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PBCC CARRIES 15-GAME WIN STREAK TO MIDWAY POINT
DEFENDING PCBL CHAMPIONS LOOK INVINCIBLE HALFWAY THROUGH 1876 SEASON

PHILADELPHIA (June 26, 1876) - Four weeks into the P.C.B.L. season Philadelphia Baseball & Cricket Club had a fine 14-6 record, but they were two games behind rampant Merion for the lead in West Philadelphia. Jump forward three weeks and it looks to all like P.B.C.C. has already taken the pennant thanks to a fifteen-game winning streak leading up to the halfway point of the 1876 season.

On Sunday, June 4th, P.B.C.C. lost 6-5 at home to Germantown after allowing a run during the top of the 9th. Since then the Philadelphia champions have been utterly flawless, starting with a five-game sweep of main rivals Merion that saw P.B.C.C. go back atop the standings:

• June 7: PBCC 8-1 MER – P Robert Benson CG, 8 HA, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 1/3 (2B), 1 RBI
• June 8: PBCC 11-2 MER – 2B Frederick Pike 2/4 (2 1B), 3 R, 3 RBI, SB, 1 DEF DP
• June 9: PBCC 14-11 MER – SS Moody Steiger 3/6 (3B, 5 TB), 3 R, 1 RBI
• June 10: PBCC 8-7 MER – 3B Charles Hunt 2/3 (2 1B), 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 BB
• June 11: PBCC 12-7 MER – P Robert Benson CG, 7 HA, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 1/5 (1B), 1 R, 1 RBI

Four of the five games ended in Philadelphia B.C.C. wins by multiple runs, and in the lone one-run game P.B.C.C. had a five-run lead in the middle of the 9th before a Merion rally came up just short. The aftermath: P.B.C.C. had a Run Differential of +25 over five games playing at a team that entered the series with a 16-4 record, and P.B.C.C. had turned a two-game deficit in East Philadelphia into a three-game lead.

As it turned out, P.B.C.C. didn’t stop there:

• June 14: IND 7-10 PBCC – 2B Frederick Pike 4/5 (3B, 6 TB), 2 R, 4 RBI, 1 DEF DP
• June 15: IND 2-7 PBCC – 2B Frederick Pike 4/5 (2B, 5 TB), 2 R, 3 RBI, SB
• June 16: IND 0-12 PBCC – P Robert Benson CG SHO, 9 HA, 1 BB, 3 K, 1/3 (1B), 1 R, 1 RBI
• June 17: IND 7-8 PBCC (10) – 3B Charles Hunt 3/4 (3 1B), 2 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB
• June 18: IND 3-4 PBCC – P Robert Benson CG, 9 HA, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 1/3 (1B), 1 R

P.B.C.C. had racked up a ten-game Winning Streak, and with Merion winning their first three games at Germantown before losing the final two it meant their lead in East Philadelphia had grown to five games.

Still, P.B.C.C.’s winning ways were far from over:

• June 21: SCH 6-7 PBCC – SS Moody Steiger 2/5 (3B, 4 TB), 2 R, 3 RBI, SB, WALKOFF 3B
• June 22: SCH 1-4 PBCC – P Arthur Lipscomb CG, 1 HA, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 1/4 (1B)
• June 23: SCH 2-6 PBCC – CF Robert Chase 3/5 (3B, 5 TB), 3 R, 1 RBI
• June 24: SCH 7-4 PBCC – 2B Frederick Pike 2/3 (3B, 4 TB), 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, SB
• June 25: SCH 3-10 PBCC – P Robert Benson CG, 6 HA, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 1/3 (2B), 1 R, 3 RBI

P.B.C.C. now had a fifteen-game Winning Streak, and Merion’s 1-4 series at Mercantile meant the defending champions had gone from a two-game deficit to a nine-game lead over the rest of West Philadelphia over the span of just three weeks. Merion had followed up their 16-4 start with a 4-11 run, and here was how P.B.C.C. responded:

• 15 W, 0 L, 128 R (8.5 R/G), 63 RA (4.2 RA/G), +65 RD (+4.3 R/G), +11 G vs MER, 9-game lead in West PHI

Philadelphia Baseball & Cricket Club enters the midway point of the P.C.B.L. season with a 29-6 record, among the best half-season runs ever seen in any league. They have the only two P.C.B.L. Pitchers with ERA’s under 2.00…

• #1: 1.58 by Robert Benson (182.2 IP)
• #2: 1.91 by Arthur Lipscomb (118.0 IP)

…their pitching leads the P.C.B.L. in…

• Runs Allowed with 159 (4.5 RA/G; Frankford 2nd with 5.8 RA/G)
• Shutouts with 2 (Spartan also has 2)
• Team ERA with 1.81 (Sons of Ben 2nd with 2.32)
• Hits Allowed with 310 (8.8 HA/G; Mercantile 2nd with 9.9 HA/G)
• Strikeouts with 78 (2.2 K/G; Independence 2nd with 2.1 K/G)
• WHIP with 1.05 (Frankford 2nd with 1.20)
• Opponents’ AVG with .237 (Mercantile 2nd with .251)
• Opponents’ OBP with .254 (Frankford 2nd with .279)
• Opponents’ SLG with .295 (Frankford 2nd with .318)
• Opponents’ OPS with .548 (Frankford 2nd with .597)

…and their fielders lead the P.C.B.L. in each of the four main defensive factors:

• Errors with 210 (6.0 E/G, Frankford 2nd with 6.2 E/G)
• Fielding % with .862 (Frankford 2nd with .856)
• Efficiency with .643 (Frankford 2nd with .623)
• Zone Rating with +20.7 (Frankford 2nd with +3.6)

P.B.C.C. has played even better away from home (13-2) than they have at Willow Grove, they have an outside chance to become the first team in any league to finish a season with a Run Differential of +300, and they have been so dominant that their current Run Differential of +146 suggests their record should be 27-8, which would still be historically great.

The other clubs in Philadelphia can take solace in the fact that, while they were 26-9 in the first half last season, P.B.C.C. was only marginally over .500 during the second half of 1875 and needed a full five games to take the Liberty Bell Classic. Still, all current signs point to P.B.C.C. repeating as champions of the city, and doing so in spectacular fashion.