1919 NL - Games of Saturday, 26 April

Pirates 1, Cubs 0: Fritz Mollwitz singled home George Cutshaw in the 5th inning to give the Pirates the lead, and Babe Adams made it stand up by holding Chicago to five hits and retiring nine of the final team men to face him. Adams and Phil Douglas locked up in a pitcher's duel from the outset, with Douglas allowing only one Pittsburgh hit over the first four innings while Adams was giving up but two. In the 5th, though, Cutshaw led off the inning with a double down the right-field line and moved to third base on a groundout before Mollwitz hit a shot towards first base that caromed off the bag and into shallow right field for an RBI single. Pittsburgh would get just one safe hit against Douglas the rest of the way, but that would be enough as the Cubs failed to place a mark against Adams; Charlie Pick doubled with one out in the 5th, and Charlie Hollocher tripled with two away in the 6th, but in neither case could the Chicagos find a way to push the runner across home plate. Adams got six straight ground balls to skip through the 7th and 8th, and when Hollocher was caught trying to steal second after singling with one gone in the 9th that was the final gasp for the home club.  [box]

Fritz Mollwitz, Pittsburgh

Reds 4, Cardinals 2: Edd Roush singled home the go-ahead and insurance runs in the bottom of the 8th inning after Cincinnati had set up the winning rally with some scientific baseball. St. Louis, still looking for its first win of the season, led the game by a score of 2-0 before Jake Daubert singled home two runs to even things up in the bottom of the 4th inning, and there the score froze until the Reds came to bat in the 8th. Morrie Rath led off with a walk against Bill Doak, and then beat the throw to second when Greasy Neale bunted and Doak looked to force the lead runner. Heinie Groh then sacrificed the two runners into scoring position for Roush, whose second hit of the afternoon delivered two runs. Dolf Luque allowed a leadoff single to Cliff Heathcote in the 9th, but retired the next three Cards to secure the victory and a season-opening series sweep for Cincinnati. [box]