[jksander]

AUGUST 14, 1956 . . . Tonight we’ve got the first of three games in a row here at Wrigley against the 42-71 Redlegs of Cincinnati. Camilo Pascual (7-8, 3.21 ERA, 140.0 IP, 94 K’s, 1.17 WHIP) started for us, while the Redlegs brought out Bob Anderson (1-3, 4.42 ERA, 36.2 IP, 13 K’s, 1.64 WHIP). Poppell got things going with a hit, coming home from third after a couple stolen bases when Rosen hit one into left field to bat him in -- he’s got those moves down like clockwork! We came out of the first inning with a pair of hits, a walk and a fielder’s choice, but only led 1-0. We added another pair in the bottom of the second, however, when Al Rosen hit a solid shot into deep left that drove both Del Crandall and Jack Poppell in to score with a two-out single. Jackie Robinson then cleared the bases with his 24th homer of the year to increase our lead to five runs, and the fans were ecstatic. Frank Robinson hit a two-run blast in the top of the fourth to get the Redlegs on the board, trailing 5-2, but Pascual did well to hold on to the lead from there -- though he got into a touch of trouble in the sixth, eventually loading the bases, he got all three outs that inning via strikeout and the three-run lead held. Vern Law came in to pitch in the top of the seventh against the team he left barely a fortnight, holding serve through two excellent innings, and Willie Mays added some insurance in the bottom of the eighth with a solo homer, his 41st of the year. With us leading 6-0, Vern Law stayed in to complete the three-inning save and we completed the shutout with ease.

Camilo Pascual improved to 8-8 on the year with a 3.14 ERA, pitching a five-hit five strikeout two one (one earned) game through six innings of work. Vern Law has proven to be a very dependable bullpen arm, giving us three innings with no hits, one walk and one strikeout, giving him a 2.30 ERA and his second save since joining us at the deadline. His pitches haven’t fully developed yet, but his incredible control makes him lethal in relief -- as a starter, however, he spent a lot of time in Cincinnati completely over his head trying to throw starters’ innings. In total we outhit them 10-5, led by Poppell who had four hits, three stolen bases and two runs scored from the leadoff position. Through 56 starts he’s still hitting .278, and his 71 stolen bases have jumped him into the conversation for Rookie of the Year -- not bad for a 26-year-old who was drafted in the 27th round and released by the Senators without even a major league tryout. It would appear some time in the unaffiliated minor leagues did him good! Robinson and Mays each homered as well, as Mays has heated up during this homestand, currently leading the majors by five homers over Mickey Mantle.
 
AUGUST 15, 1956 . . . Bob Porterfield (3-2, 3.22 ERA, 44.2 IP, 34 K’s, 1.03 WHIP) started in game two against the Redlegs, facing Bobby Shantz (6-13, 5.56 ERA, 170.0 IP, 70 K’s, 1.54 WHIP). Cincinnati got on the board first, Gus Bell hitting a two-run blast into the left field stands in the top of the fourth to give them a 2-0 lead, the first hit Porterfield had surrendered all afternoon. In the top of the sixth Frank Robinson hit his 30th homer of the season, giving them another two runs. Carl Erskine came in with the score 4-0 to start the top of the seventh, and he got us through with a groundout and a pair of strikeouts, and he added a third strikeout in the top of the eighth before giving up a homer off the bat of Dick Groat to make the margin 5-0, though he struck out two more to escape the inning. We finally got some offense going in the bottom of the inning, Al Kaline batting in a run with a double that put him and Ernie Banks both in scoring position themelves. Roger Maris then laid down a sweet hit into right field, bouncing just outside the glove of their fielder and scoring a second run. Del Crandall popped out to first, but drove in a third run, sending us into the top of the ninth trailing 5-3. Hersh Freeman came in for the ninth, getting three quick outs to give us half a chance. Poppell and Rosen led off the bottom of the ninth with strikeouts, however, though Robinson was walked, bringing up Willie Mays with a chance to make something happen. They walked him too, instead, bringing up Banks as a potential winning run ... and he hit a powerful ball off his bat, but the wind was not in our favor today, holding it in and allowing them to catch it for the final out, beating us 5-3 instead of giving us a chance at celebrating a walk-off win.

