[jksander]

JUNE 9, 1953 . . . Frank Baumholtz has stayed red hot, so we’re keeping him in the lineup and giving Willie Mays a second day of rest. Other than that, everything’s back to normal in our batting rotation. Mays is our best player, we don’t want to beat him to death with the day to day grind even if sometimes we may be tempted.

Brodowski committed his first error of the year on a play to first in the bottom of the first, which led to his giving up of an unearned run to put the Phillies up quickly. He has to learn how to get out of jams, and by the end of the inning we trailed 0-2 and he’d given up three hits. The question was, how would he respond, since one bad inning in 27 does not necessarily a meltdown make. He gave up a third run in the bottom of the third, however, and as the pitch count rose it was becoming clear this was not his night. By the time he got the final out of the third inning we trailed 0-4 and he’d thrown 81 pitches. Welcome to the big leagues, son. I had to bring Bob Rush in to finish the fourth inning, with the expectation that we could save our bullpen after the long game yesterday. And he pitched brilliantly, but got absolutely no support from our hitters until the bottom of the ninth with two outs, when Ernie Banks hit a solo homer to finally give us a goddamned run. Jackson then doubled, setting up Baumholtz, still with two outs, who promptly flew out to right and ended this one with us falling 1-4.

Bob Rush threw 4.1 innings of two-hit ball in relief, with two strikeouts and two walks, throwing 65 total pitches and bringing his ERA down to 4.02. Brodowski took the loss and fell to 2-2 with a 2.12 ERA, but we all have a bad night -- he’s got to figure out what to take from this one to avoid forming poor habits. He gave up seven hits and four runs (three earned) in 3.2 innings, throwing 95 pitches and getting three strikeouts against one walk. We were out-hit 9-6, but Jackson and Fondy each had two hits on the night.

Rush says he wants the chance to still throw his start tomorrow, and as we’ll have our relievers all rested, I told him I’m okay with giving it a shot as long as he’s willing to let me know when he’s had enough -- and I’ll pull him if he’s thrown too many pitches to risk it. If he can give us five or six quality innings, I think he’ll have done very well. It will also keep Hacker from throwing on just three days’ rest after his struggles in his last outing.

JUNE 10, 1953 . . . Connie Ryan nailed a homer to left four pitches in, giving Philly a 0-1 lead, but Rush handled his business the rest of the inning and the solo shot seemed like just that kind of flukey hit that baseball fans are used to. But it would be nice if we could get a few of those, because the last few games our offense has been simply stagnant. By the end of two innings Rush had four strikeouts but we also trailed Philly 0-2. Nothing was coming easy, and I tried to keep the vibe in the dugout from getting too dark early -- seven innings is a lot of baseball to play when you’re in your own head.

We scored our first run in the top of the fourth, when Randy Jackson grounded into a fielder’s choice allowing Wilie Mays to score and Sauer to advance to third, but Eddie Miksis struck out, ending the rally before it could fully develop. Joe Hatten came in to pitch in the bottom of the sixth with the score still 1-2 in favor of the Phillies, and he promptly gave up two runs with only one out, likely putting this one out of reach the way we’ve been hitting lately. By the end of the inning we trailed Philadelphia 1-5. And it didn’t get any better from there, we just couldn’t f---ing buy a string of hits, and Philly kept on slugging. They added a solo homer in the seventh, and Fondy singled to right in the top of the ninth to negate that run by driving in Randy Jackson, but we still trailed by four. And that’s where we’d stay, down 2-6 against the Phillies as we got our asses swept.

Rush fell to 6-7 on the year, but his ERA improved to 4.00 as he gave up seven hits but just two earned runs, striking out five while only walking one. If he’d had more run support I might have been able to give him another inning, but I have to be able to trust our relievers in situations like this, and Hatten (now with an abysmal 9.82 ERA thanks to four earned runs tonight on four hits and two walks) definitely isn’t cutting it. Cavarretta and Sauer couldn’t find a hit if their lives depended on it today, though Sauer at least used his patience at the plate to find two walk opportunities. Ernie Banks hit twice but was stranded each time, and Jackson had a pair of hits, scoring one and batting in another.

We have a day off, followed by three games this weekend against Brookyln before we can finally get this road trip over and return to Wrigley ... but will the fans care to visit us there? After starting June with a 3-1 record, we’ve lost five of our last six, and we’re now 28-28, nine games out of first and fading fast.