[jksander]

JULY 4, 1954 . . . We may have to make some roster moves over the coming days, with four games in two days followed by a stretch of six more days in a row with games before we finally get an All Star weekend reset and an extended stretch of 13 Wrigley games in 11 days to put us into late July. I’ve had some trade interest for Klippstein, despite his injury, but I’m not sure we want to jump the gun on that. If it comes to it as we head toward the trade deadline, however, everything is on the table.

Hy Cohen (7-3, 4.12 ERA, 89.2 IP, 54 K’s, 1.15 WHIP) started game one this afternoon, up against St. Louis starter Bob Grim (5-7, 2.96 ERA, 140.0 IP, 77 K’s, 1.19 WHIP). In the top of the fourth the Cardinals thought they were going to break a 0-0 stalemate, but with one out and a man on third Al Kaline caught a blistering line drive to right and made a brilliant throw to home, just in time to get the out and the double play. So we were the ones to finally get on the board, when Al Rosen belted one to deep right, a solo blast that put us ahead 1-0 and gave him his 13th homer of the year. A few minutes later Al Kaline walked the bases loaded, but Mays couldn’t get a hit and we went into the top of the sixth with the one run lead. Cavarretta committed an error on a catch at first to allow a runner to advance safely into scoring position, however, and a run-scoring double by Red Schoendienst tied the game. Cohen gave up another double with two outs, putting two men in scoring position, but he threw a strikeout to safely get us out of the inning tied. In the top of the eighth Cohen gave up a solo homer to pitcher Bob Grim to give St. Louis the 2-1 lead, and in the top of the ninth Frank Bolling hit one off him to left, making it 3-1. Howard and Baker singled to give us two baserunners and no outs, bottom of the ninth, and Bill Serena cmae in to pinch hit for Hy Cohen blasting one on the ground into right field, loading the bases! Al Kaline flew out to center and the runners all held ... one out. Cavarretta flew out to center and the runners held ... two outs. RUN YOU CLODS! And Willie Mays flew out to center -- we left three runners on and absolutely blew it in a 3-1 loss.

Hy Cohen fell to 7-4 with a 3.92 ERA, giving up eight hits in the complete game for three runs (two earned) with four strikeouts and two walks. Each team finished with eight hits, but St. Louis did more with the runners they got on. Al Rosen was our only player to score, thanks to his homer in the fifth -- those loaded bases in the bottom of the ninth are going to eat at me, but on to the second game.

Joe Dobson (1-1, 5.40 ERA, 15.0 IP, 9 K’s, 1.27 WHIP) will be starting our second game of the day out of pure necessity, but I don’t plan to use him too deep into the game if we can get ourselves a lead. Dorish, Ferrick and Spicer are available in the bullpen, and we will use them however much is necessary to prevent injury. St. Louis is starting Ron Kline (2-6, 4.29 ERA, 65.0 IP, 22 K’s, 1.58 WHIP). Willie Mays opened the game with a solo blast to left, giving him his 19th homer of the year and us a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Harry Dorish came in with two outs and a man on first in the top of the fifth, and he would have had the out but Cavarretta proved to be a liability at first yet again, bobbling the catch and allowing the runners to both be safe at first and second. But Jablonski hit into an easy throw from short to second, ending the inning with our lead intact. And in the bottom of the fifth Willie Mays drove in two runs with a double, expanding our lead to 3-0 and providing some insurance. Dorish gave up a solo blast on two outs in the top of the seventh to put St. Louis on the board, but he got out of the inning with a strikeout. Consuegra came in for the top of the ninth to relieve Dorish, who had pitched very well all night, as we hoped to close out the win. A runner reached base on a slow infield throw, then Consuegra got a strikeout. But a double to deep center advanced two runners into scoring position with just the one out, but a flyout to right held both runners in place, giving “Steady Sandy” a good shot to secure things. A hit to Rosen and a quick throw to first ended the game as a 3-1 victory. Two games, exact opposite finishes, but we send St. Louis home with another series loss as we took three out of four.

Harry Dorish piched 3.1 innings of one-hit relief, earning the win to improve to 4-1 with a 1.12 ERA! He gave up one run with a strikeout through 34 pitches. Joe Dobson was solid in 4.2 innings of two-hit ball, striking out three and walking two through 64 pitches, and improving his ERA to 4.12 overall. And Sandy Consuegra earned his 13th save of the year, striking out one and giving up two hits, his 1.70 ERA remaining quite impressive. We outhit St. Louis 6-5 in a tightly fought pitchers’ battle, with Willie Mays leading the way with two hits, a run and two RBIs. Cavarretta and McCullough each scored runs as well, and Al Rosen got two hits but was twice left stranded.

JULY 5, 1954 . . . In trade news, we’ve stunned fans in both markets by making a rookie trade between our club and the Detroit Tigers, sending Russ Snyder, our first rounder from this year’s draft, to the Tigers for 21-year-old Bob Shaw, who is rated as the 7th best prospect in the majors! Shaw has spent the last two seasons in the minors, and this year for AA Little Rock he’s put up a 2-0 record with a 2.51 ERA, nine strikeouts and a 1.26 WHIP. The deal went through late yesterday afternoon, and we had time to get Shaw down to Cincinnati to meet us in time for today’s doubleheader. The plan is to start Warren Hacker and Robert Diehl today, potentially debuting Shaw as a bullpen option, and keep him available until at least the All Star break, at which point we can move him down to AAA for further development time.

First up, Warren Hacker (8-5, 3.02 ERA, 125.1 IP, 67 K’s, 1.06 WHIP) gets the start after aborted starts two days ago and back on June 29th, during which he failed to get past the third inning. He had three quality starts back in early-to-mid June, and I am confident he can get back into his groove. He’ll be pitching against Redlegs starter Tom Poholsky (7-9, 3.57 ERA, 143.2 IP, 46 K’s, 1.19 WHIP) in the opening game.

