[jksander]

MAY 20, 1956 . . . Time for another doubleheader day, right as we’re at our lowest point of the season, having just been swept by the Pittsburgh Pirates. Now we’re at Ebbets Field, facing the Dodgers, who at 22-8 have been dominating the National League so far in the season, including holding a 2-1 record against us in games all played at Wrigley Field. Saul Rogovin (4-2, 2.83 ERA, 54.0 IP, 68 K’s, 0.98 WHIP) pitched in game one, facing Brooklyn’s Sal Maglie (5-0, 2.55 ERA, 53.0 IP, 30 K’s, 1.13 WHIP). And we’re on a four-game losing streak, needing to find a way to get some momentum going back in our favor if we’re going to keep pace within this division.

In the bottom of the first, Duke Snyder got to second base with a groundball error at first, and Gene Baker hit a double in the top of the third, but neither runner was able to get anywhere. But Rogovin finally gave up the wrong pitch to Fred Hartfield, who hit his first solo homer of the year and put the Dodgers up 1-0 in the bottom of the third. Carl Furillo hit a solo blast to right in the bottom of the sixth to make it a 2-0 lead. Willie Mays got us on the board with a solo homer to right in the top of the seventh, his 13th homer of the season, and Al Rosen hit another to left field, his seventh, to tie it up 2-2 heading into the seventh inning stretch. In the top of the ninth, Robinson reached first by being grazed by an inside throw, and then Maglie walked Mays to give us a man in scoring position. Maris got a single into the gap, reaching first safely and driving Mays around to score from second -- 3-2 lead for the Cubs! But that was all we’d get, heading into the bottom of the inning with Hersh Freeman coming in to protect our lead. Freeman let Deacon Jones reach first with a single, Duke Snyder batted out to right, and then Gil Hodges reached first with a line drive into right, putting a man in scoring position with only one out. A Sandy Amoros popup to Banks got us our second out, but Freeman let a line drive into right by Sully Hemus and the game was over, another fail by our big money free agent closer.

Freeman was tallied with a blown save, his first of the year, and with the loss, his second, falling to 0-2 with a 4.50 ERA thanks to three hits, and two earned runs with only two outs earned in his inning. Rogovin’s eight innings of three-hit ball were for naught, despite nine strikeouts and just two earned runs, putting his ERA at 2.76. He’d thrown 117 pitches and we could have left him out there for the final inning -- and maybe we SHOULD have -- but our bullpen guys need to figure out how to come in and win games like this. We only managed six hits as a team ourselves, led by Gene Baker who hit twice and was rewarded by being left stranded each time. Mays, Maris, Rosen and Rogovin accounted for our other hits, with Robinson, Mays and Rosen scoring runs and Mays, Maris and Rosen batting them in.

Camilo Pascual (3-1, 2.31 ERA, 35.0 IP, 23 K’s, 1.26 WHIP) pitched in the second game of the day, against Joey Jay (4-0, 1.83 ERA, 44.1 IP, 29 K’s, 1.08 WHIP). In the top of the first, with one out, Willie Mays walked the bases loaded, bringing up Roger Maris, who laid down a sweet pop fly into center field just out of the fielder’s reach, allowing a run to score and keeping the bases jammed! But Al Rosen hit into a double play to end the inning without a real power showing, our Cubs ahead 1-0. Willie Mays hit an RBI double in the top of the third to add a run to the margin. Al Kaline got one through the gap in the top of the fourth to make it 3-0, but in the bottom of the inning Pascual gave up a hit to Duke Snyder that scored a run thanks to a bad throw to third as Snyder held at second, and with two outs, Bill Mazeroski hit a three-run blast to right that put the Dodgers up 4-3. We can’t catch a break ... Pascual had been hitless through three innings and then the fourth turned into a meltdown. Al Rosen tied it with a homer in the top of the fifth, his eighth this year, and we went into the bottom of the fifth knotted up 4-4. But on two outs, Pascual then allowed a two-run homer for Snider, his sixth of the year, and they were right back on top 6-4. Larry Jensen came in with two out and the bases empty, getting a strikeout to send us into the sixth trailing by a pair. Sandy Koufax came in with no outs and a man on third in the bottom of the seventh, immediately surrendering to the runner at third thanks to an RBI double by Bud Byerly before getting the outs to send us into the top of the eighth trailing 7-4. Al Kaline hit one right into the seats in left field, his fifth homer of the year, to cut the deficit to two runs, but even with two runners on, we couldn’t get anyone else around to even the score. Koufax got us through the bottom of the eighth, but they shut us down one, two, three in the ninth and we lost yet another game by a 7-5 margin.

Pascual fell to 3-2 with a 3.40 ERA, giving up five hits and six earned runs with just five K’s and a walk. Jansen did well in 1.1 innings, with one hit, one run and one strikeout, and Koufax got us through the last two innings with a hit, a walk and a strikeout but no runs. He now has a 4.02 ERA through 31.1 innings. We outhit them 14-7 and still lost, which is unacceptable. Robinson had two hits for a run, Mays had a hit and a walk and batted in a run, Al Rosen hit twice for a run and an RBI, and Al Kaline had a great game with four hits with two runs and two RBIs, including a homer. But we still lost our sixth game in a row and nothing quite feels right about this team as a whole. But the parts are all there ... aren’t they?

Let’s see if we can bounce back against Philly (16-14). We have two games against them and then a four game road-trip to St. Louis (9-24) before finally getting back to Chicago. Right now we’re struggling on the road (6-8) and severely lagging in one-run games (3-5). Our +52 Run Differential is still the best in our division, second in the majors only to the Yankees’ +61 (they’re 25-9 and leading the AL by 1.5 games) and we’re performing three games below our pythagorean expectation. We have to figure something out in these close games or the teams we’ve embarassed over the last couple years are going to keep eating us for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Current standings are below:

American League
1. New York Yankees (25-9)
2. Detroit Tigers (23-10, 1.5 GB)
3. Cleveland Guardians (18-15, 6.5 GB)
4. Boston Red Sox (16-17, 8.5 GB)
5. Chicago White Sox (14-16, 9 GB)
6. Kansas City Athletics (15-21, 11 GB)
7. Washington Senators (13-21, 12 GB)
8. Baltimore Orioles (11-26, 15.5 GB)

National League
1. Brooklyn Dodgers (24-8)
2. Chicago Cubs (18-13, 5.5 GB)
3. Philadelphia Phillies (16-14, 7 GB)
4. Cincinnati Redlegs (16-15, 7.5 GB)
5. New York Giants (16-19, 9.5 GB)
6. Pittsburgh Pirates (15-18, 9.5 GB)
7. Milwaukee Braves (14-17, 9.5 GB)
8. St. Louis Cardinals (9-24, 15.5 GB)

Our six-game losing streak is currently the longest active skid in the majors. The Dodgers and Giants have each won four straight, while the Yankees have won thre straight (with the Red Sox currently on a four-game skid). In the home run race at the moment, here are the following leaders:

1. Ted Kluszewski, Redlegs (15)
2. Ted Williams, Brooklyn (15)
3. Willie Mays, Cubs (13)
4. Yogi Berra, Yankees (11)
5. Gil Hodges, Brooklyn (10)

Kluszewski and Williams remain on a 75-homer pace, with Mays on track for 65.