Let's Play Two!

[jksander]

OCTOBER 11, 1956
WORLD SERIES GAME SEVEN
New York Yankees (3-3) @ Chicago Cubs (3-3)

1:05 PM -- Wrigley Field ... Attendance: 45,271
Weather: Partly Cloudy, 49 Degrees ... Wind blowing in from right at 11 miles per hour

NEW YORK STARTER: Harvey Haddix (1-0, 4.00 ERA, 9.0 IP, 5 K’s, 0.89 WHIP)
CHICAGO STARTER: Hy Cohen (1-0, 3.46 ERA, 13.0 IP, 11 K’s, 1.54 WHIP)

Nothing like hearing 45,000 Cubs fans screaming as Cohen strikes out Mickey Mantle to end the top of the first in a game seven. But Haddix is no pitching slouch, and we knew going in, this game was not going to be easy. Top of the third, the Yankees drew blood first, Hank Thompson hitting a ball straight out of the park at left to put them up 1-0. Poppell reached base on a walk in the bottom of the inning, quickly stealing second and third, and Rosen hit into right field -- Poppell thought it was deep enough, but Howard made a killer throw and took him out at home plate. Damn it! Minoso hit an RBI single in the top of the sixth that drove Haddix in from second to add to the lead for the Yanks, but Willie Mays hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning to tie us up 2-2, and it stayed that way into the stretch.

The Yankees pulled Haddix after seven, bringing out Dick Littlefield to close out the game. Kaline led off with a line drive into left in the bottom of the seventh, legging out a double, but we couldn’t get him anywhere, but Cohen stayed sharp as a box of tacks, setting their batters down one, two, three in the top of the eighth to keep it knotted! Cohen got us out of the top of the ninth on a double play to keep it tied into the bottom of the inning, but Littlefield shut us down and just like that we’re headed for extra innings. Sandy Koufax came out to pitch in the top of the 10th, striking out Yogi Berra, and getting Howard to pop out to center. Two outs, c’mon let’s do this! Pinch-hitter Kermit Wahl grounded to third, with a quick throw to first for the final out and we had a chance to walk this off! Poppell walked with one out, but Rosen batted out to center, and Mays grounded out to first to keep the game going. And the Yankees took the lead in the top of the 11th, Mays making a throw to pick off John Hunton as he came around from third ... headfirst slide, bobbled throw, and he was safe, with Minnie Minoso now safe on first. Minoso stole second, but Mickey Mantle popped out to center for the final out, sending us into the bottom of the 11th with work to do. Jackie Robinson got us started with a lead-off hit, hitting it deep into center but not deep enough to go for a second base ... he took first and Banks came up to the plate. And Banks made himself into an all-time Cub hero for life, absolutely HAMMERING a ball straight out of the park at center, a walk off homer that gave us a 4-3 win and the World Series win for our second year in a row!!! It’s pandemonium here as the fans rush the field and it’s official -- these Cubs are letimiately building a dynasty!

Hy Cohen set everyone up perfectly by pitching nine innings with seven hits, four strikeouts and just the two earned runs, earning Player of the Game honors, and Koufax came in to win it, lasting two innings with a hit, a walk, a strikeout and an earned run, giving him a 2.08 ERA through 4.1 playoff innings! Each team had eight hits in this 11-inning final game for the ages; Ernie Banks’ homer won the game, the only runs he batted in the entire series! Willie Mays added two hits, a run and two RBIs. Jack “Jackrabbit” Poppell walked twice and stole two bases as well, and though he never scored a run in the game, his energy kept the team focused and determined to win this one at any cost.

[jksander]

OCTOBER 12, 1956 . . . Willie Mays was named the MVP of the World Series this season, getting 13 hits in the seven game series, finishing .433/469/.900 with four doubles, two triples and two homers! And now we await the official start of the offseason, with a lot of questions remaining about what moves we’ll need to make heading into another season of title defense.

OCTOBER 20, 1956 . . . The only Cub player to retire this offseason was Dick Whitman, who played in 229 games over 10 seasons with the Cubs, Dodgers and Phillies, finishing with a .267 average, 33 doubles, three triples and three homers, with 61 runs batted in. He’ll be able to tell his grandkids one day that he played with the greats and got a World Series ring while playing on our bench this year, but he’s unlikely to be remembered by any but the most diehard baseball nuts a few years from now. Freddie Angemeier, our first base coach, has also chosen to retire this season, making that our highest profile opening outside the many ones we’ll have to fill in our minor leagues.

OCTOBER 28, 1956 . . . We’ve been working on a deal since mid-September, but we can finally announce that Hy Cohen is staying in Chicago through at least the 1960 campaign! We’ll be paying him just $22,000 this year in the final year of his four year deal, but he’ll get a raise to $138,000 in 1958, with $150,000 in the 1959 season and $175,000 in 1960. He’s 82-14 over the first three years of his contract, with an ERA of 1.97, 718 strikeouts, an 0.84 WHIP and 29.8 WAR, which makes it a no brainer to keep him here anchoring our rotation for as long as he is willing to stay! At this point it’s been said he could probably run for mayor and win, so we did not want to leave any doubt heading into the 1957 season == Cohen is our man.

In other news, the league has announced the NL’s Gold Glove awards for fielding excellence, and we’ve got four of them on our team! Del Crandall won as the league’s best fielding catcher, with Al Rosen winning at 1B, Jackie Robinson at 3B and ... no surprise ... Willie Mays at center field. Mays has now won three Gold Gloves in a row, and Crandall has won three in a row as well at catcher.

We’ve also worked out a move with the Yankees, sending them Alonso Perry, who played a few weeks for us last year before tearing his ACL, in exchange for 20-year-old right handed reliever Dick “Hummer” Drott (#10 BNN), 21-year-old 3B Steve Demeter and 19-year-old SS Eugene Klyczek. The Yankees are betting that Perry will still have his incredible running ability and range to go with his slugging after coming back from a year-long injury, but we have our doubts and feel it’s worth the tradeoff to get a top young pitcher while getting the three years and $465,000 of Perry’s contract off our books.

[jksander]

OCTOBER 29, 1956 . . . Sandy Koufax wound up winning Reliever of the Year despite his negative WAR, because in this day and age no one tends to care much about bullpen pitchers, and he had the name recognition. In the end his massive number of saved games and his skill as a stopper won out. That, and he had the incredible performance in extra innings of that game seven victory in the World Series, so it’s hard to argue against it even if there were few competitors.

OCTOBER 30, 1956 . . . The Platinum Stick awards were announced today, and we dominated the category, with wins for Jackie Robinson at 3B, Ernie Banks at shortstop, Willie Mays at center field and Al Kaline for his work in right field.

OCTOBER 31, 1956 . . . It was a great day for Jack Poppell, as he earned 13 of the 16 first-place votes for NL Rookie of the Year, beating out Norm Cash of the Giants and Luis Aparicio, also of the Giants! Though not unexpected, it was definitely exciting for the young second baseman to get his time in the sun, as now he’s getting recognition around the country and not just here in Chicago.

NOVEMBER 1, 1956 . . . For the third year in a row I have been named the NL’s manager of the year. If they’d let me take my name out of the running I would. I personally felt Jim Weathers in Brooklyn deserved the award -- after three years of misery as a head coach in St. Louis, he came to the Dodgers’ clubhouse and became their skipper, making the right on-field moves to get them to 102 wins, just one year after the ballclub finished a miserable 77-77. And had it not been for our 26-game win-streak late in the year, they would have been the team playing in New York in October. That deserves recognition.

