1919 NL Players of the Week - 22 June

The Batter and Pitcher of the Week in the National League during the week of 16-22 June are as follows (boldface denotes a League-leading total) . . .

1919 NL - Games of Sunday, 22 June

Cubs 2, Robins 1: Pete Kilduff's pinch-hit single with two outs in the bottom of the 11th inning scored Fred Merkle from third base with the game-winning run and rewarded Hippo Vaughn with a win for his eleven innings of four-hit hurling. Vaughn and his opponent Jeff Pfeffer appeared to have early dinner plans in Chicago that evening, the way they were cutting through the batting lineups. Brooklyn scored in the 5th on a leadoff double by Ed Konetchy, a bunt and a sac fly, but the Cubs equalized in the 6th on a pair of leadoff singles and a sacrifice fly of their own. Vaughn (7-7) then retired fifteen straight Robins while Pfeffer allowed only three hits over the next five innings. That took the game to the 11th still knotted up at a run apiece, and Mack Wheat stopped Vaughn's unbeaten string with a double to start the inning. He has bunted to third by Pfeffer, but Ivy Olson slapped one right at third baseman Charlie Deal playing in on the grass and Wheat had to hold tight at third. Hi Myers drew a walk, but Jimmy Johnston got under one for an inning-ending fly ball to center. In the bottom half, Fred Merkle doubled with one away and Dode Paskert singled him to third base. The pfading Pfeffer (8-5) was replaced by Larry Cheney, and the relief man got Deal to foul out to the catcher for out number two. That brought Kilduff off the bench to hit for Fred Lear, and the infielder lined a pitch into left field that scored Merkle for the winner. [box]

1919 NL - Games of Saturday, 21 June

Reds 7, Phillies 4: Cincinnati rapped out eighteen hits - Morrie Rath, Heinie Groh and Edd Roush amassing three apiece - and Ray Fisher pitched well enough to win as the Reds moved back into first place with a win at home. After Gavy Cravath had given the Phillies a quick lead with an RBI single in the 1st, Groh singled and stole second before Roush tied the game in the bottom of the inning with a run-scoring single. In the 4th Gorh again got on base, with a leadoff walk, and stole the next base and this time Jimmy Smith was the one to drive him home. In the following frame, Cincinnati piled on Gene Packard (2-7) for three straight one-out singles that produced one run and Greasy Neale placed an exclamation point with a two-run triple that made the score 5-1. Fisher (5-8) was having his way with the visitors through six innings, allowing just one hit after Cravath's early RBI, but the Phils got to him in the 7th. The first three men singled, with Bert Adams' hit knocking in a run; Fisher got the next two men out, but Cy Williams doubled to score two more with two out and it was suddenly a one-run contest. Four singles in the bottom of the 8th produced two insurance runs for the Reds, and Fisher recorded strike outs for three of the final four outs to close strongly. [box]

1919 NL - Games of Friday, 20 June

Braves 6, Pirates 5: Boston scored a run in the 8th to tie, and a run in the 9th to win, a see-saw affair with Pittsburgh in The Steel City. After the Pirates had leapt to a 3-0 lead in the first inning on Casey Stengel's RBI triple, George Cutshaw's sac fly and Billy Southworth's solo home run (1), Boston came back with one in the 4th and three in the 6th to take the lead - five straight Braves singled off of Earl Hamilton after two men were out. The home team got right back on top in the bottom of the inning when the decision to intentionally walk Walter Schmidt to face the pitcher Hamilton backfired when both he and leadoff batter Carson Bigbee singled to score runs. Brooklyn tied the score again when Buck Herzog tripled to start the 8th and scored on Ray Powell's single, and then they finished the job against Hamilton (1-10) in the 9th. With one out Tony Boeckel singled, and Walt Tragesser (.182) then drove a two-bagger that was deep enough to score Bockel with the go-ahead run. Al Demaree (5-2) allowed the first two men in the bottom of the inning to reach, but Jack Scott came on to record two ground ball force outs to strand the potential tying run at third base. Bigbee and Southworth each had four of Pittsburgh's fourteen hits. [box]

1919 NL - Games of Thursday, 19 June

Cubs 3, Robins 2: Charlie Deal's single in the bottom of the 11th scored the winning run, with the benefit of a Brooklyn error, and enabled Chicago to withstand six of their own fielding miscues to win a close, mistake-filled affair at Weeghman Park. The Cubs got on the board first, in the 1st, on a single, two ground outs and a wild pitch and the clubs then traded runs in the 3rd with the Cubs retaking the lead on Max Flack's home run (3). Neither club could score again, despite Brooklyn getting some help from three Pete Kilduff errors, until the 8th when Tommy Griffith singled, stole second and took third on Bob O'Farrell's wild throw, and scored the tying run on Zack Wheat's sacrifice fly ball. There were two more Cub errors in the top of the 11th, but Speed Martin (3-2) got two outs in the air to keep the runners stuck on their bases, and the bats got it done in the bottom half. With one out, Kilduff singled, and he moved to second on a ground out. Dode Paskert's ground ball eluded the grasp of Ed Konetchy at first for another error to place Kilduff at third base and Deal then singled to shallow center to win the game for Chicago. Surprisingly, the nine errors in the game led to only a single unearned run, partly because the Robins hit only 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position. Otto Miller had three hits for Brooklyn and Flack had three for the Cubs. [box]

1919 NL - Games of Wednesday, 18 June

Robins 2, Cubs 1: Brooklyn could manage only two hits against Hippo Vaughn, but they both led to runs as the visitors finally found the winning edge in a tense contest in the top of the 9th inning. Three thousand fans were in the stands at Weeghman Park to see a much-anticipated pitching matchup between Vaughn and Jeff Pfeffer, who had combined to win thirteen games thus far in the campaign, and the star men did not disappoint. The first safe hit of the game came to lead off the bottom of the 3rd, when Vaughn lined one down the left-field line and off the wall for a two-base hit; after Max Flack ground out to second to move Pfeffer along, Charlie Pick hit a fly ball to Zack Wheat in left that was deep enough for the pitcher to tag up and score the game's opening tally. Les Mann followed with a single, but that was the last hit of the game until the top of the 6th. Ivy Olson took a Vaughn breaking ball in the shoulder blade to start the frame, and then made Chicago pay double by swiping second base on the first pitch to Jimmy Johnston. The Robin right fielder then grounded one up the middle and into center for a base hit that enabled Olson to come around and score the tying run. Chicago got two men aboard with one out in the home half of the inning, but Pfeffer got Dode Paskert to ground out and Charlie Deal to sky harmlessly to center to end the inning. Vaughn, meanwhile, was ripping through the Brooklyns, retiring nine in a row with seven groundouts to take the game into the 9th still deadlocked at one run apiece. Hi Myers was first up for the Robins, and his ground ball was thrown away by Bill McCabe at shortstop (CHI star SS Charlie Hollocher was out due to injury), putting Myers at second base. Wheat followed with a bloop that fell onto the grass in shallow center for a hit that sent Myers to third. The brought up Ed Konetchy and, with the infielders creeping in, the BRO first baseman dropped an exquisite bunt down the first base line with which Fred Merkle could do nothing but pick up and tag Konetchy while Myers slide home with the go-ahead run. Vaughn (6-7) got two ground outs to the drawn-in infield to limit the damage, but Pfeffer )8-4) allowed only a two-out walk in the the bottom of the 9th before retiring pinch-hitter Turner Barber to end the game. [box]