[jksander]

JULY 21, 1954 . . . Joe Dobson (4-1, 2.79 ERA, 38.2 IP, 23 K’s, 1.16 WHIP) is set to pitch in the first of two games against the bottom-dwelling Giants of New York, going up against Ted Abernathy (1-9, 4.52 ERA, 81.2 IP, 42 K’s, 1.71 WHIP). Al Kaline hit a solo homer to start the bottom of the first, putting us up 1-0 with his 12th homer of the season -- and mere minutes later, Roger Maris hit his eighth of the year, scoring two runs to make it 3-0! Dobson gave up a run in the top of the third but got out of a jam with two runners in scoring position that could have made things worse. Roger Maris drove in a run with a sac-fly to center in the bottom of the third, getting the run back and giving us a 4-1 lead after three full innings. Dobson singled with one out in the bottom of the fourth, and Kaline got on base quickly thereafter with a line drive to right, but we left both runners stranded. Dobson then struggled to start the fifth, giving up consecutive doubles and letting a run score to make it a two-run game. He got an out via a pickoff play at second, then let two more guys on base with Harry Dorish warming in the bullpen, but he saved himself with a brilliant double play to escape with the 4-2 lead (and the win potential) intact.

Ernie Banks bought us insurance in the bottom of the fifth, a two-run blast to center that gave him 15 homers on the year, and a Gene Baker double scored a seventh run and we decided to let Dorish rest and keep Dobson in for the sixth inning with the expanded 7-2 lead. Dobson wound up hitting a double in the bottom of the seventh that scored a run after an error at third, giving us an 8-2 lead heading into the eighth inning, and he continued to pitch well enough to stay in the game through the first out of the ninth, before he put a runner on third and gave up a run, at which point I brought in Dorish to close things out. Dorish got a groundout at first while the fourth run scored, and then he gave up a hit and a walk to put two on with two outs. A weak grounder to first ended the game, however, as we held tough to win this one 8-4. It wasn’t always pretty, but we got the win out of it and that’s what’s going to count in our race for a pennant.

Dobson improved to 5-1 with a 3.06 ERA, thanks to 8.1 innings of ten-hit, four run ball, striking out five batters and walking just one in a 104 pitch effort. Harry Dorish pitched 0.2 innings with just the hit and the walk, improving his ERA to 1.32 through 47.2 innings as a Cub. We won the hit battle 12-11, with Kaline, Mays, Baker and Dobson each notching a pair. Roger Maris had a hit as well, scoring twice and driving in three runs, giving him 30 RBIs this year.

JULY 22, 1954 . . . Hy Cohen (9-6, 3.41 ERA, 134.2 IP, 80 K’s, 1.02 WHIP) pitched tonight for us against New York’s Al Corwin (0-0, 2.57 ERA, 7.0 IP, 3 K’s, 1.29 WHIP). And we took a big lead in the bottom of the second inning, with Bill Serena hitting one 380 feet into the left field bleachers to put us up 3-0 with his first homer of the year, and the first one he’s hit since 1952 in the majors. Roger Maris drove in a run by Willie Mays in the bottom of the fourth to make it 4-0 with a double, and Willie Mays hit a triple in the bottom of the fourth that put us up 5-0! Mays came home to make it 6-0 thanks to an eror that allowed Ernie Banks to reach first and send Roger Maris to second, and Gene Baker reached first safely on another error by the Giants that loaded the bases and brought up Elston Howard. Giants fans breathed a sigh of relief when he batted out to center, ending the inning with us ahead just by six heading into inning number five. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth, Ernie Banks got a grounder single that drove in a run, and Elston Howard flew out to right to drive in our eighth run. Bill Serena got another solid hit to right, giving him another RBI and driving our lead up to 9-0, and then Cohen batted out to center to end the inning. Hy Cohen stayed in for the complete game shutout, winning this one on a double play as we stomped on the Giants 9-0, dropping them to 25-72 on the season while we won our 68th game.

Cohen improved to 10-6 with a 3.19 ERA thanks to the five-hit shutout, striking out four batters while walking no one. We outhit them 12-5, led by Bill Serena (three hits, a run and four RBIs) and Roger Maris (two hits, two walks, two runs and an RBI). Willie Mays added two hits for three runs and an RBI on a night where it seemed everything was clicking.