NOVEMBER 2, 1956 . . . Cy Young voting is now official, and Connie Johnson of the Dodgers deservedly won for his incredible season. He received 13 first-place votes, while Hy Cohen finished with two and Sal Maglie, also of the Dodgers, received the final first place vote. Johnson finished with 103 points, with Cohen at 62, Maglie at 57, Saul Rogovin with 33 and Joe Nuxhall of the Phillies coming in with 17 points. All four runners up had great seasons, but Johnson’s was one for the ages, an all-around dominating season.

NOVEMBER 3, 1956 . . . Willie Mays came through and won himself his third NL MVP award of the last four seasons, getting 15 of the 16 first place votes (the only other one went to Jackie Robinson), who finished second in the overall totals as well, just a few points ahead of Connie Johnson who finished third. It’s hard to argue against the NL’s home run champ in this one, but it was a crowded, competitive field this season, with the top five finishers garnering 100+ points, including Hy Cohen (4th) and Sal Maglie (5th).

Free agency is now ongoing, but it’s not a particularly strong group of unsigned guys. We’re going to ride things out and make moves in the trade market if the need arises. We already have a solid farm system, with nine players in the BNN top 100, and we haven’t even dealt with the amateur draft yet, where I’m hoping we can steal some good guys lower in the draft and outmaneuver some of the weaker teams. If not, the trade market’s been good for us in that regard as well.

[jksander]

DECEMBER 24, 1956 . . . Last week we signed right-handed reliever Bob Miller as our first round draft pick, and he has agreed to a minor league contract with a bonus worth $11,000. Right now he is a two star player with 3.5 star potential, excellent movement and control, with a lot of upside and not a lot of experience. He has future closer written all over him, which fits our goals as eventually we hope long term for Koufax to develop into a starter. Miller will spend this year with AA Des Moines while he gets his feet wet, but has potential to move up to AAA if he does well. We signed right fielder Stan Johnson, a solid 2.5 star prospect, in the second round and he officially signed for $5,000. His gap power and baserunning skills drew our attention, and our scouts say he could develop into another solid contact hitter overall, with reasonable eye though his outfield arm is going to need time to develop to major league levels. At this point he’ll spend his first season with the AA Burlington Bees where we’ll see if his solid work ethic pays dividends. The rest of our draft was inconsequential.

The St. Louis Cardinals drafted 21-year-old pitching phenom Bob Gibson #1 in the first round, but they’ve yet to officially sign him. If ownership fails to pull off a deal with Gibson, it will go down as the biggest bonehead move in major league history, because that kid’s got “Cards Ace of the Future” written all over him. No compensation pick in the world will make up for losing out on him if they fail.

JANUARY 3, 1957 . . . It took them $24,000 as a bonus, but the Cardinals signed Bob Gibson. Not sure if he’ll be ready to start for them this year, but if he does, they should definitely win some games.

JANUARY 16, 1957 . . . In a down year in the ballotting for entry into the Hall of Fame, no one player garnered enough votes to make it through, though Arky Vaughan did get 74.3 percent in his third year on the ballot -- close, but no cigar, Arky! Starters Bill Lee and Schoolboy Rowe dropped off the ballot in their fourth and third years respectively, while right fielder Wally Moses only got 0.3% of the vote, falling off in his first year of eligibility.
 
MARCH 11, 1957 . . . Spring training is upon us! In addition to the 37 players on our current 40-man roster, we’ve decided to invite some others who are in our minor league system to participate, to gauge how they have developed and wheteher any may be ready to be considered for callups this season. Those who aren’t on the 40-man roster include 2B Earl Dreisenbach, age 23, who is coming up from AAA Portland, as well as recent draftees Bob Miller and Stan Johnson. Meanwhile, with our bullpen looking stronger than ever, my pitching coaches will be evaulating Sandy Koufax as our potential fourth starter, behind Cohen, Rogovin and Pascual. His stamina has improved dramatically during the offseason training he’s undergone, and his fastball and curveball have developed significantly, to go along with his above-average forkball and changeup.

We do not play any games on opening day this year, which is scheduled for April 15. Instead, we’ll open the 1957 season with a home game against the Milwaukee Braves here at Wrigley, followed by four road games against St. Louis, two road games against Milwaukee and two road games against Cincinnati, before getting a three-game weekend stretch against St. Louis at Wrigley from April 26-28. We won’t get our first taste of the upgraded Brooklyn roster until April 30th, when we’ll travel to play the Dodgers for two in a row and then Philly on the road for three. It’s a tough-looking schedule for our two-time world champs, not getting to start a legitimate home stretch until the middle of May.

We’ve had some player development updates come in from our scouts after offseason workouts, and it is becoming clear that Bob Porterfield’s arm has fallen off considerably this offseason. At this point he’s likely a two-star player at best, and we’ve gone ahead and designated him for assignment so we can place him in our minor league system. If he isn’t picked up off waivers, he’ll either go back to the minors or we’ll have to release him, as he no longer has the stuff to compete at the major league level. 27-year-old Bob Purkey, however, has seen solid improvement in both control and stamina, and his above average fastball / sinker / slider combo should get him through a lot of relief innings this season. Al Kaline has also developed well over the offseason months, continuing to see significant development in his defensive abilities which were already among the best at his position.

[jksander]

MARCH 21, 1957 . . . We wound up making a deal with Milwaukee to send Bob Porterfield to them, retaining half of Porterfield’s final year contract in addition to sending $10,000 cash. In return we’ll receive left-handed reliever Matthew Peoplis, a 22-year-old unranked prospect who will give us some pitching depth in the minors. In the end we’ll still be saving approximately $10,000 over outright releasing Porterfield, and he’s able to get a shot at still getting innings with the Braves. This is one of those trades that won’t draw much attention, but it gets the job done.

APRIL 15, 1957 . . . Based on spring training results, we’re looking quite good again this year for our defense of our titles, with Philly and the Redlegs looking like they’ve managed to improve their teams significantly as well. I’m pleased to see that Sandy Koufax seems to have developed to the point where he should be able to compete as a starter for us. He made seven spring training starts, throwing 28.2 innings, and came out with a 4-0 record, 40 K’s, a 3.45 ERA and 1.08 WHIP. He’ll still give up plenty of hits, but he struck out 12 batters per nine inning stretch while only walking three. It’s time to give the 21-year-old time as part of the rotation and not in the bullpen.

Unfortunately, our first-round draftee Bob Miller, who was just named the 67th best prospect in the majors, developed bone chips in his elbow and will miss at least three months of the season. He was solid in spring training games, however, going 2-1 in spring training games with a pair of holds, throwing 16.2 innings with a 2.70 ERA, a 1.50 WHIP and six strikeouts. He may be ready for a call-up to the majors later in the summer if he recovers well from the injury.

The BNN Top Ten Prospects list has been released, and Pittsburgh’s Jim Gentile (1B) remains the #1 prospect in baseball, though the Pirates still have him in single-A for the upcoming season. It’ll be interesting to see if he develops enough to move up in the ranks and get a shot at the bigs. St. Louis’ Bob Gibson comes in #4, and they tested him out in their bullpen in two spring training games but it looks like he’ll be joining their big-league rotation this season as either their #4 or #5 starter. It’ll be hard for them not to improve over the last few seasons -- they haven’t had a winning season since 1952, and the last two seasons they’ve COMBINED for 92 wins. Don Demeter remains our top prospect, ranked 20th overall, with reliever Mike McCormick coming in 26th, and Bo Belinsky, Dick Drott and Larry Sherry coming in within the top 50. Our second round pick Stan Johnson is ranked 146th overall, not bad all things considered.

