[jksander]

APRIL 20, 1957 . . . This afternoon we have one game against the Cards, followed by a doubleheader tomorrow. Camilo Pascual got his first start of the year today, facing the Cards’ 25-year-old righty Larry Jackson, who last year went 6-16 with a 4.41 ERA and 77 strikeouts through 181.2 innings of work. Poppell quickly got a hit to start things out, and Kaline followed with a single of his own, Robinson hitting into a fielder’s choice that moved Poppell to third and took out Kaline at second. Mays got a great hit up through the gap past their second baseman, driving in a run and putting us up 1-0, showing plenty of first-inning hustle. Pascual had a one-hitter going through the first three innings, but with two outs in the bottom of the fourth he gave up an RBI single to Tony Kubek that tied us up 1-1. The game became a real chess match from there, neither team willing to give up anything, and the best thing we could cling to was that we were tied heading into the top of the seventh and that the Cardinals were going to the bullpen already, with former Cincinnati reliever Russ Kemmerer coming in to pitch.

Pascual stayed sharp, and in the top of the eighth, Jack Poppell hit a two-out double to drive Del Crandall in to score from second, giving us back a 2-1 advantage! Moments later Jackie Robinson got a hit into right, driving Poppell in to score from third, but Mays popped out to right,sending us into the bottom of the inning with a two-run lead. They brought Bob Grim out to pitch in the top of the ninth, and he kept us from adding any insurance runs, and Pascual got two quick outs in the bottom of the ninth, only to then allow two runners into scoring position with a pair of ill-timed hits. We brought Erskine in to pitch, with two outs and the two men on, and his first batter faced, pinch-hitter Dick Sisler, hit a two-run double along the right field line, tying things up. Jablonski batted out to Mays at center to end the inning, but we’d stumbled our way into extra innings in the process.

Kaline got a hit in the top of the 10th, but Robinson hit into a double play to end the inning scoreless.Erskine, who had thrown just three pitches in the ninth, stayed out in the tenth and immediately gave up a line drive to Orlando Cepeda for a base hit, walked their next batter, and then loaded the bases with another single. He then walked in the winning run and this disaster came to a fitting end as the Cardinals celebrated our complete and utter meltdown. Pascual came to within one out of a complete game win, and then we just blew it, no way around that -- Cardinals win, 4-3.

Pascual gave us 8.1 solid innings, allowing seven hits with four walks, four strikeouts and three earned runs, giving him a 3.12 ERA. Erskine, meanwhile, played as rusty a game as he has since early last season, allowing three hits with two walks, getting only one out. It’s only one game, but we need him to be able to come out in a situation like this and handle the pressure. St. Louis outhit us 10-8, our team led by Al Kaline who hit three times but got nowhere. Poppell was solid with two hits and a walk, scoring twice and driving in a run, while Robinson and Mays each batted in runs with a hit apiece.

Tomorrow’s doubleheader’s going to be interesting, as we go into it with a 1-2 record, likely to face their wunderkind first-rounder, Bob Gibson, in one of the two games.
 
APRIL 21, 1957 . . . Hy Cohen (0-0, 5.14 ERA, 7.0 IP, 8 K’s, 1.86 WHIP) is up to pitch in game one of our two games this afternoon, facing St. Louis starter Boyd Linker (1-0, 3.86 ERA, 7.0 IP, 1 K, 0.86 WHIP), a 23-year-old who was drafted in the 16th round this year’s draft. With one out in the top of the first, Al Kaline hit a triple into deep center, and Jackie Robinson blasted his first homer of the year over the wall at left, giving us a quick 2-0 lead. But St. Louis answered quickly as well, a runner reaching first on an error and then Jackie Brandt hitting a two run homer off Cohen, tying it up. Cohen and Poppell were both walked to start the top of the third, and Kaline got a great hit into right, allowing him to load the bases. Robinson struck out swinging, but Mays got a nice infield hit and they had no time to make a throw, allowing us to take a 3-2 lead. But Banks hit into a double play, preventing us from doing significant damage. They tied it up in the bottom of the third on a groundout by Stan Musial that still drove in a run from third, this game looking destined to be a brawl to the end. Kaline walked to start the top of the fifth, and Jackie Robinson hit another power-bomb into the left field seats, giving us a 5-3 lead with his second homer of the afternoon! We held that lead into the ninth inning, when Poppell got on base with a hit on one out, stealing second and third to get into scoring position! Kaline hit an infield RBI single to reach safely and drive Poppell home, increasing our lead to three runs, and Cohen held his ground in the bottom half of the inning and we were able to come out of this with a hard-fought 6-3 victory!

