Cubs 2, Braves 1: Each club could manage only eight hits but, as has so often happened in his nine-year big-league career, Pete Alexander was slightly better when the chips were on the line and Chicago won a nail-biter in Boston. Two lapses in concentration were all it took to doom the Braves - in the 3rd, a two-out error by Tony Boeckel set the table for Charlie Hollocher's RBI hit and, in the 4th, Hugh McQuillan hit leadoff hitter Fred Merkle with a pitch to start the ball rolling towards Les Mann's run-scoring single three batters later. McQuillan (3-2) was excellent after that, allowing only four Cubs to reach over the final five innings, but it was already too late with "Old Pete" toeing the rubber on the opposite side. Boston got just one hit against him in the first three innings, and didn't really threaten seriously until the 7th when Boeckel singled with one out and Hank Gowdy tripled two batters later to cut the Chicago lead to 2-1. But McQuillan popped out to leave the potential tying run 90 feet shy and Boston didn't get a whiff of hope again until they had poked a pair of singles with two outs in the bottom of the 9th; pinch-hitter Johnny Rawlings was asked to be the hero, but he was no match for the 200-game winner, who forced him to hit a lazy fly ball to center field which was pocketed by Lee Magee for the final out. Alexander held the Braves to 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position by pitching to contact (one walk, two strikeouts) and recording fourteen ground-ball outs (retiring eleven of the first fifteen in that fashion). Magee had two hits to lead the Cubs, while Gowdy had three base knocks for Boston. [box]
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| "Old Pete" won for the ninth time in ten decisions |
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