[jksander]

JUNE 23, 1954 . . . We’ve lost four of our last five games and four of our last ten, so it’s time to get back to some winning ways, Cub fans, even if we are in the middle of a long road trip. Tonight we have Warren Hacker (8-3, 2.13 ERA, 114.1 IP, 62 K’s, 0.94 WHIP) taking the mound, up against Philly’s Gordon Jones (6-8, 3.42 ERA, 126.1 IP, 68 K’s, 1.16 WHIP). We have our best players all rested and ready to play, which means our usual Murder’s Row of batters is ready to take the Phillies deep at every opportunity. Though in a game featuring two solid pitchers, those opportunities may be fewer and farther between.

Al Rosen put us on the board in the top of the second with a solo homer to the left field bleachers, giving us a 1-0 lead with his tenth homer of the season. But they answered in the bottom of the second with a solo blast by Willie Jones to almost the same spot in the stands, tying the score 1-1, and in the bottom of the third they took a 2-1 lead on us when a flyout led to the runner scoring from third while our fielder didn’t even attempt a throw. But a two-run homer by Elston Howard in the top of the fifth put us up 3-2 via only his fourth homer of the year! Unfortunately the Phillies tied it up in the bottom of the inning on a deep fly ball to right that got past our fielder, and this game seemed destined to be a battle of wills down to the end. We loaded the bases in the top of the sixth but couldn’t bring anyone home, and Hacker gave up a triple in the bottom of the sixth that scored two runs for the Phillies, giving them a 5-3 lead as we headed into the seventh. Russ Snyder pinch-hit for Hacker in the top of the seventh with no outs, safely reaching first with a grounder to right that advanced Gene Baker to third and brought up the top of the order with no outs and a real shot at creating a rally! Al Kaline got a great hit into right, just over the head of the reaching second baseman, scoring our fourth run. But Cavarretta hit into a double play, getting the runner out at first and then the quick throw to get Cavarretta out at first, leaving Kaline as our lone runner (but in scoring position at second) with a pair of outs. But Willie Mays flew out to left and ended the inning with us still trailing 5-4.

Vern Fear came in to pitch in the bottom of the seventh, and he pitched well enough to get us out of the inning with just a single hit, and though he got into some trouble in the eighth he got us out of it with a well-timed double play, sending us into the top of the ninth needing a run to keep this game going. But it wasn’t happening. The bottom of the order was up, and even Frank Baumholtz pinchi hitting for Fear couldn’t get a spark going. We lost this one 5-4, and we’re now officially on a skid.

Warren Hacker took the loss, falling to 8-4 with a 2.39 ERA thanks to seven hits and five earned runs in six innings of play. Vern Fear lasted two innings with just three hits, improving his ERA to 1.16, but he couldn’t make us hit. The Phillies had 10 hits to our seven, with the Elston Howard two-run homer and the Al Rosen solo blast being the highlights of the game for us. It was also nice to see Russ Snyder get a hit off the bench -- his batting average is .390 through 41 at-bats, and seems to have recovered well from his injury.
 
JUNE 24, 1954 . . . We’ve lost four games in a row now, five of our last six, but because the Redlegs keep losing as well, we still remain nine and a half games up in the NL race with our 48-21 record. But even with the series loss against Philly guaranteed, it would be nice to come out of this one with a win to snap the losing streak and get back our mojo. Robert Diehl (6-3, 2.84 ERA, 76.0 IP, 37 K’s, 1.05 WHIP) will be our starter today, going up against Bob Rush (3-3, 4.84 ERA, 22.1 IP, 10 K’s, 1.75 WHIP), who won 15 games for us last year as a starter before we traded him during the Winter Meetings. We’re giving Roger Maris a day off and starting Russ Snyder out in left, batting sixth behind Banks.

Diehl gave up a run in the bottom of the second inning but pitched his way out of a jam and avoided further damage, stranding two runners for the Phillies. But Rush was on fire and we couldn’t buy a hit, only placing one runner on base in the first three innings and that was via a walk. But Cavarretta got a hit in the top of the fourth, reaching second, and Rush walked Mays, bringing up Al Rosen with a chance to really get something going. He struck out, however, and Banks batted into a fielder’s choice, reaching first and driving Cavarretta to third. Russ Snyder then tied the game 1-1 on an infield single, the ball taking a double hop just past the shortstop, leaving just enough time for Cavarretta to score and for Snyder to reach base safely! Gene Baker then got a hit just barely out into center, allowing enough time for Banks to come around from third and score headfirst, giving us a 2-1 lead, and Elston Howard then cleared all the bases with a homer to left that barely stayed fair, giving us a 5-1 lead and some real momentum! But Diehl was playing poorly, with no command and rushing his throws, allowing two hits to start the bottom of the fourth, Philly scoring a run on a double to right and staying within three -- I had no choice but to start warming up pitchers in the bullpen. He got us out of the fourth but it was unlikely I would give him a fifth.

I brought Tom Ferrick out to pitch in the bottom of the fifth with our lead stil 5-2, and he pitched around a walk to get us out of the inning with our lead still safe. He got us through the sixth with a spectacular double play, and Harry Dorish came in after the stretch with a three-run lead to protect -- and though he gave up a two-out double, he was able to get a groundout to first to end the seventh with our 5-2 lead still safe. Cavarretta hit a solo homer to right to make it 6-2 in the top of the eighth, his sixth home run of the season, and Harry Dorish stayed in the rest of the game as we were able to hold tough to win this one 6-4 against the Phillies in the final game of the series.

Tom Ferrick got his second win of the season, improving to 2-1 with a 3.27 ERA thanks to two innings of one hit, one walk ball. Harry Dorish then lasted three innings with only two hits, a strikeout and two walks, throwing 58 pitches and improving his ERA to 1.14 through 31.2 innings of work. The two relievers combined to save Robert Diehl from the risk of collapse -- Diehl lasted four innings but gave up seven hits and two earned runs, improving his ERA just slightly to 2.92. Philadelphia outhit us 10-6 but we made good use of our eight total baserunners. Cavarretta had two hits, scoring twice and driving in a run with his homer, and Russ Snyder hit twice, scoring once and driving in another, giving him seven RBIs on the season and a .400 average.

We now head to New York for three games against the Giants (21-49, 28 GB) with a chance to hopefully further extend our lead in the NL race. At this point we’re still safely 9.5 games up on the Redlegs, but the race for second is tight -- Brooklyn (37-33) is three games behind Cincinnati, with Philly (36-33) just a half game behind them. And Milwaukee (34-33) and St. Louis (34-37) are at least within striking distance if they can find their way to some key wins before the All Star break. Over in the AL, Cleveland (44-22) continues to add distance between themselves and the rest of the league -- the White Sox (38-30) have also pulled a half game up on the now third-place Yankees, with the Guardians seven games up on the rest of the AL. The Washington Senators (37-32) and the Detroit Tigers (34-33) are all within ten games or so of first in that league, so there’s still a lot of room for mid-summer chaos!