Cohen pitched a complete game with six hits, six strikeouts and three runs scored, only one of which was earned, giving him a 2.81 ERA through his first two starts as well as his first win of the season. We outhit the Cardinals 9-6, led by Jackie Robinson, who hit successfully twice, both homers, driving in four runs. Al Kaline, meanwhile, hit four times with two runs and an RBI, keeping his batting average at .500 through the first four games of our season. Poppell picked up a pair of steals to bring his total to three on the season, while Mays picked up his first.

Sandy Koufax got his first start of the year in the second game this afternoon, going up against Bob Gibson in his major league debut! Koufax blinked first, giving up a run in the bottom of the second thanks to an RBI double by Tony Kubek. Moments later Russ Nixon drove in another by hitting into a fielder’s choice, and we went into the top of the third trailing 2-0 -- this Cardinals team is young and hungry, and they’re going to be tough all year if they can keep it up. Poppell reached base safely on an infield hit to start the third, and Kaline got a great hit into right that drove him all the way around to third. Robinson hit into a double play, but Poppell was able to make it in, giving us our first run of the game. The Cards scored another in the bottom of the third, however, Brandt hitting an RBI double to make it 3-1, and they didn’t stop there -- Nixon hit a run scoring triple in the bottom of the fourth, and Wally Moon hit an RBI double to make it 5-1. Willie Mays loaded the bases for us with a slow-rolling hit out into center with one out in the top of the fifth, but all were left stranded. Koufax settled in, even striking out the side in the bottom of the sixth, but the damage had been done and our bats were not having any luck. The Cards pulled Gibson for Kemmerer in the top of the seventh, and in the top of the ninth, still trailing by four, we finally started to find a little sunlight ... Koufax got a base hit, and Poppell followed, Kaline picking up an infield hit to load the bases with no outs! Robinson and Mays batted out to left, however, though we scored a run off the Mays sac-fly. But Banks flew out to center as well and the game came to a 5-2 end, with the Cards celebrating the 2-2 series split.

Koufax’ game was a tale of two halves. The first four innings he gave up five runs. But as a complete game, he allowed nine hits, struck out four and only walked a pair, giving up just those five runs. Hopefully he’ll take the experience from this 105 pitch effort to realize he can get outs over a long period, and he has the skills to be a starter. He just can’t give up five runs over a three inning stretch and always expect our bats to bail him out. Bob Gibson pitched six innings for the Cardinals, allowing five hits and walking six batters, so he was lucky our bats weren’t firiing off hits today -- still, he only allowed the one earned run, which made for a solid debut. Each team tonight came out with nine hits, and we had four more walks them them and still lost by three -- that can’t happen regularly, that’s for damned sure. Poppell and Mays each hit twice, with our only runs on the ground coming from Poppell and Koufax.

We knew this April scheduling was going to make the start of our season a tough one. We have four more road games over the next four days, two in Milwaukee (3-1) and two in Cincinnati (1-4), before we get three against the Cardinals on our field. We’ll then play our next ten games on the road. By the time we get a real home-stand in mid-May we’ll have played 18 games on the road and just four at Wrigley -- so doing what we can to stay at least at .500 by that point will go a long way.