This year with our starting core of pitchers having developed well, we’re looking at using a core five of Cohen, Rogovin, Pascual, Purkey and Koufax, with a trimmed down bullpen based around the idea that we’ll be expecting our starters to handle most of their innings. That will allow us to have a stronger bench of hitters and back-up fielders, which I am hoping will help us in the long run, particularly in tight games where we didn’t often have as many pinch-hitting options last season.

1957 Chicago Cubs Opening Day Roster

BATTERS
C - Del Crandall
1B - Al Rosen
2B - Jack Poppell
3B - Jackie Robinson
SS - Ernie Banks
LF - Roger Maris
CF - Willie Mays
RF - Al Kaline

Bench: Les Moss, Ed Bouchee, Jerry Bunyard, John Killorean, Al Gionfriddo, Mike Krsnich, Don Demeter, Bob Will

STARTERS
Hy Cohen
Saul Rogovin
Camilo Pascual
Bob Purkey
Sandy Koufax

BULLPEN
Stopper: Carl Erskine
Middle Relief: Mike McCormick
Long Relief: Larry Jansen
Spot Starter: Dick Drott -- Will primarily start in double-header situations, filling a long relief role otherwise.

[jksander]

APRIL 16, 1957 . . . Opening day at home has arrived! Hy Cohen’s up to pitch in game one, facing off against Milwaukee’s Johnny Antonelli. The weather is soggy and cold, with a game time temperature in the low fifties and breezy blowing out, but this place is packed to the rafters with fans looking to get their first view of our Cubs as we continue to develop a dynasty! We got a couple runners on base in the bottom of the first, but the game stayed scoreless, both pitchers taking advantage of the damp conditions. Jack Poppell got a walk in the bottom of the third, stealing his first base of the season and then advancing to third on a groundout by Kaline, and Antonelli struggled from there, walking Robinson and Mays back to back to load the bases. Ernie Banks batted out to Hank Aaron in center, but even Aaron’s cannon of an arm wasn’t quick enough to stop Poppell from sliding in to score, giving us a 1-0 lead and setting these fans’ cheers up to eleven! Al Rosen doubled to drive in another pair, but Willie Mays tried to make it around to home and was tagged out to end the inning, Cubs up 3-0!

The Braves got on the board with an RBI double by Johnny Logan in the top of the fourth, and though Maris tripled to start the bottom of the frame, we followed it with a pair of popouts and a strikeout to keep from getting a run back. Johnny Antonelli surprised everyone by hitting a solo homer in the top of the fifth to cut our lead to one run, sending us into the bottom of the fifth with a slimmed 3-2 lead. Del Crandall hit a home run in the bottom of the sixth, scoring two runs to give us a three run lead with the first Cub homer of the year, but the wind seemed to pick up blowing outward, and Milwaukee took advantage with a two-run blast of their own, a Gene Woodling homer that made it 5-4. Cohen got through a bases loaded jam to keep the lead alive heading into the seventh inning stretch, but he wore his arm out doing it and we’ll have to go to the bullpen for the last two innings.

Dick Drott came out to pitch in the top of the eighth, just his sixth major league appearance ever after playing five games with the Yankees last year. The 20-year-old is a highly-touted prospect, and we’re confident in his stuff, and looked forward to seeing how he’d handle this situation. He started out with a walk for Don Mincher, but struck out pinch-hitter Jack Dittmer, bringing up the top of their lineup. He struck out Gene Woodling looking, and Maris made a great catch off a rocket hit by Bill Bruton to get us out of the inning efficiently! Alas, top of the ninth with one out, he loaded the bases, and pinch-hitter Lee Walls tied the score with a popout to Kaline in right, and Don Mincher hit a line drive to left that drove in the go-ahead. Trailing by a run with runners on second and third, we brought Carl Erskine in, and a pop-up to first ended the frame. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Jackie Robinson got a hit through the gap to reach first, but Willie Mays struck out swinging and we lost our home opener in heartbreaking fashion, 6-5.

Hy Cohen gave us seven innings with nine hits, eight strikeouts and four walks, an uncharacteristically off-kilter performance that allowed four runs and made him bow out after seven innings and 141 pitches. So it’s not entirely on Drott, who showed a lot of potential, lasting 1.2 innings with two hits, three strikeouts, three walks and a pair of earned runs. He’ll take the loss and a blown save, but Erskine’s a good example of how you just have to stick with it and the control will come. He started terribly last year and then turned into one of our best weapons. Milwaukee simply outhit us all afternoon, getting 11 to our eight. Willie Mays led the team with two hits, two walks and a run on the ground, while Maris also hit twice (including a triple) and scored a run. Al Rosen had a hit and two RBIs, and Crandall batted in another pair with his homer, picking up a walk as well. Jack Poppell got his first steal of the year off a walk, scoring a run despite striking out three times.
 
APRIL 18, 1957 . . . As rare as it was for us to lose our opening game, the Cardinals are enjoying even rarer air, having won their first two to remain undefeated! Saul Rogovin got his first start of the year tonight against Vinegar Bend Mizell on a cold one in St. Louis -- 44 degrees, a stiff wind blowing left to right, and a boisterous home crowd cheering their young team on. In the top of the third we took a 1-0 lead on the Cardinals, Jack Poppell hitting into a fielder’s choice that got Saul Rogovin out at second, driving Maris in to score from third. Poppell tried to steal second but was picked off to end the inning rather than getting himself into scoring position, but at least we’d taken the lead. Mizell walked Kaline to start the top of the fourth, but Kaline was later picked off on a fielder’s choice. Al Rosen hit a single into left to drive Mays around to score from second, however, and that added some insurance. Banks scored moments later off a wild pitch, giving us a sturdier 3-0 lead heading into the bottom of the inning. St. Louis got on the board in the bottom of the fifth, a groundout by Bill Sarni driving in a run from third, but Mizell struck out to end the frame and our lead stayed safe. Willie Mays hit his first homer of the year to give us a 4-1 lead in the top of the sixth. Jackie Brandt hit one into the left field seats in the bottom of the seventh to cut our lead to two, but Rogovin got two strikeouts in a row to end the frame, including his 10th of the night, catching Sarni looking. Robinson got a base hit to start the eighth inning, and then Willie Mays clobbered his second homer of the night, silencing the home crowd and giving us a four-run advantage. Al Kaline added an RBI single in the top of the ninth, and we held tough in the bottom of the inning to close out the 7-2 road victory.

Saul Rogovin completed the game, allowing only five hits, with 13 strikeouts against a single walk to go with the two earned runs. He’ll start the season with a 1-0 record and a 2.00 ERA. We outhit the Cardinals tonight 13-5, led by Mays with his three hits (two homers!) for three runs and three RBIs, while Jackie Robinson added two hits, two walks and a run on the ground.

The Baltimore Orioles have been the talk of the American League early on, winning their first three games of the year with a +14 run differential! It’ll be interesting to see if they can keep playing well as a team -- they have one of the best young pitching rotations in baseball and a ton of young talent coming up through the minors, but their entire team is young and untested. As far as their pitching goes, only veteran left hander Leon Foulk, playing long relief in their bullpen, is over the age of 28. Could be a great story for major league baseball if the Orioles can keep playing well.

We have a day off, and then three more games against the Cards on Saturday and Sunday.

