[jksander]

MAY 26, 1954 . . . We have two games left in this St. Louis road stand before we head back to Chicago for six games in four days. Tonight we had Johnny Klippstein (7-1, 1.27 ERA, 63.2 IP, 42 K’s, 0.88 WHIP) pitching against St. Louis’ Bob Grim (3-3, 2.96 ERA, 73.0 IP, 47 K’s, 1.05 WHIP) with the chance to take the lead in the series. Klippstein let a couple men on in the bottom of the second but he got a strikeout at the right time and was then able to get out of the inning by stranding both St. Louis runners. Willie Mays hit a 375-footer over the left field wall, his 11th homer of the year, to give us a 1-0 lead in the top of the third, and though we loaded the bases in the fifth, we weren’t able to add to the one run lead. And in the bottom of the sixth, Red Schoendienst scored from third on a passed ball, tying things 1-1 and enlivening the home fans quite a bit. Klippstein got the final out to to complete the inning, and we loaded the bases AGAIN in the seventh but were still unable to add any runs. Klippstein got us through the seventh inning, but we had Sauer pinch-hit for him in the top of the eighth, successfully getting a hit that gave us a man in scoring position (McCullough) with just one out. But again we were unable to get anyone home, and the score remained tied 1-1 heading into the bottom of the eighth with Harry Dorish coming in to pitch. Dorish gave us a scare, putting men on the corners before getting the third out and keeping the score tied heading into the ninth. They walked Mays, but were able to get quick flyouts against Banks and Rosen. Mays successfully stole second, so they walked Al Kaline, bringing up Gene Baker with two outs and Mays in scoring position. And he promptly struck out, bringing Lombardi out to keep us in this game. And on his second pitch they got a walk-off solo homer to lose us the game 2-1. Unbelievable.

Poor Lombardi -- he threw two pitches and took the loss, no outs, one hit, one earned run, dropping his ERA to 2.45. Klippstein threw a great game, going seven innings with just two hits and an unearned run, improving his ERA to 1.15 on 108 pitches, with three walks and four strikeouts. Harry Dorish gave up one hit and a walk through 17 pitches, improving his ERA to 0.75. I should have kept him out for a second inning or brought in Consuegra, but the way the crowd was pumped up it’s possible they would have blasted one out of the park regardless -- and we would have had the bottom of our order up in the 10th anyway. Some nights you just don’t have it.

The crazy thing is we outhit the Cardinals 9-4 but the only run we could score was the homer by Mays, who finished with the homer and three walks on the night. In total we were walked seven times, loading the bases twice, which makes the loss all the more maddening. Banks and McCullough each had two hits, and Mays’ 11th homer gave him 35 RBIs for the year thus far. Tomorrow we’ll try and even the series and at least get out of St. Louis with a split.

We can officially announce, meanwhile, that Willie Mays has signed a long term contract keeping him here in Chicago through 1960 when he’ll be 29 years old! His salary will jump to $102,000 next season and will increase incrimentally through 1959, at which point he’ll receive $120,000 each year for the final two years of the contract. He’ll also receive $10,000 All Star bonuses and $25,000 for any year he wins MVP. Our fan interest is currently sky high, and I’m hopiong we’ll see a big increase in home attendance when we come back into town this weekend.

MAY 27, 1954 . . . Saul Rogovin (4-0, 1.42 ERA, 50.2 IP, 34 K’s, 1.05 WHIP) pitched tonight against Ron Kline (0-3, 5 SVs, 24.1 IP, 5 K’s, 1.68 WHIP) in a matchup that made me think complete mismatch, as Kline has struggled to adjust to becoming a starter -- good stuff, movement and control, but weak overall pitch quality. So we came into this one a bit off balance, wondering if they were planning to pitch Kline first time through the order as an opener, or if they really were putting the rookie out there to go the distance.

