Let's Play Two!

[jksander]

OCTOBER 2, 1955
WORLD SERIES, GAME FOUR
Boston Red Sox (0-3) at Chicago Cubs (3-0)

1:05 PM -- Wrigley Field ... Attendance: 39,354
Weather: Clear, 60 Degrees, Wind blowing out to left, 10 miles per hour

BOSTON STARTER: Paul Foytack (7-5, 4.77 ERA, 145.1 IP, 102 K’s, 1.54 WHIP)
CHICAGO STARTER: Robert Diehl (16-8, 2.02 ERA, 235.2 IP, 119 K’s, 0.92 WHIP)

In the top of the first, Andy Seminick drew boos from the Wrigley faithful as he hit a homer into the bleachers to put the Red Sox ahead 2-0, the hit coming off a fastball with two outs. Boston picked up a third run in the top of the third, thanks to an RBI single by Billy Goodman. Ernie Banks got the fans on their feet with a rousing two-run blast to right field that got us on the board trailing just 3-2, but Diehl collapsed in the top of the fifth, giving up a fourth run to the Red Sox off an RBI single by Williams, as we rushed to warm up a bullpen arm. An RBI single by Andy Seminick made it 5-2 Sox, and with one out and men on first and second we had no choice, bringing in Lovett Geeslin to get us out of this mess. A quick double play and he’d done it, but we had a three-run hole now to dig out of.

In the bottom of the fifth, Ernie Banks hit a two-out triple to give us some hope, and Willie Mays hit a two-run blast to left, making it a 5-4 ballgame with Mays’ fourth homer of the series. Geeslin got us two quick outs in the top of the sixth, but then Johnny Romano pinch hit a homer to make it 6-4 Sox. Harry Dorish came in to pitch to start the top of the seventh, but two runners quickly got onboard as Al Rosen committed his second error of the game at first base. But Dorish got a groundout, a strikeout and a flyout to strand their runners and send us into the stretch just trailing by the pair, 6-4. Sandy Koufax came in with two outs and men on the corners in the top of the eighth, getting the strikeout we needed. With two outs and men on first and second, Bill Serena came in to pinch hit for Daniel Howard, but he struck out swinging. Koufax got us our three outs in the top of the ninth, and with one out in the bottom of the inning Gene Baker got a double while pinch hitting for Lynch, and Joe Brovia pinch hit for Koufax, reaching first on an infield bouncer that drove Baker over to third and brought up the top of our order! Kaline struck out swinging, and Banks flew out to right, ending this one as a Boston victory, 6-4, and forcing a game five.

Diehl took the loss, lasting just 4.1 innings with seven hits, three strikeouts, three walks and five earned runs. Our bullpen was solid as usual -- Geeslin gave us 1.2 innings with a hit and a run, Dorish lasted 1.2 innings with three hits and a strikeout, and Koufax gave us all he had, two strikeouts and no hits through 1.1 innings, but we couldn’t find a hit when we needed one. Boston outhit us 11-10, with Willie Mays’ three hits for a run and two RBIs leading the way. Ernie Banks was solid as well with two hits, two runs and two RBIs. We’ll have Hy Cohen ready to pitch tomorrow as we look to put this away and avoid a return to Boston.

[jksander]

OCTOBER 3, 1955
WORLD SERIES, GAME FIVE
Boston Red Sox (1-3) at Chicago Cubs (3-1)

1:05 PM -- Wrigley Field ... Attendance: 39,303
Weather: Partly Cloudy, 59 Degrees, Wind blowing in from center, 10 miles per hour

BOSTON STARTER: Willard Nixon (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 10.0 IP, 1 K, 0.50 WHIP)
CHICAGO STARTER: Hy Cohen (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 7.2 IP, 7 K’s, 0.65 WHIP)

It’s a rematch today of the pitcher’s duel from game one in Boston, Cohen vs. Nixon Round II. Boston got on the board in the top of the second, a Milt Bolling flyout to center leading to a run scoring when Crandall couldn’t make the tag on Andy Seminick at the plate in time, Boston 1, Cubs 0. Daniel Howard got robbed of a homer by the wind blowing in at left, but Del Crandall got a base hit off an infield ball that bounced just shy of the pitcher’s grasp, giving us two men on and just one out in the bottom of the second. Too bad Lynch and Cohen couldn’t make anything happen. But we retook the lead in the bottom of the third, with a two-out double by Al Rosen that drove in a pair of runs and got our crowd hyped up as we took a 2-1 lead into the top of the fourth. Al Kaline walked the bases loaded in the bottom of the fourth with just one out, and Lynch scored a run on a Banks flyout to right, making it 3-1 Cubs! Willie Mays batted in another with an RBI single, and Robinson hit another RBI single to make it 5-1! Al Rosen re-loaded the bases with a walk, and two more scored on a Daniel Howard line drive to center, as the Red Sox dugout started to look like a wake. By the time Crandall flew out to center to end the fourth inning we’d turned this into a 7-1 blowout. Daniel Howard batted in a run with a single in the bottom of the sixth to make the score 8-1, and Cohen struck out the side in the top of the seventh. He stayed out there to finish the game and we completed the 8-1 victory, WINNING THE WORLD SERIES 4 GAMES TO 1 OVER THE RED SOX! THE CURSE IS BROKEN! THE CURSE IS BROKEN!

Cohen won his first-ever playoff game in his second season making a World Series appearance, pitching a stunning one-hitter with 10 K’s and one walk, giving him an 0.54 ERA through two appearances in this year’s Fall Classic! We absolutely blasted the Red Sox in this one, hitting 14 times as we left no doubt which team was the best. Mays had three hits for two runs and an RBI, Al Rosen added three hits and two walks for a run and two RBIs, and Howard, Crandall and Lynch each had a pair of hits to keep the bottom of the order popping!

It took us 37 years, but the Cubs finally have our third championship! Willie Mays was named MVP of the series, hitting .478 in the five games with four homers and nine RBIs.

[jksander]

NOVEMBER 2, 1955 . . . Our owner John Hollingsworth just announced he’s extending my contract as GM / Manager, with a significant pay raise to $25,000 per year over the next five years! I’m not sure what I can accomplish in the next five years that will make me happier than I am right now, but I’ll be damned if I’ll quit trying to top the feeling!

The top ten prospects list just came out, and we’ve got Don Demeter (#8) and Bud Watkins (#10) on the list. But we’re definitely going to be on the lookout for Pittsburgh in the coming years. They’ve got Jim Gentile (#1), Harmon Killebrew (#2) and Leon Wagner (#9), and they’re going to add another top pick in the upcoming MLB rookie draft, having finished with just 62 wins. The Giants have Norm Cash (#3), Cincinnati has Don Drysdale (#4) and St. Louis has Orlando Cepeda (#5), with Milwaukee right-handed pitcher Pedro Ramos coming in #6. So the NL is stacked with incredible young players who are all going to make things interesting for us as we try to repeat as champions.

Tom Ferrick made the announcement that he’s retiring officially at age 40, now that he’s been able to be part of a Cubs championship at long last. He leaves the baseball world with a record of 44-52, a 3.63 ERA, 285 K’s and a 1.32 career WHIP to go with 5.8 WAR while playing for six different ballclubs.

We finished the season with Wrigley Field attendance of 1,993,716, so there’s room to start drawing more fans still. My goal for the upcoming year is to get up past 2.5 million in total attendance, which would be a lot closer to a sold out ballpark on most days. At the very least, a World Champion team should be able to bring in 32,000+ fans on a daily basis.

Right now the free agent market is a bit thin, but we’ve got our eyes on a couple of potential relievers who can help keep our bullpen at the top of the National League rankings. We’re also in the bidding for first baseman Alonso Perry, who is trying to make the move from the Negro Leagues into playing for Major League Baseball at age 32. He’s a lifelong friend of Willie Mays, which has to help us ... and his contact, discipline and gap power would make him a lethal addition to our roster. But he won’t come cheap. I have to convince our owner that it’s worth paying the big bucks to lure him here.

[jksander]

NOVEMBER 10, 1955 . . . Stay tuned in the coming months for details, but Jackie Robinson is working with me and owner John Hollingsworth as we launch an official Cubs charity called the Robinson Fund, to help Jackie to meet his philanthropic goals within the community. Details are still in the planning stages, but this has been Robinson’s big focus thoughtout the fall, and I think it’s going to lead to good things for all involved.

In other news, the Gold Glove winners have been announced! Del Crandall won at Catcher, Al Rosen won at 1B, Jackie Robinson took 3B honors, and our fielders cannot be beat -- Willie Mays took the award at center, and Al Kaline won it running away at right field. None of it is particularly shocking -- we dominated the league last year, and it was as much to do with our solid team defense as it was for our slugging. Bob Friend (Pittsburgh) took the pitching Gold Glove, in a close race against Saul Rogovin. Their second-baseman, Sandy O’Connell got the Gold Glove at that position as well, and Rocky Colavito dominated the vote for left field Gold Glove. The New York Giants’ shortstop Willy Miranda won the award as the only non-Cub or Pirate to get enough votes.

NOVEMBER 11, 1955 . . . Harry Dorish won Reliever of the Year in the NL running away, getting 15 of the 16 first-place votes, with Milwaukee’s Ray Crone getting the other. Even at 34, his performances were spectacular all season, and it was no shock to anyone that he won the honor. He finished the season with four saves in 40 appearances, 93 K’s in 80.2 innings and an 8-0 record overall to go with a 1.00 ERA. Whether he is able to continue to perform at that level, he has proven to be incredibly valuable to this ballclub and deserves all the attention he’s getting. He’s on contract to make $57,000 this year in the final year of his deal, and we’re working on an extension to keep him here another season beyond that at $44,000.

NOVEMBER 12, 1955 . . . The Platinum Stick awards have been announced, and we as a club picked up four! Jackie Robinson (3B), Ernie Banks (SS), Willie Mays (CF) and Al Kaline (RF) all took home some shiny hardware at the ceremony. Cincy’s Ted Kluszewski won at 1B (no shock!) while Hank Aaron (2B, Milwaukee), Dick Hall (P, Pittsburgh), Roy Campanella (C, Brooklyn) and Rocky Colavito (LF, Pittsburgh) took the award at the other positions.

NOVEMBER 13, 1955 . . . Sandy Koufax was officially named NL Rookie of the Year in a ceremony this afternoon! Koufax put up a record of 8-3 including five starts, recording a 2.16 ERA with 56 K’s against 50 walks through 79 innings. He received 12 of the 16 first place votes, finishing ahead of Johnny Kucks (Pittsburgh), Ray Crone (Milwaukee), Seth Morehead (Giants) and Pidge Browne (Giants) in the voting.

In other news, we’ve officially got paperwork back confirming that Alonso Perry will be donning a Cubs uniform starting next spring! He’s got all the bat skills you can ask for, and he’s got reasonable defensive skill at first base as well. He’s inked a deal worth $595,000 to play here for four years, earning $130,000 this year, increasing to $160,000 in the third and fourth years of the deal. He’ll start at 1B, moving Rosen back to third base and giving Robinson a shot at playing second base defensively.

NOVEMBER 14, 1955 . . . For the second year in a row, I was named NL Manager of the Year, as we improved from 110-44 to 118-36 and won our first World Championship since 1908. But the job only gets harder from here, with seven rival NL teams fighting to see who can topple us from our perch atop the league.

NOVEMBER 15, 1955 . . . Hy Cohen was the unanimous choice for the NL’s Cy Young Award, receiving all 16 first-place votes! Saul Rogovin finished second in the voting, with Bob Rush of the Phillies finishing third. Cohen started 37 times this year for us, finishing 28-4 with 288 K’s through 316.1 innings. The 24-year-old narrowly lost out on the award last year, and has set himself up as the best young pitcher in baseball. With his contract only running through the 1957 season, we’re going to have to work hard next year to convince him to stay in Chicago long-term or that magnificent arm could soon be working against us! He’s made it clear that he will not negotiate on any extension until the 1956 season is complete.

NOVEMBER 16, 1955 . . . The good news for Hy Cohen keeps coming! He won the NL’s Most Valuable Player award, getting 14 of the 16 first place votes. Jackie Robinson got the other two first place votes but finished fourth overall. Willie Mays finished second, Rogovin finished third, and Philadelphia’s Bob Rush finished fifth. Mays joked that he was glad to let the honor pass to aother Cub, though I’m sure he’ll be fighting to be back in the conversation this coming season as well. Mays hit .312/.382/.576 with 33 doubles, 11 triples and 34 homers, putting together a 10.5 WAR season, giving him 34.1 WAR through his first five seasons, also at age 24!

Hall of Fame voting begins in a couple weeks, and Winter Meetings begin on December 7th. We’re also hard at work on our draft board, with the first year player draft coming up fast on December 15! So there’s still plenty to accomplish before we get spring training games going in a couple months and start our championship defense.

[jksander]

DECEMBER 15, 1955 . . . It’s time for the first year player draft, and we definitely do not get the pick of the group, considering that as World Champions we pick 17th this year in the first round, with the Yankees getting back to back picks at 13th and 14th due to compensatory considerations. So we’ve had to dig deeper to find potential diamond players outside the flashiest prospects. We used our first round pick to draft Mike McCormick, a 17-year-old reliever. We took catcher Alfonso Pena in the second round, and drafted a starting pitcher prospect, Bo Belinsky, in the third round. Second baseman Cookie Rojas went in the fourth round, and another pitching prospect, Art Mahaffey, in the fifth round. Beyond that, the remainder of our picks were for unheralded players who will spend the next few years in the minor leagues as they hope to get a chance at their major league dreams. Many of them will wash out, but you never know who the surprise development will be. Now comes the negotiating of bonuses, to see if we will be able to sign everyone or if we’ll win dup with compensatory picks next year.

DECEMBER 22, 1955 . . . The Rule 5 draft pool was unusually weak this year, and only three players were taken. The Detroit Tigers took 1B Preston Ward from our roster, while Baltimore drafted 3B Lou Skizas from Brooklyn and Kansas City took CF Pete Whisenant from the Orioles.

JANUARY 18, 1956 . . . The results of the Hall of Fame polling are in, and it looks like just two players are being inducted: SS Luke Appling, in his first year of eligibility, and SP Dizzy Dean in his third year. Seven players were dropped from consideration in future years due to lack of votes -- CF Doc Cramer, RP Clint Brown, SP Harry Gumbert, SP Curt Davis, 1B Rudy York, C Frankie Hayes and 3B Ken Keltner. Shortstop Arky Vaughan got to 73% of the vote in his third year and narrowly missed out on induction.

We’ve completed contract negotiations with right handed reliever Hersh Freeman, signing the 27-year-old to a $199,000 deal covering the next three seasons. Freeman, who spent the last two seasons with Cleveland, has excellent movement and control, and is primarily known for his sinker. He will take on a closer role for us this year, and will earn $63,000 in 1956, $66,000 in 1957 and $70,000 in 1958. Sandy Koufax, meanwhile, will be starting this year, giving us a five-man rotation of Cohen / Rogovin / Pascual / Koufax / Diehl.

FEBRUARY 11, 1956 . . . John Hollingsworth has bumped our budget up from $2.36 million to $2.8 million after seeing how our offseason has gone. The trade market has not been very active, but we also don’t feel like we have a whole ton of moves that need made at this juncture. I’m always keeping an eye out for talent we want to add to our minor league system, but as far as additions go to the major league club, I think we’ve got our guys right now. Once the season gets going that’s always subject to change, but we remain a young team with a ton of potential.

[jksander]

MARCH 13, 1956 . . . As spring training begins, we made a small trade with the Brooklyn Dodgers, sending them 28-year-old catcher Bub Durreto in exchange for 35-year-old right handed starter Larry Jansen. Durreto was unhappy potentially spending another year in the minors, and we felt the value Jansen offers as a veteran in the bullpen is worth moving a disgruntled player for.

MARCH 30, 1956 . . . Bob Purkey was injured in a spring training game, suffering a strained shoulder, and will need to miss at least the next month of action.

APRIL 16, 1956 . . . One day away from the first real game of the new season and we got bad news about Bud Watkins. He is suffering from severe shoulder inflamation and is now expected to be out for the season. Already a borderline player, Watkins’ career may not have much gas left in the tank, but for now we’ve added him to our 60-Day IL and will see how he recovers. Spring training has progressed well for us, and based on his strong performances in these early exercises, we’ve bumped Koufax up to our #3 starter, just a hair ahead of Pascual who will remain our #4 starter. Our owner fully expects us to be back in the World Series in the fall, and expectations are high everywhere in the organization.

Robert Diehl, meanwhile, has been the biggest mystery of our offseason ... after having such a strong first half of the season, he did notably struggle to find his form in the back half, including in his one World Series appearance. This spring he has been suffering from what I can only call the Yips, and though he expects to play in the majors, he’s struggling to even find the plate and we’ve sent him back down to the minors to try and work things out with our team pitching gurus. As it stands right now if he can’t figure something out quickly he is unlikely to find his way back to Wrigley.

As such, we’ll be using a four-man rotation to start the season, with Cohen and Rogovin as our aces, Koufax and Pascual going third and fourth. Hersh Freeman will be our closer, while Harry Dorish and Mike McCormick handle middle relief. Larry Jansen and Bob Porterfield will be available for longer relief efforts, and as potential doubleheader starters if necessary. Epitacio Torres has suffered some wear and tear on his shoulder and will be starting the year out in AAA Los Angeles. At 34, he’s glad to still be able to play this game, though he hopes to again get the chance to be called up to the majors. The rapid degredation of Diehl’s skills may have us actively searching for an MLB-level starter replacement by midseason, however, because while our staff is incredibly talented, we don’t have a great deal of minor league starters who are able to make the move upward if we do wind up with injury issues.

Our opening day lineup is expected to be as follows:

1. Al Kaline (RF)
2. Alonso Perry (1B)
3. Jackie Robinson (2B)
4. Willie Mays (CF)
5. Ernie Banks (SS)
6. Roger Maris (LF)
7. Al Rosen (3B)
8. Del Crandall (C)

Starter: Hy Cohen

We play Milwaukee on the road on the 17th and 19th with a day off in between. We then open the season at Wrigley on the 20th against the Redlegs, the first of a four-game series over the weekend. We then play Milwaukee for one game on the 24th, St. Louis on the road on the 25th, and then a four-game weekend series at Cincinnati from the 27th through the 29th.

[jksander]

APRIL 17, 1956 . . . It’s opening day at County Stadium, as we roll up to Milwaukee to get this season started! Hy Cohen, fresh off his NL Most Valuable Player and Cy Young awards, will be pitching, facing Milwaukee ace and living legend Warren Spahn. Ernie Banks scored a run in the top of the second, making it home from third on a passed ball, giving us a 1-0 lead heading into the bottom of the inning. Kaline scored a run in the top of the third, coming around to score from second on an RBI single by Robinson, but Banks batted into a double play to end the inning or it could have been much more than a 2-0 lead. Cohen hit a two-RBI double but was picked off trying to extend the double into a triple, making it a 4-0 lead heading into the bottom of the fourth. Al Rosen hit his first homer of the season, a blast to left in the top of the sixth, to make it a 5-0 ballgame, and Spahn was visibly frustrated by his team’s inability to put runs on the board to back him up. Spahn came out in the ninth, and Cohen tried to lock it down in the bottom of the ninth still leading by five runs. But a two-run blast by Hank Aaron put them within three runs, before Cohen managed to set down Eddie Mathews, Joe Adcock and Gene Woodling in quick succession to complete the 5-2 victory.

Cohen started his season out with a 1-0 record and a 2.00 ERA, giving up just six hits with nine strikeouts and the two earned runs. We out hit the Braves 7-6, with the hits being equally spread among seven batters. Al Rosen was the player of the game with his homer, and Cohen batted in a pair of RBIs with his one hit of the night as well. Newcomer Alonso Perry hit once and walked once, and Jackie Robinson had a hit and an RBI.

APRIL 19, 1956 . . . Saul Rogovin pitched in this one, up against Milwaukee’s Johnny Antonelli, who was 15-15 last year with a 3.98 ERA and 152 K’s. Willie Mays put us on the board in the top of the first, batting in a pair of runs with a triple, giving us a 2-0 lead quickly in this one. Willie Mays got his first homer of the year, a two-run jack to the left field side that made it a 4-0 lead in the top of the third. Rogovin stayed in for the bottom of the ninth with the lead still 4-0, protecting the shutout in a game with only eight hits between the two teams! It’s hard to read much into the Braves’ hitting woes in such a small sample size, but I suspect Spahn and Antonelli are going to be as frustrated this year as they were the last two seasons, struggling to win 70+ games.

Saul Rogovin started his year out 1-0, pitching a complete game three-hitter, striking out nine and walking one while keeping his ERA pristine. We outhit them 5-3, getting two hits, a run and four RBIs from Willie Mays and a pair of hits and runs scored by Kaline. But against the Braves’ two top pitchers, we weren’t exactly hitting the lights out either -- we just did our best to make the ones we got count.