[jksander]

APRIL 20, 1957 . . . This afternoon we have one game against the Cards, followed by a doubleheader tomorrow. Camilo Pascual got his first start of the year today, facing the Cards’ 25-year-old righty Larry Jackson, who last year went 6-16 with a 4.41 ERA and 77 strikeouts through 181.2 innings of work. Poppell quickly got a hit to start things out, and Kaline followed with a single of his own, Robinson hitting into a fielder’s choice that moved Poppell to third and took out Kaline at second. Mays got a great hit up through the gap past their second baseman, driving in a run and putting us up 1-0, showing plenty of first-inning hustle. Pascual had a one-hitter going through the first three innings, but with two outs in the bottom of the fourth he gave up an RBI single to Tony Kubek that tied us up 1-1. The game became a real chess match from there, neither team willing to give up anything, and the best thing we could cling to was that we were tied heading into the top of the seventh and that the Cardinals were going to the bullpen already, with former Cincinnati reliever Russ Kemmerer coming in to pitch.

Pascual stayed sharp, and in the top of the eighth, Jack Poppell hit a two-out double to drive Del Crandall in to score from second, giving us back a 2-1 advantage! Moments later Jackie Robinson got a hit into right, driving Poppell in to score from third, but Mays popped out to right,sending us into the bottom of the inning with a two-run lead. They brought Bob Grim out to pitch in the top of the ninth, and he kept us from adding any insurance runs, and Pascual got two quick outs in the bottom of the ninth, only to then allow two runners into scoring position with a pair of ill-timed hits. We brought Erskine in to pitch, with two outs and the two men on, and his first batter faced, pinch-hitter Dick Sisler, hit a two-run double along the right field line, tying things up. Jablonski batted out to Mays at center to end the inning, but we’d stumbled our way into extra innings in the process.

Kaline got a hit in the top of the 10th, but Robinson hit into a double play to end the inning scoreless.Erskine, who had thrown just three pitches in the ninth, stayed out in the tenth and immediately gave up a line drive to Orlando Cepeda for a base hit, walked their next batter, and then loaded the bases with another single. He then walked in the winning run and this disaster came to a fitting end as the Cardinals celebrated our complete and utter meltdown. Pascual came to within one out of a complete game win, and then we just blew it, no way around that -- Cardinals win, 4-3.

Pascual gave us 8.1 solid innings, allowing seven hits with four walks, four strikeouts and three earned runs, giving him a 3.12 ERA. Erskine, meanwhile, played as rusty a game as he has since early last season, allowing three hits with two walks, getting only one out. It’s only one game, but we need him to be able to come out in a situation like this and handle the pressure. St. Louis outhit us 10-8, our team led by Al Kaline who hit three times but got nowhere. Poppell was solid with two hits and a walk, scoring twice and driving in a run, while Robinson and Mays each batted in runs with a hit apiece.

Tomorrow’s doubleheader’s going to be interesting, as we go into it with a 1-2 record, likely to face their wunderkind first-rounder, Bob Gibson, in one of the two games.
 
APRIL 21, 1957 . . . Hy Cohen (0-0, 5.14 ERA, 7.0 IP, 8 K’s, 1.86 WHIP) is up to pitch in game one of our two games this afternoon, facing St. Louis starter Boyd Linker (1-0, 3.86 ERA, 7.0 IP, 1 K, 0.86 WHIP), a 23-year-old who was drafted in the 16th round this year’s draft. With one out in the top of the first, Al Kaline hit a triple into deep center, and Jackie Robinson blasted his first homer of the year over the wall at left, giving us a quick 2-0 lead. But St. Louis answered quickly as well, a runner reaching first on an error and then Jackie Brandt hitting a two run homer off Cohen, tying it up. Cohen and Poppell were both walked to start the top of the third, and Kaline got a great hit into right, allowing him to load the bases. Robinson struck out swinging, but Mays got a nice infield hit and they had no time to make a throw, allowing us to take a 3-2 lead. But Banks hit into a double play, preventing us from doing significant damage. They tied it up in the bottom of the third on a groundout by Stan Musial that still drove in a run from third, this game looking destined to be a brawl to the end. Kaline walked to start the top of the fifth, and Jackie Robinson hit another power-bomb into the left field seats, giving us a 5-3 lead with his second homer of the afternoon! We held that lead into the ninth inning, when Poppell got on base with a hit on one out, stealing second and third to get into scoring position! Kaline hit an infield RBI single to reach safely and drive Poppell home, increasing our lead to three runs, and Cohen held his ground in the bottom half of the inning and we were able to come out of this with a hard-fought 6-3 victory!

Cohen pitched a complete game with six hits, six strikeouts and three runs scored, only one of which was earned, giving him a 2.81 ERA through his first two starts as well as his first win of the season. We outhit the Cardinals 9-6, led by Jackie Robinson, who hit successfully twice, both homers, driving in four runs. Al Kaline, meanwhile, hit four times with two runs and an RBI, keeping his batting average at .500 through the first four games of our season. Poppell picked up a pair of steals to bring his total to three on the season, while Mays picked up his first.

Sandy Koufax got his first start of the year in the second game this afternoon, going up against Bob Gibson in his major league debut! Koufax blinked first, giving up a run in the bottom of the second thanks to an RBI double by Tony Kubek. Moments later Russ Nixon drove in another by hitting into a fielder’s choice, and we went into the top of the third trailing 2-0 -- this Cardinals team is young and hungry, and they’re going to be tough all year if they can keep it up. Poppell reached base safely on an infield hit to start the third, and Kaline got a great hit into right that drove him all the way around to third. Robinson hit into a double play, but Poppell was able to make it in, giving us our first run of the game. The Cards scored another in the bottom of the third, however, Brandt hitting an RBI double to make it 3-1, and they didn’t stop there -- Nixon hit a run scoring triple in the bottom of the fourth, and Wally Moon hit an RBI double to make it 5-1. Willie Mays loaded the bases for us with a slow-rolling hit out into center with one out in the top of the fifth, but all were left stranded. Koufax settled in, even striking out the side in the bottom of the sixth, but the damage had been done and our bats were not having any luck. The Cards pulled Gibson for Kemmerer in the top of the seventh, and in the top of the ninth, still trailing by four, we finally started to find a little sunlight ... Koufax got a base hit, and Poppell followed, Kaline picking up an infield hit to load the bases with no outs! Robinson and Mays batted out to left, however, though we scored a run off the Mays sac-fly. But Banks flew out to center as well and the game came to a 5-2 end, with the Cards celebrating the 2-2 series split.

Koufax’ game was a tale of two halves. The first four innings he gave up five runs. But as a complete game, he allowed nine hits, struck out four and only walked a pair, giving up just those five runs. Hopefully he’ll take the experience from this 105 pitch effort to realize he can get outs over a long period, and he has the skills to be a starter. He just can’t give up five runs over a three inning stretch and always expect our bats to bail him out. Bob Gibson pitched six innings for the Cardinals, allowing five hits and walking six batters, so he was lucky our bats weren’t firiing off hits today -- still, he only allowed the one earned run, which made for a solid debut. Each team tonight came out with nine hits, and we had four more walks them them and still lost by three -- that can’t happen regularly, that’s for damned sure. Poppell and Mays each hit twice, with our only runs on the ground coming from Poppell and Koufax.

We knew this April scheduling was going to make the start of our season a tough one. We have four more road games over the next four days, two in Milwaukee (3-1) and two in Cincinnati (1-4), before we get three against the Cardinals on our field. We’ll then play our next ten games on the road. By the time we get a real home-stand in mid-May we’ll have played 18 games on the road and just four at Wrigley -- so doing what we can to stay at least at .500 by that point will go a long way.

