August begins with a strange “feeling-out” period, as if a heavyweight championship bout the protagonists know won’t be won with a single knockout blow. Despite pallid offence, we get off to a decent enough start with 4 wins from 6. Two of these are back-to-back deep extra-inning games, a 2-1 win in 14 followed by an 8-7 loss in 18, both against Boston.
Dutchie goes a most uncharacteristic 0-for-7 in that second game and it is indicative of his poor early-August form as he hits 167 over the first ten games. Maloney, at 097 over the same period, is even worse. Chesbro is another who really struggles in his first few starts for the month, all three of which we lose.
Still, we manage to maintain our lead – apart from a two-day period when the Cubs catch, but never pass, us – all the way until the end of the month. Not by dominating. Nor by preventing ourselves from, on occasion, being dominated. But by grinding out more wins than losses. It ain’t sexy, but almost every time it’s how you achieve your goal.
The final week of August sees us begin a stretch of 15 games in 14 days that culminates in the Cubs and ourselves meeting for four in Chi-Town. We manage to win the first three of these, then celebrate Roger’s long-awaited return to the fold by getting shut out on two hits by the Cards to round the month off.
That gives us a 17-10 record for the month and puts us at 72-51 overall, a single game to the good of Chicago with 31 to play.
Hot- Matty McIntyre: has been our best player all season, and continues that with an exceptional August that sees him slash 345/430/460 and lead the team with an OPS+ of 170.
- Charlie Rhodes: as our 2.85 Starter ERA (5th in the NL) shows, our rotation has once again been pretty up-and-down this season, which has put extra pressure on our bullpen. Charlie has been the go-to guy for us in this regard, and has been fantastic. 5-2 for the season with a 1.48 ERA is an excellent return by the rookie.
Not- Honus Wagner / Jack Chesbro: our performance this month is even more impressive when you take into consideration that our two talismen both have extremely ordinary sectionals. Dutchie has perhaps the most ineffectual month of his storied career, slashing 261/333/304 and posting a wRC+ of 94, nearly half of McIntyre’s mark. Jack, meanwhile, went 2-4 / 4.26 and it would seem almost a given that for us to have a chance of prevailing this season one or both of them are going to have to come good.
Around the Leagues- Chicago stumbles early to let the Browns and Tigers close the gap, then continues its backslide to the point where the Browns overtake them just after mid-month. St. Louis then puts their foot down and a superlative 20-5 August sees them get out to a 7-game lead by the time it’s done. That may well be enough.
- I certainly don’t see the NL as a two-way go just yet, with the Phillies loitering just 5 ˝ back. The rest, with the closest of them 10 GB, are probably out of it now.
- The Giants lose ace Christy Mathewson for the year to forearm inflammation.
Awards- 08/06 POTW: AL – Jake Weimer (Detroit) 2-0 / 0.00 / 10 K / 18 IP; NL – Frank Schulte (Chicago) 480 / 1 HR / 6 RBI.
- 08/13 POTW: AL – Orval Overall (Cleveland) 2-0 / 0.00 / 6 K / 18 IP; NL – Jesse Tannehill (Brooklyn) 2-0 / 1.42 / 7 K / 19 IP.
- 08/20 POTW: AL – Nap Lajoie (Philadelphia) 591 / 4 RBI; NL – Bobby Wallace (St. Louis) 579 / 4 RBI.
- 08/27 POTW: AL – Mike Donlin (New York) 429 / 5 RBI; NL – Emmet Heidrick (Cincinnati) 565 / 3 RBI.
- AL Batter of the Month: Mike Donlin (New York) 364 / 0 HR / 16 RBI.
- NL Batter of the Month: Cy Seymour (Chicago) 333 / 2 HR / 21 RBI.
- AL Pitcher of the Month: Jack Coombs (Philadelphia) 6-1 / 1.94 / 31 K / 65 IP.
- NL Pitcher of the Month: Mordecai Brown (Chicago) 6-1 / 1.01 / 21 K / 62.1 IP.
- AL Rookie of the Month: Jack Coombs (Philadelphia).
- NL Rookie of the Month: Ed Karger (St. Louis) 3-4 / 3.50 / 26 K / 61.2 IP.
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