[jksander]

JULY 21, 1953 . . . Big news from the GM today -- he’s decided to bring Vern Fear, the closer from our AAA affiliate in Los Angeles, to protect him from Rule 5 eligibility and give him a shot against major league batters (sending Hatten back down to AAA.) With three key games starting today against the Dodgers, I’m sure he’ll get his shot. But will he have what it takes? We’ll be pitching Hacker, Klippstein and Brodowski in this series, so we’re hoping not to have to rely too much on the bullpen, but I’d rather have good arms available, especially in a series with this much on the line. Brooklyn comes into today’s game with a 58-33 record, just half a game out of first, and now that we’ve hammered on the Giants and knocked them completely out of the race, it’s now us, Philly, Brooklyn and Milwaukee fighting over the last ten weeks of the season.

Hacker opened up the scoring in the top of the second with an RBI single, and Dee Fondy added a second run with an RBI single of his own. Cavarretta kept the two-out hitting train rolling by driving in two more with a double, before Willie Mays flew out to center to end the inning with us up 4-0! Hacker got his first strikeout of the night in the bottom of the third, giving him 100 K’s for the season, and then in the fourth inning he got himself his second hit of the night, scoring our fifth run when Dee Fondy then drove him in from first with a double -- getting it done on both offense and defense! Cavarretta then drove Fondy home, building our lead to 6-0 in the middle of the fourth. Hacker gave up a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning to Pee Wee Reese, but they couldn’t get anyone else around to home and we still led by four after four. We surrendered another run in the bottom of the fifth, but the Dodgers also left two more stranded. Cavarretta made a spectacular diving catch to rob Jackie Robinson of an RBI in the bottom of the sixth, and Hank Sauer scored us another run on an RBI double in the top of the seventh to increase our lead to four runs. Jackson hit to deep left immediately after, reaching third and driving Sauer home, and we went into the stretch leading 8-3 against the Dodgers! Hacker struck out the side in the bottom of the seventh, and we scored our ninth run of the game on a wild pitch with the bases loaded, heading into the bottom of the eighth with a 9-3 lead. Vern Fear came in at that point to relieve Hacker, and though he was a bit jittery early and got himself into a hole and giving up a run, he settled down quickly and we went into the ninth leading 9-4. He got through the ninth inning with no further incident and we were able to win the first game of the series against the Dodgers by five runs!

Warren Hacker took the win again, improving to 14-5 with a 2.73 ERA, giving up 10 hits and three earned runs, walking two and striking out six. Vern Fear had a solid two-inning debut in relief, with four hits and one earned run to go with a strikeout. His ERA after one appearance is 4.50. Hacker had two hits in the game and scored three runs with one batted in. Fondy, Cavarretta, Mays and Miksis each had two hits as well, as we blew this one out despite being outhit 14-12. Talk about teamwork, we’re really starting to come into our own! With this win we moved ahead of Philadelphia and into third place, though with Milwaukee winning their game today we remain nine games out of first, but we also won our 50th game!

JULY 22, 1953 . . . Tonight’s game was a pitcher’s duel of the highest order, with Billy Loes (14-6) up against Johnny Klippstein (8-2) in a game where both teams combined for just three hits in the first four innings of scoreless baseball. But Brooklyn broke the scoring barrier first, with Carl Furillo hitting a solo homer off of Klippstein in the bottom of the fifth in only the Dodgers’ second hit of the night, so we trailed 1-0 at the end of the fifth. But in the top of the eighth, Dee Fondy hit an RBI single to drive in Eddie Miksis to tie the game at 1-1, and Ernie Banks hit a high fly to left that the fielder just barely missed, the ball rolling to the wall while both Fondy and Cavarretta scored, making it a 3-1 lead for our Cubs -- and the fans in this place were stunned silent. Bob Kelly came in to relieve Klippstein with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, but with men on first and second, and he got the final out of the inning when Willie Mays made a spectacular leaping catch in center to keep the lead intact. Brooklyn shut us down in the top of the ninth, bringing Kelly back out to seal the save. Pee Wee Reese hit a double with two outs, but Kelly got the strikeout we needed and we beat Brooklyn for the second night in a row, this time in a tight 3-1 victory!

Klippstein took the win, improving to 9-2 with a 3.91 ERA, giving up just three hits all night and the one earned run, with three strikeouts and a walk. Kelly got his 11th save of the year, improving his ERA to 5.86 while pitching 1.1 innings of one hit ball, with the single strikeout at the end of the ninth. We out-hit them 6-4 in a game where not giving up baserunners was crucial. Fondy had two hits and scored a run while batting in another, and Ernie Banks had a hit with two RBIs. We have now won seven straight dating back to the second game of the July 12 double-header, and we’re right in this NL pennant race.

JULY 23, 1953 . . . When Dick Brodowski walked Billy Cox in the bottom of the third inning, Cox became the first base-runner for either team to that point in the game, which seemed even more tightly contested than yesterday’s bruiser. Fondy didn’t help things by bobbling an easy catch at first that turned a half-hearted bunt attempt by Brooklyn into a double, putting two runners in scoring position with just one out. Brodowski then walked the bases loaded, creating a real jam, but a weakly-hit infield ball made for a quick double play -- first the catch by Brodowski and then the well-timed throw to get Cox out at home plate. Nicely done! The Fondy error kept the no-hitter alive for both pitchers heading into the fourth inning knotted 0-0.

Cavarretta got the first hit of the game in the top of the fourth, and an error by the shortstop allowed Mays to reach first as well with just one out. Sauer hit it lightly into center, but weakly enough it was tough to get a handle on, and just like that we were on the board with Cavarretta crossing home to loud jeers by the home fans. But Brodowski gave up a solo homer to Duke Snider in the bottom of the inning to tie it right back up. Eddie Miksis reached first on Brooklyn’s second error of the game in the top of the fifth but we couldn’t do anything with it, but we kept playing solid defense as well -- in the bottom of the fifth Brodowski made another great play to home, getting Cox out for the second time in the game at home plate. But the go-ahead run did score in that frame as well, so we went into the top of the sixth trailing 2-1. We got two into scoring position in the top of the eighth, but Willie Mays struck out and stranded them both. And Vern Fear gave up a solo homer by Roy Campanella to make it 3-1 in the bottom of the eighth. We didn’t get any of those runs back in the top of the ninth so the win streak ended -- we fell to the Dodgers in the third game of the series, losing 3-1.

Brodowski took the loss, falling to 5-5 with a 3.35 ERA, giving up just four hits and two runs with three walks and two strikeouts, but he threw 125 pitches in seven innings. Vern Fear pitched a full inning in relief with one hit leading to an earned run, along with a strikeout, dropping his ERA to 6.00 after two appearances.

Next up is a four game road series against Pittsburgh (39-60) before we head back to Wrigley for three against Brooklyn, the start of a three-week stretch of Wrigley games as we head toward the month of August. We slipped with this loss back into fourth place, but we’re only eight games out of first so we’re putting in the work to reach our pennant goal.

In roster news, Bob Ramazzotti is being sent back down to AAA. He’s only played in a few games all year, mostly as a pinch-hitter and backup at second base. He had to be moved down to make room for Kenneth Chapman, who was acquired in a trade from Detroit. Chapman only played in one game for Detroit all year, so it’s tough to know what we’re really getting, though he’s had more than 1,100 hits in the minors over a journeyman’s career, hitting .264 in his career.