[jksander]

May 9, 1947: Dutch Leonard (3-2, 1.84 ERA, 44.0 IP, 15 K, 0.95 WHIP) has been red hot in his first five starts, pitching four complete games since the eight inning loss he took when we pulled him for a bullpen arm against Detroit back on April 16th. He’s on five days’ rest heading into this one after throwing 135 pitches in his last game, and he was ready to go against Cleveland’s Bob Feller (2-2, 3.08 ERA, 38.0 IP, 30 K, 1.26 WHIP), a matchup that had pitching duel written all over it, Feller’s stuff against Leonard’s control and impeccable ball movement. We took the lead in the bottom of the second with an RBI single by Wally Moses, and in the bottom of the seventh we bought a ton of insurance for Leonard, thanks to an RBI single for Robinson and a two-run single for Cavarretta as we blew the lead up to four runs. That was more than enough for Leonard, who would have won it with the one run in the second ... we beat them 4-0 in a complete-game shutout for the 38-year-old legend, who allowed just seven hits with four walks and three strikeouts in a dominating performance. We outhit them 9-7, led by Cavarretta with a hit, a walk and two RBIs.

May 10, 1947: Fred Sanford (1-1, 3.49 ERA, 28.1 IP, 12 K, 1.24 WHIP) pitched against Mort Cooper (1-2, 5.22 ERA, 29.1 IP, 11 K, 1.43 WHIP) in game two against the Guardians. We traded runs in the first three innings, but in the bottom of the fourth an error allowed Cavarretta to tie the score on a missed pickoff play, and Wally Moses followed that with an RBI double to give us a 3-2 lead, our first of the game. Emboldened, we added on with a two-run double by Stephens in the fifth, and Amos Watson took over in the top of the eighth still leading 5-2. He stranded four runners across the final two innings, nobody scoring, and was able to hold tough to the 5-2 win! Sanford improved to 2-1 with a seven inning 10 hit game, walking two and striking out three with two earned runs. Watson then earned his second multi-inning save, with no hits and a strikeout, but he walked four batters to keep himself in a precarious position ... his ERA is now 1.29 through seven innings, and if he can keep his walks down he’s going to be a strong bullpen arm for us all year. Cleveland outhit us 10-7, but we prevailed thanks in no small part to Vern Stephens, who hit three times with two runs and three more batted in, giving him a .320 average and 25 RBIs through his first 25 starts of the year.

May 11, 1947: Tom Seats (4-1, 3.09 ERA, 35.0 IP, 11 K, 1.34 WHIP) started our final game against Cleveland as we looked for the sweep against Bob Lemon (3-0, 2.49 ERA, 25.1 IP, 4 K, 1.03 WHIP) who has won all three of his starts this season. The Guardians got out to a quick start with a pair of runs in the top of the first, both coming off an RBI double by Ken Keltner, and the game went back and forth until we got completely reamed in the top of the sixth. We went into the inning trailing 3-2, but the Guardians quickly turned a one-run game into a 7-2 beatdown with two outs and two men on. Jack Kramer pitched 3.1 innings for us in a lost cause, as we got stomped back to earth in this one 8-2. Seats took his second loss in a row, falling to 4-2 with a 4.20 ERA after allowing 11 hits and seven earned runs with four walks and two strikeouts in his 5.2 innings. Cleveland outhit us 13-10, our team led by Phil Cavarretta who hit three times to nowhere, while Wally Judnich added two hits, a walk and an RBI.
 
May 13, 1947: It’s time to hit the road ... where the Yankees (15-12) will be our next opponent for a pair at Yankee Stadium. We’ll play our next sixteen games on the road, visiting all seven fellow AL teams at least once, so though we lead the league at the moment by half a game over the 16-11 Athletics, if we’re not as good as we think we are it’s soon going to be exposed.

Diomedes Olivo (2-3, 3.02 ERA, 44.2 IP, 19 K, 1.01 WHIP) pitched for us in the first game against the Yankees, facing Joe “Fireman” Page (3-1, 3.60 ERA, 30.0 IP, 19 K, 1.33 WHIP), But Olivo got roughed up quickly, giving up four runs in the bottom of the first, including a two-run double by Yogi Berra ... Berra scored moments later off a fielder’s choice grounder by Nick Etten, and Etten scored when Page hit a line drive single into left, completing their order. It was a lot of bad luck, as Olivo proceeded to pitch five more innings without a run scoring, but our bats were completely impotent. Nick Garver took over in the bottom of the seventh still trailing by the four runs, and it stayed that way ... he pitched well, keeping the game itself quite dull as we wound up losing 4-0, nothing much happening after inning number one. Garver pitched two innings without a hit, walk or run, but didn’t add any K’s either ... Olivo, meanwhile, took the loss with eight hits and four earned runs with a walk and four K’s in his six innings, dropping his record to 2-4 and his ERA to 3.38. But despite his losing record, he’s got a 1.07 WHIP and has nearly a game in WAR, he just never seems to get any run support in his big games.

May 14, 1947: Dutch Leonard (4-2, 1.53 ERA, 53.0 IP, 18 K, 1.00 WHIP) pitched game two against the Yankees, going up against Dizzy Trout (2-2, 3.50 ERA, 36.0 IP, 16 K’s, 1.56 WHIP). We got two on the board in the top of the first with a bases-loaded walk by Vern Stephens and an RBI single from Arky Vaughn. But New York scored the next four runs, one coming in the bottom of the third off a Yogi Berra fielder’s choice grounder, the go-ahead runs scoring off a two-run double by Dizzy Trout in the bottom of the fourth (Johnny Lindell was the add-on run, with an RBI single that made it 4-2 Yankees). Things looked bleak when Nick Etten hit a solo homer in the bottom of the seventh to make it a three run New York lead, but in the top of the eighth Wally Moses hit a three-run triple to tie the score and silence the Yankees fans in an instant. Sam Zoldak took the ball in the bottom of the inning, and despite loaded bases with two outs in the ninth he got us into extra innings when Joe Gordon popped out to left, stranding all three. Amos Watson took over in the bottom of the 10th, and he had a great inning, but in the bottom of the 11th the wheels fell off due to poor defensive plays ... Johnny Lindell pushed Joe Collins into scoring position when, on a sac-bunt, our third baseman failed to get the out at second, and Collins scored off a single by Berra to walk this one off as a 6-5 loss for us. What a tough way to lose a hard-fought game. Watson took the loss, getting credit for just three outs with three hits and a run against, but Leonard’s otherwise solid eight-hit seven-inning start was marred by five earned runs, so he was lucky not to get tagged with the “L” today. New York outhit us by a wide margin, 14-6, and we committed two errors in the game. Only Cavarretta, with two hits, three walks and a run scored, came out unblemished.

The two losses against the Yankees dropped us to third place, at 16-12, sitting half a game behind New York (17-12) and a game and a half behind Philly (18-11). We’ll now head down to Boston to face the Red Sox (11-17) for three in a row, before playing three in Philly including a Sunday doubleheader.