[jksander]

APRIL 22, 1957 . . . Bob Purkey is up to start in our first of two games against the Braves, who have started out strong in their first four games. Bob Turley will be starting for them for the first time this year as well, meaning they’re saving their ace to go against Rogovin tomorrow. The Braves got on the board quickly in the bottom of the first, an RBI single by Hal Smith putting them ahead 1-0. They picked up another when Turley himself hit an RBI double in the bottom of the second, and Johnny Logan drove in a third with a single. We loaded the bases in the top of the fifth, and Jack Poppell walked in a run to get us on the board. Kaline got a hit through the gap into center to drive in a second run while keeping the bases loaded, and Jackie Robinson then silenced the crowd with a double that scored another pair, putting us up 4-3 heading into the bottom of the inning. Robinson hit a sac-fly in the top of the sixth that drove Poppell in to score from third, and Ernie Banks hit a three-run homer a few minutes later to make it 8-3 heading into the seventh-inning stretch. Kaline hit a solo homer in the top of the eighth, his first of the year, and Jackie Robinson followed him with his third of the year to make it 10-3, which is where it would stay -- we dominated down the stretch and came out with the victory, improving to 3-3 on the young season.

Bob Purkey overcame a rough start to complete this game, allowing eight hits and three runs with just one walk and two strikeouts -- he’ll get to start the season with a 1-0 record and a 3.00 ERA. We outhit the Braves 11-8, led by Al Kaline with three hits, a walk, two runs and two RBIs. Jackie Robinson added two hits with a run and four RBIs, and Ernie Banks had two hits with a run and three RBIs. Poppell led off with no hits but managed to walk twice, stealing two bases and scoring twice, giving him five stolen bases this year in six attempts.

Brooklyn (5-1) now leads the NL by a game and a half over Milwaukee, while in the AL, the Yankees (4-1) have half a game’s lead on Detroit and a full game on the 4-3 Orioles. There are no winless teams left in baseball and no perfect teams.

APRIL 23, 1957 . . . Saul Rogovin (1-0, 2.00 ERA, 9.0 IP, 13 K’s, 0.67 WHIP) started today against Warren Spahn (1-0, 2.00 ERA, 9.0 IP, 3 K’s, 1.00 WHIP). The Braves got on the board quickly, as Rogovin allowed a solo homer off the bat of Gene Woodling on just the sixth pitch of the game in the bottom of the first, and it got worse -- Johnny Logan took it out of the yard in the very next at bat, back to back homers to give the Braves a 2-0 lead with just nine pitches thrown. Rogovin got out of the inning without a baserunner, and he seemed more fired up about it than anything, but it wasn’t the most auspicious beginning. Ernie Banks hit a solo homer to left in the top of the fourth to get us on the board, but the Braves hit another solo bomb in the bottom of the sixth, a second one by Logan, to give them a 3-1 lead. Dick Drott came in to pitch in the bottom of the eighth with the score still 3-1 Braves, and the homer train kept rollling -- Hank Aaron got his first homer of the year, with two outs, to score two more runs and pretty much seal the deal on this bastard of a game. We couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn, and they owned us the rest of the way, completing the 3-1 loss.

Rogovin fell to 1-1 with a 2.81 ERA, giving up three homers off five hits with five strikeouts and a walk. Drott came in and gave up one hit (of course, a homer) with two walks and a strikeout, and his ERA through his first two appearances is a gaudy 13.50. Then again, our bullpen has not been anything to write home about, and adjustments will almost certainly need to be made if it continues. The Braves outhit us 6-5, our offense being led by Roger Maris with a pair of hits but with nowhere to go. Only Banks managed to score, hitting his homer in the fourth to keep it from becoming a shutout. But he’s been struggling to make contact, hititng just .143 so far this season, as close to a slump as he’s ever been.

Maybe we can find our groove in Cincinnati where we’re now headed to play the 2-5 Redlegs for a pair.

APRIL 24, 1957 . . . Camilo Pascual (0-0, 3.12 ERA, 8.2 IP, 4 K’s, 1.27 WHIP) pitched today against the Redlegs’ Harry Josephson (0-1, 6.14 ERA, 7.1 IP, 6 K’s, 2.05 WHIP). Kaline got us started with an RBI single in the top of the first, and Jackie Robinson hit his fourth homer of the year over the center field wall to make it 3-0 in the snap of a finger. Al Rosen hit an RBI single to add another run, and Pascual hit an RBI single himself as we batted around! Poppell popped out to end the inning, but we led 5-0 so all was good in the world until Pascual opened the bottom of the inning with a solo homer by Nellie Fox -- what is it with us this year in giving up leadoff homers? Pascual came out with a double to lead off the top of the fourth but we weren’t able to get him around to score. With the bases loaded in the top of the seventh, Del Crandall hit a triple that scored three runs for us to put this one well out of doubt, leading 8-1. Pascual grounded out to add a run, and we went into the stretch leading by eight. But the Redlegs weren’t ready to quit -- Bobby Prescott hit a three-run blast to right, his first homer of the season, and cut the lead to five, and then just a blink of an eye later, Ted Kluszewski hit a three-run blast of his own and we were floundering, our lead now just 9-7 ... what the absolute hell? Pascual got out of the inning, but he was gassed and we were going to have to head to the bullpen the rest of the way.

Jackie Robinson batted in a run with a triple in the top of the eighth to give us a little more breathing room, scoring another run on a flyout by Mays. We walked the bases loaded and then Don Demeter hit a grand slam, his first-ever major league hit, to blow this one up 15-7. Al Kaline added another RBI single, and finally the inning came to an end, a seven-run inning for us following their six-run frame last inning and our four-run frame before that -- what a crazy game! We brought Miles McCormick in for the first time, pitching the remaining two innings with a nine-run cushion, and the insanity continued, the Redlegs picking a run back up off a wild pitch, and then pinch-hitter Wayne Terwilliger batting in another to make it 16-9. McCormick stayed out for the bottom of the ninth and was able to get through it without any further scoring as we completed an utterly unbelievable 16-9 victory over the Redlegs that took nearly three and a half hours to finish.

Camillo Pascual allowed nine hits and seven runs in a seven inning effort, striking out three and walking three as he improved to 1-0 but with a bloated 5.74 ERA. McCormick then lasted two innings with three hits, a strikeout, a walk and two earned runs, giving him a 9.00 ERA through his first relief appearance of the year. There were 33 HITS in this game, with our team leading 21-12. Robinson led with three hits, two runs and three RBIs, while Poppell had three hits, a walk, three steals and a pair of runs scored. Demeter, meanwhile, is still stunned about his grand slam in his first at-bat this season ... for the moment he’s batting a thousand, with perfect slugging!