Roger Maris opened the game with a double, reaching third on a groundout by Cavarretta to first. He then came around to score thanks to a grounder to first by Willie Mays for our second out, giving us a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, scoring his first run for us since becoming a Cub earlier this spring! We only scored the one run in the inning, but we rang up Kline for 27 pitches in the process. Woody Smith hit a line drive to deep right in the top of the second, driving Gene Baker in from third to score our second run with a standing double, and Rogovin himself hit a double moments later to drive Smith home to make it 3-0 and clearly leaving Kline looking shell shocked on the mound. Cavarretta hit a run-scoring double to make it 4-0, Willie Mays hit a run-scoring double to make it 5-0, and the Cardinals brought long-reliever Larry Jackson (1-1, 8.72 ERA) in with two outs. Managerial malpractice, in my opinion, to have had Kline out there in the first place, but we’ll be glad to take advantage! Jackson got them out of the inning and we came into the bottom of the second leading the Cards 5-0. Saul Rogovin drove in a sixth run singling to drive Woody Smith around from second to make it 6-0 midway through the third, and in the top of the fifth Woody Smith drove in another run to make it 7-0. Rogovin beat out a throw to first, giving him his third hit of the game, and with the bases loaded Cavarretta hit a blooper to right field that made it out of the infield by pure chance, getting him to first and scoring another. A Mays single to deep center drove in two more, and we then unloaded on them, batting around and coming out of the top of the fifth with an 11-0 lead. Rogovin got his FOURTH HIT IN A ROW in the top of the sixth, and gave up only his second hit of the game in the bottom of the sixth, a solo homer to center to finally put the Cardinals on the board down 11-1. And that was all the action they would get. The remainder of the game went by quietly and efficiently as Rogovin completed the game on a pair of flyouts and a strikeout as we won over the Cardinals 11-1.

Rogovin improved to 5-0 with a 1.36 ERA thanks to nine three-hit innings, racking up five strikeouts and walking no one. We outhit the Cardinals 17-3, led easily by Rogovin with four hits in five at-bats, driving in two runs and scoring twice himself! Woody Smith hit three times, driving in two runs and scoring three himself, while Cavarretta, Mays, Rosen and Baker each had a pair of hits.

All Star voting is now open, and we’re driving back to Chicago tonight for six games over the next four days against Cincinnati and St. Louis, including doubleheaders on Sunday and Monday. No days off until June 7, so we’ll see about juggling some off days for our batters to keep the lineup fresh and stop guys from wearing down.

MAY 28, 1954 . . . This afternoon we returned to Wrigley, with Robert Diehl (3-3, 3.27 ERA, 44.0 IP, 22 K’s, 1.09 WHIP) up against Redlegs starter Tom Poholsky (4-4, 2.95 ERA, 79.1 IP, 22 K’s, 1.15 WHIP). Diehl got out of the top of the first on nine pitches, no balls getting out of the infield, and in the bottom of the inning Al Rosen hit a massive slam to center field, driving in three runs with his sixth homer of the year, giving us an immediate 3-0 lead. The Redlegs got on the board in the top of the second with a standup double that drove Gus Bell around to score, but Diehl got out of the inning with a double play to limit the damage to a single run. Roger Maris was hit by a pitch to start the bottom of the third, and Cavarretta doubled to drive him to third. Errnie Banks then grounded out to first, driving Maris in to make it 4-1 after three. In the bottom of the sixth, Al Rosen slammed his second homer of the night over the center field wall, increasing our lead to four runs. Mays had a triple to start the eighth inning, and Ernie Banks drove him in with a sac-fly to right to make the lead 6-1 heading into the top of the ninth. Diehl stayed in to close out his win, getting three outs quickly after a hit and a walk as we beat Cincinnati soundly 6-1 despite only outhitting them 6-4!

Diehl improved tonight to 4-3 with a 2.89 ERA thanks to four hits three strikeouts and three walks over 117 pitches, giving up just the one earned run. Al Rosen’s two homers led to four RBIs and easily decided the game. Rosen is now batting .311 and slugging .623 since joining our Cubs this spring, and he’s got a .316 average on the season in total. Ernie Banks got a hit in his 12th consecutive game, driving in two runs and scoring once himself as we maintained our three game lead in the NL standings.

Over in the American League the big story is Cleveland’s incredible run of luck. They currently lead the AL by two games over the Yankees, their 28-12 record a full FOUR WINS over their pythagorean record of 23-18 that theoretically should have them tied for third behind both the Yanks and the Washington Senators. Cleveland has won five of six extra innings games, second only to the Redlegs who have won five of five in extra frames, and they are 12-4 in one run games. Bob Alexander is becoming a star there as a closer -- in six appearances since we traded him to the Guardians, Alexander has gone 2-0 with a pair of saves, with an incredible .167 BAPIP, an 0.58 WHIP and zero earned runs. So they certainly didn’t take any steps back after sending us Rosen back on May 12th ... in fact, I’d say we’ve both benefitted nicely!