APRIL 20, 1956 . . . The Redlegs come into this series undefeated, having beaten the St. Louis Cardinals 6-1 and 6-5 in a pair of games on their home field. Today 32,460 Cubs fans packed Wrigley on a blustery, cold clear day, temps in the upper 40s and the wind blowing in from right at 10 miles per hour. Sandy Koufax got his first start of the season, pitching against Max Surkont, age 33, who last year went 13-7 with a 3.98 ERA and 118 K’s while playing in AAA. Cincy got on the board in the top of the third, a two-run blast by Gus Bell putting them ahead 2-0. And Surkont looked quite good in this outing, not giving up his first hit until Kaline belted a triple to start the bottom of the fourth. Willie Mays got a two-out hit into left field to drive Kaline home, getting us into the top of the fifth trailing just 2-1. Koufax lasted long enough to get us through the fifth without further incident, but he’d thrown 88 pitches and was not going to be staying in further. Ed Bouchee pinch hit for Koufax in the bottom of the fifth with Crandall on first and two outs, but he batted out to center to end the inning, with Larry Jansen ready to come in and pitch. Jansen struck out a pair and then got a groundout at first to get through the sixth, and he got us into the seventh inning stretch unblemished as well. Maris walked in the bottom of the seventh but we weren’t able to get him further on the basepaths, heading into the top of the eighth still trailing 2-1, with Harry Dorish coming in to pitch. Dorish gave up a run via an RBI single for Hal Smith to extend the Redlegs’ lead to 3-1, and he got us two outs in the ninth before giving up a solo homer to Gus Bell that put the Redlegs ahead 4-1 via Bell’s second homer of the afternoon. Kluszewski got his second homer of the season immediately after to extend their lead to four runs, and Bob Porterfield came in to get the final out, sending us into the bottom of the ninth with work to do. Willie Mays hit a two-out homer into the bleachers, making it a 5-2 game with HIS second homer of the year, and Ernie Banks dropped a fly ball into left to take first. But Roger Maris flew out to center and the Redlegs beat us 5-2, dropping us to 2-1 on the season.

Sandy Koufax took the loss, starting his season out 0-1 with a 3.60 ERA, giving up four hits with three strikeouts and four walks in five innings, to go with the two earned runs. Jansen was excellent in his two innings, giving up just one hit with two K’s through 31 pitches, but Harry Dorish gave up four hits and three runs in 1.2 innings, starting his year out on the wrong foot. Porterfield’s five pitches to get the final out kept the game from becoming a complete blowout, but it was what it was. They outhit us 10-5, and when that happens you don’t win a lot of ballgames. Willie Mays has been our offensive bright spot, with two hits, a run and two RBIs today. The rest of the team has been mediocre with the bats, with even Kaline struggling at .214 through three games.

APRIL 21, 1956 . . . Camilo Pascual got his first start of the year, going up against Cincinnati’s Tex Clevenger, their 23-year-old top 50 prospect who is up for his first major league start. Kluszewski hit a solo homer in the top of the first with two outs to put the Redlegs up 1-0 quickly in this one as he makes it clear he hopes to win another home run title this season. But Kaline reached first on an error to start the bottom of the inning, and they walked Perry, allowing Robinson to load the bases with a well-timed hit into right field. Willie Mays walked in the tying run, and Ernie Banks hit into a double play but allowed a second run to score from third. So we went into the second inning leading 2-1! We scored a third run in the bottom of the third, as Banks doubled with a line drive to center, but Kluszewski hit his second dinger of the game to get them a run back in the top of the fourth, leaving Pascual looking shell shocked by how quickly it happened. Roger Maris hit his first bomb of the season to make it 4-2 in the bottom of the fourth, and Pascual struck out the side in the top of the fifth, truly looking like himself for the first time today ... CONFIDENT. Alonso Perry got a great hit into the outfield in the bottom of the inning, getting himself a double, and he came around to score a run thanks to a deep Willie Mays single to right, increasing our lead to 5-2!

Pascual got out of a jam in the eighth, putting two runners on but not allowing them to score, and we went into the bottom of the eighth still up 5-2, with Hersh Freeman warming up for his first save opportunity. But Freeman came out and absolutely blew up this game, walking Albie Pearson to start the inning, with Pearson taking second as Elmer Valo took first on a fielding error. He then allowed Bob Skinner to reach base on balls as well, and Norm Larker batted in a run to make it 5-3 ... still no outs. Larry Jansen took over, bases still loaded, and kept the runners in place with a shallow flyout by Wally Lockman, bringing up the top of the order. He then got a great flyout by Nellie Fox that popped straight into a double play at second, and we came out of this with a 5-3 victory by the skin of our teeth.

Pascual came out of this one with a win, starting his year out 1-0 with a 2.25 ERA, giving up just five hits with seven strikeouts and a walk to go with the two earned runs. Freeman nearly blew it, but instead came out of it with one hit, two walks and an unearned run, but did not complete a single out. Jansen came in fired up, however, and got through the inning thanks to his solid defense, keeping his perfect ERA through three innings. We outhit the Redlegs 7-6, led by Mays with two hits and two RBIs, while Maris’ homer will hopefully break him out of a miserable slump ... he’s only hit .071 through the first four games. Big Money Man Alonso Perry also has work to do -- though he got a hit today and a walk, scoring twice, he’s only hitting .133 with a .235 on base percentage.

Bob Purkey is eligible to return from his injury, and will be stepping back into a bullpen role as a high leverage reliever and a potential spot starter. He’ll be available for our doubleheader tomorrow against the Redlegs as we currently share first place in the NL with them and the Brooklyn Dodgers.

[jksander]

APRIL 22, 1956 . . . Hy Cohen (1-0, 2.00 ERA, 9.0 IP, 9 K’s, 0.67 WHIP) pitched in the first game of the doubleheader, facing Cincinnati’s 19-year-old ace-in-training Don Drysdale (1-0, 0.00 ERA, 9.0 IP, 3 K’s, 1.00 WHIP) who is currently the #4 prospect in all of baseball according to the BNN reports. We’re switching Banks with Perry in today’s lineup to see if batting later in the rotation helps break him out of his slump. Maris will be batting third, and Robinson will bat sixth behind Perry.

Kluszewski is a f---ing maniac this year, and he got the Redlegs a 1-0 lead in the top of the first with his fifth homer of the year, giving him a .526 average and a 1.368 slugging percentage just five games into the season. Perry got on base in the bottom of the second thanks to an error at shortstop, and Robinson hit himself a double to put both of them in scoring position. AL Rosen batted out to center and Perry tried to come around to score, but he was tagged out at the plate for our third out. Roger Maris hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the second to put us in the lead 2-1, his second homer of the year, and Willie Mays immediately followed it with his third of the season as we inreased the margin to two runs. Del Crandall then hit his first of the year, a two-run blast to left that gave us a 5-1 lead heading into the top of the fifth. Jackie Robinson hit a solo homer to left in the bottom of the sixth, his first of the year, and Ernie Banks reached first on an error that allowed Crandall to score from third and blow the lead up to 7-1 ... that was the Redlegs’ FOURTH ERROR of the game! Perry scored a run in the bottom of the seventh off an Al Rosen sac-fly, building our lead to seven runs. Cohen stayed in to complete his second game in a row, and we dominated this one over Cincinnati 8-1.

Hy Cohen is now 2-0 on the year with a 1.50 ERA, having pitched a three-hitter today with 11 strikeouts, one walk and one earned run. Our bats were making good contact today, hitting 13 times, led by Jackie Robinson with three hits, a run and an RBI. Banks, Maris, Perry and Crandall each hit twice, with Perry scoring two runs and Crandall scoring twice and batting in two more. Roger Maris added a run and two RBIs thanks to his homer, cappng an all-around dominant performance.

In game two of the afternoon, Saul Rogovin (1-0, 0.00 ERA, 9.0 IP, 9 K’s, 0.44 WHIP) pitched against Vern Law, who will be pitching his first start this year. The 26-year-old went 2-2 last year with a 4.50 ERA, through 38 innings and 18 relief appearances and three starts. Rogovin’s ERA became blemished for the first time in the top of the first, when Ted Kluszewski hit an RBI single to put the Redlegs up 1-0. And from there the game became a pitching battle, with just seven hits between the two teams through four innings, our team heading into the top of the fifth still trailing 1-0. We committed two errors, one by Perry at first and one by Rogovin covering first, to put runners on the corners in the top of the fifth, but Rogovin pulled off a solid double play to get us out of the frame unscathed. And Ted Kluszewski hit his sixth homer of the young season to add two runs in the top of the sixth, putting the Redlegs ahead by a daunting 3-0 margin. Another run scored when Elmer Valo hit a grounder to first and we failed to make the pickoff at home on a fielder’s choice, sending us into the bottom of the sixth trailing by four runs against a vastly improved Redlegs team. We brought Larry Jansen in for the top of the seventh, and with two outs he intentionally walked Kluszewski and then got the final out via a popup to Banks to keep the score 4-0 heading into the stretch. Elmer Valo added a homer to the list in the top of the eighth to make it 5-0, and our lineup continued to struggle the rest of the way as they shut us out in the end by the same five runs, dropping us to 4-2 to start the season.

Rogovin took the loss, falling to 1-1 with a 2.40 ERA, thanks to five hits, five strikeouts and two walks that led to four earned runs. Jansen added two hits and a walk for an earned run, lasting 1.2 innings and giving him a 1.93 ERA. And Harry Dorish came in for 1.1 innings, giving up a hit with a strikeout but improving his ERA to 9.00 through three innings of work. The Redlegs outhit us 8-6, with Willie Mays’ two hits leading the way. But we mounted no offense and manufactured no runs, handing Cincinnati an easy win.

We have one game against Milwaukee (2-4) here at home on Tuesday and a game on the road in St. Louis (2-4) on Wednesday, before heading to Cincinnati to close out the month with four games against the Redlegs on their field. Right now there is a four-way logjam at first place in the NL between Philly, our boys, Cincinnati and the Dodgers. The Giants are 3-4 and the last-place Pirates are 2-5.

APRIL 24, 1956 . . . Sandy Koufax (0-1, 3.60 ERA, 5.0 IP, 3 K’s, 1.60 WHIP) is up in the rotation against Milwaukee’s Johnny Antonelli (0-1, 4.00 ERA, 9.0 IP, 5 K’s, 1.00 WHIP). The Braves scored a run in the top of the first off a grounder by Gene Woodling that led to a fielder’s choice at second. Jackie Robinson hit a two-out triple in the bottom of the inning, but Willie Mays flew out to center and ended the inning scoreless. Koufax loaded the bases in the top of the second, with two more runs scoring before he could secure the final out. We’re just not playing with the same defensive confidence of last year, and teams are going to keep taking advantage of that until we wind some power behind our bats and hit the ball down their throats. Banks and Maris each beat out infield throws to get on base to start the bottom of the second, and Del Crandall hit a shot into deep center, allowing us to score two runs to narrow the gap, sending us into the top of the third trailing 3-2. Willie Mays hit his fourth homer of the season to tie us up 3-3 in the bottom of the third, but we weren’t able to add to it in the fourth, sending us into the top of the fifth knotted 3-3 and with Koufax at 80 pitches. He got two quick outs and then gave up a double to Lee Walls, who advanced to third on a wild pitch. But with our bullpen arm not completely warm, he stayed out and got he final out, keeping us tied heading into the bottom of the inning. Koufax got himself a hit to start the bottom of the fifth, but Kaline hit into a double play and Alonso Perry, who continues to struggle against major league pitchers, struck out swinging.

Bob Purkey came in to start the top of the sixth, getting three quick outs to set them down, and in the bottom of the inning Mays got a base hit on an infield fly, and then Ernie Banks hit his first blast out of the park of the season, giving us a 5-3 lead! Purkey stayed out for the seventh and got us three more solid outs, sending us into the stretch leading still by two runs. Mays got himself another solid hit in the bottom of the seventh, but was tagged out trying to turn a double into a triple, sending us into the top of the eighth with Mike McCormick coming in for his first relief appearance of the year. He got two quick groundouts to first, and then a lightning-sharp line drive was hit into left -- but straight into the glove of Roger Maris for our third out! With the score still 5-3 Cubs, Hersh Freeman came out for the top of the ninth, and this time (after giving up a hit to his first batter) Freeman found his rhythm and was able to get us the outs we needed to end this one as a two-run win!

Koufax gave us all he had in five innings, giving up just five hits with five K’s, but he also walked five and gave up three earned runs. He now holds a 4.50 ERA through his first two starts. Bob Purkey came out with the win, lasting two innings with a strikeout and no hits, staying perfect in his first appearance this year, as did Mike McCormick, who got a hold in a no-hit eighth. Hersh Freeman earned his first save of the year, giving up one hit with a strikeout without surrendering a run, improving his ERA to 9.00 while getting his first three outs as a Cub closer (we’ll just agree to forget his first appearance). We finally strung hits together, outhitting the Braves 11-6, led by Mays with two hits two runs and an RBI and by Ernie Banks with two hits two runs and two RBIs. Through seven starts, Willie Mays is having a career-best start, hitting .480/.536/1.120 with two doubles, a triple and four homers.
 
APRIL 25, 1956 . . . On the road in St. Louis, we’ve got Hy Cohen (2-0, 1.50 ERA, 18.0 IP, 20 K’s, 0.56 WHIP) ready to go againast Larry Jackson (1-0, 2.57 ERA, 7.0 IP, 3 K’s, 1.00 WHIP). Jackie Robinson hit an RBI single to make it 1-0 in the top of the first, and a balk on Johnson moved our runners both over into scoring position with no outs. Willie Mays grounded out to first but drove in our second run, but Jackie Robinson tried to take home on a flyout by Banks and was tagged out sliding into home, sending us into the botom of the inning leading 2-0. Cohen struck out the side in the bottom of the first, and Roger Maris hit his third homer of the year to make it 3-0 in the top of the second. Mays batted in a run with an RBI single in the top of the third with a flyout to right, and Cohen struck out the side again in the bottom of the inning as we put the clamps down on the Cardinals. Maris doubled to start the fourth, and Al Rosen followed it with an RBI double to make the score 5-0 Cubs. Kaline reached first on a fielder’s choice and drove in a sixth run with two outs, and this one quickly spiraled out of control for St. Louis. They got on the board with a homer by Wally Moon to make it 6-1 in the bottom of the fourth, but by the end of the inning Cohen had 10 K’s and we were firmly in control. Cohen was locked in like I’ve never seen, striking out the side for the third time in the bottom of the fifth, and by the end of the sixth he’d fanned 14 batters! Rogovin’s strikeout record remained safe by the end of the day, but Cohen completed the game as a 6-1 victory for our Cubs, in one of the more dominant performances of his already incredible career.

In the end Cohen improved to 3-0 with a 1.33 ERA, giving up three hits and an earned run while striking out 16 batters with NO WALKS, through 107 pitches (76 of them for strikes!) We outhit the Cardinals, who now fall to 3-5, by an 11-3 margin, led by Kaline (two hits two runs one RBI), Maris (two hits two runs one RBI) and Rosen (two hits one run one RBI). Willie Mays added a hit for two RBIs, and Alonso Perry hit once and walked twice, scoring a run. We improved to 6-2 on the season with the win, and will head into a four-game set against the Redlegs (5-3) on a two-game win streak. We’re currently half a game ahead of Brooklyn (6-3) and a full game up on the Phillies and the Redlegs.

We’ve claimed Alex Kellner, a 31-year-old reliever, off waivers from Cincinnati to give our bullpen a bit of depth, as Dorish’s skills are beginning to decline with age and he may not be able to go a hard as he did last year in as many appearances (though he’s still going to be a key middle reliever out of our bullpen). We have also brought Robert Diehl back up Robert Diehl to give him a chance out of the bullpen as well to hopefully rebuild his confidence and ease him back into the rotation eventually as a spot starter. But we’ll be sticking with our four man rotation of Cohen / Rogovin / Koufax / Pascual for the time being.

[jksander]

APRIL 27, 1956 . . . For the first of four games against Cincy over the next three days we’ve got Saul Rogovin (1-1, 2.40 ERA, 15.0 IP, 14 K’s, 0.73 WHIP) up to pitch against Don Drysdale (1-1, 3.86 ERA, 14.0 IP, 6 K’s, 1.36 ERA). Rogovin gave up a string of hits in the bottom of the first inning, allowing the Redlegs to score first via a Frank Robinson RBI single, but though two more runners were in scoring position by the end of the frame he was able to hold the runners and get the two outs we needed, so we went into the top of the second trailing just 1-0. Nellie Fox hit a two-out triple for them in the bottom of the second, but a flyout to left kept the Redlegs from scoring again. Al Kaline tied the game up 1-1 in the top of the fifth with an RBI single that put men on the corners, but Alonso Perry struck out swinging and kept us from taking the lead. And in the bottom of the inning Rogovin gave up a two-run blast to Gus Bell that put them back into the lead 3-1. With bullpen arms warming up, he gave up a third run in the inning, an RBI single by Hal Smith, and by the time we got up to bat in the top of the sixth we trailed the Redlegs 4-1.

Robinson doubled, and then they walked Mays to give us two on and no outs in the top of the sixth, but two flyouts and a strikeout ended any chance of a rally. Rogovin stayed out in the bottom of the inning as we had to warm up a bullpen arm again, and with two outs he surrendered another homer, AGAIN to Gus Bell, making it 5-1 and I had to bring in Larry Jansen to get us out of the inning. And he did NOT get us out of the inning, instead surrendering a homer to Kluszewski (his eighth of the season) to make it 6-1. He then gave up a triple to Frank Robinson before finally getting the third out. Jansen tried to stay out in the bottom of the seventh but gave up a run on an RBI single by Hal Smith, and we brought Robert Diehl in to mop things up with a man on first and no outs, and he got us through the inning without incident. Willie Mays hit a two-run blast to center to make it 7-3 in the top of the eighth, his fifth of the year, and Diehl got us into the top of the ninth without any more damage. But Cincy handled their business, and Alonso Perry continued to struggle to do anything BUT strike out, and we lost this one 7-3.

Rogovin is off to a 1-2 start with a 3.92 ERA, giving up 10 hits in this one with five K’s and a pair of walks, surrendering five runs in the process through 5.2 innings. Janson gave us 0.1 innings with four hits and two earned runs, ballooning his ERA to 5.40, and then Diehl came in to keep it from getting worse and did a really good job -- two innings, no hits, one strikeout. We’ll have to see how he does as the season progresses, when there are higher leverage situations he has to face. But it was a good start considering his struggles. Cincinnati outhit us 14-9, and I’m frustrated that we only managed three runs off nine hits. Perry is only hitting .206, and though he got a hit today he also struck out swinging three times. Willie Mays had a pair of hits for a run and two RBIs, and has been a bright spot in the lineup, hitting .484 in cleanup. Kaline hit twice and batted in a run, improving his average to .225, but even he hasn’t been immune to struggles this year.

This loss pulls Cincinnati back into a tie for second with our Cubs, as we both sit half a game behind the Dodgers. This is clearly not the same Redlegs team that lost 85 games last year, and with the Dodgers also showing significant improvement, it’s time we come to grips with the fact that there’s going to be no coasting this year. No one is going to come out here and hand us a third consecutive pennant, we’ve got to EARN IT.

APRIL 28, 1956 . . . Camilo Pascual (1-0, 2.25 ERA, 8.0 IP, 7 K’s, 0.75 WHIP) pitched today against the Redlegs’ Roman Ramos, a 21-year-old rookie making his first major league start! Roger Maris hit a two-run homer in the top of the second to put us up 2-0, his fourth homer of the year, but the Redlegs got one back in the bottom of the inning off an RBI single by Bob Elliott. Al Kaline beat out an infield throw to reach first in the top of the third, and then took second on a botched pick-off attempt. Willie Mays got a great hit into right with men on the corners, driving in our third run of the day, and we went into the bottom of the third leading 3-1. But the Redlegs tied it with a two-run homer by Gus Bell (his fifth of the year), and this clearly was going to be a game where both pitchers struggled to prevent runs. Alonso Perry proved the point, hitting a three-run homer in the top of the fourth, his first as a major leaguer, and suddenly we led in this one 6-3! The Redlegs got one back in the bottom of the sixth off an RBI single by Elliot, and then a line drive to right by Nellie Fox drove in another pair to tie it 6-6, all with two outs. Kluszewski hit an RBI single to give them the 7-6 lead and then Pascual mercifully got the final out to send us into the seventh and end his night. Larry Jansen came in for the bottom of the seventh and got us three solid outs to stay in this one. Roger Maris hit himself his secod homer of the day in the top of the eighth to give us an 8-7 lead, and with the bases loaded Al Kaline batted in another, still no outs! Then, with two outs, Willie Mays hit a three-run double that made it a 12-7 lead, and an Ernie Banks two-run blast (his second of the year!) cleared the bases to make it a seven-run lead. Maris hit a single into left, having batted twice now in the inning, but Crandall finally ended the inning with us having scored eight runs to completely take this one over. Harry Dorish came in to finish the game out, got us through the bottom of the eighth, and then Willie Mays hit a three-run triple in the top of the ninth to add insult to their injury. With the bases loaded, Al Rosen added another run, and Dorish struck out to give us an 18-7 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth. Dorish got three outs to end the game as an 11-run blowout -- they’d outscored us 7-6 in the first six innings, but we destroyed them 12-0 in the last three.

