[jksander]

JULY 20, 1955 . . . Dave Hillman’s getting his first official start as a Cub today, against Brooklyn’s Johnny Podres (9-9, 4.10 ERA, 142.2 IP, 96 K’s, 1.28 WHIP). Hillman has only played in one game as a Cub thus far, four innings in relief with a save and a 9.00 ERA and 2.50 WHIP. The Dodgers got a run on the board in the first inning, an RBI single by Gil Hodges, but Hillman got a nice double play to keep us from absorbing too much damage. Jackie Robinson took a walk to start the second inning, and with one out and the count 2-1 on Crandall, he successfully stole second, his 16th stolen base of the year! Podres walked Al Rosen with two outs as his pitch count started to climb, but we were unable to make anything happen with the two baserunners. The Dodgers got men onto the corners with just one out, but we got a flyout to left and caught Carl Furillo trying to steal home, getting out of the inning still trailing only by a run. With no outs in the top of the third, the count 1-1 on him, Gene Baker took a ball to the shoulder and advanced to first, bringing up Hillman, who laid down a perfect sac-bunt to move Baker to second, at which point Kaline was walked to give us two on with just the one out. Roger Maris took the count to 3-1, but then hit into a double play, ending the inning. Hillman stayed cool under pressure, but did surrender an RBI double to Duke Snider in the bottom of the third to drive Pee Wee Reese in, making it a 2-0 ballgame. And then Roy Campanella hit a 2-run blast to right, his 14th, and this one was getting away from us, trailing 4-0. Pee Wee Reese added a solo homer in the bottom of the fifth, and we brought Bob Porterfield in to pitch in the bottom of the sixth, trailing still 5-0.

Ernie Banks got us on the board with a solo homer to right in the top of the seventh, his 22nd of the season, but that was the only one we were able to muster. We went into the break trailing by four, and though Porterfield got us through the seventh and Dorish got us through the eighth, we went into the top of the ninth in a deep hole. Willie Mays got a solo jack into right field to pull us within three, one out in the top of the ninth, and with two outs Ernie Banks hit another -- this time to center -- and made it a two-run game with his second homer of the game. But Del Crandall batted out to left and we lost this one on the road 5-3.

Hillman took the loss like a champ, having lasted five innings with just six hits, striking out two and walking one batter but giving up five runs in the process to keep his ERA at 9.00. He seems to be enjoying his cup of coffee up here in the bigs, and he’s finally making decent money to support his family, but I know he wanted this one. Bob Porterfield gave us two innings with no hits, one walk and two strikeouts, and Harry Dorish struck out two with a hit, and in the process they kept the deficit from getting worse. But they outhit us 7-4, our hitting drought continuing, and the Dodgers got themselves back to one win above .500 ... were it not for Banks and his two homers, and for Mays joining in during the ninth, we would have been a lot worse off.

It’s important for our team to keep a sense of perspective. We’re 76-20, so a slump was bound to happen at some point. How we handle it will define our season in the end.

JULY 21, 1955 . . . Hy Cohen (20-4, 1.31 ERA, 206.0 IP, 181 K’s, 0.67 WHIP) is up today against Larry Jansen (11-8, 3.00 ERA, 150.0 IP, 83 K’s, 1.14 WHIP) as we look to avoid letting Brooklyn sweep this two-game set. Maris got a hit with two outs in the top of the first, and Jackie Robinson slammed a triple into left, batting him in for the go-ahead run! Willie Mays got a single into center, driving Robinson home and extending the lead to two runs via a double. Al Rosen, batting second behind Kaline to hopefully help find him a hitting grove, took Jansen to a full count in the top of the third, then got a hit into left field, taking his base to start the inning, but we weren’t able to bring him around to score. Ernie Banks tripled with one out in the top of the fourth, but he was caught out trying to take home on a squeeze play, and Baker flew out to right, keeping the lead at 2-0. Willie Mays got a hit in the top of the sixth, a double that drove Maris to third, and I gave him the signal to go for home, sliding in headfirst and giving us a 3-0 lead! Al Rosen hit a homer over the right field wall in the top of the seventh, his 15th of the season, and extended the lead to four runs. But the Dodgers did get on board in the bottom of the inning off a homer by Hodges, his 25th, spoiling the shutout for Cohen who was having another excellent game. He held tough through the remainder, and we were able to keep the Dodgers at bay, winning this one 4-1.

Cohen improved to 21-4 on the season, giving up just four hits with eight strikeouts and a walk, one earned run allowing him to improve his ERA to 1.30 on the season. We outhit Brooklyn 11-4, and Al Rosen, batting in the number two spot, broke out of his slump, hitting three times for a run and an RBI. Roger Maris, batting third, hit twice and walked once for two runs. And Willie Mays, batting fifth instead of third, got three hits and batted in a pair.

Onward to Pittsburgh, where we have a four-game set against the Pirates (44-54, 33.5 GB). Philly is on a four-game winning streak, just a dozen games back, and we need every one of these games in order to avoid losing ground. We’re 5-3 since the All Star break, and we’ll finish the month back at home but with four games against the Phillies just waiting to trip us up. We’ll get Diehl back in time for the second of four home games against the Giants next week on the 27th, and hopefully he’s put the stupidity behind him -- we’ll need him to be in top shape for the dog days of August.