[jksander]

May 13, 1916: The Boston Braves needed an outfielder, as they’re struggling in the middle of the NL pack at 12-14, so they reached out to us about acquiring Charlie Grimm from us, a 17-year-old left fielder we have on our reserve roster who is ranked #25 nationally. With us suddenly in a position where we’re leading our league and looking to be a stronger team than had been ancipated, I saw an opportunity to shore up our pitching even further (pitching having been a big reason we’ve been able to stay in, and win, so many close games). We’ve agreed to trade the Braves Grimm, in exchange for 28-year-old right-handed starter Dick Rudolph, who so far this year has gone 3-3 with a 1.31 ERA, 20 strikeouts and a 1.02 WHIP. We’re moving Dickey Kerr and Byron Houck to the bullpen and sending Jing Johnson down to the reserve roster to make room for Rudolph in the rotation -- right now we’ll be slotting him in third, between Dibut and Packard -- and our bullpen will now feature Nabors and Houck as middle relief and Kerr and Morrisette as long relief options.

Dibut got the start today in game one against the St. Louis Browns, and we quickly took the lead with an RBI single by Amos Strunk in the bottom of the first, though they answered in the top of the second with a sac-fly by Jimmy Austin that scored George Sisler. Jimmy Walsh hit an RBI single in the bottom of the second to get us back the lead, but in the bottom of the sixth they again tied it, this time with a single by Austin. Dibut pitched his way through the ninth inning without letting them back into the lead, and in the bottom of the inning with one out and both Walsh and Strunk in scoring position, Mike Mowrey hit a walk-off groundball single into right to get us the 3-2 win! Dibut improved to 5-2 on the year with a 1.66 ERA, allowing eight hits, a walk and two runs with three strikeouts in his complete game, our bats outhitting them 11-8. Jimmy Walsh led the way from the leadoff spot, hitting three times with two runs and an RBI.

May 15, 1916: Dick Rudolph made his debut for us in today’s game, and he came in with six complete games, tied with the Yankees’ Ferdie Schupp for the most in the majors. But his luck was not good early in this one. St. Louis took the lead in the top of the third with a groundout by Ward Miller that scored Ernie Johnson, and they added a two-run double by Doc Lavan in the fourth which was immediately followed by Lavan scoring off a passed ball. Brutal! We clawed some back in the bottom of the fifth, as Alex McCarthy scored off a passed ball and then Amos Strunk hit a two-run triple to get us back within one. Rudolph gave up an RBI single to Burt Shotton in the top of the ninth to extend St. Louis’ lead to two runs, and that was all they’d need ... our bats stayed silent from there and we lost 5-3. Rudolph completed the game, his seventh, but took the loss with a 12-hit, five run game, striking out two. We were outhit 12-8 which didn’t help ... Wally Schang led the way with two hits, two walks and a run scored.
 
May 16, 1916: We took the lead today in the bottom of the third with a single by Strunk that was coupled with an E7 error, allowing Jimmy Walsh to score and put us up 1-0. St. Louis answered with an RBI single by Eddie Plank in the top of the fifth, but we retook the lead in the bottom of the sixth with an RBI double by Rube Oldring, putting us ahead 2-1 heading into the top of the seventh. Oldring singled in another run in the eighth that was followed by an RBI double for Alex McCarthy, but Byron Houck blew the save by giving up a grand slam home run off the bat of Jack Tobin to shoot the Browns into the lead 5-4 as we came up to hit in the bottom of the inning. That’s a hell of a way to hand a team a lead, and it gutted us as a team ... the offense pretty much threw their hands up, and we lost 5-4 in a game we should have had well in hand. Houck took the loss, falling to 3-2 with a 4.43 ERA, allowing two hits, two walks and four runs with one strikeout. Gene Packard had lasted 7.1 innings with a six-hitter, walking three, striking out two and conceding one earned run. Jim Nabors got two outs with a hit and a walk as he tried to recover from the grand slam, but it was enough to destroy us despite having outhit the Browns 14-9. Nap Lajoie led the way with three hits and two runs, while Oldring added two hits, a walk and two RBIs.

May 17, 1916: We came into tonight needing to split this series with a win, which would put us back atop the AL, a spot now held by St. Louis by half a game. Bullet Joe Bush took the mound, and it did not go well ... Hank Severeid grounded out in the top of the first but Burt Shotton scored to give St. Louis the lead, and then in the top of the third they added four more runs, nearly batting their entire order in the process. Trailing 5-0 midway through the inning, we worked to slowly claw the runs back ... in the bottom of the fourth Rube Oldring hit a sac-fly to get us on the board, and we got two more back in the sixth thanks to a groundout by Stuffy McInnis and an RBI single by Oldring. Houck took over with two outs in the seventh still trailing by a pair, and in the ninth he gave them two more, sealing the deal as we lost this one 7-3, and the series three games to one. Bullet Joe Bush fell to 2-4 with a 3.53 ERA, allowing eight hits and five earned runs with three walks and three strikeouts in his 6.2 innings. The Browns outhit us 10--6, Rube Oldring leading our offense with three hits and two RBIs.

With that loss, we now trail the Browns (20-12) by a game and a half, and our 18-13 record has us tied with the Yankees for second in the AL, though we still lead Chicago by two and a half. Of course they’re the team we face next, as the White Sox come in for three games before our day off on Sunday. With just two series left in this long homestand, it’s important that we finish strong, so we have some runway ... we’ll be on the road from May 26th through June 18th, and will only play six games in June on our home field. That’ll be a long stretch to spend living out of suitcases on trains and in hotels.