Larry Jansen got his first win, improving to 1-0 with a 4.50 ERA thanks to a one-hit one strikeout inning in relief. Pascual gave us six innings but gave up 11 hits with four strikeouts, one walk and seven runs (three earned) to give him a 3.21 ERA. Harry Dorish then gave us two innings with one hit, bringing his ERA down to 5.40 through five innings. We outhit the Redlegs 19-13 as we scored our 18 runs, and only Pascual and Dorish failed to at least hit once. Kaline, Mays, Maris and Crandall each hit three times, with Mays scoring twice with seven RBIs and Maris adding two runs and four RBIs. Perry, who hit once, walked once and scored twice with three RBIs, had his best game of the year so far but was definitely lost a bit in the shuffle in the box score -- same with Banks, who had two hits three runs and two RBIs. What a way for our bats to wake up ... but can they keep it going into the doubleheader tomorrow?

APRIL 29, 1956 . . . For game one of today’s doubleheader, Sandy Koufax (0-1, 4.50 ERA, 10.0 IP, 8 K’s, 1.80 WHIP) pitched against Bobby Shantz (0-1, 5.54 ERA, 13.0 IP, 6 K’s, 1.46 WHIP), looking to have his first truly confident start of the season while playing in a harsh road environment. So of course he gave up a homer to Nellie Fox on the very first pitch of the afternoon. The Redlegs scored a second run, with two outs, via a Dick Groat double, before Koufax got a strikeout to end the inning -- 16 pitches, three hits, two runs. Maris hit a triple with one out in the top of the second, scoring on a flyout by Al Rosen to make it 2-1 Redlegs. The Redlegs scored two more on a Frank Robinson homer in the bottom of the third that made it 4-1, and Koufax continued to struggle at finding his rhythm and control. He walked three batters in the third frame, finally getting the last strikeout and sending us into the top of the fourth trailing by three. Koufax got a pair of outs in the fourth, but was completely flustered overall and we brought Bob Purkey in with two outs and a man on second to try and get us through. He got the final out via strikeout, and we went into the fifth still trailing by a 4-1 margin.

The Redlegs picked up a run with a Bob Elliott groundout in the bottom of the fifth, and in the bottom of the sixth, despite having only thrown 16 pitches prior, Purkey melted down and gave up three walks including walking in a run while we rushed to warm up Alex Kellner. Kellner came in with one out and the bases loaded, and he gave up a grounder to right that drove in three goddamned runs. This is a f---ing disaster coming in the first game of a doubleheader! We got out of the inning trailing 9-1, but it’s clear this team is not playing with the same fire as we did all last year, and it’s going to be my job to motivate the players while figuring out what pieces we need to fill the holes in the puzzle. Kellner got us through the seventh, and Robert Diehl came in with two outs and a man on first in the bottom of the eighth to get the final out by strikeout. We added a run in the top of the ninth on a groundout by Banks, but Roger Maris struck out swinging to end this stinker of a game as a 9-2 loss.

Koufax fell to 0-2 in a 3.2 inning six hit, two strikeout, three walk, four run (three earned) effort that brought his ERA down to 5.27. Purkey gave us 1.2 innings with just two hits, but he walked four against one strikeout and eventually was charged with five earned runs. Kellner lasted 2.1 innings with three hits and a strikeout, all his runs getting charged to Purkey, and Diehl gave us an inning with a strikeout through five pitches. But they were both in long after the game was out of hand. The Redlegs outhit us 11-4, with Ernie Banks (one hit one RBI) and Maris (one hit one run) doing what they could. Robinson also scored a run, reaching base on an error.

I’m not willing to give up on Koufax as a starter -- we know he has the talent, and my pitching coaches continue to tell me he’s got the improved stamina to get us through games. He just needs the confidence to realize he can throw fire, without letting mistakes lead him into more mistakes.

Hy Cohen (3-0, 1.33 ERA, 27.0 IP, 36 K’s, 0.48 WHIP) got the start in the second game of the doubleheader, already his fourth start of the month -- and judging by our more shaky pitching than usual this year, the 25-year-old Cy Young winner is going to have to truly be our ace this year, taking on more responsibility as a leader. He pitched today against Tex Clevenger (0-1, 4.50 ERA, 6.0 IP, 3 K’s, 1.67 WHIP) as we fought to avoid a loss overall in the series. Kaline and Perry opened the first inning with singles, and then Robinson was walked to load the bases, setting up Willie Mays nicely in the cleanup spot. Mays flew out to center, however, holding the runners, and Ernie Banks flew out to right and AGAIN the runners all were too afraid to go. Maris was patient and took his base on balls, allowing us to score at least one run in the inning, and then Rosen got a hit over the shorstop’s head to drive in a second. Del Crandall struck out, but we went into the bottom of the inning with a 2-0 lead. Alonso Perry hit a solo homer in the top of the second, his second of the year, to put us up 3-0. Ernie Banks reached first to load the bases, thanks to an error at third base, but Maris flew out to end the inning or we really could have built an advantage. Cohen struggled to find the strike zone, and in the second inning he gave up an RBI single to Bob Elliott to put the Redlegs on the board. But even pitching to contact he was better than most of the other pitchers in this league, and we were able to carry the 3-1 lead into the fourth inning, when Kaline hit a homer into the center field stands to add a run, his first homer of the season, to make it 4-1. Cohen loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning but got out of the jam without a run scoring, and the score then stayed exactly where it was, with Hersh Freeman coming in to relieve Cohen in the bottom of the eighth with two outs and a man on first and Cohen at nearly 120 pitches. Freeman got the third out, then stayed out in the ninth to protect the three run lead, and he handled himself admirably as we held tough to win 4-1 to split the series.

Cohen improved to 4-0 with a 1.30 ERA, giving up seven hits with only five strikeouts and a walk, but he kept them to that one earned run which more than did the job. Freeman came in for the save and gave us 1.1 innings with two hits through 20 pitches to bring his ERA down to 3.86 through 2.1 innings for his second save of the season. We were outhit 9-8, but Cincinnati walked us six times which made the difference. Perry had a really good game, hitting three times for two runs and an RBI, and Kaline had two hits for two runs and an RBI. Mays, Banks and Maris went hitless, though Maris came up with an RBI and a walk.

We have tomorrow off and then head home to Chicago for 12 games in a 13-day stretch. Brooklyn leads the division at 10-3, we’re a game and a half back in second place, with Philly and Cincy tied for third at 7-5 and 2.5 GB. Over in the American League, New York leads at 9-3, with Boston half a game back at 9-4. Detroit and Cleveland (8-4) are a game back, while the rest of the league is five games or more behind the eight ball.

[jksander]

MAY 1, 1956 . . . Today we have our first of two games against the Giants (5-9) followed by two against Philly (7-5) Friday and Saturday, and then a doubleheader Sunday against Pittsburgh (4-9). Saul Rogovin (1-2, 3.92 ERA, 20.2 IP, 19 K’s, 1.11 WHIP) took the mound today at Wrigley against Dick Littlefield (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 1.1 IP, 1 K, 0.00 WHIP) who has pitched in two relief efforts this year, both in low leverage situations in losses, so we have no idea what the Giants are thinking here. Rogovin struck out four batters in the first fuve batters, but he gave up two hits in the second inning, the second of them being a two-run homer by Don Blasingame, which put the Giants up 2-0 despite his best efforts. Banks then picked up an error on a piss-poor throw to Perry at first that allowed Walt Dropo to reach second, and then we advanced him thanks to a wild pitch ... putting a run in scoring position with Rogovin suddenly at 35 pitches and we still weren’t out of this terrible second inning! A groundout to first got us out of it trailing by just two, but that was a hell of a meltdown. Del Crandall drove in a run when they committed an error with a dropped catch in the outfield in the bottom of the second, sending us into the top of the third trailing just 2-1. Alonso Perry picked up a triple in the bottom of the third, and Maris came up with the bases loaded to get a hit up the gap, driving in the tying run and keeping the bases loaded. Al Rosen walked in the go-ahead run, and then Del Crandall brought the fans to levels of insanity I haven’t seen yet this year, hitting a GRAND SLAM TO RIGHT that made the lead 7-2 with his second homer of the season! Rogovin got a hit into left and Kaline walked, bringing Perry back up for the second time this inning, batting himself out to left and sending us into the fourth inning with a freshly minted five-run lead.

Ed Bailey hit a homer in the top of the fourth to make it 7-3, his first homer of the year for the Giants, but Rogovin set them down nicely from there to prevent a rally. Willie Mays got us the run back in the bottom of the inning with his sixth homer of the year, and Crandall batted in another with a bases loaded RBI single to make it 9-3. Al Kaline hit a homer in the bottom of the fifth to make it 10-3, his second of the year, and Alonso Perry picked up an RBI double in the bottom of the seventh to make it 11-3. The monster has awoken! With the bases loaded and two outs, Roger Maris then hit one into the outfield, driving in another pair, and the rout continued. Al Rosen hit a three-run blast into the left field stands, and we went into the top of the eighth up by 13 runs and playing in full dominant form. Rogovin stayed out and completed the game, a 16-3 shellacking, looking like the team I remembered well from last year.

Rogovin improved to 2-2 with a complete game six-hitter, striking out 12 batters with no walks, giving up three earned runs for an ERA of 3.64 through his first four starts. We outhit the Giants 12-6, but had four homers, one a grand slam and one a three-runner. Alonso Perry hit twice and was walked once, scoring two and driving in one, but the middle of our order shined most -- Roger Maris had three hits, three runs and three RBIs, Al Rosen added two hits, two runs and four RBIs, and Del Crandall had one hit, one run and FIVE RBIs. Rosen’s four RBI night definitely meant a lot, as he’d been in a serious slump, hitting just .190 this season thus far.

MAY 2, 1956 . . . Camilo Pascual (1-0, 3.21 ERA, 14.0 IP, 11 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) pitched today against Ted Abernathy (1-1, 5.59 ERA, 19.1 IP, 7 K’s, 1.34 WHIP). Ernie Banks hit an RBI single in the bottom of the first to drive home Perry and put us up 1-0 on the Giants. But Pascual gave up a two-run homer to Hector Lopez in the top of the third that put the Giants up 2-1. Willie Mays hit his seventh homer of the year in the bottom of the third, however, and we were right back on top, the three runs driven in giving us a 4-2 advantage. Al Rosen hit a two-run blast to right in the bottom of the sixth to make our lead 6-2, his third homer of the year, and with the bases loaded a few minutes later Jackie Robinson hit a shot into deep right, bouncing off the wall and staying fair, driving in three more with a triple! We went into the top of the seventh up 9-2. Pascual got us through the seventh, and he hit a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the frame to extend our lead to eight runs, and Perry batted in another with a single, though Pascual got greedy and tried to steal home, ending the inning. Harry Dorish came in to get us through the rest of the game, getting the six outs quickly as we stomped the Giants for the second day in a row, this time by an 11-2 margin.

Pascual improved to 2-0 with a 3.00 ERA, giving up five hits in seven innings with six strikeouts, four walks and just two earned runs. Dorish threw two innings without a hit, 19 pitches that brought his ERA down to 3.86 through seven innings. We outhit them 16-5, led by Kaline (three hits, two runs) and Banks (three hits, two runs, one RBI). Perry, Robinson, Mays and Rosen each had two hits, and Mays’ two hits and three RBIs brought his RBI total up to 25, with a .407/.459/.944 slug line through 54 plate appearances.

Heading into our two games against Philly (7-6, 3.5 GB) we’re now 10-4 but trailing Brooklyn (12-4) by a game. The home run race has been pretty hot through the first few weeks of the season -- Cincy’s Ted Kluszewski leads the way with 11, while Willie Mays and Brooklyn’s Frank Thomas are tied with seven homers apiece. None of their paces are sustainable -- Kluszewski would be on track for 113 homers, while Mays and Thomas are on track for 77 ... but the fans have loved it!

MAY 4, 1956 . . . Hy Cohen (4-0, 1.30 ERA, 34.2 IP, 41 K’s, 0.61 WHIP) got the start today against Philly’s Don Newcombe (2-0, 4.29 ERA, 21.0 IP, 11 K’s, 1.14 WHIP). There were no baserunners in this one through the first two innings, but Cohen finally gave up a hit in the top of the third, giving up base hits to Jim Dyck and Newcombe himself, before stranding the runners when Willie Jones grounded into a double play. And we did the first real damage, Al Rosen hitting his fourth homer of the year to put us up 1-0 in the bottom of the third. Ernie Banks hit a three-run blast in the bottom of the fourth to make it a 4-0 ballgame, that being his third homer of the year. Cohen struck out the side in the top of the sixth, and he did the same in the eighth as we kept the Phillies completely off balance. Cohen closed out the game well, getting through the final inning on a hit, a strikeout and a pair of flyouts, and we won our first game of the year against the Phillies as a 4-0 shutout despite the Phillies outhitting us 7-5!

Cohen is off to an incredible start, 5-0 with a 1.03 ERA through 43.2 innings. Today he pitched a seven-hit shutout with 11 K’s and no walks, efficiently throwing 106 pitches with 75 strikes. Al Rosen hit twice, including a homer, scoring one and batting in one, while Ernie Banks’ three-run homer sealed the deal giving him 10 RBIs for the year.
 
MAY 5, 1956 . . . Sandy Koufax (0-2, 5.27 ERA, 13.2 IP, 10 K’s, 1.98 WHIP) gets the start today against Philly’s Robin Roberts (1-2, 3.13 ERA, 23.0 IP, 9 K’s, 1.09 WHIP). Koufax gave up a homer to Red Schoendienst in the top of the second to give the Phillies a 1-0 lead, and he gave up another in the top of the fourth to Del Ennis that made it a 2-0 game. But unlike his first few starts, he had mainly bad luck in this one -- his pitches were hitting where he wanted them to hit, and he wasn’t letting the bad contact get him out of rhythm. He just needs our bats to give him some support, to find a way to get past Robin Roberts’ defenses a bit. And that just flat out wasn’t happening. In the top of the sixth, Earl Torgeson became the third Philly to hit a homer off poor Sandy, making it a 3-0 game, but he got through the inning, giving him at the least a quality start. But without runs to back him up, it was just looking like a “quality loss,” which is ridiculous as a concept. Harry Dorish came in with one out and a man on in the top of the seventh, and after a passed ball he gave up two walks in a row and then a flyout to left off Torgeson’s bat that wound up scoring Koufax’s run. He walked the bases loaded but got out of the jam, but we went into the stretch trailing 4-0 and looking poor in general.

Dorish got us through the top of the eighth quietly, and finally in the bottom of the eighth Roberts showed signs of cracking -- Crandall hit a grounder to right for a single, and then Dorish got a fly ball over the head of their second baseman, getting himself to first and giving us a runner in scoring position at long last! Kaline got a hit into left, loading the bases, and Alonso Perry got one into right, getting himself a three-run triple to put us right back in this one! Jackie Robinson hit a two-run blast to right that finished the job, giving us a 5-4 lead with no outs! They waited too long to pull Roberts, who threw about 20 more pitches than he should have, giving up five runs in a matter of minutes before they finally brought out closer Curt Simmons. We went into the top of the ninth with a one run lead, and Hersh Freeman got us through the inning unblemished, completing the stunning come-from-behind 5-4 win!

Koufax didn’t get the win, but he didn’t take a loss either, which was refreshing. He lasted 6.1 innings in his best start of the season, giving up just six hits with three strikeouts and two walks, though four runs did score, including three off hard contact homers. He lasted nearly 90 pitches and his ERA stands at 5.40. Harry Dorish got the win, improving to 1-0 with a 3.12 ERA with three walks but no hits in 1.2 innings. And Freeman got his third save of the year, giving up a hit and a walk but refusing to concede the tying run. His ERA now stands at 2.70. We outhit the Phillies 10-7, led by Jackie Robinson (two hits, one run, two RBIs) and Alonso Perry (one hit, one run, three RBIs). Perry is now hitting .274 and has five doubles, a triple and two homers for a third of a win above replacement. Still, as badly as he started out, now at least he’s starting to show the flashes of potential that got him the big bucks right out of the gate.

Tomorrow we have a doubleheader against Pittsburgh (7-11) and then a day off before a three-game set against the division-leading Dodgers, who are off to a best-in-baseball 14-4 start. We’ll then finish out this homestand with a three game set next Saturday and Sunday against the Cardinals (6-11) who are off to a worst-in-baseball start. Over in the American League, Detroit (13-4) has won five straight to take the division lead, two games up on the Yankees (11-6), with Cleveland (10-7, 3 GB) and Boston (10-8, 3.5 GB) lagging a touch behind. The Red Sox in particular are on a three-game skid.

[jksander]

MAY 6, 1956 . . . Saul Rogovin (2-2, 3.64 ERA, 29.2 IP, 31 K’s, 0.98 WHIP) got the start in the noon game, facing off against former Cub Johnny Klippstein (1-2, 4.15 ERA, 21.2 IP, 7 K’s, 1.38 WHIP) who is making just his fourth start for the Pirates since recovering from the UCL injury that cost him a season and a half. He was 15-5 and on track for a potential Cy Young battle in 1954 before the injury, and now at age 28 is trying to make a comeback. I wish him all the best, but not today. Today we want to win. Jackie Robinson got an RBI double in the bottom of the first to give us the lead 1-0, and Willie Mays hit his eighth homer of the season to put two more on there, and we went into the top of the second leading 3-0. “Strike Force” Rogovin struck out the side in the top of the third, but he blew his no-hitter quickly in the fourth, giving up a base hit and then a two-run homer to Ken Boyer to narrow the lead to 3-2. In the bottom of the fifth, Robinson hit a double, driving Alonso Perry to third, but Perry tried to slide home and was tagged out at the plate to end the inning and his afternoon -- he was injured on the slide and had to be removed from the game, bringing in Ed Bouchee to take his place in the lineup and at first base with the lead still 3-2 heading into the sixth.

In the top of the sixth, Rip Ripulski got himself a base hit, and then got to take second when the ump called a balk on a clearly livid Rogovin, who I was worried was going to get himself ejected for arguing. His anger led him to make a poor decision, allowing a Ken Boyer hit into right field that drove in the tying run. A mound visit gave him time to focus, and he got a pair of K’s and a groundout from short to second to end the inning. Willie Mays quickly got us going in the bottom of the sixth, hitting a triple, and Mays beat out a throw at home plate after a flyout by Banks to get us back ahead 4-3. Klippstein kept us from adding to the lead in the lead in the bottom of the seventh, and they brought out Johnny Kucks in the bottom of the eighth as they still trailed. He got three quick outs, sending us into the top of the ninth with Rogovin still in fine form. A groundout and two strikeouts ended the game as a 4-3 Cubs victory, with plenty more baseball left to come this afternoon!

Rogovin had a stellar night, pitching a complete game six-hitter, striking out 16 batters, walking one and giving up just three earned runs to keep his ERA at 3.49 as he improved to 3-2. We had six hits ourselves, led by Willie Mays with three hits two runs and two RBIs, keeping his average still well above .400!

Robert Diehl (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 2.1 IP, 2 K’s, 0.00 WHIP) got a start in game two so we wouldn’t have to rush anyone back to pitch early, facing Bob Friend (2-2, 2.38 ERA, 34.0 IP, 10 K’s, 1.06 WHIP) in a spot starter role. And he quickly found his way back into his old rhythm as this game turned in to a pitching duel early. Both pitchers gave up just a hit apiece in the first four innings, and though Diehl had walked three to Friend’s zero, we were still knotted 0-0 heading into the top of the fifth. Great defense in the infield helped him get through the fifth still unblemished, and a double play and a strikeout got him through the sixth with still no score. Diehl came out with a double in the bottom of the sixth, but injured himself on the slide into second -- sounds familiar from game one -- and we had to bring in Joe Collins as a pinch runner. Collins quicky stole third as Friend threw strike one to Kaline, who then flew out to left, allowing Collins to come home to make it 1-0 Cubs, with Larry Jansen coming in to pitch for us.

