The starters keep throwing rocks in the early part of the month, shutting out the Bees twice in a three-game road sweep to kick it off and stretch our lead to four games. That becomes seven quickly enough, as our pitchers just weaken ever so much but our bats finally come alive. A hell of a lot of grit being shown by the group to find ways of winning.
I decide to call up Ken Chase for a look-see and, in the process of waiving Neck Stanley, we lose him to the Cubs. At 33 and with us having a backlog of pitching prospects, I am not in the least bit perturbed by this, although he has been a fantastic player in his five seasons at our club, going 5-0 / 3.15 in 134 IP over that span and we wish him well – except, of course, when he faces us.
A couple days later, Ruffing fractures his tibia running out a double and is unlikely to return this year. Johnny Lanning is the next young arm to get his chance to show us what he’s got, with Jim Tobin moving into the spin. We also get news that whatever hopes we had of Hank Leiber making a reappearance this season would come to nought as he suffers a setback that would prolong his absence by at least three further months. We take the opportunity to sit down with him and try to nut out a deal as I would like to keep him here. Our pitch is a 4+1 / $96500 deal, which he later accepts.
The second half of the month is a bit of a struggle. The lads have been playing their hearts out but have only got so much to give and I honestly don’t know how much there is left in the tank. And yet they keep finding new reserves from someplace deep inside and our lead edges up bit by bit until, as we close August with huge 15-3 win over the Jints to give us a 16-11 record for the sectional, we have cleared out by eight games.
This is quite a group we’ve got.
The power void continues as we hit just 14 homers in August's 27 games. Foxx hits five of those but has been in some dirty form for the most part. Meanwhile, the pitchers are just withering a bit. We just need them to hang tight for 30 more games. Then hopefully between four and seven more after that.
A relatively ordinary month by the Yanks (15-13) reins in their projected wins to a measly 109, while Hammerin' Hank goes a bit quiet in the second half and now is on 51 HR pace.
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