitches Great Ball And Drives
In Winning Run,” Evening Ledger,
October 9, 1915, accessed October 9, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1WR2PQz.
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