[jksander]

JUNE 9, 1954 . . . This afternoon we’re playing Woody Smith at third and Al Rosen at first to give Cavarretta time for his wrist to heal. Johnny Klippstein (8-1, 1.17 ERA, 84.2 IP, 53 K’s, 0.85 WHIP) is taking on Philly starter Curt Simmons (8-2, 2.04 ERA, 105.2 IP, 43 K’s, 1.09 WHIP) who has won four of his last five starts, throwing complete games of 120-140 pitches in all five, giving up fewer than three runs in all of them. So our 14-game winning streak comes up against their strongest starter by far and we’re going to need to have a really good game if we want to shut them down.

Philly wasted no time playing around -- with just eight pitches thrown, Earl Torgeson took a Klippstein fastball more than 400 feet into the bleachers, putting the Phillies up 1-0 with one out. Hits were few and far between from there, however, as both pitchers locked in and threw their best work. We came up to bat in the bottom of the eighth still trailing 1-0, at which point Elston Howard hit a blistering double to far right to get us started, only our fourth hit of the night! With two outs, Kaline was walked to give us runners on first and second, but Roger Maris struck out to keep us scoreless. Vern Fear came in to pitch in the top of the ninth, and though he gave up a double to the first batter he faced, the next three were set down quickly, sending up the middle of our order in the bottom of the ninth, trailing still 1-0 and needing something good from our offense. Anything. Mays and Banks were quickly set down at first, putting Al Rosen at the plate with two outs and the fans on pins and needles. AND HE TOOK A FASTBALL OUT OVER LEFT FOR THE TYING RUN! THIS IS CRAZY! Simmons got the third out at first to end the inning, but here we were, heading into the 10th inning knotted 1-1 with our win streak still alive!

Fear came back out in the 10th and got two infield groundouts and a strikeout to put us back up to bat! But Simmons is apparently a God out there on the mound, and he shut us down one, two, three to force more innings! Fear gave up a hit and got a flyout to right, and I called Consuegra up from the bullpen to try and close this out. A flyout to Maris in left got us our second out, but he put another runner on base with a hit just past third base, giving them runners on first and second. He walked the bases loaded, and then faced down Smoky Burgess, walking in the go-ahead run in the top of the 11th. A blooper hit right to Woody Smith at third ended the inning, and we came up to bat with the top of our lineup, needing to score some runs. The Phillies kept Simmons out there for the 11th and he quickly gave up a hit up the middle to Kaline, who took first, finally convincing them to make a pitching change -- for Bob Rush, formerly a Cub, who I could tell was still pissed about us trading him for Ken Boyer and Herb Score, neither of whom are still with us. He struck Maris out quickly, but Willie Mays got a hit out past their first baseman, deep into the right field corner, allowing him to reach second and driving in the tying run! Ernie Banks flew out to deep left and they walked Rosen, bringing up Gene Baker with runners on first and second and the game on the line. They went and walked him too, bringing up Elston Howard, who grounded out to first to keep this one going.

With the score tied 2-2 in the top of the 12th I brought in Tom Ferrick to pitch, with Harry Dorish warming up in the bullpen. They hit it straight to Smith at third for the first out, Ferrick got the second batter out via strikes, and the third out came with a throw from Baker to Rosen, sending us up to bat with another chance to put this one away. Woody Smith hit it up the middle to reach first, Kenny Chapman pinch hit for Ferrick hitting a flyout to center, and Kaline hit one just out of reach of their center fielder, reaching first and driving Woody Smith to third with just one out! Roger Maris hit one into the infield and they couldn’t get the ball back home in time, allowing Smith to score the winning run -- 15 in a row! This streak is unbelievable, we’ve beaten Philly 3-2 in 12 innings!

I still can’t believe we pulled this one out ... Simmons only gave up six hits over ten innings, throwing 132 pitches, but we kept him from completing the game and their bullpen was not up to the task. Tom Ferrick got the win for us, throwing six pitches over an inning with a strikeout and no hits, improving to 1-1 with a 2.70 ERA. Klippstein threw 99 pitches and gave up just three hits in eight innings, striking out four and walking one, the one earned run bringing his ERA to 1.17. Vern Fear threw 2.1 innings of two hit, one run ball, striking out a single batter and bringing his ERA down to 0.79 through 11.1 innings of work. And Consuegra successfully got two outs despite a hit and two walks, keeping his ERA at 2.28 on the year through 29 innings. We outhit the Phillies 10-6, with Roger Marris hitting twice and batting in a run to bring his average up to .204! Willie Mays had a hit and an RBI, Al Rosen had a hit and two walks for a run and an RBI, and Al Kaline added two hits and a run scored.

After a game like this it almost seems blasphemous to go out expecting to keep our streak going, but damn it, we’re going to keep fighting and see how far we can take this absolute insanity!