Jansen got a quick out to start the top of the seventh, but then gave up back to back hits, so we brought in Alex Kellner with one out and two on to get us out of the high leverage situation. He got the first out, but then let a hit into the outfield, scoring two and putting the Pirates in the lead 2-1. Another hit and then he got us the final out, with Dorish warming up to come in for the eighth, hoping he’d have a lead to defend. Jackie Robinson beat out an infield bounce to take first, and with two outs Ed Bouchee got one through the gap to put Robinson into scoring position. Bill Serena took a base on balls, pinch hitting for Al Rosen, bringing up Del Crandall with the bases loaded and two outs. But the ball stayed too low when it came off his bat, missing grand slam status by mere inches as it fell instead into the right fielder’s glove -- end of the inning. Dorish got us through the top of the eighth unblemished, but we still went into the ninth trailing 2-1. Dorish got us through the inning as well, finishing with a strikeout, and we started warming up Freeman with the heart of our order up in the bottom of the ninth. Three flyouts ended the game, however, as a 2-1 Pirates victory. And I’m not gonna lie, this one stings.

Diehl lasted six innings with three hits, four walks and a strikeout, keeping his ERA perfect. But Jansen took the loss, giving up two hits and two runs to drop his ERA to 7.11. Kellner gave up Jansen’s runs, getting through two outs and nine pitches, and then Dorish gave usw two innings of two-hit two strikeout one walk work to bring his ERA down to 2.53. Pittsburgh outhit us 9-4 and yet we were in it til the end -- Robinson had a pair of hits, with Collins scoring our only run off a flyout by Kaline who got an RBI without making it on base.
 
MAY 7, 1956 . . . Alonso Perry’s injury is still being evaluated, with no word as to how long he will be unavailable. Diehl’s injury was inconsequential, and will not affect him returning, though I have told him under no circumstances is he to try any crazy sliding. Just take your base, good sir.

MAY 8, 1956 . . . Today we start our three-game set against the Brooklyn Dodgers, and we got the worst news about the Alonso Perry situation. It’s been determined he tore his ACL during that fateful slide, and his season’s over. We won’t even know until at least February whether he’ll be able to return for spring training in 1957, which is absolutely NOT what we wanted to hear. We’re moving Jackie Robinson back to third base, with Al Rosen moving back to first. But no amount of rejiggering our fielders makes up for how much we’re going to miss seeing what Perry could do -- in 17 games he’d hit .266/.373/.469 with five doubles, a triple and two homers, and he clearly was just figuring this whole thing out. That loss hurts. We’re bringing Jerry Bunyard back up from AAA as an extra bat off the bench with potential to be a backup to Banks at short, and we’ll keep an eye out for trade options to help bolster our bench as the season progresses.

Heading into today’s game, the Dodgers, 15-5, have a one game lead on our 13-5 Cubs, with Cincinnati starting to flag a bit at 10-9 (4.5 GB), with Philly (8-9, 5.5 GB) right on their tail. Hy Cohen (5-0, 1.03 ERA, 43.2 IP, 52 K’s, 0.64 WHIP) got the start against Brooklyn’s Connie Johnson (2-1, 4.45 ERA, 30.1 IP, 17 K’s, 1.38 WHIP). Jackie Robinson got a homer over the left field wall with two outs, putting us up 1-0 in the bottom of the first with his third homer of the season. But Brooklyn answered right back with a homer of their own, Gil Hodges sending one 400 feet over to left to tie it 1-1. They then took Cohen to school, Bill Mazeroski hitting a two-RBI single that jumped the Dodgers to a 3-1 lead, and then Pee Wee Reese hit a shot into left that drove in another. It’s been a LONG TIME since I”ve seen Cohen melt down like he did -- Carl Furillo hit an RBI double that made it 5-1 Dodgers, and by the time Duke Snyder struck out swinging, Cohen had thrown 41 pitches in two innings, with five earned runs, matching the total of earned runs he’d thrown ALL YEAR.

Cohen settled down after that ridiculous inning, but Connie Johnson was emboldened by his team’s power hitting, and locked in on all cyllinders, holding us to two hits in the first three innings. We doubled that in the fourth, putting Rosen and Baker on base, but Crandall and Cohen batted out to center and left respectively, and we went into the top of the fifth still trailing 5-1. Crandall failed to catch an easy popout, getting a rare error, and suddenly Cohen had the bases loaded in the top of the fifth with just one out, but a flyout to center and an incredible throw from Mays to Crandall completed the best double play of the season as we avoided doing more damage. A visibly frustrated Cohen gave up a sixth run in the top of the ninth, an RBI single for Snyder, before completing the inning, and we went down quickly in the bottom of the inning, losing this one 6-1.

Cohen fell to 5-1, pitching one of the most schizophrenic games of his career as he snapped a 27-game win streak dating back to early last season. On one hand, he gave up 14 hits in nine innings for six earned runs. On the other hand, he walked only one batter while striking out 14, throwing 145 pitches as his ERA bloated to 1.88 on the year. Brooklyn battered us badly, hitting 14 times to our seven, Robinson’s homer our only offense of the afternoon. Mays, Rosen and Baker all had two hits apiece, while Robinson and Maris were our only walks.

MAY 9, 1956 . . . Saul Rogovin (3-2, 3.49 ERA, 38.2 IP, 47 K’s, 0.93 WHIP) got the start today against Sal Maglie (3-0, 2.83 ERA, 35.0 IP, 18 K’s, 1.17 WHIP). Even at 39, Maglie refuses to slow down, having the best start since he went 41-14 in 1951-52 for the Yankees, before they traded him to Brooklyn ignonymously in July of ’53. All signs in this one pointed to a taut pitching duel, but Jackie Robinson hit a first-inning dinger for the second game in a row, putting us ahead 1-0 with his fourth homer of the year. So when the duel did ensue, we at least had a slight lead. Or at least we DID, until the top of the sixth, when Carl Furillo hit his second homer of the season over the left field wall to tie us up 1-1. Moments later Gil Hodges did the same damned thing and suddenly his seventh homer of the year gave the Dodgers a 2-1 lead. We went into the stretch still down by a run, and when Larry Jansen came in to pitch in the top of the ninth we still trailed by the same margin. He kept it that way with three quick outs after a base hit by Gil Hodges, sending us into the bottom of the ninth needing a run to stay alive. And Al Rosen got us that run, hitting a homer to start the inning, his fifth this season, to tie it up at 2-2! Bill Serena pinch-hit for Crandall with one out, getting a hit into the outfield for a double, and Daniel Howard pinch hit for Jansen, striking out swinging. That brought Kaline back up, and they walked him deliberately, bringing up Ernie Banks, who struck out and sent us into extra innings.

Harry Dorish came in to pitch to start the 10th inning, with Ray Jarvis coming in to catch. And the start of the inning was a disaster, with Solly Hemus getting a base hit and Deacon Jones belting one over the wall at left to make it 4-2 Dodgers. Dorish gave up a third hit, a single to Pee Wee Reese, and we brought in Hersh Freeman to try and save this one somehow. But there was no saving this. He gave up a walk immediately, and then an RBI single to Duke Snider, which put us in a three-run hole. Three quick outs followed, but it wasn’t quick enough -- we went into the bottom of the 10th with the heart of our order ready to bat, but with a deep hole to dig out from. They walked Robinson and then pegged him trying to lead off the bag ... STUPID! Mays struck out swinging, but Maris reached second on a throwing error, bringing up Rosen. But he’d had all the heroics he was going to be able to pull, batting out to center and ending this one as an extra-innings 5-2 loss, handing them the series win with one game left to avoid the sweep.

Rogovin gave us eight innings with seven hits, 12 strikeouts and a walk with two earned runs, giving him a 3.28 ERA in a no-decision. Jansen gave up one hit and had a strikeout, but it was Dorish who took the loss, coming out in the 10th and giving up three hits and three runs without notching an out, falling to 1-1 with a 5.06 ERA. Freeman did what he could to mitigate the damage, but he gave up a hit and a walk and couldn’t make up three runs on his own. They outhit us 12-10, Robinson and Rosen doing what they could to keep us in this with their homers.

MAY 10, 1956 . . . Camilo Pascual (2-0, 3.00 ERA, 21.0 IP, 17 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) pitched today against Don “Tiger” Kaiser (2-0, 1.62 ERA, 16.2 IP, 7 K’s, 1.02 WHIP) as we tried to avoid a sweep against the division leaders here at Wrigley. Ernie Banks hit a solo homer to start us out with a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first, his fourth of the season, but we’ve been here before against the Dodgers -- TWICE -- can we sustain it this time? We loaded the bases in the second inning but left empty-handed. Willie Mays hit an RBI single that scored Ernie Banks from second to give us a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth, a perfectly executed hit and run. Al Rosen hit an RBI single, and Willie Mays beat out a wide throw toward home, sliding in safely and making it a three run lead heading into the sixth inning. With the lead still 3-0 heading into the ninth, Hersh Freeman came out to relieve an exhausted Pascual, and he did the job required, keeping the Dodgers off balance and helpng us close out the shutout victory.

Pascual improves to 3-0 with a 2.17 ERA thanks to a three-hit shutout, with four walks and just three strikeouts ... unusually low for him despite throwing more than 70 percent strikes. Freeman came in and got his fourth save, with a hit and a strikeout, keeping his ERA at 1.69 through six relief appearances. We outhit the Dodgers 10-4, led by Ernie Banks with two hits two runs and an RBI. Mays added two hits for a run and an RBI, and Roger Maris hit twice as well though he never was able to score.

MAY 12, 1956 . . . We’ve made a move and purchased the rights to 26-year-old minor leaguer Tom Acker from the Beaumont Explorers of the Big State League, bringing him up to the major league level where he’ll earn $10,600 this year to play as our fifth starter, behind Cohen, Rogovin, Pascual and Diehl. Koufax has agreed to go back to the bullpen, where he’ll be our stopper and main high leverage reliever. I am hopeful that this move will help add stability to our pitching corps as we head into the summer. Heading into our weekend series against St. Louis (7-15, 8th Place, 9 GB) we are now firmly in second place, a game and a half behind the 17-7 Dodgers, who lost last night to the Giants 7-5 on their home turf while we got a day to rest. Cincy is still a solid 12-10 team and just four games out of first, and the Phillies (10-10) and Braves (10-11) are still showing signs they could remain dangerous. It’s definitely more of a race this year, and we’re not going to be able to coast by on past glories.

Robert Diehl (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 8.1 IP, 3 K’s, 0.84 WHIP) got his second start of the year this afternoon, against St. Louis’s Vinegar Bend Mizell (2-2, 5.45 ERA, 34.2 IP, 22 K’s, 1.50 WHIP). St. Louis took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the second off an RBI double by Andy Caray that scored a run via Jablonski. But Al Kaline got a hit into deep center in the bottom of the third, stretching out an RBI triple that tied the score. Crandall hit his third homer of the season over the center wall in the bottom of the fifth to put us up 2-1, and Roger Maris hit an RBI triple in the bottom of the sixth to increase our margin to 3-1! Tom Burgess batted in a run for the Cardinals with a single in the top of the seventh, and we brought Koufax in with two outs and men on first and second with the score now 3-2. He got the out that sent us safely into the stretch, and in the bottom of the inning Gene Baker added a run with a solo homer, his first of the year, to increase the lead back to two runs. Koufax got us three quick outs in the top of the eighth, and Willie Mays hit his ninth homer of 1956 to extend the lead to 5-2! Hersh Freeman came in for the ninth inning, setting their batters down quietly as we closed out the three-run win.

Diehl had to wait a bit, but he finally notched a win this year, improving to 1-0 with a 1.20 ERA through 15 innings, giving up five hits and two earned runs with two strikeouts and two walks. Koufax got his first hold of the year, going 1.1 innings with a walk but no hits, improving his ERA to 5.06. And Freeman came in for the save and allowed just one hit with a strikeout, bringing his ERA down to 1.42 with his fifth save. We outhit the Cardinals 7-6, led by Mays, who hit twice for two runs and an RBI, keeping his average at .395 for the season and giving him 2.2 WAR through 22 games.

[jksander]

MAY 13, 1956 . . . Doubleheader day! Two chances to get a win at Wrigley before we start a long road trip featuring two weeks of trips to play the Giants, Pirates, Dodgers, Phillies and Cardinals. For the first of two against St. Louis today we had Tom Acker pitch his first major league start against Larry Johnson (1-2, 4.68 ERA, 25.0 IP, 6 K’s, 1.32 WHIP). Acker, while playing in the Big State League, has put up a 6-3 record this year with a 3.47 ERA through 70 innings, striking out 59 batters with a 0.99 WHIP and 1.8 WAR. We’re hopeful he can translate his skills into success at this level as well. After an uneventful top of the first, Al Kaline quickly gave Acker some run support, hitting his third solo homer of the year to give us a 1-0 lead just a few minutes after first pitch. In the bottom of the second, Acker got a hit through the gap into the outfield, driving Gene Bkaer in to home for our second run of the day, putting us up 2-0 heading into the third inning. Del Crandall hit a three-run blast in the bottom of the fourth to make it a 5-0 lead with his fourth homer of the season, and Acker picked up a base hit, his second of the game, opening this one up. Roger Maris hit a three-run blast to left in the bottom of the fifth and it became an 8-0 blowout -- that was Maris’ sixth homer of the year, putting him second only to Mays on the team. Acker had an excellent game, getting us through the top of the seventh with an eight run lead, and Koufax came in for the eighth ready to finish this one out. He got three quick outs, and then with an out in the bottom of the eighth Koufax pulled off a double. They walked Kaline and Banks, loading the bases for Robinson who walked in another run. And Willie Mays took one look at a fastball and took it all the way out of here for a grand slam home run, his 10th homer of the year, to make it 13-0 -- Mays is on track still for 67 homers, which would put Babe Ruth to shame! Koufax finished the job, and we won this one in a blowout shutout, sending us into the second game on a total high.

Acker’s debut couldn’t have gone better -- seven innings, five hits, four strikeouts, one walk, no runs, giving him a 1-0 record and a spotless ERA to go with a 0.86 WHIP and a .238 BAPIP. We don’t need him to be perfect out there, but having a fifth man who can give us solid innings in these doubleheader situations is going to help take a lot of pressure off our top-of-the-rotation starters. We outhit them 12-5 and still scored 13 runs, thanks to four homers that scored 11 of the runs. Talk about piling them on! Willie Mays had two hits, two runs and four RBIs, Maris had three RBIs off a homer, Crandall had three RBIs off a homer, and Kaline had a hit for two runs and an RBI with HIS homer. Even Acker got in on the fun, hitting twice and batting in a run, giving him a .667 average through his first game. Not bad for a pitcher!
 
Hy Cohen (5-1, 1.88 ERA, 52.2 IP, 66 K’s, 0.82 WHIP) pitched the second game on five full days rest after his 145 pitch marathon loss in the last game he played. He faced Wendell Doss (1-0, 4.20 ERA, 15.0 IP, 9 K’s, 1.33 WHIP). Willie Mays batted in a run as Kaline came all the way around to score on a deep fly to right, quickly putting us up 1-0 in the bottom of the first. But in the top of the fifth they got the run back and tied us up 1-1 thanks to an RBI single by Tony Kubek, and this was setting up to be quite a game! And sure enough, the game stayed knotted up heading into the ninth, with Cohen still throwing, getting us out of the inning with a pair of flyouts and a strikeout, his 12th of the game. Del Crandall pinch hit for Ray Jarvis with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, getting a hit to carom off the Ivy and into the outfield, giving him time to reach second. Cohen beat out an infield throw to reach first and send Crandall over to third, but Kaline couldn’t get anything out of the infield and we headed for the 10th. Cohen added a strikeout and two flyouts in the 10th, and Ernie Banks walked it off with a solo homer, his fifth this year, to win this game 2-1 in the 10th!

Hy Cohen improved to 6-1 with a 1.72 ERA, giving up just five hits in a 10-inning complete game, striking out 13 batters with only one earned run! We only had five hits ourselves, led by Banks with two which led to a run and an RBI thanks to the homer. Mays hit once and drove in a run, and Kaline walked twice to score one.

We head into a two-game set on the road against the Giants (10-17) trailing the 19-7 Dodgers by just one game. We need to do well on this two week sojourn, so we can be confident heading into a longer home stretch at the end of the month that we can keep ourselves in this race. Over in the AL, the Yankees are on a five-game win streak, and have improved to 20-7, leading the Tigers (18-8) by a game and a half and the Guardians (16-11) by four.

We’re continuing to scour the minor leagues to find the right guys to build our farm up for the leaner times. In a big signing -- at least to me as a fan of the man -- we’ve signed Carl “Oisk” Erskine to a minor league deal. Erskine, at 29, still has above average stuff and good control, though his movement has been erratic at times. He has a good fastball, curve and changeup, and has been working on a knuckle curve. Good hold and stamina made him a must-sign pitcher after Brooklyn released him a week and a half ago. We’ve signed him to a major league four-year deal worth $10,600 this year, with three additional increases, reaching $17,500 in 1959. He’ll be replacing Kellner in the bullpen as our high leverage setup man.

MAY 15, 1956 . . . Saul Rogovin (3-2, 3.28 ERA, 46.2 IP, 59 K’s, 0.94 WHIP) pitched today in our first of two games at the Polo Grounds, facing Ted Abernathy (1-4, 5.40 ERA, 40.0 IP, 12 K’s, 1.43 WHIP), who despite his early struggles has been the team’s vocal leader as they try to find their way through what has seemed like an endless rebuild -- they last had a winning record in 1952, and they only have one playoff appearance (1951) in the last 19 seasons, last winning a title in 1933. Tonight he got off to a great start against us, with his team playing solid defense and keeping us off balance, and this quickly settled into pitcher duel territory. Rogovin became our first player to get into scoring position, reaching second in the third inning, but even Willie Mays couldn’t bat him home as this one stayed scoreless early. We went into the top of the fourth still with the score tied 0-0, despite Rogovin giving up four hits against just one for Abernathy. Rosen hit a double in the top of the fourth with one out, and with two outs Baker took a walk to give us two on. But Rogovin struck out to end the frame. Rogovin gave up two hits in the bottom of the inning but they stranded their runners and this one stayed on a razor’s edge. Kaline finally broke the stalemate with a solo blast to right in the top of the fifth to make it 1-0 Cubs, his fourth of the year, and in the top of the seventh we broke it wide open with a three-run blast by Mays, his 11th of the year, that gave us a 4-0 advantage. Larry Jansen came in to relieve Rogovin with one out and a man on first in the bottom of the eighth, and he quickly got a double play to get us out of the inning, and he stayed out for the bottom of the ninth, giving up a walk and then getting three more quick outs to end this one as a 4-0 shutout win!

Rogovin improves to 4-2, his ERA at 2.83, thanks to a 7.1 inning eight hit effort, striking out nine batters against one walk while throwing 104 pitches. Jansen came out for 1.2 innings with no hits and just the one walk, improving his ERA to 5.00 through nine innings of work. Each team had eight hits, we just made ours count thanks to the two homers. Kaline had three hits with a solo homer, Mays had his three run homer to go with a walk, and Banks, Maris, Rosen and Baker each hit as well, with Banks and Robinson scoring runs on the ground.

MAY 16, 1956 . . . Camilo Pascual (3-0, 2.17 ERA, 29.0 IP, 20 K’s, 1.17 WHIP) pitched today against Seth Morehead (2-1, 4.96 ERA, 32.2 IP, 21 K’s, 1.38 WHIP). And something about this place, these fans, makes it a tough place to come into and feel confident. Our bats struggled early in this one as both pitchers were locked in -- tons of soft contact, great fielding on both sides, and very few true hits or baserunners. Heading into the seventh inning stretch, only one batter had reached scoring position, and it was a Giant, the score still locked up at zero, and there had only been four hits in the entire game, three of those for the Giants. It was both maddening and wonderful at the same time, in a way only those of us who really love this game can understand. Pascual gave up two hits to start the bottom of the seventh, giving New York TWO runners in scoring position, and then he walked the bases loaded and we had to start warming up our high leverage guys. A run scored on a single by Don Blasingame to put them up 1-0, and then Pascual, clearly spiraling, walked a runner to drive in a second. Kaline came in with the bases still loaded (and no outs) striking out Morehead and Jim Gilliam, and getting Hector Lopez to pop out to Maris in left, getting us into the eighth inning trailing by two runs. Our bats stayed dead, and Koufax gave up a solo homer to Ed Bailey in the bottom of the eighth before getting us our outs. We went down quietly in the top of the ninth as Morehead closed out a one-hit shutout, the Giants winning 3-0.

Pascual fell to 3-1, giving up six hits and two runs with three strikeouts and four walks, most of which came during his no-out stretch during the seventh inning -- we should have pulled him and gone to the bullpen sooner, but it happened quickly. Koufax came in for two innings and gave up one hit and one run with three strikeouts, giving him a 4.62 ERA through 25.1 innings. We had our one hit and four total walks, but couldn’t string anything together, Jackie Robinson hitting once and walking once as our most actively stranded baserunner.

