[jksander]

JUNE 2, 1954 . . . Pittsburgh comes into our two game series with a 22-28 record, seventh in the NL and 13 games back of first. Crazy thing is, they’re seven games ahead of the 13-33 New York Giants, who are already 20 games back, only half a game better than the MLB-worst Baltimore Orioles. This afternoon we had Robert Diehl (4-3, 2.89 ERA, 53.0 IP, 25 K’s, 1.04 WHIP) on the mound, facing Pittsburgh’s Bob Friend (5-3, 2.51 ERA, 93.1 IP, 35 K’s, 1.05 WHIP), with our biggest bats back in the lineup -- Elston Howard and Gene Baker got the day off to rest but would be available as pinch hitters if needed. We went up 1-0 thanks to a throwing error in the bottom of the first -- Roger Maris came up to bat with the bases loaded and reached first on a dropped throw from second, scored as an E6, keeping the bases loaded for Ernie Banks, who flew out to left of center, driving a second run in, giving us a two-run lead heading into the second inning! Diehl gave up an RBI double to Danny O’Connell to put Pittsburgh on the board in the top of the third, but he got the final out without giving up the tying run from third. And though Pittsburgh outhit us 6-3 through the top of the fifth, we still held the 2-1 lead thanks to solid fielding, and Bob Friend’s wheels fell off in the bottom of the fifth -- three hits in a row, and a Roger Maris single to left drove Phil Cavarretta in to score from third, making the lead 3-1 at the end of five! Diehl stayed in to complete his game, and we held tough to win this one by the same 3-1 margin, our ninth win in a row!

Diehl improved to 5-3 with a 2.61 ERA with just eight hits and an earned run, with two strikeouts, in a complete game 111 pitch outing. Pittsburgh outhit us 8-6, but we continue to make good decisions as a team offensively, and were able to string the hits together to put this one out of reach in the fifth when we needed them. Cavarretta, Mays and Maris each had two hits to make up our total offensive output -- Maris, who is still hitting just .164 overall, did well from the cleanup spot today, getting two hits in four at-bats with two RBIs, and Ernie Banks had an RBI sac-fly batting fifth. Phil Cavarretta made good use of his speed on the basepaths, scoring two of our runs, while Kaline batted leadoff and scored the other after walking in the first inning.

JUNE 3, 1954 . . . We’ve made a trade with Boston that sends minor league 27-year-old shorstop Robert Ludwig to the Red Sox in exchange for 37-year-old veteran starting pitcher Joe Dobson (3-7, 3.31 ERA, 87.0 IP, 45 K’s, 1.25 WHIP) in return. Dobson will give us another high stamina starting option as we head into the pre-All Star stretch run, though I don’t have any intention of messing with our rotation at the moment. It just pays to be prepared.

This afternoon Warren Hacker (5-2, 2.58 ERA, 80.1 IP, 41 K’s, 1.06 WHIP) pitched against Pittsburgh’s Dick Hall (1-5, 3.16 ERA, 82.2 IP, 35 K’s, 1.10 WHIP) in the second game of our series. All our best bats are in the lineup, and we’re keeping Maris in the cleanup position between Mays and Banks to see if he keeps getting better pitches, with Al Kaline staying in the comfortable leadoff position. In the bottom of the first, Al Kaline hit a solo homer out over the right field ivy, putting us up 1-0 on just the second pitch of the game, his ninth homer of the year. Warren Hacker didn’t let a single batter on base until the fifth inning when Catfish Metkovich reached first on a bobbled catch error by Phil Cavarretta at first. Moments later he gave up his first hit of the game to Billy Klaus with two outs, a double which placed runners on second and third. He walked the next batter to bring up the pitcher, who then batted straight to Ernie Banks, who got the throw to first to get us out of the inning still ahead 1-0. Hacker got a hit to start the bottom of the fifth, and Cavarretta singled to send him to third, bringing up Willie Mays who hit one sharply up the gap to drive Hacker home and make it 2-0. Cavarretta committed a second error at first in the top of the sixth, but Hacker again pitched around the man on base, keeping the Pirates scoreless, and in the bottom of the inning Elston Howard hit a run scoring triple to make it 3-0! Roger Maris hit a three-run blast to left field to make it a 6-0 lead in the bottom of the seventh, his second homer as a major leaguer, and this one was becoming a rout. Hacker stayed in to complete the shutout on just 91 pitches, as we won this one 6-0 and extended our win streak to 10 games.

Hacker improved to 6-2 with a 2.32 ERA, throwing six strikeouts against two walks and two hits in the impressive victory. We outhit the Pirates 10-2, with Roger Maris hitting once and walking three times, batting in three runs with his homer. Al Kaline scored two runs on two hits, improving his average to .340, and Phil Cavarretta, despite his two fielding errors, got two hits to improve to .296 on the year. He hits well enough to make his defensive liabilities less noticible on most days, today being no exception. Willie Mays got a hit and kept his average at .380 -- he’s having an incredible year, with seven doubles, four triples and 13 homers so far through 48 games, batting in 49 runs, on pace to shatter his 130 RBIs last year.

We have a three game set here at Wrigley this weekend against the Brooklyn Dodgers (26-23, 9.5 GB) followed by a day off and then three against Philadelphia (27-23, 9 GB) and four against the Giants (15-33, 20 GB). Then we’ll finish the month with 15 games in a row on the road before returning to Wrigley for the July 4th weekend four-game series against St. Louis.

We’ve decided to bring Joe Dobson in as an extra reliever, sending Frank Baumholtz down to AAA to make room. That will give us a five man starting rotation of Hacker / Klippstein / Cohen / Rogovin / Diehl along with a bullpen that features Sandy Consuegra as our lockdown closer, Vern Fear as our setup guy and high leverage reliever, Harry Dorish and Tom Ferrick as trustworthy middle relief, and Dobson as our long reliever and backup emergency 6th starter.