[jksander]

June 3, 1916: Mike Mowrey hit an RBI single in the top of the second in our first game against St. Louis, giving us a 1-0 lead early in the game. But the Browns tied it up with a groundout by Hank Severeid in the bottom of the third that scored George Sisler. In the bottom of the fourth Gene Packard survived a bases-loaded jam; Bob Groom had loaded the bases thanks to an E5 groundball error, but Armando Marsans grounded out to end the inning still tied up at 1-1 ... and he continued to pitch well, getting us through the sixth inning with the score unchanged. But our bats remained silent, so Packard got us through the seventh as well as he and St. Louis starter Bob Groom dueled it out. With two outs in the eighth, runners on first and second, Packard showed no signs of cracking ... Charlie Deal hit a hard shot into right and loaded the bases, but Packard got William Rumler to ground out to first and escaped the jam with the score still tied heading into the top of the ninth. But again our bats couldn’t score, and this time our manager did decide to go to the pen, bringing out Jack Nabors to try and get this into extra innings. Sisler got on base with a single on two outs, and a single into center by Del Pratt would have given them a runner in scoring position, but Sisler got greedy and tried for third, and we tagged him out hard at third to get into the 10th.

Byron Houck took over in the bottom of the 11th, and it was in the bottom of the 12th that our defensive struggles started to hit us hard ... Del Pratt had popped out to right for their first out, but Jimmy Austin reached on an E5 error, and then Burt Shotton reached on an E6, our fourth error of the ballgame. Ward Miller grounded out 5-3, moving the runners to second and third with two outs, and Bobby Wallace struck out swinging, however, so the game continued on into the 13th inning! Houck was absolutely phenomenal, continuing to pitch through the 14th inning, all but willing our batters to find some way to get us over the top. And finally, in the top of the 15th inning, Rube Oldring was able to score off a walk by Sam Crane with the bases loaded, and pushed us into the lead 2-1! Houck, who had loaded those bases by grounding into what turned into a failed fielder’s choice for St. Louis, stayed out in the bottom of the 15th, and he got a pop-out and two strikeouts to finish the game as a 2-1 victory!

Our pitching all night was impeccable ... Gene Packard pitched eight innings with eight hits, five walks and a strikeout, allowing our first earned run, but Nabors and Houck combined for SEVEN innings of their own, with four hits and no earned runs between them. Houck in particular earned his win, improving to 4-2 by going five innings with one hit, two walks and five strikeouts, throwing 62 pitches and improving his ERA to 3.57 through 58 innings ... he’s started six games and pitched in 15. We narrowly outhit them 14-12, led by a stirring performance from Stuffy McInnis, who had five hits and two walks, getting us the run in the top of the second off that hit by Mowrey.

June 4, 1916: St. Louis, owner of a five-game losing streak, took the lead in the bottom of the third off a single by Ernie Johnson, but in the top of the fifth Bullet Joe Bush tied it with an RBI single and a sac-fly by Jimmy Walsh pushed us into the lead 2-1. We went into the bottom of the ninth still leading, but Bush blew his lead and the game .. he walked Grover Hartley with one out, Jack Tobin singled Hartley into scoring position ... and though Hartley was picked off trying to take third, Bush chose to intentionally walk Del Pratt and then the Browns struck hard, Ernie Johnson hitting a two-run single to walk this one off 3-2. What a tough way to lose a game. Bush fell to 3-6 with a 3.70 ERA, allowing just seven hits, but walking six for three earned runs ... he also struck out five, so his bullets were flying, but inconsistency proved to be his undoing in the final frame. We matched them on hits with seven each, led by McInnis who had three hits to nowhere. Mowrey had a hit and a run and Jimmy Walsh had a hit and an RBI, while Alex McCarthy walked and scored a run as well.

June 5, 1916: In the top of the fourth Rube Oldring reached first on an E5 error, driving home Wally Schang to give us a 1-0 lead, but George Sisler scored off a passed ball in the bottom of the inning to tie things up. The game stayed tight until the top of the eighth when we again broke through, this time with Pedro Dibut walking in a run by Mike Mowrey to put us ahead 2-1! And today Dibut did what Bush couldn’t yesterday ... he completed his game and held tough to finish a hard-fought 2-1 victory. Dibut improved to 7-4 with a 2.18 ERA, finishing with five hits, a walk and an earned run. They outhit us 5-4, Oldring leading the way with a hit, a walk and an RBI, while Amos Strunk had two hits and a walk but didn’t manage to drive in any runs.

By taking the series two games to one, we have now tied with St. Louis and are leading the AL standings on the basis of tiebreakers, with a 27-21 record! Detroit sits a game and a half back, and Chicago (our next opponent) is in fourth place, two games back with a 25-23 record.The entire division remains within eight games of each other, with the top six now within four games.