Time for three games in a row against the Pirates (11-16) on the road, followed by a pair at Ebbetts Field on Sunday against the Dodgers, who now lead us by a game and a half. We have a +58 Run Differential, again the best in the majors, but we’re 1-1 in extra innings games and just 3-1 in one-run games, while the Dodgers are 3-2 in extras and 6-2 in one-run games. Through 26 games we’re leading the NL in ERA (2.70), Starter’s ERA (2.45), Runs Allowed (75), Hits Allowed (193), Opponents’ Average (.226), Strikeouts (210) and Zone Rating (+8.6). But we’re sixth overall in batting average as a team (.251), sixth in hits (218) and dead last in base running (-13.4). We’re second overall in on base + slugging (.780) but we’re only getting on base 32% of the time, which has us in fourth. So we’ve got work to do when it comes to getting baserunners on and then manufacturing clutch runs. And until we figure out how to win close games, we’re going to have a target on our backs.
 
Because the fans love it, here’s a Home Run Race update:

1. Ted Kluszewski, Redlegs (13)
2. Willie Mays, Cubs (11)
3. Gil Hodges, Dodgers (10)
4. Ted Williams, Red Sox (9)
5. Gus Bell, Redlegs (8)

Kluszewski is on pace for 77, Mays for 65 and Hodges for 57. Those numbers seem unsustainable, but could this be the year the Babe’s record falls? History suggests “no,” but the way these sluggers are getting it done, it’s gotta be good for some ticket sales. The Bronx Bombers are living up to their names, meanwhile, with Mickey Mantle, Charlie Maxwell and Roy Sievers each with seven dingers. Each is on track for 40+ homers this year, but if one can separate from the herd, perhaps the Yanks can get someone in to protect the Bambino’s honor.

[jksander]

MAY 17, 1956 . . . Robert Diehl (1-0, 1.20 ERA, 15.0 IP, 5 K’s, 0.93 WHIP) pitched today against Johnny Klippstein (1-4, 5.67 ERA, 33.1 IP, 14 K’s, 1.41 WHIP). Willie Mays opened the game with a two-run blast to left for his 12th homer of the year, putting us ahead 2-0 in the top of the first. But Bill Virdon hit a solo blast to right, his third of the year, to pull the Pirates to within a run in the bottom of the second, and they took the lead when Diehl threw a fastball to Billy Klaus, who hit a two-run homer (his third) that put them ahead 3-1. Willie Mays hit a two-run triple to give us a 4-3 lead in the top of the third, but in the bottom of the fourth Joe Garagiola batted in a run to tie it up 4-4. Jackie Robinson hit an RBI double to put us back up 5-4 in the top of the fifth, and with one out and men on the corners in the bottom of the inning we brought in Larry Jansen, deciding Diehl just didn’t have it today. Janson got the second out on a fielder’s choice, Bill Virdon taking first and driving in the tying run. And he got the final out by strikeout, sending us into the top of the sixth knotted again at 5-5. Jansen then came up big at the plate, hitting a hard shot to deep left, driving in two runs to give us a 7-5 lead. Kaline hit an RBI triple on two outs that made it a three-run lead, and Banks drove him home with a single. We went into the bottom of the sixth leading suddenly by a 9-5 margin, and Carl Erskine came in for his first Cubs relief appearance ready to hold this lead.

His appearance was a flat-out disaster, and it happened so fast, by the time we got Koufax warmed up and in there, he’d loaded the bases, walked in a run, given up a second run on a Ken Boyer RBI single, and then let ANOTHER single into right field, allowing the Pirates to pull to within a run, down 9-8. Jesus H. Christ, I’ve never seen a reliever come in so ready and then blow up so completely. Koufax, having rushed himself into this one, gave up the tying run on a walk, and then Bill Virdon hit a two-run triple to blast Pittsburgh back into the lead, as this game turned into my worst living nightmare. And yet, just like that, things calmed down -- Koufax got a flyout to center, and then Danny O’Connell hit into a double play. But in that bottom of the sixth, Carl Erskine gave up four hits and six earned runs with two walks (and ZERO OUTS), while Koufax came in and gave up a hit and a walk, though he surrendered no runs of his own. No matter, we headed into the top of the seventh trailing 11-9 and with a busted-to-hell bullpen.

Top of the seventh -- Al Rosen hits a two-out solo homer to left, his sixth of the year, to pull us within a run. Koufax got us through the bottom of the seventh, but surrendered our 12th run as Rip Repulski batted in a run with a single. Hersh Freeman came in for the bottom of the eighth, getting the three smoothest outs we’d seen in nearly an hour, sending us into the top of the ninth trailing by two with the heart of our order up to bat. Roy Face struck out Robinson and Mays swinging, but Roger Maris got a hit into the outfield and took first, and Al Rosen ALMOST had a homer, but settled for an RBI triple to make it 12-11. But Gene Baker batted out to first, ending this hellscape of a game as a 12-11 loss.

Robert Diehl started this eventual bullpen game out with 4.1 innings of five-hit, one strikeout, one walk baseball, giving up five runs (three earned) to give him a 2.33 ERA. Janson got us two outs with a strikeout, and I should have kept him out for the sixth inning, but our frame had taken so long I worried he’d no longer be warmed up enough to continue. Stupid mistake. Erskine took the loss, and though he survived this without an official earned run average, because you cannot divide by zero, his ERA is now effectively infinite. I’m going to have to hope this was a crazy fluke of nature, because everything I’ve seen from him since he joined the Cubs has suggested he still has major league potential. But putting him back out there is going to have to require careful consideration, or he’s going to be an expensive object lesson. Koufax handled a thankless job, giving up three hits, two walks and a run in two innings of work, while Freeman came in and got us through an inning with the three outs and nothing else. Insanely, we outhit the Pirates 14-12 in this nearly three-hour torture fest. Mays had two hits, a run and four RBIs, Rosen added two hits two runs and two RBIs, and Al Kaline hit twice and walked once, scoring three times and batting in a run.

MAY 18, 1956 . . . After yesterday’s 11-12 loss to the Pirates, we’re now on a two-game skid, off to a 10-5 start in May, after starting Apri out at 8-4. With two games left at Pittsburgh before heading to Brooklyn and Philly, we need to figure things out quickly or we risk digging a real hole here as we try and get back into the pennant lead. Tom Acker (1-0, 0.00 ERA, 7.0 IP, 4 K’s, 0.86 WHIP) got the start today against Gene Conley (2-3, 4.81 ERA, 43.0 IP, 22 K’s, 1.47 WHIP). Willie Mays scored a run on a flyout by Rosen to put us up 1-0 in the top of the second, and it stayed that way until an RBI single by Ricky Nelson tied us up in the bottom of the sixth. Acker gave up a line drive to left by Danny O’Connell, who stretched a double into a triple and drove in two more runs, and with just one out we had to bring in Larry Jansen to get us out of this mess. Jansen got a groundout to first and a strikeout, and we went into the top of the seventh trailing 3-1. We loaded the bases in the top of the inning, and a Kaline flyout to left gave us two outs but scored a run to cut their lead to one heading into the stretch. Koufax came in for the bottom of the seventh, and he got three outs on 10 pitches to get us into the eighth, and he got us through the bottom of the eighth as well, though our bats continued to struggle. Top of the ninth, Del Crandall strikes out looking, and Bill Serena, pinch-hitting for Koufax, grounds out to first. Kaline does the same and the game is over as another loss, again by a one-run margin, as the Pirates beat us 3-2.

Acker fell to 1-1 with a 5.1 inning six hit performance, striking out two, walking three and giving up all three of our runs, to give him a 2.19 ERA through two starts. Jansen got us the two outs we needed in the sixth, striking out one and dropping his ERA to 4.35, while Koufax pitched two one-hit innings to improve his to 4.30. The Pirates outhit us 7-5, with Mays leading the way with two hits for a run while Rosen had a hit and a walk, scoring a run and batting in another. Kaline never got a hit, but was credited with a sac-fly that batted in a run.
 
MAY 19, 1956 . . . We only lost 36 games all year in 1955, and this year we’re almost a third of the way there and it’s not even June. Tonight we were looking for a win to avoid being swept by the now sixth place Pirates, with Hy Cohen (6-1, 1.72 ERA, 62.2 IP, 79 K’s, 0.77 WHIP) up in the rotation. He faced off against Hank Aguirre (0-2, 3.46 ERA, 13.0 IP, 6 K’s, 1.68 WHIP). Both pitchers were locked in early in this one, but at least Pittsburgh had picked a pair of hits -- Aguirre got through five innings without a baserunner! Top of the sixth, Gene Baker finally broke the spell and reached base on a single that rolled just barely into the outfield, but Baker popped up to first and Cohen grounded into a fielder’s choice that got Baker out at second. Kaline came up for the third time and popped out to center, keeping it 0-0 heading into the bottom of the sixth. With two outs and a man on first in the bottom of the inning, disaster struck -- Rocky Nelson hit a single on a 1-2 count, a line drive that sent Colavito to second, and then on an E7 throwing error as Colavito tried to steal third, he was able to come around and score all the way from first to put the Pirates up 1-0. That happened fast. Cohen then gave up a hit into left field that Maris couldn’t grab, which turned into an RBI double for O’Connell, and this soured quickly. We got the final out, but the sixth inning has been murder for us lately; we headed into the seventh trailing 2-0.

We woke up in the top of the inning, with Banks getting a base hit and then Robinson slamming a triple into deep left, batting Banks in for a run. Willie Mays got a hit into center field that drove Robinson in to score the tying run, and then Aguirre got three quick flyouts to escape into the stretch with the score again knotted 2-2. Cohen stayed out and got us safely through the seventh, and he got us through the eighth as well, though we were still trying to get someone on base to take the lead. Top of the ninth, with Aguirre still on the mound and Banks coming up to bat, we at least had the heart of our order up at the right time. Banks took his base on balls, and Robinson got a hit into the outfield, deep, and Banks was able to reach second as Robinson’s hit was caught at the wall for out number one. They walked Mays intentionally, and Maris flew out to second for our second out, though Banks was able to make it safely to third. But Rosen flew out to left and our chance melted away. Cohen got a pair of strikeouts in the bottom of the ninth, however, and we headed for extra innings for just the third time this season.

Pinch hitters for the bottom of our order all failed to get on base in the top of the 10th, and we brought Hersh Freeman in for the bottom of the inning hoping to get one more chance for the top of our lineup. Facing their three leadoff batters, however, he struggled. Ken Boyer and Rip Ripulski each got on base with singles to put us in a tight spot. He walked Colavito, and then it was like you could see us just give up completely, as Bill Virdon walked it off with a shot into left, winning this one for the Pirates 3-2 as they swept us. So apparently this is what a tailspin looks like ...

Cohen escaped with a no-decision, pitching nine innings with six hits, nine strikeouts, two walks and two earned runs to bring his ERA to 1.76 so far this season. Freeman took the loss and fell to 0-1, giving up three hits and a walk without securing a single out. Nine pitches and it was over, his ERA falling to 2.45 through 7.1 innings. They outhit us 9-4, Mays leading with a hit and a walk for an RBI, and Robinson hitting and scoring a run with an RBI. Ernie Banks hit once and scored a run, and that was the extent of our aenemic offense. We’ll now head into the doubleheader against the Dodgers on the road, having lost four games in a row for the first time in a long time, knocking us to 3.5 games out of first and with the Phillies (15-13, 6 GB) right on our heels.

[jksander]

MAY 20, 1956 . . . Time for another doubleheader day, right as we’re at our lowest point of the season, having just been swept by the Pittsburgh Pirates. Now we’re at Ebbets Field, facing the Dodgers, who at 22-8 have been dominating the National League so far in the season, including holding a 2-1 record against us in games all played at Wrigley Field. Saul Rogovin (4-2, 2.83 ERA, 54.0 IP, 68 K’s, 0.98 WHIP) pitched in game one, facing Brooklyn’s Sal Maglie (5-0, 2.55 ERA, 53.0 IP, 30 K’s, 1.13 WHIP). And we’re on a four-game losing streak, needing to find a way to get some momentum going back in our favor if we’re going to keep pace within this division.

In the bottom of the first, Duke Snyder got to second base with a groundball error at first, and Gene Baker hit a double in the top of the third, but neither runner was able to get anywhere. But Rogovin finally gave up the wrong pitch to Fred Hartfield, who hit his first solo homer of the year and put the Dodgers up 1-0 in the bottom of the third. Carl Furillo hit a solo blast to right in the bottom of the sixth to make it a 2-0 lead. Willie Mays got us on the board with a solo homer to right in the top of the seventh, his 13th homer of the season, and Al Rosen hit another to left field, his seventh, to tie it up 2-2 heading into the seventh inning stretch. In the top of the ninth, Robinson reached first by being grazed by an inside throw, and then Maglie walked Mays to give us a man in scoring position. Maris got a single into the gap, reaching first safely and driving Mays around to score from second -- 3-2 lead for the Cubs! But that was all we’d get, heading into the bottom of the inning with Hersh Freeman coming in to protect our lead. Freeman let Deacon Jones reach first with a single, Duke Snyder batted out to right, and then Gil Hodges reached first with a line drive into right, putting a man in scoring position with only one out. A Sandy Amoros popup to Banks got us our second out, but Freeman let a line drive into right by Sully Hemus and the game was over, another fail by our big money free agent closer.

Freeman was tallied with a blown save, his first of the year, and with the loss, his second, falling to 0-2 with a 4.50 ERA thanks to three hits, and two earned runs with only two outs earned in his inning. Rogovin’s eight innings of three-hit ball were for naught, despite nine strikeouts and just two earned runs, putting his ERA at 2.76. He’d thrown 117 pitches and we could have left him out there for the final inning -- and maybe we SHOULD have -- but our bullpen guys need to figure out how to come in and win games like this. We only managed six hits as a team ourselves, led by Gene Baker who hit twice and was rewarded by being left stranded each time. Mays, Maris, Rosen and Rogovin accounted for our other hits, with Robinson, Mays and Rosen scoring runs and Mays, Maris and Rosen batting them in.

Camilo Pascual (3-1, 2.31 ERA, 35.0 IP, 23 K’s, 1.26 WHIP) pitched in the second game of the day, against Joey Jay (4-0, 1.83 ERA, 44.1 IP, 29 K’s, 1.08 WHIP). In the top of the first, with one out, Willie Mays walked the bases loaded, bringing up Roger Maris, who laid down a sweet pop fly into center field just out of the fielder’s reach, allowing a run to score and keeping the bases jammed! But Al Rosen hit into a double play to end the inning without a real power showing, our Cubs ahead 1-0. Willie Mays hit an RBI double in the top of the third to add a run to the margin. Al Kaline got one through the gap in the top of the fourth to make it 3-0, but in the bottom of the inning Pascual gave up a hit to Duke Snyder that scored a run thanks to a bad throw to third as Snyder held at second, and with two outs, Bill Mazeroski hit a three-run blast to right that put the Dodgers up 4-3. We can’t catch a break ... Pascual had been hitless through three innings and then the fourth turned into a meltdown. Al Rosen tied it with a homer in the top of the fifth, his eighth this year, and we went into the bottom of the fifth knotted up 4-4. But on two outs, Pascual then allowed a two-run homer for Snider, his sixth of the year, and they were right back on top 6-4. Larry Jensen came in with two out and the bases empty, getting a strikeout to send us into the sixth trailing by a pair. Sandy Koufax came in with no outs and a man on third in the bottom of the seventh, immediately surrendering to the runner at third thanks to an RBI double by Bud Byerly before getting the outs to send us into the top of the eighth trailing 7-4. Al Kaline hit one right into the seats in left field, his fifth homer of the year, to cut the deficit to two runs, but even with two runners on, we couldn’t get anyone else around to even the score. Koufax got us through the bottom of the eighth, but they shut us down one, two, three in the ninth and we lost yet another game by a 7-5 margin.

Pascual fell to 3-2 with a 3.40 ERA, giving up five hits and six earned runs with just five K’s and a walk. Jansen did well in 1.1 innings, with one hit, one run and one strikeout, and Koufax got us through the last two innings with a hit, a walk and a strikeout but no runs. He now has a 4.02 ERA through 31.1 innings. We outhit them 14-7 and still lost, which is unacceptable. Robinson had two hits for a run, Mays had a hit and a walk and batted in a run, Al Rosen hit twice for a run and an RBI, and Al Kaline had a great game with four hits with two runs and two RBIs, including a homer. But we still lost our sixth game in a row and nothing quite feels right about this team as a whole. But the parts are all there ... aren’t they?

Let’s see if we can bounce back against Philly (16-14). We have two games against them and then a four game road-trip to St. Louis (9-24) before finally getting back to Chicago. Right now we’re struggling on the road (6-8) and severely lagging in one-run games (3-5). Our +52 Run Differential is still the best in our division, second in the majors only to the Yankees’ +61 (they’re 25-9 and leading the AL by 1.5 games) and we’re performing three games below our pythagorean expectation. We have to figure something out in these close games or the teams we’ve embarassed over the last couple years are going to keep eating us for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Current standings are below:

American League
1. New York Yankees (25-9)
2. Detroit Tigers (23-10, 1.5 GB)
3. Cleveland Guardians (18-15, 6.5 GB)
4. Boston Red Sox (16-17, 8.5 GB)
5. Chicago White Sox (14-16, 9 GB)
6. Kansas City Athletics (15-21, 11 GB)
7. Washington Senators (13-21, 12 GB)
8. Baltimore Orioles (11-26, 15.5 GB)

National League
1. Brooklyn Dodgers (24-8)
2. Chicago Cubs (18-13, 5.5 GB)
3. Philadelphia Phillies (16-14, 7 GB)
4. Cincinnati Redlegs (16-15, 7.5 GB)
5. New York Giants (16-19, 9.5 GB)
6. Pittsburgh Pirates (15-18, 9.5 GB)
7. Milwaukee Braves (14-17, 9.5 GB)
8. St. Louis Cardinals (9-24, 15.5 GB)

Our six-game losing streak is currently the longest active skid in the majors. The Dodgers and Giants have each won four straight, while the Yankees have won thre straight (with the Red Sox currently on a four-game skid). In the home run race at the moment, here are the following leaders:

1. Ted Kluszewski, Redlegs (15)
2. Ted Williams, Brooklyn (15)
3. Willie Mays, Cubs (13)
4. Yogi Berra, Yankees (11)
5. Gil Hodges, Brooklyn (10)

Kluszewski and Williams remain on a 75-homer pace, with Mays on track for 65.

[jksander]

MAY 22, 1956 . . . Time for two more against Philadelphia, this time on their field. We beat them twice last month at Wrigley, and we need to win these games to avoid falling further in the NL standings. Hy Cohen (6-1, 1.76 ERA, 71.2 IP, 88 K’s, 0.78 WHIP) pitched tonight against Bob Rush (1-3, 3.89 ERA< 39.1 IP, 15 K’s, 1.07 WHIP). Al Kaline got us on the board with a solo homer in the top of the first, his sixth of the year, giving us a 1-0 lead. In the top of the second, Cohen got hit by a pitch and took first, loading the bases, and Al Rosen got a hit into right field to drive in two more runs with a double, giving us an early 3-0 lead. Willie Mays hit his 14th homer of the season to add a pair of runs in the top of the fifth, and Cohen was his usual stoic self out there just setting batters down -- though today he was mostly working off soft contact, much more than strikeouts. Up by the same five runs in the bottom of the ninth, Cohen came out and handled business as we snapped the losing streak and beat the Phillies in a 5-0 shutout.

Cohen improved to 7-1 on the season with a 1.56 ERA, giving up just two hits with seven K’s and no runs. We out hit Philadelphia 9-2, led by Al Kaline (two hits, two runs, one RBI), Willie Mays (two hits, one run, two RBIs) and Gene Baker (two hits, one run). Right now Mays remains on a tear, right in the heart of the homerun race while keeping pace for more than 14 WAR!

MAY 23, 1956 . . . Robert Diehl (1-0, 2.33 ERA, 19.1 IP, 6 K’s, 1.03 WHIP) got the start in game two against the Phillies, going up against Don Newcastle (4-2, 4.00 ERA, 54.0 IP, 30 K’s, 1.20 WHIP). Roger Maris hit his seventh homer of the year to give us a 1-0 lead in the top of the second, Al Kaline hit a two-run blast in the top of the third, his seventh of the year as well, and we had ourselves another 3-0 lead! Diehl gave up a run in the bottom of the fifth, an RBI single by Smoky Burgess, and with two men on and only one out, we brought Carl Erskine out to pitch. He walked his first batter, then got us a popout to Robinson at third. Richie Ashburn hit an RBI single to make it 3-2, and we brought Larry Jensen in, getting a popout to right to end the inning with the lead still intact. Jansen got us through the sixth inning, and then (barely breaking a sweat) came back out and did the same thing in the seventh. Two popouts and a flyout got him through the eighth as well, and we brought Sandy Koufax out for the bottom of the ninth still leading 3-2. Koufax gave up a hit to start the inning, but then got three quick outs off two popouts and a weak groundout at first, helping us close out the one-run victory!

