[jksander]

JUNE 16, 1954 . . . Hy Cohen (5-1, 4.83 ERA, 59.2 IP, 37 K’s, 1.17 WHIP) faced off tonight against Pittsburgh’s Bob Friend (5-5, 2.62 ERA, 116.2 IP, 43 K’s, 1.11 WHIP) in the second game of three here against the Pirates on the road. Our lineup is back to full health, and though our whole team is still reeling from the loss of Klippstein for the year, we’re ready to come out fighting and get some momentum going on the road.

Elston Howard hit a solo homer in the top of the second to put us up 1-0, just his third homer of the year, and though we struggled to do much from a hitting perspective from there, Hy Cohen was on fire and kept Pittsburgh completely flummoxed himself. A Maris walk and a double by Cavarretta gave us a scoring chance in the top of the sixth with two outs, but Ernie Banks flew out to center to end the inning scoreless. Hy Cohen hit a standup double in the top of the eighth, and Kaline drove him to third with a single to center. Cavarretta grounded out to first, sending Kaline to second as Cohen held at third, and Willie Mays then walked the bases loaded. Roger Maris then walked a run in to put us ahead 2-0, and Willie Mays drove a hard grounder to right field, scoring us two more! We went into the bottom of the eighth leading by four, and Cohen got us three quick outs to keep it that way heading into the ninth. He stayed in to complete the 4-0 shutout, completely dominating the Pirates as we evened the series. Come back tomorrow for the rubber match!

Cohen threw 115 pitches tonight, giving up just four hits with five strikeouts and three walks, improving his ERA to 4.19 as he won his sixth game of the year as a rookie! We outhit the Pirates 8-4, led by Cavarretta with two hits and a walk, though he was stranded three times. Roger Maris got a hit and a walk and came out with an RBI, Ernie Banks had a hit and two RBIs, and Kaline, Mays, Howard and Cohen each scored runs in a great team effort on the road.

JUNE 17, 1954 . . . Final game of the series -- Saul Rogovin (8-0, 1.11 ERA, 81.0 IP, 48 K’s, 0.88 WHIP) will be taking on Gene Conley (4-6, 3.70 ERA, 97.1 IP, 48 K’s, 1.41 WHIP) in this afternoon’s game. Al Kaline opened the game with a nice little infield dribbler, beating out the throw to reach base safely, but that was all we got as nothing was escaping our bats into the outfield and they got three quick outs to put us away in the top of the first. But Ernie Banks hit a solo homer to left in the top of the second, his 11th this year, putting us up 1-0 heading into the middle of the second. Willie Mays nearly had a homer in the top of the third, but settled for a two-run triple instead to make it a 3-0 lead. And Saul Rogovin himself hit a two-run homer in the top of the fourth, his second homer of the year, to put us ahead 5-0! Rogovin gave up a two-run homer to Stan Palys in the bottom of the seventh, his first homer of the season for Pittsburgh, cutting our lead to three runs, but Elston Howard got a single to start the eighth inning and was able to come around to score on a fielder’s choice when Saul Rogovin reached first on a single and Gene Baker was tagged out at second, putting us back up by four as we headed into the bottom of the eighth. Rogovin came back out in the ninth but gave up a solo homer to make it 6-3 and we brought Consuegra in to make sure this one stayed under control. He got three quick outs, including two great catches in center by Mays, and we won this one by a comfortable 6-3 margin to take the series win.

Rogovin stayed perfect at 9-0, giving up seven hits in eight innings with six strikeouts and just one walk, though he did get dinged for two homers. His ERA slid to 1.31 overall thanks to the three earned runs. Sandy Consuegra saved his 11th game, improving his ERA to 1.97 with a strikeout as well. We outhit Pittsburgh 14-7, with Al Kaline getting four hits and scoring a run in the leadoff spot, improving his average to .348! Willie Mays had two hits and two RBIs, and pitcher Saul Rogovin continued our streak of solid hitting by our pitchers, getting two hits for a run and three RBIs, giving him six batted in on the season.

A quick drive up to Brooklyn is in the cards now, with four games in three days against the 32-31 Dodgers, who trail us by 15 games but are within 3.5 games of moving from fourth to second. And though they are 2-6 against us so far this year, we always have trouble against them on their field, so we’re going into this series knowing we need to play our best baseball to avoid losing ground.