Porterfield took the loss, falling to 3-3 with a 3.55 ERA, allowing just three hits in six innings, though he had three walks to go with five strikeouts, contributing to his four earned runs. Erskine allowed just one hit and one run with five strikeouts in his two innings of work, and Freeman was perfect in his one, bringing his ERA down to 5.77, getting his first chance out of the bullpen since before the trade deadline. We had nine hits ourselves, but struggled to string them together meaningfully. Kaline hit twice with a run and an RBI, Banks hit and scored a run, while Robinson added a hit, three walks, a steal and a run. Maris added two hits and an RBI as well.

AUGUST 16, 1956 . . . The Dodgers are breathing down our necks -- at 77-36 they’ve played fewer games than we have, and now only trail us in the standings by a single game. Fresh off his one-hitter last week, Tom Acker (6-4, 3.58 ERA, 103.0 IP, 76 K’s, 1.16 WHIP) got the start today against Don Drysdale (4-16, 4.55 ERA, 170.0 IP, 104 K’s, 1.46 WHIP). And Acker immediately stumbled, giving up a hit to his first batter and then allowing Ted Kluszewski to hit a two-run power bomb out into center field to give them the early 2-0 lead. Rattled, Acker hit Frank Robinson with an errant pitch and Robinson rushed the mound in what could have become a melee had Acker not diffused the situation. But Acker was clearly off his mark, allowing Gus Bell to hit a two-run blast immediately thereafter, and with us trailing 4-0, I started warming Bob Purkey, our long, long reliever -- if we weren’t able to calm this down, I was going to have no choice. And it didn’t get better. Acker gave up a hit sandwiched between a pair of walks and suddenly the bases were loaded. That’s it. With only one out in the top of the f---ing first, I had to bring in Purkey. By the time we got into the bottom of the first inning we were in a 6-0 hole and I was ready to melt down completely. But we still had eight and a half innings to play. Is this how a World Champion is supposed to play? We’ve got to fix this if we want to keep Brooklyn from destroying our season.

It didn’t get better. Frank Robinson hit a home run to start the second inning, increasing the margin to seven runs, and by the time we got on the board with a Poppell run scored in the bottom of the third off a groundout by Rosen, we trailed the Redlegs 7-1 on our own field. Mays tripled to start the bottom of the fourth inning, and Banks grounded out to first but drove him home for our second run, but in the top of the sixth the Redlegs got a run back with an RBI single by Nellie Fox to make it 8-2. Vern Law came in with two outs and men on first and second, but a weak infield hit and a drop by Banks at short allowed the bases to jam up, and a dropped catch by Poppell allowed another run to score. Law then walked in another to make it 10-2 and I felt like I was ready to pull my hair out. Finally we got out of the inning, but this game was like Dante’s ninth circle of Hell. Kaline hit a triple to start the bottom of the seventh, and Del Crandall stunned the crowd to their feet with a three-run homer moments later to spark hope in a crowd that had started to head for the exits. Vern Law then came up and smacked a homer into the right field bleachers, just his second homer of the season, and suddenly we were down just 10-6 heading into the top of the eighth. Law stayed in and pitched beautifully through the top of the ninth, but we came into the bottom of the inning still trailing by four runs. Crandall and Bouchee struck out swinging, and Jack Poppell grounded out to first, but it didn’t matter -- we hadn’t deserved to win this one, losing 10-6 in a game we were never competitive in.

Acker took the loss, and deserved every bit of it. He secured just ONE OUT, giving up four hits and two walks for six earned runs. Purkey was solid as a desperation long reliever, giving us 5.1 innings with six hits and two strikeouts, allowing four runs of which only one was earned. And Vern Law continues to impress me, giving us 3.1 innings with two hits and a walk, none of our runs counting against him. He’s played in eight games for us already, putting together 19 innings of work with a 1.89 ERA and 1.05 WHIP. Cincy outhit us 12-7 , our offense led by Mays and Kaline’s triples and the homers from Law and Crandall.

But we’ve screwed ourselves into a corner. We now hold an 80-38 record, and though we’re officially tied in the standings against Brooklyn (78-36), their winning percentage now has them as the NL’s leading team. And we’ve got a tough road schedule in September that’s going to make all our remaining games incredibly important in the pennant chase. We play three games this weekend at St. Louis, and then have a stretch of home games against Philly, the Giants, Pittsburgh and Brooklyn. From August 31st to the end of the season we’ll then play 16 of our last 23 games on the road.