MAY 29, 1954 . . . Hy Cohen (2-1, 4.15 ERA, 34.2 IP, 22 K’s, 1.07 WHIP) pitched his sixth start of the year tonight, up against Cincy’s Bob Kelly (1-0, 0.00 ERA, 3.1 IP, 4 K’s, 0.30 WHIP). Kelly is starting tonight because the Redlegs are short on starters and are saving their main ones for the double-header tomorrow -- but he has good overall stamina and an uncanny ability to hold runners as a reliever, and he has started 26 games in past seasons (including some for us in a Cubs uniform), so this isn’t quite the same as the situation in St. Louis with Ron Kline two nights aga. Still, I like Cohen’s chances ... he’s been a bit “up and down” since the perfect game in his debut, but he’s a fine starter in the making, and he’s not going to be intimidated by a closer starting in this game, especially not one we traded back in November in what became the series of trades that eventually netted us Al Rosen.

Roger Maris hit a ball so hard in the bottom of the third it would have been an easy home run, had it just had a little higher exit trajectory. As it was, he turned it into a run-scoring double that drove Woody Smith in from second to put us up 1-0! Al Kaline flew out to deep center, driving Maris to third, and he would have scored but Mays hit the ball to right, where the wind was blowing in just enough to make it an easy outfield catch. Ernie Banks extended his hitting streak to 13 games with a towering homer to left in the fourth, giving us a 2-0 lead and him his ninth homer of the year! But Cohen gave up an RBI double to open the top of the fifth, and with just one out he went high and inside and wound up hitting a batter, walking the bases loaded. A hit up the middle between our infielders wound up scoring two more runs, and suddenly we were in a 3-2 hole. The bases loaded again, Cohen was able to get us out of the inning without further damage, but unless we could add some runs I planned to send Harry Dorish to pitch in the sixth.

Roger Maris doubled to start the bottom of the sixth, and Willie Mays hit a ball deep to center, bouncing off the ivy and getting him a run-scoring triple for his trouble, tying the game 3-3! Al Rosen hit one up the middle, grazing the second baseman and getting him to first, though it didn’t get far enough out for Mays to risk a run for home. But Ernie Banks got one way out into right, driving Mays home and putting Rosen in scoring position, our boys up again 4-3! Chapman loaded the bases when he got hit in the shoulder by a pitch, but McCullough flew out to center and Rosen was caught trying to run for home, ending the inning. I stuck with the gameplan and brought Dorish in to pitch in the sixth, and he got three quick outs to put us back at the plate, doing the same thing in the seventh! Bottom of the seventh, Al Rosen hits a triple with two outs, but an Ernie Banks flyout kept us from adding runs. Harry Dorish stayed in for another near-perfect inning in the eighth, with Consuegra warming up to close it out in the ninth. Still leading 4-3, Sandy Consuegra came in for the save opportunity, and he got them with a strikeout, a groundout to first, gave up an infield hit, and then got all our hearts pumping with a flyball to left that the wind kept inside the park long enough for Roger Maris to catch it out in left, securing the 4-3 victory!

Hal Cohen got the win, improving to 3-1 with a 4.31 ERA despite giving up five hits for three earned runs, with three strikeouts and three walks in 70 pitches. Harry Dorish, meanwhile, earned his third hold, a three inning effort in which he threw 27 pitches with two strikeouts and not a single hit! His ERA improved to 0.60 on the year. He set Consuegra up perfectly, with Sandy throwing the final inning for his sixth save of the year, with a hit and a strikeout in 16 pitches, improving his ERA to 3.05 on the year. We outhit the Redlegs 11-6, Ernie Banks leading the way with two hits, two RBIs and a run scored. Roger Maris also had a pair of crucial doubles, batting in his fourth run of the year and scoring his second. He’s hitting just .170/.254/.321 so far since coming to Chicago, but he’s getting the at-bats he needs to grow from the leadoff spot. Al Rosen and Woody Smith each had a pair of hits as well in this team effort.

Tomorrow we close out the series against Cincinnati with two games, followed on Monday by a second consecutive double-header. This is going to put a serious test in front of our rotation ... Hacker, Klippstein and Rogovin are up in the rotation, but with no days off for the next week, we may consider using a bullpen starter in one doubleheader game or the other to avoid having to start anyone on super short rest. I’ll decide on a game-by-game basis. Regardless, our bullpen is going to start getting some serious work over the next week, and I’m hoping they’re ready for it.