[jksander]

APRIL 25, 1957 . . . Hy Cohen (1-0, 2.81 ERA, 16.0 IP, 14 K’s, 1.19 WHIP) pitched in game two against the Redlegs, facing Don Drysdale (1-1, 4.02 ERA, 15.2 IP, 13 K’s, 1.28 WHIP). After just one out, Cohen gave up hits to Groat and Kluszewski, an E5 error led to loaded bases, and then Gus Bell was hit by a pitch, driving in a run. Chuck Tanner grounded into a fielder’s choice as we kept another run from scoring, and then Hal Smith popped out to center, sending us into the second inning trailing by a run and with Cohen looking unusually vulnerable. We got Banks to second base thanks to a fielding error at first, but Maris grounded out to first, stranding him there in the top of the second. Cohen settled in well and the game turned into a pitching duel, and Willie Mays came through in the clutch in the top of the sixth, hitting a solo homer to tie us up 1-1! That was his third of the season. And it stayed that way into the final inning, with Al Rosen leading off in the top of the ninth still knotted. Rosen led off with a walk, but Maris batted out to center, though Rosen advanced into scoring position off a wild pitch. Crandall walked, and Cohen successfully sac-bunted for the third time in the game. But Poppell, also for the third time, failed to bring the runners home, and we went into the bottom of the inning with no hope outside of extra innings. But Cohen did his part and got us there, getting three quick outs with Drott and Erskine waiting in the wings. Cohen stayed out in the bottom of the tenth with it still tied, getting three more quick outs, but we still couldn’t buy a hit. So he stayed out and got us two more in the bottom of the eleventh, but with two outs and a man on first, Chuck Tanner hit a two-run walk-off homer to give the Redlegs a 3-1 11th inning victory.

Cohen fell to 1-1, though his ERA improved to 2.70, allowing eight hits with five strikeouts and three earned runs through 10.2 innings. The game was a true deadlock, as that final homer broke the hits tie as well, Cincy outhitting us 8-7. Willie Mays led the way with three hits, a run and an RBI, while Rosen hit twice and was stranded both times. We return to Wrigley with a 4-5 record, and we’ve demoted a pair of benchwarmers to to make room to bring Vern Law and Tom Acker back up to give us extra depth in the bullpen to get us through the upcoming St. Louis series and then our extended road trip.

APRIL 26, 1957 . . . St. Louis comes into Chicago with a 6-3 record, just a game and a half behind the Dodgers in first. Sandy Koufax (0-1, 5.62 ERA, 8.0 IP, 4 K’s, 1.38 WHIP) got the start this afternoon against Larry Jackson (0-0, 1.50 ERA, 6.0 IP, 0 K’s, 1.00 WHIP). Kaline got us going with an RBI double in the bottom of the first, and Koufax came out firing on all cyllinders to start this game, striking out four batters in the first three innings! Jackie Robinson batted Poppell in to score our second run in the bottom of the third, making it a 2-0 ballgame, but the Cardinals got on the board in the top of the fifth thanks to a one-out RBI single by Gene Smith. They tied it up as Bill Sarni hit into a fielder’s choice, and Koufax continued to struggle in the inning, as Wally Moon hit a RBI single to take the lead 3-2. We got out of the inning with a strikeout, but in the process we blew all our momentum. Koufax got us into the stretch still trailing by the one run. Don Demeter got another hit pinch-hitting for Koufax in the bottom of the seventh, and Jack Poppell got a hit into center field, getting Demeter into scoring position. Kaline got a great hit into right and Demeter tried to make the slide safely into home, but Wally Moon made the throw just in the nick of time to pick him off and Jackie Robinson grounded out to end the rally attempt.

Carl Erskine came in to pitch in the top of the eighth, and he absolutely failed to deliver, quickly putting us in a deeper hole with an RBI single by Stan Musial before getting the remaining outs we needed. Al Rosen got a run scoring single to fall in the bottom of the eighth to get us back into it, however, and Maris got on base, reaching second on a balk that pushed two runners into scoring position. Crandall loaded the bases, and Ed Bouchee came in to hit for Erskine, hitting a line drive up the middle to tie it up 4-4! Jack Poppell walked in a run to give us the lead, and Del Crandall scored another on a sac-fly to deep left by Kaline. Jackie Robinson kept the rally going with an RBI single that gave us a three-run lead, and Dick Drott came in to close it out in the top of the ninth. He did what needed to be done, pitching around a mid-inning walk to get us the 7-4 victory at home -- our first win in front of the hometown faithful this season!

Koufax held his own tonight, giving us seven innings with six hits, six strikeouts, no walks and three earned runs, improving his ERA to 4.80. Erskine picked up the win, improving to 1-0, but he gave up two hits and a run, and his ERA remains at 10.80. Drott picked up a save, walking one but not allowing any other baserunners, bringing his ERA down to 9.82. We outhit the Cardinals 12-8, led by Kaline and Robinson, who each hit twice with two RBIs. Poppell had a hit, three walks and stole three bases, scoring twice and driving in a run, while Don Demeter picked up his second hit in a row as a pinch-hitter, living up to his potential as he settles into life as a bench player in the majors.
 
APRIL 27, 1957 . . . Bob Purkey (1-0, 3.00 ERA, 9.0 IP, 2 K’s, 1.00 WHIP) started this afternoon against Dave Hillman (0-0, 7.42 ERA, 13.1 IP, 5 K’s, 1.80 WHIP) in our second game of the series against the Cards here at Wrigley. St. Louis quickly got on the board, a Frank Bolling triple followed by a Stan Musial groundout allowed them to take a quick 1-0 lead in the top of the first. Jackie Robinson tied it up in the bottom of the fourth, however, with a solo bomb out at center, his fifth four-bagger in two weeks! Purkey was remarkably efficient, throwing just 51 pitches through his first six innings of work, and we were still deadlocked 1-1 heading into the seventh inning stretch. The Cards got men on the corners in the top of the eighth, but a perfectly timed double play got us out of it with the tie still in place. Bottom of the ninth, Al Rosen led off with a base hit, but the wind kept a hard-hit Maris ball inside the park and allowed for an easy catch at the warning track, and we weren’t able to advance Rosen, going into extras still tied 1-1. Purkey, who had only thrown 78 pitches, stayed in for the 10th and quickly gave up a pair of hits and the lead, a Tony Klubek RBI single putting them ahead 2-1. He got the outs to get us through the rest of the inning, and we came up to bat with Poppell hitting first. Incredibly they made the mistake of putting him on base with four balls, and he stole second and third to get quickly into scoring position, but he was taken out at the plate on a fielder’s choice, leaving Jackie Robinson alone on first with Willie Mays up to bat, two outs. Mays got off a great hit, but it too was held inside for an easy catch on the warning track by their center fielder, and we lost this one 2-1 in 10 innings.

Bob Purkey fell to 1-1 with a 2.37 ERA, allowing just seven hits in a 10-inning complete game, striking out one and walking nobody, throwing just 92 pitches. They outhit us 7-6, with Robinson leading the way with a pair of hits, a walk, a run and an RBI, along with his first stolen base of the season. Al Rosen added two hits and a walk but got nowhere, while Poppell went hitless but got the 10th inning walk, picking up two steals to give him 13 already this season.

APRIL 28, 1957 . . . Saul Rogovin (1-1, 2.81 ERA, 16.0 IP, 18 K’s, 0.75 WHIP) pitched today against Vinegar Bend Mizell (0-1, 5.54 ERA, 13.0 IP, 10 K’s, 1.62 WHIP). This will be our last home game for a couple weeks, so we really need to make it count. So of course it turned into a red-hot pitching duel, both teams combining for three hits in the first five innings, though Kaline finally got us to break the stalemate with an RBI single that gave us a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the sixth. Smelling blood, we loaded the bases with just one out, but they played great defense and kept us from doing anything with all those baserunners. Don Demeter pinch hit for Les Moss to lead off the bottom of the seventh with a base hit, and Rogovin hit a sac-bunt to move him into scoring position, but again we couldn’t drive him home. Rogovin stayed out for the ninth and then collapsed, loading the bases, and we had to bring in Erskine, who got the out at home when Dick Stuart hit into a fielder’s choice. Ditto for Russ Nixon, who hit one straight to Poppell, who threw home for the second out, though the bases stayed loaded. Unfortunately, pinch hitter Willie McCovey hit one out into center and gave them a 2-1 lead, continuing our terrible stretch in close games. We got out of it without any further damage, but now had real work to do in the bottom of the inning, and let’s be frank -- we have NOT been hitting well. Maris led off with a strikeout, but Del Crandall walked, bringing up Ed Bouchee who was pinch-hitting for Erskine. He got off a good hit, but it went straight to the center fielder for out number two, at which point Poppell hit one straight to the right fielder and this one was over. Another one-run loss, this time 2-1.

