[jksander]

JUNE 18, 1954 . . . Last year’s Cy Young winner Warren Hacker (8-2, 2.12 ERA, 106.1 IP, 58 K’s, 0.93 WHIP) takes the mound tonight in front of 16,000 fans in Brooklyn, up against Carl Erskine (9-5, 3.93 ERA, 112.1 IP, 67 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) with a strong wind blowing in from right that makes us all feel like a pitcher’s battle is highly likely even in the hitter-friendly confines of Ebbets Field. But the Dodgers wasted no time defeating the wind, with Campanella hitting a two-run blast to right that put them up 2-0 in the bottom of the first. Cavarretta was robbed of what would have been a homer on any other night, leaving us still trailing by two in the middle of the fifth, but Hacker pitched around a pair of runners in the bottom of the inning to still keep us in it. Al Kaline made a brilliant basket catch in right field to end the sixth inning with us in the same position, and we opened the top of the seventh with a triple by Elston Howard, and Russ Snyder came in to pinch hit for Gene Baker, but he hit one straight up to the shortstop to get an out. Hacker grounded out to first, and Al Kaline then flew out to left, ending our best chance of the whole damned game to get a run. Kenneth Chapman came in to play second base in the middle of the seventh, and Warren Hacker got us three more quick outs to bring us back up to bat but with limited chances left to find our spark. But the spark just wasn’t there -- Erskine stayed in well past 100 pitches and still got the top of our order out one, two, three. Hacker pitched a near-perfect eighth inning, sending us back up in the top of the ninth still trailing by two and needing a miracle against Erskine, who stayed in to attempt the complete game shutout. Ernie Banks reached base safely on an error at first, and a would-be Al Rosen homer was blown back at the wall and became out number one. Joe Collins pinch-hit for Elston Howard, but he struck out swinging. Bill Serena came in to pinch hit for Chapman, but he couldn’t get a hit out of the infield and we lost this one 2-0, a game decided by runs scored in the first inning.

Hacker fell to 8-3 on the season, throwing an efficient 111-pitch effort with only five hits, with four strikeouts and three walks to go with just the two earned runs. But Erskine was better, throwing a complete game 131-pitch shutout despite seven hits, notching four strikeouts against two walks as he earned his 10th win of the year and the 76th win of his seven-year career. We out-hit them 7-5 but couldn’t make anything happen on the basepaths, even with the two walks added in for good measure. Elston Howard had two hits, while five other batters contributed and then were stranded. Hopefully we can bounce back tomorrow. Our team’s chemistry levels right now are through the roof so I think we have what it takes to keep things calm in the clubhouse through what looks to be a difficult end-of-June road stretch.

JUNE 19, 1954 . . . Robert Diehl (5-3, 3.09 ERA, 67.0 IP, 32 K’s, 1.07 WHIP) faces off this afternoon against Sal ‘The Barber’ Maglie (1-6, 4.17 ERA, 58.1 IP, 33 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) in a down year for the 37-year-old starter who started the decade as one of the best pitchers in the NL. But we were the ones to give ‘The Barber’ a haircut, when Roger Maris hit a grand slam in the top of the first to put us up 4-0 WITHOUT A SINGLE OUT! We didn’t score any more runs in the first, but by the time Diehl came up to throw his first pitch of the game, Maglie had already thrown 30 and given up four hits. And Diehl pitched very well to contact, getting three outs in the bottom of the inning on just six pitches! Al Kaline hit his 10th homer of the year to make it 5-0 in the top of the second, and Willie Mays added his 15th of the year to make it 6-0 with two outs! Everyone was waiting for Maris to hit another one as well, but he flew out to center to end the inning with the Dodgers looking at a potential blowout.

The Dodgers brought out Joe Hatten (0-0, 9.45 ERA, 6.2 IP, 4 K’s, 2.40 WHIP) with just one out in the top of the third, in a move that looked like the potential adding of fuel to a fire, but he got them out of the inning unscathed. Diehl gave up a solo homer to Carl Furillo in the bottom of the third, but Al Rosen rung Hatten up for a two-run homer, his ninth of the year, to make it an 8-1 lead for our Cubs in the top of the fifth. Diehl gave up an RBI double to Duke Snyder in the bottom of the fifth, but Willie Mays added a two-run bomb to right in the top of the eighth, his second four-bagger of the game, to make it a 10-2 lead for our Cubs. Diehl loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth, so we started warming up Tom Ferrick in case things went off the rails completely -- but the Dodgers hit into a double play, with outs at first and home, and a routine throw from third to first ended the game with us winning 10-2! Bring on the double header tomorrow, we’re ready!

Diehl improved to 6-3 with a 2.84 ERA thanks to a six-hitter, getting five strikeouts against two walks, giving up just the two runs (only one of which was earned) through 128 pitches. Maris and Mays led the way, with Roger’s grand salami being the game winner right from the word ‘go’ -- he had two hits and scored twice while batting in four runs. Mays had two homers and a walk, scoring all three times he came up to bat and getting three RBIs as well. Al Kaline added three hits for three runs and an RBI, and Al Rosen put up a hit, scoring a run and batting in two!

Right now we have a staggering +149 run differential, while no one in the NL is better than +26 (Brooklyn). Even the Yankees in the AL (+76) are even close, and yet they’re still 4.5 games back of a Cleveland team that is on pace to become the luckiest team of the decade -- their Pythagorean record should be 33-27, but they’re currently 40-20 and riding a three-game winning streak. I’m hearing through the papers that Casey Stengel is completely losing his cool out there in Yankeeville, as the NYC press keeps dogging him on why they can’t catch up with a Guardians team that doesn’t have nearly their star wattage. Mickey Mantle has been struggling, hitting just .271 with 11 homers, and Hank Thompson’s having an even worse time, barely batting .250! It’ll be interesting to see how that race shapes up as the year progresses.

If All Star voting completed today we’d have Cavarretta, Rosen, Banks, Mays, Hacker, Klippstein, Dorish and Consuegra in the game, though Klippstein is going to likely earn an All Star bid without being able to play. Mays continues to lead all voters in both leagues by mre than 130,000 votes!