[jksander]

AUGUST 31, 1956 . . . Hy Cohen (27-3, 1.87 ERA, 260.1 IP, 253 K’s, 0.80 WHIP) pitched tonight for game one on the road in Cincinnati, facing Don Drysdale (6-16, 4.52 ERA, 195.0 IP, 115 K’s, 1.45 WHIP). Cincy got on the board quickly, thanks to a two-run homer by Kluszewski in the bottom of the first, and Cohen struggled to find his rhythm before finally getting a bases loaded final out via strikes, throwing 29 pitches in the first frame alone. Willie Mays hit a deep blast into right field in the top of the third, however, coming out with a two-RBI triple that tied the score, and Mays took home on a wild pitch, giving us the lead, 3-2! Mays hit an RBI double in the top of the fifth, driving Robinson in to score our fourth run, and moments later Maris hit one to almost the same spot in left, doubling himself to bat in another to make it a 5-2 lead heading into the bottom of the frame, and Cohen had settled in well by this point as the momentum swung completely in our direction . In the top of the sixth with two outs, Jack Poppell stole third base to notch his absolutely insane 100th stolen base of the season, and Mays hit a 2-RBI double to drive him and Rosen home and put the nail in, or so you’d think -- but Elmer Valo got an RBI double in with one out in the bottom of the sixth, so they still had a chance at rallying, trailing 7-3 heading into the seventh. We brought Carl Erskine in for the bottom of the seventh, still leading by four runs, and he held serve, with Robinson twisting the dagger in the top of the eighth with a solo homer, his 28th of the season, making it an 8-3 lead. Hersh Freeman came out to pitch in the ninth, getting two early outs before putting runners on the corners. Sandy Koufax came out at that point to stifle the rally attempt, getting Kluszewski to hit a weak fly to Mays to end this one as an 8-3 win.

Cohen took the win, improving to 28-3, allowing five hits four walks and nine strikeouts through six innings, allowing just three runs. Erskine, Freeman and Koufax combined for two hits four walks and a strikeout through the remaining three innings. It wasn’t a save opportunity, but Kluszewski was the kind of player who has rung us up in the past, and that kind of rally in the ninth would have been dangerous indeed. So I’m glad to see Koufax was able to come in for the high leverage situation and get the out without surrendering anything. We outhit them 14-7, led by Jackie Robinson (three hits, two runs, one RBI) and Willie Mays (three hits, two runs, five RBIs), while “Jackrabbit” Poppell wrote himself some history with two hits, a walk, four steals and a pair of runs. He is officially the first rookie in MLB history to have 100 steals in his first season!

August was an up-and-down month for us, but we still came out of it strong, winning our last four games in a row to finish 20-10. We’re now 91-41 heading into the final stretch run, having won eight of our last ten. But we can’t let up, as most of the Dodgers’ September games are on their home field.

SEPTEMBER 1, 1956 . . . Saul Rogovin (19-4, 1.95 ERA, 249.1 IP, 306 K’s, 0.77 WHIP) started for us tonight, and he has the potential to compete for the all-time single season strikeouts record, having struck out 53 batters during his six August starts. Tonight he pitched against lefty hurler Bobby Shantz (8-14, 5.41 ERA, 194.2 IP, 80 K’s, 1.53 WHIP). With the bases loaded in the top of the first, Willie Mays hit a sac-fly out to center that drove in the first run of the game, and Al Kaline and Roger Maris walked in two runs in a row, encouraging a series of boos from the sparse home crowd. Banks hit a sac-fly to right, scoring Robinson from third, and Rogovin struck out swinging, completing our batting around as we took a 4-0 lead in the first half inning. But Rogovin gave up a triple to their leadoff man, and Gus Bell batted in a run with a single to quickly get the Redlegs on the board. He settled down, however, and after the back to back hits to start the inning, he got three outs in a row to send their defense back out. Robinson hit an RBI double in the top of the second to extend the lead back to four runs, but Nellie Fox hammered a homer out of right field to pull them back within three in the bottom of the third, and Elmer Valo hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth, making this one uncomfortably close, sending us into the top of the fifth leading by a slim 5-4 margin. Del Crandall gave us some breathing room with a sac-fly in the top of the sixth that drove in a run, but Gus Bell answered with a homer in the bottom of the seventh to cut the lead back to one run. Ernie Banks batted in a run with a double in the top of the eighth, however, and we loaded the bases with a chance to finally put this one out of reach. Crandall hit a sac-fly to deep center, narrowly missing out on a grand slam as another run came in, but Poppell hit into a fielder’s choice that ended the inning, our lead now 8-5.