Diehl gave us 4.1 innings of work tonight and gave up six hits with two strikeouts, allowing two earned runs to give him a 2.66 ERA. Jensen came in after Erskine’s short stint and got 3.1 innings in without a hit, striking out one batter and walking no one! His ERA has now improved to 3.60, and he holds a 2-1 record in games with decisions. Sandy Koufax earned his first save of the year, giving up one hit and bringing his ERA down to 3.90. We’re making it official -- he’s taking his rightful spot as our closer, and newcomer Freeman is going to have to take on a more varied relief role to earn his big money.

Up next: a day off, followed by a four game series over the weekend in St. Louis. So far we are 4-0 against them this year, but this will be our first extended trip out there. We did beat them 6-1 on April 25th in a single road game, and we hope to continue that trend this weekend. We’ll then finish the month with four home games, staying in Chicago through the middle of June.
 
MAY 25, 1956 . . . Saul Rogovin (4-2, 2.76 ERA, 62.0 IP, 77 K’s, 0.90 WHIP) got the start tonight against St. Louis’ Mike Fornieles (2-4, 3.95 ERA, 57.0 IP, 21 K’s, 1.18 WHIP). Willie Mays hit his 15th homer of the season and put us quickly ahead 2-0 in the top of the first. But Kaline committed his first error in right field, allowing a double to advance two runners in to scoring position, and an RBI double by Tom Burgess scored two runs to tie it up in the bottom of the second. Mays hit a second homer, this time in the top of the fourth, to put us up 3-2, giving him his 16th dinger of the season! But St. Louis was undeterred -- Wally Moon hit his seventh of the year to tie it up 3-3, though Rogovin promptly struck out the next three batters to get us into the fifth. Jackie Robinson hit his fifth homer of the year in the top of the sixth to give us a 4-3 lead in this unofficial Home Run Derby, and in the top of the eighth the Cardinals committed three errors in a row to load the bases, then walked Robinson to make it 5-3! Del Crandall batted in a run in the top of the ninth to make it 6-3, and two more errors, including an Al Kaline grounder that resulted in two runs scoring off a miscue at first base, ballooned the score to 8-3. Rogovin closed out the game himself, giving Koufax a bit of rest after the three-run ninth inning, and we won this one easily by five runs.

Rogovin improved to 5-2 with a 2.54 ERA, giving up just three hits for three runs (one earned) while striking out 12 batters and walking only two. Only five of the runs we ourselves scored were earned -- the Cardinals committed SIX ERRORS and we outhit them just 6-3. Willie Mays’ two homers gave him four RBIs, and Jackie Robinson had a hit and a walk to score twice and drive one in with his homer as well.

MAY 26, 1956 . . . Hy Cohen (7-1, 1.56 ERA, 80.2 IP, 95 K’s, 0.72 WHIP) pitched today against St. Louis’ Dean Stone (1-2, 6.38 ERA, 18.1 IP, 9 K’s, 1.75 WHIP). This is his tenth start of the season. St. Louis got on the board first, in the bottom of the second, with a groundout by Tony Kubek that drove in a run from third. But with the bases loaded in the top of the third, Jackie Robinson got a hit into left field that batted in the tying run. And with two outs, Ernie Banks batted one into right field, driving in a pair. Maris walked the bases loaded, and they walked Baker as well, driving in another to quickly make it 4-1 Cubs heading into the bottom of the third. Wally Moon batted in a run with a triple to make it 4-2 in the bottom of the fourth inning, and he scored a run on a wild pitch to pull them within one. Cohen got us through the eighth inning, and in the top of the ninth we weren’t able to add any insurance runs, so Koufax came in with the score still 4-3, to help close out a one-run game. And though he did allow a couple baserunners, neither was able to do anything, and they weren’t both on at the same time -- a quick putout at second felled Stan Musial in a fielder’s choice, allowing Wally Moon on first, and when Moon made it to second on a passed ball, he was then stranded when Roy Jablonski struck out swinging. And just like that we won 4-3, heading into tomorrow’s doubleheader on a four game winning streak. Too bad Brooklyn’s won eight in a row, we’ve gained no ground on first. But we’ve put some distance between ourselves and the logjam in the middle of the NL standings.

Cohen improved to 8-1 with a 1.73 ERA, pitching for eight innings with four hits, eight strikeouts, one walk and three earned runs. Koufax earned his second save of the year with a walk and a strikeout, bringing his ERA down to 3.78 through 33.1 innings over 12 appearances. We outhit St. Louis 7-4, led by Robinson’s two hits, one run and one RBI. Ernie Banks added two hits and two RBIs, Gene Baker had a hit and an RBI, and Al Kaline hit once, walked once and scored a run.

MAY 27, 1956 . . . Doubleheader day! Camilo Pascual (3-2, 3.40 ERA, 39.2 IP, 28 K’s, 1.26 WHIP) pitched in game one against Vinegar Bend Mizell (2-4, 6.16 ERA, 57.0 IP, 32 K’s, 1.54 WHIP). And the first inning went about as badly for Pascual as was possible. He gave up an infield blooper to Moon that we couldn’t field quickly enough, and then Moon advanced to third on a grounder into right field by Frank Bolling. Then Stan Musial walked, loading the bases without a single out. A botched catch at second cost us a run, with Moon coming in to score and the bases remaining loaded. Another runner scored on a flyout to center, but we got out of the inning with a great catch at third by Robinson, who picked off their runner for a double play. Still, spotting the Cardinals a 2-0 lead was not the most auspicious way to begin this game. Al Rosen batted in a run in the top of the third to pull us within a run, but from there neither pitcher was willing to give an inch. We went into the top of the sixth trailing 2-1, with both teams having hit just three times apiece. Mizell ended the sixth inning for us with a bang-bang double play at second, and then the Cardinals did damage to us in the bottom of the inning, Jablonski knocking in two runs with a double to make it 4-1 Cards. A fifth run scored on a Tony Kubek single, and Larry Jansen came in to take over, with one out and a man on first. Jansen gave up a hit into the outfield, and a poor throw by Mays, completely out of his character, allowed a sixth run to score as Kubek made it all the way around from first. He got the last two outs to get us into the seventh, but we now trailed 6-1 and looked like a shell of ourselves. Mizell gave us nothing to work with, and in the bottom of the seventh Jansen gave up three more runs and this turned into a collossal embarassment for all involved. Kal Segrist batted in another run with a double to make it 10-1 and we brought in Carl Erskine as the game was already a complete rout. Erskine got the final out and we went into the top of the eighth down nine goddamned runs against the worst team in the National League. Mizell shut us down quietly in the eighth, and Erskine (in a no-lose situation) stayed out there and kept the score from blowing up any further. Willie Mays hit a meaningless two-run blast in the top of the ninth to pull us within seven with his 17th homer of the season, but Mizell finished us off and we lost game one badly, 10-3.

Pascual fell to 3-3 with a 3.80 ERA thanks to six hits and six runs (four earned) with four K’s and two walks through 5.1 innings. Jenson came in and lasted 1.1 innings, giving up six hits and four runs himself with one strikeout, blowing his ERA up to 5.51. Erskine then gave us 1.1 innings in a mop-up role, allowing just one hit with a strikeout and bringing his ERA down to 32.40 through 1.2 innings over three appearances. The Cardinals outhit us 13-5 in this one, with only Rosen coming up with more than one hit -- he hit twice for a run and an RBI. Willie Mays’ homer gave us two RBIs as well.

Robert Diehl (1-0, 2.66 ERA, 23.2 IP, 8 K’s, 1.10 WHIP) pitched in game two against St. Louis’s Larry Jackson (1-5, 5.68 ERA, 38.0 IP, 13 K”s, 1.47 WHIP). We left two runners in scoring position in the top of the first without scoring, both of whom made it on base via walks. Frank Bolling hit a double in the bottom of the inning, but we were able to strand him at third, keeping the game scoreless. And back to back doubles by Maris and Baker in the top of the second helped us take an early 1-0 lead. Diehl floundered in the bottom of the inning, however, and Del Rice hit a triple that scored two runs to put us back in a hole again. Their pitcher batted in a run to make it 3-1 as our piotching woes outside of Cohen and Rogovin continue to dog us. Jackie Robinson committed an error at third with a dropped catch, and Bolling gave them back to back hits, and with Diehl already past seventy pitches, we had to bring Harry Dorish in to try and prevent a blowup, one out, two on, bottom of the damned fourth. A piss-poor throw by Banks to home plate allowed a fourth run to score, but we got out of the inning trailing just by three which seemed like a minor miracle at this point. What the hell is happening to this team?

Jackie Robinson got himself a hit into the outfield in the top of the fifth that turned in to an RBI double, putting Al Kaline at third with just one out, but we weren’t able to spark a rally. Dorish got us two outs in the bottom of the sixth and then surrendered a two-run blast to Stan Musial, digging our hole back to four runs as we trailed 6-2. Erskine came out and got the final out, sending us into the top of the seventh desperately needing our bats to awaken. They did NOT awaken -- in fact, Robinson hit into a double play to end the inning. Erskine took on the thankless job of staying out through the bottom of the eighth, but he did an admirable job and did not allow any runs to score. But pinch hitter Ed Bouchee struck out swinging, Al Rosen batted out to left, and then Kaline dropped a single into shallow right. Their closer then was called for a balk, moving Kaline into scoring position, but that merely prolonged the inevitable as Robinson grounded out to first, ending this as a 6-2 loss.

Diehl took the loss with an embarrassing 3.1 inning effort, giving up six hits, four runs (two earned) despite four strikeouts. He walked two batters and simply did not have good control today. He threw more pitches than both our relievers combined -- Dorish lasted 2.1 innings but gave up five hits and two runs, with his ERA slipping to 5.54. Erskine, however, got us through 2.1 innings as well, giving up just one hit and one walk with a strikeout to improve his ERA to 13.50 through four innings of work. They outhit us 12-9, with Baker leading our team with three hits and an RBI. Robinson had a hit, a walk and an RBI, and Rosen and Maris scored runs on the ground.

This road trip proved to be a reckoning for us, as we’ve gone 5-8 during this two week stretch on the road, and we’ve lost a lot of games to teams widely considered to still be on the bottom of the National League pecking order. Hopefully we can make up some ground and find surer footing as we spend the next three weeks playing at Wrigley -- right now we’ve dug a significant hole for ourselves, as the Dodgers (30-8) now hold a 7.5 game lead on us in the pennant race. At 22-15 we’re still comfortably in second place, but Pittsburgh (19-20, 11.5 GB), Philadelphia (18-19, 11.5 GB), Milwaukee (17-19, 12 GB), Cincinnati (17-19, 12 GB) and the New York Giants (17-23, 14 GB) are all fighting to pull themselves back into the race. And we didn’t help ourselves by splitting the series against St. Louis, who now are 11-28 and a distant 19.5 games back. If we cannot beat them consistently, even with the games being on the road, how can we expect to keep pace with a team like the Dodgers who are looking more and more like we did last year?

We finish the month of May with a pair of games against Cincinnati and then three against Milwaukee including a Wednesday doubleheader. Then Brooklyn comes to town for the first weekend of April, four games in three days against the NL leaders. We then have three games against Pittsburgh, four against Philly and a pair against the Giants before we hit the road again in mid-June. We’ve gone 4-4 in our first eight games against the Redlegs, so nothing’s a given as we return to Wrigley.

[jksander]

MAY 28, 1956 . . . Saul Rogovin (5-2, 2.54 ERA, 71.0 IP, 89 K’s, 0.86 WHIP) came up to start against Don Drysdale (3-5, 4.63 ERA, 56.1 IP, 31 K’s, 1.54 WHIP) in the first game at home against the Redlegs. And Cincy wasted no time, taking a 1-0 lead on an RBI double by Dick Groat in the top of the first. In the top of the third they added another, thanks to Gus Bell’s 11th homer of the year, but Saul Rogovin stunned everyone in the stands in the bottom of the inning when he nailed a two-run homer of his own that stayed just barely fair at right field, tying the score with his first homer just the seventh of his career! Ernie Banks hit his sixth homer of the year to put us up 3-2 in the bottom of the fourth, but a botched catch at first that should have led to the final out of the inning in the top of the fifth instead resulted in an error, as Frank Robinson took first and Bob Elliott came home from third to tie the game. Rogovin then surrendered a line drive to center that loaded the bases, before striking Dick Groat out to end the inning. Gene Baker hit an RBI single that put us up 4-3 in the bottom of the sixth, and Del Crandall hit another right after it to extend our lead to 5-3! Ed Bouchee pinch hit for Rogovin with two on and two outs, but couldn’t get it out of the infield and we went into the seventh leading by a pair and with Hersh Freeman coming in to pitch. He gave up a one-out hit, but then handled a double play to send us into the stretch. Willie Mays hit his 18th homer of the year, a three-run blast, in the bottom of the seventh to make our lead 8-3 heading into the top of the eighth. Freeman gave up a two-run triple to Hal Smith on two outs, and Koufax came in to stop this one from getting out of control, but he floundered and loaded the bases on walks, before getting us our final out on a throw from Banks to Baker as my blood pressure spiked a hundred percent. Koufax stayed out to protect the lead in the top of the ninth, pitching around a walk to complete the 8-5 win for us.

Saul Rogovin was able to come out of this with a win, improving to 6-2 with a six inning quality start, six hits, three runs (two earned) and eight strikeouts against a single walk, keeping his ERA at 2.57 for the year. Freeman got his first hold of the season, pitching 1.2 innings with three hits, two runs and a walk, giving him a 5.59 ERA. And Koufax earned his third save of the year, putting up 1.1 innings with three walks, no strikeouts and no hits. Not his finest effort, but he got the job done, and his ERA is now 3.63 through 34.2 innings in 13 appearances. Each team had nine hits in this one, Willie Mays leading the way for us with a hit, two runs scored and three batted in. He now has 18 homers and 55 RBIs, both leading our entire team by a wide margin. Rosen and Baker each hit twice as well.

Mays is now tied in the home run race with Boston’s Ted Williams. Cincy’s Ted Kluszewski is in third place with 16, still well ahead of Frank Thomas (12) and Gus Bell (11). He leads the entire league in RBIs by a dozen over Williams, leading Williams by two-thousandths of a point in slugging percentage, slugging .842 to Williams’ .840. Williams is now only eight homers away from breaking 450 in his career at age 37, which is pretty damned impressive.

MAY 29, 1956 . . . Tom Acker (1-1, 2.19 ERA, 12.1 IP, 6 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) got the start today against Cincy’s Vern Law (2-2, 5.40 ERA, 33.1 IP, 6 K’s, 1.50 WHIP). Kaline scored a run off a Willie Mays sac fly in the bottom of the first to put us in the lead, and Del Crandall hit his fifth homer of the year in the bottom of the second inning, extending our lead to 3-0. But an error at first and a passed ball advanced a runner to third in the top of the third, and Frank Robinson drove it home with an RBI double to put the Redlegs on the board, trailing 3-1 heading into the bottom of the third. Baker hit his second homer of the year, making it 4-1 in the bottom of the fourth, and in the bottom of the fifth Jackie Robinson hit a two-run blast, his sixth of the season, to expand the lead to five runs. Willie Mays hit one immediately following, his 19th of the season, and Ernie Banks made it back-to-back-to-back homers with his seventh! Del Crandall batted into a double play to end the inning, but we’d exploded offensively and led the Redlegs 8-1 heading into the sixth. Frank Robinson hit a homer for the Redlegs to start the sixth, pulling them within six runs, and Elmer Valo hit a homer off Erskine, making it 8-3. Larry Jansen came in with two outs in the top of the seventh, men on second and third, and Ted Kluszewski hit a two-run single off him to make it 8-5, but we got into the seventh inning stretch still leading 8-5, and in the bottom of the inning Jackie Robinson hit his second homer of the game to lead off, making it 9-5. Jansen stayed out to close things out in the top of the ninth as we held tough to beat the Redlegs by four runs, a 9-5 margin.

Ton Acker lasted 5.1 innings with four hits, three strikeouts and two runs (one earned) to improve to 2-1 with a 2.04 ERA. Erskine remains hit or miss, giving us 1.1 innings with three hits and a walk for three earned runs. But Jansen came in and held our ground, giving us 2.1 excellent innings, one hit and a strikeout improving his ERA to 4.82. We outhit the Redlegs 13-8, outhomering them 6-2 thanks to Crandall, Baker, Robinson, Mays and Banks. Baker led us with four hits for two runs and an RBI, while Robinson had two homers for two runs and three RBIs. Mays added two RBIs to his tally while staying in front of the homerun race, taking the lead over Ted Williams who has 18.
 
MAY 30, 1956 . . . We have two games tonight and one tomorrow against Milwaukee (17-20) and then get three shots at Brooklyn (31-9), our boys still trailing the Dodgers by six and a half. Camilo Pascual (3-3, 3.80 ERA, 45.0 IP, 32 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) got the start in game one this afternoon against Johnny Antonelli (4-4, 2.61 ERA, 69.0 IP, 36 K’s, 1.09 WHIP).

Pascual started out well, getting two quick outs, but then gave up a single to Hank Aaron, who stole second base. He then hit Eddie Mathews with a pitch, an E6 fielding error allowed Joe Adcock to reach first and load the bases, and then he walked Johnny Logan to put the Braves up 1-0. A visit to the mound seemed to calm him, but he then walked Hal Smith, giving the Braves their second free run. A pop fly to center that was out of Mays’ range scored two more runs, and this one was turning into a full-on fire. Pascual finally got the last out, but we went into the bottom of the first trailing 4-0, and I had to strongly consider whether he had a second inning in him after a 38-pitch first inning. Jackie Robinson hit a solo homer to center, putting us on the board with a run in the bottom of the inning, And I gave Pascual a chance to stay in and clean up his mess, and he settled in with a 14-pitch, two strikeout second inning. Banks hit a solo blast to left of center to make it a 4-2 ballgame, matching Robinson with eight homers on the year, and we went into the third inning trailing by two. But the Braves got an RBI single out of Johnny Logan in the top of the third. Bill Serena pinch hit for him in the bottom of the inning though we were able to get no runs from it, Larry Jansen coming in to pitch starting with the top of the fourth.

Jansen got us through three innings with the score still 5-2, and we brought Hersh Freeman in for the top of the seventh, hoping to keep the margin where it was so our bats could get us back in this one. But he gave up a double, got a groundout to first, and then surrendered an RBI single to Hank Aaron, digging our hole deeper. Eddie Mathews added to the damage with a homer, and we went into the stretch trailing by six runs. Our bats stayed weak, and with the game a blowout we brought in Erskine to throw in the eighth, staying in to finish the ninth as well, bringing up Roger Maris in the bottom of the ninth with six runs to make up. Maris batted out to short, but Gene Baker got a hit into center, reaching first. Crandall reached base on a fielder’s choice that picked off Baker, and Erskine picked up a two-out single, moving Del Crandall to second with two outs. And Al Rosen ended this sad affair with a weak hit to the left fielder. Milwaukee won this one 8-2.

Pascual took the loss, falling to 3-4 with a 3.75 ERA thanks to a three inning outing -- three hits, two K’s, three walks and five runs, only one of which was earned. Jansen pitched three innings with two hits and two K’s, and Freeman gave us an inning with three hits, giving up three runs in the process. Erskine had two really solid innings with the game out of reach, only surrendering one hit while striking out a pair.

Robert Diehl (1-1, 3.33 ERA, 27.0 IP, 12 K’s, 1.26 WHIP) got the start in game two, facing Richard Sovde (2-1, 3.79 ERA, 19.0 IP, 12 K’s, 1.37 WHIP). Diehl got two outs and then Hank Aaron nailed one into the bleachers to put the Braves up 1-0. Jackie Robinson hit an RBI triple in the bottom of the fourth to tie things up 1-1, and an error on a flyout by Banks allowed Robinson to come around and score, putting us up 2-1! But with two outs in the top of the fifth, Diehl gave up a two-run homer to Joe Adcock, staying in one batter too long and putting the Braves back up 3-2. Harry Dorish came in and got the final out, sending us into the bottom of the inning trailing by a run. Gene Baker got it back, hitting his third homer of the season to tie things up 3-3. Dorish gave up a solo blast to Adcock in the top of the eighth, his second of the game, to make it 4-3 Braves, bringing in Hersh Freeman with one out. A groundout to first and a strikeout ended the inning, sending us into the bottom of the frame with a run to make up. We came up empty, and Koufax came in for the top of the ninth and kept us from losing any ground. Ernie Banks had his hero moment in the bottom of the inning, hitting his ninth homer of the year to tie this one up 4-4 with one out. Maris reached first safely on a fielding error, and Gene Baker got a hit into right field, sending Maris to third. And a fielding error by the shortstop with two outs allowed Koufax to reach first safely, driving in the winning run as we took this one from them 5-4!