Rogovin took the loss, falling to 1-2 with a 2.62 ERA, allowing only four hits with eight strikeouts and three walks, all three walks coming in the final frame. He wound up being credited with both runs scored, while Erskine earned the blown save, allowing just one hit and performing as well as anyone could expect considering how Rogovin set him up. The Cardinals out hit us 5-4 in this duel, with Kaline being the only player to bat in a run, Poppell being the man to score it, while adding two stolen bases to his tally to do so.

Our start this year has not been optimal, losing three of our four rare home games, setting us up for a brutal slog to end the month of April and start out the month of May. We’re currently 5-7 heading into our first series with Brooklyn (on the road, of course), which puts us in a tie for fifth in the NL. Brooklyn (8-3) leads the way, followed by St. Louis (8-4), Cincinnati (6-6) and the Giants (6-7). Pittsburgh is tied with us in fifth, with Philadelphia and Milwaukee only a game behind. This is definitely going to be a really challenging season, and we’ve got to get to the bottom of our run-scoring issues. Yes, we’re +12 overall in Run Differential through our first dozen games, but we’re 0-3 in extra innings, and we’re 0-4 in one-run games, which is unacceptable with our current batting lineup.

[jksander]

APRIL 30, 1957 . . . Hy Cohen (1-1, 2.70 ERA, 26.2 IP, 19 K’s, 1.01 WHIP) is up to pitch for the fourth time this year, going up against Dodgers left-handed starter Billy O’Dell (1-0, 1.12 ERA, 16.0 IP, 16 K’s, 1.06 WHIP) in our first game of the year against our most heated of rivals. Poppell quickly got on base and stole second, and he made his move on third while Kaline was busy striking out, making it successfully. He came home to score off a groundout by Robinson, and we went into the bottom of the first leading 1-0. But Cohen gave up a homer to Don Hook on the second pitch of the inning and we were knotted up again. He then proceeded to load the bases, though a Furillo pop-out to left got us our first out, and then Bill Mazeroski hit into a double play, saving us from collapsing early. But in the bottom of the third they hit a two-run blast, this time thanks to Frank Thomas, and that DID put us in a 3-1 hole, and our batters continued to struggle to put anything together consistently. The Dodgers did NOT have that kind of trouble. Cohen gave up his third homer of the game, a solo blast by Hook for his second tonight, and we were down 4-1 and looking completely lost out there. The bullpen was gonna get a good workout tonight, that was a certainty.

Mike McCormick came in to pitch in the bottom of the sixth with the score still 4-1 Dodgers, and he gave up two singles and a walk to load the bases without even sniffing out a single out. Vern Law came in to bail him out, getting our first out but allowing a runner to score on the fly-out. Bu but he got us through the inning trailing by four. Don Demeter got a great hit in the top of the eighth, reaching second with one out while pinch hitting for Law, and with two outs Kaline managed to get one into center as well, finally driving in our second run of the game with a double. But Robinson batted out to first to stall the rally, leaving us still with three runs to make up. Carl Erskine came in to pitch in the bottom of the inning, and his results were pretty much par for our course of late, giving up a two-run homer to Campanella and a solo blast to Bobby Morgan, adding to our complete humiliation. We went into the top of the ninth trailng 8-2, at which point Willie Mays hit a solo homer, his fourth of the year, to cut their lead to five. Ernie Banks hit a double and Al Rosen walked, with Maris following to load the bases. Del Crandall batted out to center and Rosen was picked off for a double play . Ed Bouchee pinch hit for Erskine, and he hit it straight to the centerfielder, bringing this to a close as another 8-3 defeat.

Cohen took the loss, falling to 1-2 with a 3.41 ERA, allowing six hits with three walks against four strikeouts, giving up four runs. Law had a good night with two innings of one strikeout no-hit baseball, but it came in between McCormick and Erskine, who combined for four earned runs and five hits, both of their ERAs in complete shambles. Our bullpen at this point is a mess, and if our starters have a rough night we don’t seem to have the offense to make up for it, despite having a murderer’s row of contact hitters. Brooklyn outhit us 11-8, our offense led by Jack Poppell (two hits, two steals on three attempts, one run) and Mays with his homer.

We end the month of April with a 5-8 record, by far the worst start since I started managing the team in ’53. We now are in seventh place in the division, 4.5 games out of first and only ahead of the last-place Braves because we have played more games than them.

MAY 1, 1957 . . . Camilo Pascual (1-0, 5.74 ERA, 15.2 IP, 7 K’s, 1.47 WHIP) is up against Brooklyn’s reigning Cy Young ace Connie Johnson (2-1, 2.17 ERA, 29.0 IP, 32 K’s, 0.62 WHIP). And as was expected, hitting came at a premium as the game got going. By the end of the fourth the game was still scoreless and Brooklyn had the only hit of the game, a weak squib picked up in the first, and both Johnson and Pascual had six strikeouts apiece. It became strenuous to watch, as both pitchers were on the top of their games, but we were all afraid to blink for fear we’d miss the breaking point. We couldn’t find a chink in Johnson’s armor, however -- in the bottom of the seventh the Dodgers picked up just their second hit of the game, a single by Furillo, and Pascual handled it just fine, getting out of the inning unharmed, but we hadn’t even gotten a single runner on base the entire game! Johnson had been perfect, and he kept his perfection going through our batters in the top of the eighth, and Pascual handled his business in the bottom of the inning. Finally in the top of the ninth, Del Crandall ruined Johnson’s perfect game and the no-no with a hit up the middle, giving us our first baserunner of the night. Pascual laid down a sac-bunt to move him into scoring position, but Poppell struck out swinging for out number two. Cue Al Rosen, who had a very disciplined at-bat, hitting a line drive into deep right that finally broke the stalemate ... Cubs lead 1-0! Johnson walked Maris, and Mays hit into a fielder’s choice to bring up the bottom of the ninth. Pascual gave up a single to Deacon Jones, but Frank Thomas batted out to Maris in left, and Duke Snider struck out swinging. Sandy Amoros came out to pinch hit, and he hit a power bomb straight to Mays for the final out as we dug deep to find a way and win one of the most hard-fought pitching battles I’ve been a part of, a brutal 1-0 upset win!

Camilo Pascual had the game of his career tonight, allowing just two hits with three walks and 10 strikeouts in the 1-0 shutout, giving him a 3.65 ERA to go with a 2-0 record. Brooklyn’s Johnson allowed two hits and the one earned run, walking one batter and striking out 11. How much more evenly matched could you get? Al Rosen was the winner of the day, with a hit and an RBI, while Crandall picked up our only other hit. Roger Maris, with a walk, was our only other baserunner.

Having split the two-game series with the Dodgers, we now head to Philadelphia for three, followed by three games against the Giants and two against Pittsburgh before we return to Wrigley on the 10th.