Willie Mays hit into a fielder’s choice in the top of the first, safely reaching first and scoring a run as Kaline made it home from third to put us ahead 1-0 heading into the bottom of the inning. But the Redlegs scored two in the bottom of the third off a double by Gus Bell. Heading into the top of the sixth still trailing 1-2, our bats had been mostly quiet all night, and they stayed that way -- we’d get a solid hit and then no one could find ways to advance any runners. But Elston Howard got us going with a triple to start the seventh, and Bill Serena pinch hit for Gene Baker, getting a blast into left to score the tying run as he reached base safely! Clyde McCullough came in to pinch hit for Hacker -- Serena took second off a passed ball, advancing to third as McCullough successfully sac-bunted into our first out of the inning to bring up the top of the order. Kaline hit one out to deep center and Serena used his superior speed to slide into home, giving us the 3-2 lead! We brought Kenneth Chapman in to play second and 24-year-old righty Jim Brosnan, one of our top relief prospects, came up for his major league debut out of the bullpen in the bottom of the seventh!

Brosnan was a bit tight early on, but despite a double and a walk to start the inning he got out of the seventh with no damage. He got us three quick outs to get out of the eighth as well, and we brought Consuegra in for the ninth for the save opportunity. But he gave up a solo homer on his sixth pitch of the night to tie the game, got a strikeout, and then allowed runners to reach base on consecutive hits. Their leadoff man hit into a fielder’s choice, advancing to first while the runner on second moved to third, and it came down to one out to get us into extras. A flyout to right and we’d escaped the walkoff loss, but we’re now heading into extras on a doubleheader day.

Their pitcher, Bud Podbielan, walked Cavarretta, Maris and Banks with a flyout by Willie Mays in between, sending Al Rosen up to the plate with just one out and loaded bases just calling for him to make something happen in the top of the 10th. A wild pitch by Podbielan led a run to score, and he walked Rosen to again load the bases. Elston Howard then blasted a bouncing grounder into deep center, allowing him to reach with a double that scored three runs, giving us a very comfortable 7-3 lead! Chapman got one into right, and another run scored on a passed ball, and we went into the bottom of the inning suddenly ahead by five runs. Tom Ferrick came in to close things out, and he got us out of game one with an unexpected 8-3 victory!

Hacker would have had the win, were it not for Consuegra’s blown save, his third of the year. So Sandy took the win, improving to 3-1 with a 1.89 ERA, having given up three hits with a run and a strikeout in his one inning of work. Hacker lasted six innings with four hits and two earned runs, striking out five batters and walking another to bring his ERA back down to 3.02. Brosnan debuted with a two-inning hold, giving up one hit with a strikeout and two walks, while Ferrick closed it out with a tenth inning, one hit one strikeout effort. We outhit the Redlegs 13-9, with Cavarretta, Mays, Banks and Howard each notching two hits. Elston Howard’s two hit, two run, three RBI night was the best of all our offensive performances, while Kaline, Mays and Serena each batted in runs of their own.

Robert Diehl (7-3, 2.83 ERA, 89.0 IP, 42 K’s, 1.07 WHIP) came out and started the second game of the day on three days’ rest, up against Cincinnati’s Vern Law (2-1, 4.28 ERA, 33.2 IP, 13 K’s, 1.37 WHIP). Diehl gave up a run to the Redlegs on two outs in the bottom of the second, but we got the run back in the top of the third as Willie Mays took home on a wild pitch to make it 1-1. But the Redlegs hit a run-scoring triple in the bottom of the third as Diehl fought to control his pitches. Another run-scoring triple in the bottom of the fifth extended Cincy’s lead to 3-1, but Gene Baker hit a two-run blast to right, tying the game 3-3 in the top of the sixth, his fifth four-bagger of the season! We brought Bob Shaw in for his major league debut in the bottom of the sixth, and he notched his first major league strikeout while getting us quickly out of the inning. And in the top of the seventh Roger Maris drove in the go-ahead run with an RBI single that scored Al Kaline to make it a 4-3 lead! Vern Fear came in with two outs and a man on first in the bottom of the eighth, quickly getting the runner out at second and protecting our 4-3 lead, and he stayed in for the ninth to attempt the same. He set down three out of four batters, giving up just a single hit, as we closed out the one-run victory to sweep the Redlegs in this doubleheader, winning 4-3!

Rookie Bob Shaw won his major league debut in 2.2 innings of three-hit relief, starting out 1-0 with a perfect 0.00 ERA, striking out two! Vern Fear got his first save of the year via 1.1 innings of one hit, one strikeout work, improving his ERA to 1.14 through 31.2 innings. And Robert Diehl set everyone up moderately well, getting five full innings in despite nine hits leading to three earned runs. He struck out two batters but threw 85 pitches and therefore had to be relieved to get out of the game without doing further damage. Cincy outhit us 13-12, but Gene Baker had three hits for a run and two batted in, and Mays, Maris, Banks and McCullough each got two hits, keeping the train rolling all the way through the order.

We have six games remaining before the All Star break, having started out the month of July with a 5-1 record. We return to Wrigley for three games against Milwaukee, followed by three on the road against St. Louis. Our record stands at 57-24, eleven games up on our nearest competition in the NL (Brooklyn, who have gone on a tear of late, winning eight of their last ten). Over in the AL, the Yankees (44-38) have slid into third, with Cleveland now holding a stunning 9.5 game lead on the White Sox. I think it’s time for people to start taking those Guardians seriously! We, meanwhile, survived the double double-header minefield, and I am hopeful that we have the depth to redouble our efforts to dominate the post-All Star months.