Koufax won this one with his arm AND his bat, improving to 1-2 with a strikeout and no hits or runs against him. Diehl gave us 4.2 innings to start the game, with six hits and three walks contributing to three earned runs. Dorish then came in and kept it a game, going 2.2 innings with two hits, two K’s and one run. Freeman got us two outs when we needed them, setting up Koufax to still have a shot at turning this one into the win. The Braves outhit us 8-7, but we made ours count. Jackie Robinson (two hits, one run, one RBI thanks to his triple) and Gene Baker (two hits, one one, one RBI via homer) were our offensive leaders, while Banks batted in two and scored once with a homer of his own.

MAY 31, 1956 . . . We’ve brought Bob Porterfield up as a spot starter, so we can keep Cohen and Rogovin fresh for the Brooklyn series. He only played in one game at the major league level this year, getting us the final out of a 2-5 loss to the Redlegs on April 20, giving up one hit before getting a flyout from Dick Groat. He’s gone 1-2 for AAA Los Angeles through 28.1 innings, striking out 18 with a 1.34 WHIP and a 4.76 ERA. He pitched this afternoon against Bob Turley (4-4, 3.63 ERA, 67.0 IP, 44 K’s, 1.34 WHIP). Ernie Banks got us on the board with his 10th homer of the year, a solo blast to right that put us up 1-0 in the bottom of the second. In the bottom of the sixth, Jackie Robinson walked, reached second on a wild pitch, successfully stole third after an intentional walk of Willie Mays, and then made it home on an E8 throwing error off an Ernie Banks flyout, giving us a 2-0 lead with Mays now in scoring position. Maris Walked, and then Mays managed to steal third with the count 1-1 on Baker. Mays made it home as they chose to throw Baker out at first instead, and then Turley walked Crandall and Porterfield to load the bases. He walked Al Rosen, scoring our fourth run of the game via Turley’s NINTH WALK, and when they didn’t pull Turley, Kaline took full advantage and belted one into left to score another run and keep the bases loaded for Robinson, who flew out to second -- we’d go into the top of the seventh with a 5-0 lead. Carl Erskine came in for the seventh inning, and Joe Adcock got the Braves on the board with an RBI single with one out. Johnny Logan hit a two-run blast to make it 5-3, and with two outs and a man on second we brought Jansen in, getting the final out to protect what was left of the lead. Joe Adcock got himself an RBI single in the top of the eighth to cut our lead to a run, but Jansen got us through the jam and Koufax started warming up for the ninth. The top of our order got us nowhere in the bottom of the eighth, so Koufax came in to save it, getting three outs with relative ease as we closed out the 5-4 victory.

Porterfield did his job, lasting six innings with three hits and a strikeout, no runs, giving him a 1-0 record and a still-perfect ERA. Erskine got another shot with a big lead and nearly blew the whole thing, giving up four hits and three runs with one strikeout and only two outs completed. Jansen got a hold, his second of the year, lasting 1.1 innings with three hits and a strikeout, with just the one earned run. And Koufax notched his fourth save of the year with two strikeouts and a walk, giving him a 3.44 ERA through 36.2 innings pitched in 15 appearances. Milwaukee again outhit us, this time 10-7, but we’re getting better at manufacturing runs, with Robinson and Mays each getting their first stolen bases of the season. Banks hit three times for a run and two RBIs, and Maris added a pair of hits and a run on the ground. But he’s struggling this year, hitting just .189/.249/.358 through 42 games, with two doubles, two triples and seven homers.

We head into the three-game Brooklyn series with a 26-16 record, seven games behind the Dodgers who currently are 33-9 and 4-1 against our Cubs. They are 9-3 in one run games to our 7-5, and they’ve won nine of their last ten. They’re also 19-6 on the road, and in general they’ve had our number this year. It’s time for our team to step up and show we’re serious about getting into this playoff race for real. Our rotation is fully rested, with Cohen, Rogovin and Pascual ready to go in the series.

In the AL, the Yankees (32-13) have a 3.5 game lead on Detroit (27-15) and an 8.5 game lead on Cleveland (22-20). Their +76 Run Differential is the only one better than Brooklyn (+69) or ourselves (+56) in the majors.

[jksander]

JUNE 1, 1956 . . . It’s time for the showdown series here in Chicago, as our second-place Cubs (26-16) take on the first-place Brooklyn Dodgers (33-9) in a three-game series. We’ve played them five times prior to this afternoon’s game, and they have a 4-1 record against us, which makes these head-to-head games even more important -- we’re riding a two game winning streak, as are they, but trail the Dodgers by seven games. Hy Cohen (8-1, 1.73 ERA, 88.2 IP, 103 K’s, 0.71 WHIP) pitched for us this afternoon, facing Don Kaiser (4-2, 2.76 ERA, 45.2 IP, 14 K’s, 1.18 WHIP).

In the bottom of the first, Jackie Robinson hit a two-run homer to left, putting us up 2-0 with his ninth homer of the season! Willie Mays nearly broke it wide open in the bottom of the fifth, but his deep blast to right was blown barely safe, and made for a quick catch by the right fielder or we’d have added three runs to the total. As it stood, both pitchers had been locked in after the first inning, and we went into the sixth still holding our original 2-0 lead. And though we were outhitting them consistently, we weren’t able to string baserunners together, making this one a tight battle to the finish. Cohen entered the top of the eighth with just two hits and eight strikeouts, setting their batters down three in a row via flyouts to bring up the heart of our order in the bottom of the inning. Robinson walked to start the frame, advancing to second on a groundout to first by Ernie Banks which gave us our second out, and Roger Maris struck out swinging to send us into the top of the ninth just needing Cohen to stay sharp enough to complete the game. Unfortunately for him, he came out and gave up back to back runs to pinch-hitters Sandy Amoros and Deacon Jones, so we brought in Koufax to get the outs. Amoros advanced to third on a fielder’s choice, though Koufax did get Jones out at second. Duke Snider struck out looking, and Gil Hodges hit a frozen rope to center that made for an easy out via Willie Mays as we held tough to win this one 2-0.

Hy Cohen improved to 9-1 with just four hits through eight innings, striking out eight and throwing 116 pitches, improving his ERA to 1.58 on the season, while Koufax notched his fifth save of the year with a strikeout and no hits, giving him a 3.35 ERA through 37.2 innings pitched. We outhit Brooklyn 6-4, led by Robinson, who hit twice and walked once, scoring a run and batting in two with his homer. Al Kaline scored our other run on the ground, hitting once. Mays, Banks and Baker got hits as well, with Al Rosen reaching base once on a walk as well.

JUNE 2, 1956 . . . Saul Rogovin (6-2, 2.57 ERA, 77.0 IP, 97 K’s, 0.88 WHIP) pitched in game two of the series against Connie Johnson (7-1, 2.39 ERA, 75.1 IP, 74 K’s, 1.01 WHIP) who has been red hot for the Dodgers, having won seven games in a row, including a 6-1 win over us on May 8, the last time he faced us. So if any game had pitching duel written out in advance, this one was it. Both pitchers got through the first two innings with just one hit apiece, but Rogovin came out in the third and struck out the side, upping the ante in the battle. He struck out another pair in the fourth to ensure the game stayed scoreless, and after a walk by Al Rosen to start the bottom of the fourth Willie Mays came up with two outs and hit a two-run blast to center, his 20th of the season, to give us a 2-0 lead! Rogovin struck out the side again in the fifth, but in the top of the sixth he gave up a homer to Carl Furillo that narrowed the margin to one run. He then gave up one to Pee Wee Reese that tied things up, before a great catch in the outfield by Mays ended the inning. Rogovin kept the game close after that, but it remained deadlocked at two runs each heading into the top of the ninth. Saul stayed in, and struck out Reese, Snider and pinch-hitter Deacon Jones consecutively, but we couldn’t get a run in to walk it off, sending us into extra innings knotted up 2-2.

Rogovin stayed out in the top of the tenth, striking out Sandy Amoros to give him 18 for the game, tying his own regular season NL record! He then broke that record by striking out Solly Hemus, before a double by Don Hoak forced us to bring in Larry Jansen from the bullpen. A quick popout to left by Fred Hartfield sent us into the bottom of the inning still tied up. Maris was hit by a pitch to immediately take a base in the bottom of the inning, but we couldn’t bring him around. Koufax came in to pitch in the top of the 11th, getting us three quick outs and bringing us up with the top of our order ready to hit. Rosen and Kaline batted out quietly to left and center, and Robinson got robbed at the wall to keep this one going into a third hour. We brought Hersh Freeman out to throw in the top of the 12th, and he pitched around a baserunner to get the outs we needed. With two outs in the bottom of the 12th, Roger Maris got a hit into the outfield, taking second and putting himself in position to win this one. They walked Gene Baker, and we brought in Del Crandall to replace Roy Jarvis, but he struck out swinging -- and on it went! Freeman stayed out to pitch in the 13th, getting us three quick outs without a lot of fuss, but that was it for him -- we brought out Daniel Howard to pinch hit in the bottom of the inning. Howard grounded out to first, but AL Rosen hit a single just barely into the outfield to take his base. Kaline struck out looking, bringing up Robinson who popped out to short. Harry Dorish came out to pitch in the top of the 14th, allowing Snider to reach first, but striking out a pair and getting Amoros out via a grounder to second base. And FINALLY, with one out, Ernie Banks came out and walked it off with a homer to right, his 11th of the year, to win this one 3-2 in the bottom of the 14th!

Saul Rogovin lasted 9.2 innings with just five hits and two earned runs, striking out 19 batters, but he left the game with it tied in the 10th so it goes down as a no-decision despite his throwing 139 pitches. Jansen, Koufax and Freeman gave us 3.1 innings with one hit, one walk and one strikeout combined, and then Dorish came in to win it, improving to 2-1 on the year and a 4.86 ERA, giving up just a walk with two strikeouts as we held tough to win this one. We outhit the Dodgers 8-6 in the marathon -- Kaline hit three times but was stranded every time. Banks hit twice and won the game with his homer, while Mays added a hit for a run and two RBIs. Al Rosen got a hit and scored our other remaining run.
 
JUNE 3, 1956 . . . With a chance to sweep the Dodgers here at Wrigley, Tom Acker (2-1, 2.04 ERA, 17.2 IP, 9 K’s, 1.08 WHIP) pitched against Johnny Podres (6-1, 2.00 ERA, 81.0 IP, 41 K’s, 0.96 WHIP). This time Duke Snider put the Dodgers up quickly, a two-run blast to left in the top of the first giving them a quick 2-0 lead. But in the bottom of the fourth, Jackie Robinson got us on the board, hitting a run-scoring triple to make it 2-1. We loaded the bases in the bottom of the fifth but were unable to bring in the tying run. Carl Erskine came out to pitch in the top of the sixth and got us through it unscathed, and Jackie Robinson opened the bottom of the inning with a triple that went into the deep left corner, his second triple of the game! Ernie Banks hit one deep into center, driving Robinson home to tie the score with an RBI double and we were able to head into the seventh tied up 2-2. Erskine stayed out and added another pair of K’s to his solid performance, keeping us in this one as he seems to finally be finding a groove against major league batters. Del Crandall doubled to start the bottom of the seventh, but though he eventually took third, we weren’t able to bring him home. Harry Dorish came in to pitch with two outs and a man on first in the top of the eighth, but his first batter proved disasterous. He gave up a hit single to Hodges, and an E9 throwing error at third allowed Duke Snider to come all the way around from first to score the go-ahead run. He struck out the final batter to send us into the bottom of the inning, but the lead was lost. Thankfully we had the heart of our order up to hit, and Ernie Banks got a two-run blast into left to put us back on top 4-3 with his 12th of the year. Gene Baker hit his fourth homer moments later, giving us a bit of breathing room up by two, amd we brought Koufax out to to close it out. Two strikeouts and a flyout was all it took and we came out of this one with a 5-3 win and the sweep!

He only threw for one out (and gave up an unearned run for Erskine in the process) but it was enough for Harry Dorish to take the win, improving to 3-1 on the season with a 4.76 ERA. Koufax got his sixth save and struck out a pair, set up nicely by Erskine who had his best effort of the season -- 2.1 innings, one hit, four K’s, one unearned run. Tom Acker gave us five innings with four hits, six K’s and two earned runs, dropping his ERA to 2.38 through 22.2 innings. We outhit Brooklyn 10-6, led by Banks (two hits, one run, three RBIs) and Robinson (two triples, one run, one RBI). Crandall also hit twice but was unable to score any runs.

We have tomorrow off, and then play three against Pittsburgh and four against Philly this week at Wrigley. We’ll then finish the homestand with a pair against the Giants on the 12th and 13th of June.

[jksander]

JUNE 5, 1956 . . . Can we keep our win streak going? Today we’re welcoming Pittssburgh (24-23, 10.5 GB) to Wrigley, and they’ve been a surprising thorn in our side this year, having beaten us four of the last five times we’ve played. With us now 4.5 games back of the Dodgers for first place, these games remain hyper-important. We need to prove we can continue to win consistently, particularly when playing in front of these partisan home crowds, because it’s only going to get more difficult as the summer heats up.

Camilo Pascual (3-4, 3.75 ERA, 48.0 IP, 34 K’s, 1.33 WHIP) pitched in game one against Pittsburgh’s Hank Aguirre (3-2, 2.20 ERA, 41.0 IP, 20 K’s, 0.95 WHIP). The score was knotted at 0-0 through three innings, with Pascual giving up a hit in each inning but also managing to contribute to a double play in each as well -- and though Aguirre hadn’t given up a hit yet, he’d walked three and seemed on the edge of a collapse if we could just find a chink in his armor. Del Crandall got our first hit of the game in the bottom of the fifth, and a Pascual sacrifice bunt got him into scoring position, while a wild pitch then advanced him to third! Aguirre walked Al Rosen, bringing Kaline up with men on the corners and two outs, but he flew out to right to end the inning with the game still scoreless. We wore Aguirre out quite a bit in the sixth, adding a pair of hits to his tally without managing to score, but in the bottom of the seventh Del Crandall got a great hit off a sinker that didn’t sink, blasting it into the left field bleachers to make it 1-0 Cubs with his sixth homer of the year. He walked Rosen and Kaline, and Robinson then got a line drive into right field, giving us loaded bases! Mays and Banks struck out, however, and we went into the top of the eighth with a slim 1-0 lead.

Carl Erskine came out and pitched beautifully to get us into the bottom of the eighth looking for insurance. Koufax came in with one out and the bases loaded, and he got our second out with relative ease, before walking in the tying run, sending us into the bottom of the ninth knotted 1-1 but avoiding a complete disaster. Daniel Howard pinch-hit for Koufax but grounded out to first. But Rosen got a nice hit into left, a clean single, and Kaline took a walk to put him in scoring position. Robinson grounded out to first, advancing the runners, but Mays struck out swinging and sent us into extras again. Hersh Freeman came out to pitch in the top of the 10th, holding his ground and keeping the Pirates from getting anywhere, while Banks and Maris quickly got back to back hits to put a run in scoring position with no outs. Ed Bouchee walked the bases loaded, amd Del Crandall hit a sac fly into right that batted in the winning run -- we’d held tough, and the win streak lived as we beat the Pirates 2-1 in ten!

Pascual had a great night, lasting seven innings with just five hits, three strikeouts and a walk -- no runs -- bring his ERA down to 3.27. Erskine got his first hold of the year, but Koufax blew the save, leaving it to Freeman (1-2, 5.65 ERA) to get us out of there with just a walk and a strikeout. Erskine was charged with two hits and an earned run, with a walk and a strikeout, but he has gotten his ERA down to 9.75 through 12 innings of work. His early struggles will be hard to erase, but he’s proving to be a hard worker and I am confident he’ll prove to have been worth the investment. Each team had seven hits, with Del Crandall’s two hits, two RBIs and a run scored proving to be the difference-maker for us on offense.

JUNE 6, 1956 . . . Hy Cohen (9-1, 1.58 ERA, 96.2 IP, 111 K’s, 0.69 WHIP) got the start today against Bob Friend (5-4, 2.73 ERA, 85.2 IP, 37 K’s, 1.06 WHIP). Cohen had not given up a hit yet in the game, when in the top of the fourth Ken Boyer hit a solo blast to left, putting the Pirates up 1-0. We tied it up quickly in the bottom of the fourth, however, when Gene Baker hit an RBI single, sending Banks around to score from second, advancing Roger Maris into scoring postion. Maris stole third moments later, scoring on a wild pitch, giving us the 2-1 lead! Al Rosen hit a changeup all the way out of the park in the bottom of the fifth, his ninth homer of the season, which added some insurance up 3-1 on Pittsburgh. Jackie Robinson hit his 10th of the year to make it 4-1, and we went into the sixth feeling much more confident about our lead. Cohen stayed out the rest of the way, and he was dominant as always -- they only had one baserunner in the final three innings as we shut them down 4-1.

Cohen continues to shine, improving to 10-1 with a 1.53 ERA, pitching a three-hitter while striking out 11 and giving up just the one earned run. We outhit the Pirates 8-3, led by Banks (two hits, one run) and Baker (two hits, one RBI). Cohen has said he is not interested in negotiating an extension until he’s in his final contract year after this season, and if he continues to put up Cy Young numbers he’s going to be an expensive signing if we want to keep him from testing the waters of free agency.
 
JUNE 7, 1956 . . . Saul Rogovin (6-2, 2.49 ERA, 86.2 IP, 116 K’s, 0.84 WHIP) is up for today’s game, facing down Pittsburgh’s Johnny Klippstein (3-5, 4.09 ERA, 77.0 IP, 43 K’s, 1.13 WHIP). He picked up right where he left off after his record-breaking start against the Dodgers, striking out the first batter he faced, but at least early on in this one his ability to get outs off soft contact proved to be his ace in the hole. Roger Maris got us the lead in the bottom of the second with an RBI single, and Rogovin didn’t allow a single baserunner until the top of the fifth. Al Rosen hit a double that drove in two more runs in the bottom of the fifth, giving us a 3-0 advantage, and Gene Baker hit an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth that made it 4-0 Cubs. Rogovin completed the two-hit shutout, as we kept our win streak alive with another series sweep here at home!

Rogovin improved to 7-2 with a 2.26 ERA, striking out 10 batters and giving up just the two hits in 97 pitches. We had seven hits ourselves, led by Maris (two hits, one RBI) and Baker (two hits, one run, one RBI).

Heading into the Philly series, we’re now 32-16 and just trailing the Dodgers by two games! The Phillies, meanwhile, are 24-24 and 10.5 games back, though they now hold third place in their control. We hold an eight game winning streak, and have yet to lose a game against the Phillies this season. In the American League, the Yankees (35-17) have a 4.5 game lead on Detroit (29-20) and a 7.5 game lead on Cleveland (26-23). Boston, nine games back with a 25-25 record, is struggling in a league where all but two teams are still within ten wins of the lead. Only Baltimore (18-36) and St. Louis (15-35) are far enough out of contention to barely draw any notice in either league.

And whereas last year we were dominating the NL based on our hitting, this year no one’s really standing out in that regard. We and Brooklyn each have run differentials of +60 or higher, and only the Yankees (+72) are better. And in our league, teams like Milwaukee (22-27, 13 GB) are going to bear watching, as their +10 run differential suggests they’ve been underperforming in close battles, which could mean a mid-season resurgence is possible once they figure it out.

[jksander]

JUNE 8, 1956 . . . Camilo Pascual (3-4, 3.27 ERA, 55.0 IP, 37 K’s, 1.27 WHIP) started today against Philly’s Curt Simmons (3-3, 5.21 ERA, 38.0 IP, 13 K’s, 1.76 WHIP). Del Crandall batted in a run to put us on the board up 1-0 in the bottom of the fifth, and Al Rosen got a hit into center that drove in a second run just moments later. Pascual was sharp as a blade throwing from the mound this afternoon, until the top of the eighth when he gave up a solo blast to left by Jim Dyck that made it a one-run ballgame. Koufax came in with two outs and a man on first, getting the final out safely to send us into the bottom of the eighth still leading 2-1. With no insurance runs available, Koufax stayed out to pitch in the top of the ninth with a one-run lead, and he promptly gave up a solo homer to right by Del Ennis, blowing the save and tying it up 2-2. He then gave up a solo blast to left by Randy Jackson, and with just 13 pitches thrown he’d completely flipped the script on this game. Bob Thurman batted in a fourth run, and with the final out finally secured, we went into the bottom of the ninth trailing 4-2 and needing a miracle if we were going to fly a “W” in this one. And we didn’t find one. Philly shut us down and took the two-run win, snapping our win streak and leaving everyone in our dugout completely stunned.

