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LAYMAN SLAMS FIVE HITS IN CG WIN OVER HARLEM
VETERAN PITCHER DOES IT ALL DURING DOUBLE-DIGIT HOME WIN BY METROPOLITAN

NEW YORK CITY (July 25, 1877) - Even .500 Metropolitan opened their home series against Harlem on Wednesday on the edge of elimination from playoff contention. They proceeded to keep their season alive with an eleven-run victory:

The key to Metro’s big win was a ten-run rally in the bottom of the second inning, during which a pair of three-run Hits, a Home Run by 2B William Hurt and a Double by C Mark Lehmann, did much of the damage.

Still, that wasn’t what the 2,300 in attendance left the game talking about. Instead, what had people most amazed was the performance of veteran P and 1872 N.Y.L. Most Valuable Player George Layman, who had some issues with the ball but more than made up for it with the bat:

• MET P George Layman: CG (17-13, 2.96), 15 HA, 5 ER, 1 BB, 5 K
• MET #9 George Layman (P): 5/5 (all 1B), 1 R, 3 RBI

Layman was fortunate in that visiting Harlem managed to turn fifteen base hits into only five Runs, but he needed no such luck when he was at the plate as three of Layman’s five base hits were of the Line Drive variety.

Layman is better than the average P with the bat, but going into the game was on a pace to finish 1877 with career lows in Batting Average (.226), OPS (.479), and RBI (8; would be 10 over 70 G). Layman’s 5/5 performance left him a bit closer to his career norms (.299 AVG, .635 OPS), although his run production remains roughly half of what it typically has been during the 40-50 games he pitches in over the course of a season.

The victory kept Metropolitan in the playoff chase, but with one more loss or one more N.Y.A.C. win all Metro playoff hopes come to an end. Harlem has long since stopped entertaining any playoff dreams, and their record is 21-35 (22 GB) with nearly three weeks left to play.