Braves 1, Cubs 0: A scintillating pitchers' duel at Braves Field was decided in favor of the home nine when Rabbit Maranville's slow ground ball pushed across a run in the bottom of the 7th inning. Safe hits were in short supply in the early going, as Max Flack led off the game with a single and Chicago wouldn't record another base hit until the 5th, and Boston only had four of their own through five. Both sides had the makings of a rally erased by double plays, the Cubs seeing Fred Merkle's line drive turned into two outs by Maranville with two on in the 1st and Buck Herzog bouncing into a 463 with two Robins aboard in the 3rd. The home team got two on with one out in the 6th, but Hippo Vaughn (8-10) escaped on two ground ball outs; he would not fare as well in the 7th. Red Smith and Hank Gowdy began the inning with singles and Al Demaree bunted them both into scoring position; Brooklyn pulled the infield in close, but Marnaville hit one off the end of the bat that got past the mound and, by the time shortstop Charlie Hollcher could glove the ball with the runners going at the crack of the bat, Smith was nearly home and he was forced to take the out at first base. Now staked to the slimmest of leads, Demaree (7-4) got to work - he wobbled a bit in the 8th, allowing two men to reach with one out before escaping via two weak grounders back to the mound, and a leadoff error in the 9th came to nought when he ended the game by inducing two can-of-corn fly balls to center. Lee Magee of the Cubs and Jim Thorpe of the Braves were the only players to walk off the field with more than one base hit. [box]
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| Al Demaree got just one run of support, but that was all he needed |
Phillies 3, Reds 1: The sputtering Cincinnati offense could manage just five hits off of Gene Packard and Philadelphia concentrated enough hitting into a single inning to defeat the League leaders again. Dolf Luque (7-2), who came into the game as the circuit's ERA leader, ran into problems in the 3rd inning when he walked the leadoff hitter and then surrendered a slicing two-base hit to Possum Whitted. Ed Sicking grounded one to first base to score the game's first run and Nig Clarke then laced one off of Luque's glove and into shallow center for a base hit that scored Whitted with the second. After Packard had grounded weakly back to the box allowing Clarke to move up to second base, Leo Callahan grounded one up the middle for an RBI single that made it 3-0. While Luque would steady the ship after that Packard, who came into the contest allowing north of six earned runs per game, was shearing his way through the Reds batting order - the visitors had singles in each of the first two innings, but those were the last hits they would record until the 8th. The game was still in the balance when pinch-hitter Jimmy Smith and Morrie Rath singled with two outs in the frame but Packard retired Jake Daubert to end the threat and then limited the damage to a single run after Heinie Groh tripled to start the 9th retiring the last three men on two grounders and an infield pop to put the game away. Whitted and Irish Meusel each had two hits for the Phils, and Rath also had a pair for Cincinnati. [box]
Giants 5, Pirates 3: Benny Kauff doubled and homered to lead the New York attack and Red Causey threw a six-hitter at Pittsburgh in front of an appreciative assemblage at the Polo Grounds. The score was 1-1, Kauff having doubled and scored the tying run for the Giants in the 2nd, when "The Ty Cobb of the Federal League" struck again in the 4th by following Al Baird's single with a deep drive down the right field line that carried well over the fence for a two-run homer (his 7th of the season). But the lead didn't last long at all as the Pirates got two themselves in their next turn, Causey allowing the first four men to reach base with RBI singles by Walter Schmidt and mound counterpart Frank Miller before short-circuiting the rally on a strikeout and a ground-ball double play. Pittsburgh would get just one base hit the rest of the way, however, and that would not come until there were two men out in the 9th inning as Causey (7-4) set down thirteen in a row (nine of eleven on the ground at one stretch) after the second Pittsburgh run. New York tacked on singletons in the 5th and 6th against Miller (6-6), but the game was well in hand by that point. Baird and Ross Youngs also had two hits for the home team, while Hal Chase joined Kauff by also knocking in a pair. [box]
Robins 8, Cardinals 4: Tommy Griffith singled three times and Ed Konetchy keyed a big 8th inning with a three-run home run as St. Louis gave away a late lead in Brooklyn. The Cards had built a 4-1 edge through the first five innings thanks to a three-run second that included only two base hits but also featured two walks, a wild pitch and a pair of stolen bases. The score had not changed as the Robins came to bat in the home half of the 8th, having only five hits against Red Ames thus far, and had just one baserunner in the previous three innings. But Ames was a different pitcher when he took the bump to start the inning - a walk and two singles by the first three batters produced one run, and were enough to convince Branch Rickey to pull the 36 year-old campaigner and summon workhorse Oscar Tuero (4-6) in relief. He immediately got Jimmy Johnston to ground one to second, but Milt Stock turned a possible double-play ball into an error that loaded the bases with Brooklyns and it all went sideways for St. Louis from there - Griffith singled in a run, Zack Wheat put the home team in front with a two-run single and Konetchy followed two batters later with the big shot to straightaway center field for a seven-spot in the inning. Burleigh Grimes mopped up in the 9th to make a winner out of Al Mamaux (8-2), who struck out eight Redbirds in his eight innings of work. [box]
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