Koufax came in and had a great eighth inning, allowing a baserunner but not surrendering any runs, and Jackie Robinson hit an RBI triple in the top of the ninth to seal it, with Mays hitting a run-scoring sac-fly to increase our lead to five runs. It should have been an easy finish for Koufax, but he loves to make it difficult -- with the bases loaded he got out number one via popout, holding all the runners. But Frank Robinson then hit a goddamned grand slam to make it 10-9 Cubs. Poppell made a solid catch for out number two, but Koufax walked Albie Pearson, bringing up Elmer f---ing Valo for all the marbles. Two outs, a man on, Valo hits it to Poppell, who makes the throw safely to first and we survive by the one run, getting the win but making our lives way more difficult in the process.

Rogovin improved to 20-4 with a 2.07 ERA, allowing eight hits with seven strikeouts, a walk and five earned runs, and Koufax (barely) eked out his 19th save of the year, a two-inning effort with four hits, three walks and four runs (three earned) to give him a 3.48 ERA through 75 innings. We outhit them 12-10, led by Jackie Robinson, who hit three times for two runs and two RBIs, giving him his 100th RBI of the season and improving his average to .323, his best average since batting .339 for Brooklyn in 1954.
 
SEPTEMBER 2, 1956 . . . Camilo Pascual ( 10-8, 2.95 ERA, 171.0 IP, 116 K’s, 1.10 WHIP) started the final game at Cincinnati, facing Tex Clevenger (3-8, 4.39 ERA, 94.1 IP, 48 K’s, 1.41 WHIP). Roger Maris batted leadoff for us today, with Gene Baker playing second base to give Poppell a rare day off, and he took full advantage by blasting a solo homer into right field, his 14th homer of the season, putting us in the lead 1-0, and Al Kaline made it a two-run lead with an RBI single, Al Rosen able to come all the way around from second to score despite his below average speed. Del Crandall added an RBI single and the Redlegs walked Camilo Pascual with the bases loaded, and Maris got his second hit of the inning to bat in a fifth run. Al Rosen finally grounded out to send us into the bottom of the first, but we had them nicely on the ropes. They loaded the bases in the bottom of the second but came up empty, and Jackie Robinson hit a deep shot into center with the bases loaded for us in the top of the third, coming out of it with a three-run triple, extending our lead to eight runs. Ernie Banks hit a solo homer in the top of the fourth, his 30th of the year, and by that point the already thin crowd started to shrink even further. Cincinnati got on the board with a solo homer by Gus Bell in the bottom of the fifth to make it a 9-1 ballgame, but we loaded the bases in the top of the seventh, and Jackie Robinson hit a grand slam, his 29th homer of the season, to blow our lead up to 13-1 heading into the seventh inning stretch. Pascual scored a run from third base with two outs in the top of the eighth thanks to a wild pitch, and in the top of the ninth Jackie Robinson hit his second homer of the afternoon to make the margin even wider. Pascual completed the game and we won this one 15-1, going into tomorrow’s two-game set at St. Louis on a six-game winning streak.

Pascual, now 11-8 with a 2.85 ERA, gave us nine innings with just four hits, four walks, eight strikeouts and the one earned run, throwing 155 pitches. But with our numerous off days coming up, he’s unlikely to need to pitch for at least a week, so he’ll have plenty of time to recover. We outhit the Redlegs by a staggering 18-4 margin, with everybody in the lineup getting a hit (Pascual actually had two, with two runs scored and one batted in!) Our leaders were Roger Maris with four hits, two walks, three runs and two RBIs, and Jackie Robinson who hit four times including his two homers, walking once, scoring three times and driving in EIGHT RUNS -- he’s now slashing .328/.438/.668, putting on the best-rounded offensive performance of any player this year.

Our lead in the NL remains at three games -- we’re 93-41, with the Dodgers still on our heels with an 88-42 record. We’ll go into tomorrow with a well-rested bullpen, and I expect to give Cohen a chance to rest, saving him for game three on Tuesday -- we’ll start long relievers tomorrow in both doubleheader games. Our magic number remains at 20, while in the AL, New York’s 7.5 game lead over the Guardians has theirs at 16. Both races are expected to go down to the wire, however, with the Yankees still having 14 road games ahead of them, including a doubleheader at Cleveland on the 16th.