Sandy Koufax took the loss, falling to 1-3 with his third blown save of the season. Three hits, one walk, one strikeout and three earned runs in 1.1 innings of work undid everything solid Pascual had done with a 7.2 inning three-hitter. Pascual had five K’s and three walks to go with a single earned run, but at 116 pitches he was unable to complete the game without risking injury -- he’d already set a career high for pitch count. We outhit Philly 9-6, with Rosen (two hits, one RBI), Baker (two hits, one run) and Banks (two hits) leading the charge. It just wasn’t enough to overcome the late-game collapse.

JUNE 9, 1956 . . . Tom Acker (2-1, 2.38 ERA, 22.2 IP, 15 K’s, 1.01 WHIP) got the start today against Philly’s ace, Robin Roberts (5-5, 2.36 ERA, 84.0 IP, 48 K’s, 0.79 WHIP). Rosen got on base quickly in the bottom of the first, and Al Kaline got an RBI triple deep into the outfield, putting us quickly ahead 1-0. Willie Mays batted him home with a shallow line drive to left for a single, and we went into the top of the second leading 2-0. And Acker stayed sharp, pitching consistently well and keeping all the Philly batters on their heels. Willie Jones hit a homer off him in the top of the sixth, however, cutting our lead to one run. Philly committed a pair of infield errors in the bottom of the sixth to put Kaline and Mays on base, but Banks grounded out at first to keep us from buying any insurance runs. Acker pitched wonderfully, getting us through the eighth inning still ahead 2-1, his longest start as a major-leaguer, and in the bottom of the eighth Ed Bouchee pinch-hit for him, taking a ball to the shoulder for the automatic walk. Al Rosen got a hit into left for a single, and Kaline hit a sharp blast into right to load the bases. Jackie Robinson hit a sac fly to right, driving in a run, but a double play got Philly out of the inning with only a two-run deficit. Koufax came in to close -- he got a quick out to start the inning, but then gave up a hit to Del Ennis, walking Smoky Burgess and bringing up Red Schoendienst in a dangerous situation. He struck Red out looking, and they brought in Randy Jackson to pinch hit with two outs and two on. Sandy tried to get one outside, but Jackson swung and hit it square on, driving it into the bleachers, putting the Phillies up 4-3. Koufax got the final out, but for the second game in a row we’d collapsed in the ninth -- would we be able to take it back? Banks batted out to short, Maris struck out swinging, and Baker batted out to right, ending this one as a 4-3 defeat. We now head into tomorrow’s pair of games needing a real morale boost as the Phillies keep showing they want back in this pennant race.

Koufax blew the save for the second night in a row, both of them because of Randy Jackson homers. He fell to 1-4 with the loss, his ERA now at 4.22 thanks to two hits, a walk, a strikeout and three earned runs. Acker gave us eight innings with five hits, eight strikeouts and one earned run, throwing 107 pitches and improving his ERA to 2.05 through five starts. Philly outhit us 7-5 as Roberts held tough for his sixth win in a complete game 149 pitch effort. Rosen and Kaline were sharp at the top of the lineup, with Rosen notching two hits and a run, and Kaline hitting twice for a run and an RBI. Our only other player to hit was Mays, with one hit and an RBI. No one walked.
 
JUNE 10, 1956 . . . Hy Cohen (10-1, 1.53 ERA, 105.2 IP, 122 K’s, 0.56 WHIP) pitched in the first game of the doubleheader, facing Don Newcombe (6-4, 3.16 ERA, 91.0 IP, 50 K’s, 1.04 WHIP). Philly got on the board in the top of the second when Jim Dyck hit a sac fly to left, allowing Red Schoendienst to score from third, and it became an epic duel from there. We went into the top of the seventh trailing still 1-0, with Cohen only having given up two hits with nine K’s, and Newcombe hadn’t given up even a hit, though he’d allowed two runners via a walk and a hit-by-pitch. Cohen got two quick outs, then surrendered a hit to Dyck, but Newcombe hit a weak squib to Banks who got the ball to Baker at second for the final out. And Kaline came out and hit one into left in the bottom of the second, breaking up Newcombe’s no-hitter, though a Robinson grounder into a double play completely negated the hit. Cohen did everything he could to give us a chance, getting us into the bottom of the ninth still just trailing by one run. With two outs, Al Rosen got a flyball to drop into right, putting the tying run on first, and Al Kaline beat out a weak infield squib to move Rosen into scoring position for Jackie Robinson to work some potential magic. But Robinson took the count all the way full and then couldn’t get his hit out of the infield. We lost our third in a row, this time by a 1-0 margin, and our complete lack of run support is becoming a significant issue.

Newcombe pitched a three hitter, striking out three and walking one, while Cohen (who took the loss) fell to 10-2 with a four hitter, striking out a dozen and walking one. Losing 1-0 in a shutout like this is a tough one for any pitcher to swallow. Kaline had two hits and Rosen had one, while Baker was our only other baserunner with a walk.

Saul Rogovin (7-2, 2.26 ERA, 95.2 IP, 126 K’s, 0.78 WHIP) came out for the second game as we fought to avoid a sweep, pitching against the Phillies’ Joe Nuxhall (5-3, 2 SV, 1.82 ERA, 59.1 IP, 35 K’s, 0.76 WHIP). Ernie Banks hit a solo blast to right in the bottom of the second inning, giving us a 1-0 lead with his 13th homer of the year, but Richie Ashburn tied it up with an RBI double in the top of the third, and they got back into the lead with a Del Ennis RBI single just minutes later. Al Rosen tied it up with a sac fly to left, scoring via Roy Jarvis from third, and in the bottom of the fourth a solo blast to center by Banks, his 14th of the year and second of the game, put us ahead 3-2. Rogovin struck out the side in the fifth, and he stayed strong into the eighth when he surrendered a hit to Willie Jones for a homer that tied the score at 3-3. Harry Dorish came in with two outs and no one on, and Banks got the out with a well-timed grab and throw to first to get us into the bottom of the eighth knotted up. Unable to get anyone on base in the inning, Dorish stayed out to pitch in the top of the ninth, Del Ennis reaching base on a rare error by Gene Baker on a throw to first. And on the next pitch he allowed a two-run homer by Schoendienst that dug us yet another hole as the Phillies made the comeback official, taking the lead by two runs. With no outs, we brought Larry Jansen in from the bullpen, and he got us out of the inning without any further damage. But we went into the bottom of the inning needing two runs to tie it. Kaline reached first on a throwing error by the Phillies’ second baseman, and Willie Mays then hit a two-run blast to left, his 21st homer of the year, tying things back up 5-5! With two outs, Roger Maris got a hit into right, taking first safely, but Gene Baker flew out to center and this one was headed for extras.

Jansen stayed out in the 10th, getting an out and then surrendering two hits, the second of which was an RBI triple by Richie Ashburn, which forced us to bring Koufax in with us trailing 6-5. He got the two outs, a strikeout and a groundout, sending us into the bottom of the inning with yet another hole to dig out of. Crandall got a hit up the middle for a single, and Daniel Howard came in to pinch-hit for Koufax, getting a flyball into left field for a hit, putting Crandall into scoring position. With one out, Al Kaline got a hit into right, loading the bases, but Robinson popped out to the catcher, bringing up Mays who, with a full count, got one into deep left, driving in the tying run! All Banks needed to do was get a hit into the outfield, but he popped out to right and we were headed for another. Hersh Freeman got us three quick outs, bringing up Maris in the bottom of the 11th. He walked, but Baker batted into a double play, and Crandall hit one straight to the right fielder. More baseball! Bob Porterfield came in with two outs, men on first and second in the top of the 12th, getting a pop-up straight to Mays to end the frame still tied up 6-6. Porterfield then got a hit up the middle to take first in the bottom of the inning, and Al Rosen drove him to second with a hit into center that put two on, no outs. But Kaline hit into a double play, moving Porterfield to third with Robinson again up with a chance to end this. They intentionally walked him, bringing up Mays who seemed like an even bigger threat ... but his hit went straight to third, and a pickoff at second sent us into the 13th no closer to a win than we were an hour ago.

Porterfield stayed out to pitch, having only thrown one in the 12th, and he got us ably through the 13th with no signs of trouble. Ernie Banks reached first with a hit to right, and an error at second allowed Banks to stay safe there while Maris took his base off what would have been (and should have been) a potentially easy double play for the Phillies. Instead, Gene Baker came up with no outs, and we brought Bill Serena in to pinch-hit, taking his base on balls, at which point Crandall took their exhausted reliever to a full count and then walked in the walk-off run, ending this one as a 7-6 victory. There would be no Philly sweep, thank God, though we’d taken six total pitchers to get there, with only Erskine still in the bullpen without a pitch thrown.

Porterfield got the win, improving to 2-0 with a perfect ERA, lasting 1.1 innings with no hits and a strikeout. Rogovin gave us 7.2 innings but threw 132 pitches en route to four hits, three walks, nine strikeouts and three earned runs. Koufax and Freeman were particularly helpful in keeping us in this one in extras, combining for 2.1 innings with one hit, two K’s and one walk between them. We outhit the Phillies 12-8, led by Ernie Banks with three hits (two of them for homers!) for three runs and two RBIs, while Willie Mays added two hits for a run and three RBIs.

Porterfield has only thrown 7.2 innings this year, due to my concern that only his fastball has been reliable, but it is clear we’ll need to use him more in the bullpen rotation if we’re going to develop any consistency -- Harry Dorish has had a steep dropoff in all three of his pitches and has reportedly been talking about retiring (though he is on contract through next season), and Larry Jansen has been outperforming expectations though he is also showing signs of age. Koufax and Freeman are our future, it is clear, but we’ve got to get them support -- particularly Koufax, who has been showing signs of his inexperience, particularly during this series. He can’t be expected to pitch well in every high leverage situation. Erskine is a dice roll at the moment, though his three year extension at less than $20,000 a year makes him an inexpensive one, and Porterfield’s only on contract through this season. So our bullpen’s definitely going to need attention, and if there’s a trade to be made this summer it’s going to likely be to help us add experience there.

With just the two upcoming games against the Giants left in this homestand, against whom we are 3-1 this year, we’re now holders of a 33-19 record, 4.5 games back of Brooklyn (38-15) with Philly now trailing us by 5.5 games at 28-25. The Giants are 24-30, just 14.5 games out of the division lead. And our upcoming road stretch does not breed confidence. We’ll have to face Philly four times, Pittsburgh four times, and Brooklyn three times in addition to three road games against the Giants, before we come back home to play Milwaukee and St. Louis ahead of a Cincy doubleheader on the road for Independence Day. So if we’re going to stay in this race, we need to figure things out during what will be easily our toughest slate of the season.

Ted Williams currently leads the home run race with 24 dingers, followed by our own Willie Mays at 21 and Ted Kluszewski with 18. Williams is still keeping pace to shatter the Babe’s record, and the New York media is appropriately apoplectic that a slugger from Boston would dare challenge the Bambino, with Mickey Mantle sitting in fourth place with a mere 16 bombs to his name.

[jksander]

JUNE 12, 1956 . . . Camilo Pascual (3-4, 3.02 ERA, 62.2 IP, 42 K’s, 1.21 WHIP) got the start today against Jack Sanford (0-1, 1.80 ERA, 10.0 IP, 7 K’s, 0.90 WHIP). Willie Mays put us on the board with an RBI single in the bottom of the first, Dick Whitman, making his first start at left field since signing a one year deal with us out of free agency last month, got a hit in the second inning in his first at-bat, but he was picked off on a fielder’s choice that put Baker on base. Pascual reached base when they threw inside and plunked him on the shoulder, and Al Rosen reached first on a walk, loading the bases with two outs. Kaline hit a deep shot into left, adding a run and keeping the bases loaded. Robinson flew out to center to end the inning with us up 2-0 on the Giants. Norm Cash hit an RBI double for the Giants in the top of the sixth to make it a 2-1 ballgame, and in the top of the seventh Pascual gave up a hit to Norm Siebern, who tied the game up with an RBI single. Hersh Freeman came in with one out and a man on first, getting the outs we needed to get into the stretch tied up 2-2. Freeman got us safely through the top of the eighth as well, but we couldn’t get anything going in the bottom of the inning. Freeman stayed in to start the ninth, getting an out but then being hamstrung by a pair of errors in the infield, and we brought in Larry Jansen with one out and two on, hoping to avoid going down a run. Baker made a good throw to second off an infield hit, getting us out number two on a fielder’s choice that put runners on the corners, at which point Jansen gave up an ill-timed fastball and Hector Lopez had himself an RBI double to take the lead and put two in scoring position. A popup to Baker ended the inning, sending us into the bottom of the ninth down by a run. Dick Whitman walked to start the frame, and Bill Serena came in to pinch hit for Baker, hitting into a double play. But Del Crandall hit a homer into the bleachers, tying things up, and Daniel Howard got one into left field, rolling to the corner and allowing him to leg out a double! They intentionally walked Rosen, and Kaline took them to a full count and got his base on balls as well, giving us loaded bags with Robinson coming up to the plate! But he flew out to center, drawing a huge chorus of boos as we were forced yet again into extra innings.

Koufax came in to pitch in the top of the 10th, getting us out of the inning without any damage, though Robinson committed his first error at third base for the season -- our FIFTH of the game as a team ... though the error was on a foul ball, and did not result in a baserunner. Willie Mays thought he had the walk-off homer to end this one in the bottom of the inning, but the wind kept it in and their guy fielded it at the wall in right. Ernie Banks got himself a double and they walked Whitman, bringing up Bill Serena, who hit into a double play and kept this one going. Koufax got us through the 11th without incident, however, giving us another shot at putting this one away. Bouchee pinch-hit for Crandall to start the frame, but he hit it straight at the first baseman, who made a great catch to avoid taking one to the face. Roger Maris came in to pinch hit for Koufax, and he came out of it with a much-needed triple! They walked Rosen, and then Al Kaline got a blast into right field, rolling toward the wall as Maris came home to win this one for us, 4-3!

Pascual gave us 6.1 innings of five-hit ball, walking one, striking out three and giving up two earned runs as he kept his ERA at a solid 3.00. Freeman came in for two innings with two hits and a run, and Jansen held tough with one hit and the two outs we needed, setting up Koufax well for the eventual win. Sandy is now 2-4 with a 3.97 ERA, striking out two without a hit in two full innings of work in extra innings. We outhit the Giants 10-8 to survive this one, led by Kaline with three hits, a walk and two RBIs, while Whitman got a hit and two walks, doing everything he could to make something happen on the basepaths. Mays had a hit, a walk and an RBI, and Rosen hit once, walked three times and scored a run on the ground. Maris has been struggling offensively this year, hititng just .196 through 199 at-bats, but he came through big in this one.

Tonight’s 11-inning effort was our second multi-inning game in a row and our fourth so far in June, bringing our record in extras to 5-2 this season and improving our record in one-run games to 11-7. But I am concerned when I see that we’re 24-9 at home and 10-10 away, while the Dodgers -- only 3.5 games ahead of us now! -- are 14-3 at home while holding a stunning 24-13 record on the road. We’re not going to be able to get back to the World Series this year without a phenomenal run up to the All Star break, that’s for damned sure.

JUNE 13, 1956 . . . Tom Acker (2-1, 2.05 ERA, 30.2 IP, 23 K’s, 0.91 WHIP) started our last homegame of this long stretch of June, going up against Seth Morehead (5-4, 3.63 ERA, 84.1 IP, 51 K’s, 1.21 WHIP). And he opened the game by giving up a triple to Jim Gilliam on the very first pitch of the afternoon. Ed Bailey got himself an RBI single to put the Giants up 1-0 in the top of the first, but Acker got us out of it without too much damage, and he struck out two batters in the process. Jackie Robinson hit one off the wall at left to give him enough time for a double with two outs in the bottom of the first, and Mays tied it up with an RBI single to send us into the second inning tied up 1-1. The Giants retook the lead in the top of the third when Ed Bailey hit one into the left field bleachers to give them a 2-1 advantage, and Acker’s stuff was inconsistent, forcing us to make a move to the bullpen in the top of the sixth as he wore himself out. Carl Erskine came in to pitch in the sixth, and heading into the stretch we were still down only by the one run, but our bats remained silent. Erskine got us through the eighth inning without looking like he broke a sweat, which helped a ton considering we’ve had so many extra innings games lately which have taxed our bullpen. We started the bottom of the inning with an Al Rosen walk, and Kaline beat out an extremely weak infield hit to give us two runners in the blink of an eye! They walked Robinson to load the bases, and Willie Mays brought this place into pure pandemonium with a grand slam to give us a 5-2 lead! Erskine got himself a hit into the outfield with two outs, driving in a sixth run, and Al Rosen made it 7-2 with an RBI single as we’d batted around! Kaline walked the bases loaded, and Jackie Robinson got a hit into deep right, coming out with a triple that scored three more runs! No one even really noticed as Mays grounded out to first to end the inning, as we’d exploded for NINE RUNS in the bottom of the eighth to turn this one into a rout! Erskine stayed out to finish the game, a triumphant moment that showed this home crowd the reason I’d felt so strongly about signing him in the first place, and we beat the Giants handily 10-2.

Tom Acker had a rough five innings, giving up two runs off six hits, with a walk and four strikeouts. But Carl Erskine had the game of his year to make up for it, pitching four innings out of the bullpen with no hits and four strikeouts, a 42-pitch masterpiece that brought his ERA down to 7.31 while giving him a 1-1 record. We outhit the Giants 10-6, most of it in the eighth inning, led by Mays with two hits, a run and five RBIs. The grand slam gave him 22 homers for the year. Jackie Robinson added two hits two runs and three RBIs, while Rosen and Kaline each had two hits and two runs scored, making the top of our order a hundred percent lethal.

We’re now heading on the road, with a four game set at Philly (28-27) next on our agenda. We are now 35-19, just three games back of the Dodgers.
 
JUNE 15, 1956 . . . Hy Cohen (10-2, 1.49 ERA, 114.2 IP, 134 K’s, 0.65 WHIP) pitched the first start of this four-game set at Philadelphia, facing down Joe Nuxhall (5-3, 2.24 ERA, 68.1 IP, 43 K’s, 0.76 WHIP). Al Rosen got things going quickly with a solo blast to center, a 430-footer that gave him 10 homers for the season. But the hits were few and far between from there, as this one stayed a tightly contested affair. Jackie Robinson started the top of the sixth off with a double off the right field wall, but we weren’t able to make anything happen and went into the bottom of the inning still leading just by the one run. We were unable to add any insurance runs, going into the bottom of the ninth with the one run shutout intact and Cohen still under 100 pitches. He got three quick outs and we were able to get out of here with a 1-0 win in game one! The Philly crowd certainly wasn’t happy with the result, but Cohen proved why he’s our ace.

Cohen improved to 11-2 on the year with a 1.38 ERA, giving up four hits with six strikeouts and no walks. We had eight hits, led by Rosen’s two hits and his first-inning leadoff homer, while Robinson had two hits as well. Kaline, Mays, Maris and Baker hit once each as well, and Mays walked twice as well, though he was unable to manufacture any runs himself.

JUNE 16, 1956 . . . Saul Rogovin (7-2, 2.35 ERA, 103.1 IP, 135 K’s, 0.79 WHIP) started tonight against Don Newcombe (7-4, 2.88 ERA, 100.0 IP, 53 K’s, 0.99 WHIP). Jackie Robinson hit a solo homer to left in the top of the fourth to give us a 1-0 lead and him his 11th homer of the season. Less than ten minutes later, Roger Maris hit his eighth of the year to right, giving us a 3-0 lead and drawing a chorus of boos from the home crowd. Baker hit an RBI double with two outs in the top of the sixth, extending our lead to four runs, and Rogovin, who had double-digit strikeouts for the seventh time this year, continued to rain fire on their batters no matter what he threw. Both pitchers threw complete games, and we held tough to shut them out for the second day in a row, blanking the Phillies 4-0.

Rogovin improved to 9-2 on the year with a 2.16 ERA, pitching a two-hitter with 11 strikeouts and just two walks. Newcombe only gave up six hits himself, striking out six and walking two, but he gave up four runs (three earned) and we made the hits we did get count. Mays led the team with two hits and two runs scored, Maris’s homer gave him a run and two RBIs, and Robinson’s homer got it all started. Mays is our only hitter currently above .300 for the year, hitting .320/.368/.703 with eight doubles, three triples and 22 homers, but we’ve found ways to get wins when we need them. If the rest of the team can find his level of consistency, we’ll be tough to beat as the summer heats up.