[jksander]

APRIL 26, 1955 . . . Today in Pittsburgh we get a matchup of red-hot pitchers! Saul Rogovin (2-0, 2.70 ERA, 30.0 IP, 23 K’s, 0.87 WHIP) is taking on Pittsburgh’s Roy Face (1-0, 0.69 ERA, 13.0 IP, 11 K’s, 1.08 WHIP). And hell, you think Chicago weather is bad in April? ****tsburgh says “hold my beer!” Today 10,386 hardy fans showed up in 36 degree partly cloudy weather, with an 8 mile per hour wind blowing in for the left, making it feel sub-freezing. Forget the beer, make sure you have a flask of whiskey in your pocket to go with some hot coffee, because with an 8:05 first pitch, it’s only gonna get colder from there.

This was a pitcher’s duel like I’ve never seen! Roy Face struck out the side in the top of the third, giving him five strikeouts through 44 pitches, and then Rogovin turned around and added a pair of strikeouts and a groundout to first, giving him 4 K’s through 46 pitches, with three hits between the two pitchers combined in the 0-0 snowball fight. It was something to behold, really, if you didn’t miss pitches because you were trying to keep your face and hands warm -- two young pitchers at the top of their game, each dreaming of taking their team to the top. And the strikeouts kept coming! The bats were so ice cold, any contact sent pain all up the arms of the hitters when they did get anything going, and mostly it was take your swings and then head to the dugout and try to stay warm before you actually had to go out and catch something. In the top of the sixth, Roy Face came out having thrown 73 pitches with a stunning 10 K’s, and just for fun he got three outs that time via flyouts! Rogovin came out for the bottom of the inning with six strikeouts notched through 70 pitches, and the question became who would blink first? Rogovin had a flyout and a strikeout, then Dale Long hit a triple into deep left to give us the first runner in scoring position of the ENTIRE GAME to that point. Three strikes, though, and Rogovin notched his eighth K of the night and left the Pirates’ runner stranded.

Rogovin notched his 9th and 10th strikeouts in the bottom of the seventh, pitching around two baserunners to keep the game scoreless heading into the eighth inning, but he’d thrown 116 pitches. I was going to have to consider pulling him -- we warmed Harry Dorish up just in case, with Rogovin insisting he’d be ready to stay in. Roy Face was still out there in the top of the eighth, 10 K’s, no walks, just one hit given up the entire night through 92 pitches. Ernie Banks dropped a high flyball into deep center, opening the inning with a triple, and things suddenly were very very interesting! They played the fielders in close, and Al Rosen stunned the crowd by hitting a light grounder straight up the middle, getting to first and driving Banks in to score the go-ahead run, giving us a 1-0 lead! Roy Sievers hit into a double play, and Del Crandall batted out to first, sending us into the bottom of the eighth with Dorish coming in to protect what Rogovin started. With the temperature dropping well into the middle 20s, Dorish wasted no time -- strikeout, groundout, strikeout, and we were out of the inning with two hours elapsed in this frozen trundra of a game. Face stayed in, struck out Dorish, but Al Kaline got a hit into the outfield and reached first, Gene Baker flew out to left, and he walked Mays, giving us a runner in scoring position with Face facing Roger Maris. He struck him out swinging, his 13th of the night, but his team still trailed by a run. Dorish stayed in to stare down the heart of their order, getting a flyout and two strikeouts to end this one as a 1-0 Cubs victory!

This was a game where both starters deserve to be noted. Roy Face threw a complete game four hitter with 13 strikeouts, one walk and one earned run through 127 pitches, and he took the loss, falling to 1-1 but keeping his ERA at 0.82 for the year. Saul Rogovin couldn’t go the distance, but he lasted seven innings with four hits, 10 strikeouts, one walk and no earned runs through 116 pitches, bringing his ERA down to 2.19 on the year. Harry Dorish got his first save of the year, a two inning no-hit effort with four strikeouts through 25 pitches. And honestly, I hope we are lucky enough to get another matchup between these two pitchers this year, but in weather that is a little more palatable. Al Rosen was the leader of our offense, getting two hits in a game where hits were as good as gold, driving in the only run of the game, via Ernie Banks.

APRIL 27, 1955 . . . It almost feels a shame to play another game after the insanely good one we had last night, but there you go. Tonight Hy Cohen (3-1, 1.59 ERA, 34.0 IP, 21 K’s, 0.68 WHIP) faced down Pittsburgh’s Don “The Weasel” Bessent (0-0, 1.38 ERA, 13.0 IP, 2 K’s, 1.23 WHIP). A warm front came through this afternoon, and it’s a positively balmy, if windy, 53 degrees at the 2:05 p.m. first pitch. And this time Pittsburgh wasted no time, getting on board with a solo homer by Dale Long in the bottom of the first to go up 1-0, though Cohen got us two strikeouts to get out of the inning. Al Kaline tied things up with an RBI single in the top of the fifth, sending Joe Collins all the way around from second, and we went into the bottom of the inning knotted, with Cohen pitching an incredibly efficient game. Del Crandall got a blast into center field, driving the go-ahead run in via Willie Mays, and we went into the top of the seventh still holding a 2-1 lead thanks to Cohen’s calm, poised pitches from the mound. Roger Maris then added his first homer of the season, a two-run blast to make it a 4-1 game in the top of the eighth! Roy Sievers hit a two-run homer to left, his third of the year, and put us up 6-1, a lead we carried with us into the bottom of the eighth. Willie Mays, not to be outdone, hit HIS first homer of the year in the top of the ninth, increasing our lead to 7-1. We loaded the bases, no outs, and Crandall added a two RBI double to increase the margin to eight runs. Joe Collins got a single, and then Hy Cohen joined the hit parade, slamming a grounder into deep center for a double that scored two more. Kaline batted in another with an RBI double, and (having batted around) Mays finally ended things with a pop up to center, putting them out of their misery. Cohen gave up a three run homer to Joe Garagiola in the bottom of the ninth, so I guess the insanity wasn’t completely over. But he got the final two outs to close this one out as a 12-4 Cubs victory. Sorry Pirates, better luck next time.

In nine innings, Cohen only gave up five hits, with seven strikeouts and a walk, so the three-run homer to end the game shocked us all. He took the win, however, improving to 4-1 with a 2.09 ERA, putting together 43 innings of work in five starts. That’s about as good as you can get from a stamina perspective. We outhit them 14-5, led by Willie Mays with three hits three runs and an RBI, and Del Crandall with three this for two runs and five RBIs. Crandall has jumped into the lead with 14 RBIs on the season, and the fact that he bats seventh in the lineup shows how insanely deep our lineup is. The win, our fifth in the row, keeps us at a solid 13-2, but we’re just fighting to stay up on the Phillies, 13-3, who are riding an eight game winning streak, sitting half a game behind us.