My concerns re depth are tested almost immediately as we lose Dihigo to an intercostal strain for a fortnight, then a sprained ankle sidelines Wright for a week.
Then Leiber goes down for the season.
Unbelievable.
We have had such a great run with injuries, I can’t say we weren’t due. But it leaves us with a much weaker lineup for the long season ahead and little recourse to address it.
We were fortunate enough to have signed veteran OF Goose Goslin on an MiLB deal, and he gets the call-up to platoon at LF with Doc Cramer, at least to begin with.
It is almost entirely thanks to Jimmie Foxx – as you can see from that earlier post – and Josh Gibson that we manage to stay afloat in this early choppiness. Both hit over 400 in the first dozen games, with 8 HR and 25 RBI between them.
With the exception of Brown, our pitching struggles to put good performances together with any consistency. Derringer has another ineffective start to the season, while Ruffing and Lee both have good days and bad in equal amounts.
Dihigo is back by this time, vastly improving our overall balance and, after a true test by fire of 27 straight games without an off day, we sit at 17-10 and in a three-way tie for first, quite astonishing given everything that has gone on and a testament to the work ethic and grit of the group despite playing far from their best. This is best exemplified by our 5-1 extra-innings record over this period.
Make that 6-1, when in our first game after the break, Duke Derringer gets his first win of the season with an 11-inning complete game victory at Boston.
But the rest of the month remains choppy in what is, all up, a hectic, frantic, manic start to our 1938 campaign, by the end of which we sit at 25-17 and just a half-game behind the Bees and Jints.
The early injury seems to have left Martin Dihigo a bit underdone and both he and Ray Dandridge have really struggled for consistency in the early going. Other than that, all is fine now that Duke Derringer seems to have righted the ship.
The Yanks look monstrous and have already put a little gap between them and the pack. The Tigers have had a terrible start to the season.
Awards, news and leaders. Monte "Mr Murder" Irvin's first month in the bigs is a memorable one: he wins the Batter and Rookie awards in the NL after hitting 354 with 10 HR. Piece of cake, really!
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