[jksander]

MAY 2, 1957 . . . We’ve signed a new pitcher to join our team via the Baton Rouge Rebels of the Evangeline League! Don Gross, a 25-year-old left-handed pitcher, has been floating around the unaffiliated leagues for the past five years, having peaked at the AAA level back in ’51. This year with the Rebels he’s built a 6-1 record with a 2.26 ERA and 46 strikeouts through 55.2 innings of work. We’re looking to convert him from a starter to a reliever, where his above-average stuff, movement and control will be an asset despite his reliance primarily on a plus fastball and little else. He will be taking Larry Jansen’s place on the major league squad where I am hopeful he’ll be able to make an immediate contribution. All it cost us was his team’s $28,000 price to purchase his contract -- he’ll earn the league minimum $11,200 salary through this season and will then be eligible for arbitration.

Tonight in Philadelphia, we’re starting Sandy Koufax (0-1, 4.80 ERA, 15.0 IP, 10 K’s, 1.13 WHIP) against Philly’s Robin Roberts (2-0, 2.16 ERA, 16.2 IP, 5 K’s, 0.84 WHIP). Al Rosen quickly got us on the board with an RBI double, giving us a 1-0 lead heading into the bottom of the first. Rosen then popped out to center field in the top of the third, driving Poppell in to score his second run of the game and give us a 2-0 advantage! The Phillies got on the board with an RBI single by Richie Ashburn in the bottom of the third. Ernie Banks bought us some insurance in the top of the sixth with a solo blast to right, his third homer this year, and in the top of the seventh, Jack Poppell hit the first home run of his career, increasing our lead to three runs! Jackie Robinson hit a triple that drove in two more runs, and a Banks popout to left quickly scored another. That sent us into the stretch leading 7-1, the first time in quite a while that our lineup has strung that many hits together in a single inning. Dick Drott came in to pitch in the bottom of the eighth, and he got us through the remainder of the game with little fuss -- we beat the Phillies 7-1, the first time all season we’ve won two in a row.

Sandy Koufax had an excellent start, giving us seven innings with eight hits, six strikeouts and an earned run -- no walks, giving him a 1-1 record and a 3.68 ERA through his first three starts! Dick Drott pitched two innings with two hits and a walk but did not give up any runs, improving his ERA to 6.35 through 5.2 innings of relief. We outhit the Phillies 11-10, but had a double, a triple and two homers which helped us put them away. Jack Poppell led the team with three hits, scoring three runs and driving in another while picking up four steals, bringing his total through the first 15 games to 21 stolen this season! Rosen, Robinson and Banks each hit twice as well, with Rosen hitting .340 and reaching base at a .469 clip, walking nearly as many times as he’s hit this year.

MAY 3, 1957 . . . Saul Rogovin (1-2, 2.62 ERA, 24.0 IP, 26 K’s, 0.79 WHIP) is up against Philly’s Don Newcombe (0-2, 6.94 ERA, 11.2 IP, 9 K’s, 1.97 WHIP) in the second game of our three-game road set. Poppell scored a run on a double-play groundout by Maris to give us a 1-0 first-inning lead, and we added to it in the top of the second when Kaline hit a double to drive Banks in for our second run. Maris hit an RBI single to score a third run in the top of the third, and we held that 3-0 lead heading into the fourth inning. Rogovin loaded the bases in the bottom of the fourth but got out of the jam without any runs scoring, and Willie Mays hit a solo homer in the top of the sixth to make it 4-0 Cubs -- that’s his fifth homer already this season, tying him with Robinson! Banks doubled, and Kaline singled to send him to third. Crandall hit a sac-fly to center that was deep enough for Banks to score our fifth run. We loaded the bases in the top of the seventh, Banks batting in another run with a single to keep them that way with two outs, but Kaline hit into a fielder’s choice to send us into the stretch leading 6-0. Rogovin blew the shutout in the bottom of the seventh when relief pitcher Law Burdette hit a solo homer to make it 6-1. But that was all they’d get. He stayed out to complete the game, as we easily beat the Phillies by five runs.

Rogovin improved to 2-2 on the young season with a 2.18 ERA, thanks to a 10-hit game with nine strikeouts, a walk and just one earned run. We outhit them 12-10, led by Ernie Banks with two hits, two runs and an RBI, and by Jack Poppell who hit once, reached once on error, scored two runs and, in the process, stole five bases to tie the NL’s regular season single-game record. He now has 26 stolen bases and is on an incredible record-breaking pace. More importantly we’re now 8-8, caught up in a three-way tie for second in the NL with Pittsburgh and St. Louis, with the entire league outside of Brooklyn bunched up within a game of each other.

MAY 4, 1957 . . . Bob Purkey (1-1, 2.37 ERA, 19.0 IP, 3 K’s, 0.84 WHIP) is up tonight against Harry Coe (0-0, 9.00 ERA, 1.0 IP, 1 K, 2.00 WHIP) who is starting for the first time this season. Purkey was damned near perfect until the bottom of the fifth, when Alvin Dark grounded out to first while driving home the Phillies’ first run of the game to put them up 1-0. But we tied it up in the top of the sixth when Roger Maris hit a sac-fly that scored Poppell from third to make it 1-1. Don Demeter came in to pinch hit for Purkey in the top of the eighth, and for the first time all year he failed to get a hit, same with Poppell and Rosen, who sent us into the bottom of the eighth still tied at one. Carl Erskine came in to pitch, getting three outs around a single hit to get us into the top of the ninth where we again could not buy a hit. Dick Drott came in to pitch in the bottom of the inning, giving up a hit but getting a great double play off a grounder by Del Ennis. We got out of the inning safely and into extra innings, with this 1-1 game refusing to break open. Don Gross came in for his first major league appearance in the bottom of the tenth, two outs, men on first and second, and he crumbled, walking his only two batters and letting Philly have it 2-1. It all happened so quickly, it hardly seemed real.

Purkey gave us seven innings with just two hits, walking two and striking out three with one earned run, improving his ERA to 2.08. Erskine had a solid outing, and Drott lasted 1.2 innings with two hits, two walks and (eventually) the earned run -- I should have stuck with him to get out of his jam rather than putting it all on a rookie. That’s gonna eat at me a bit, but it is early in the year, we’re going to make mistakes. Philly outhit us 5-2, so our bats weren’t getting us anywhere regardless. Poppell walked once and stole one base, scoring our only run, which Maris batted in off a sac-fly. Ernie Banks had a hit and a walk, and Purkey got a bunt in for a hit. It just wasn’t enough.
 
MAY 5, 1957 . . . First off, some waiver news -- Larry Jansen has been claimed by the Redlegs, and will be heading their direction immediately. Meanwhile, we’ve made the trip from Philly to New York for a three-game set against the Giants which begins today with a doubleheader. We then have two games against the Pirates on Tuesday and Wednesday, before returning to Wrigley for a two-and-a-half week stretch that opens with a four game weekend set against the Redlegs.

Hy Cohen (1-2, 3.41 ERA, 31.2 IP, 23 K’s, 1.14 WHIP) got the start today in the first game, facing Jack Harshman (1-1, 1.29 ERA, 14.0 IP, 6 K’s, 1.14 WHIP). Cohen continues to struggle in giving up homers -- this time it was a two-run blast by Wally Post in the bottom of the first, and it’s hard not to see it bothering him considering he’s never had issues with movement before this season. Last season he gave up just 0.4 homers per nine, and this season he’s been giving up more than two on average, so it’s definitely a matter of concern. Robinson and Banks quickly got on base in the top of the second, however, and Del Crandall hit a line drive into left that he turned into an RBI double to get us on the board, and Poppell got off a hit with two outs and men in scoring position, driving in the tying run, quickly stealing second to put two runners again into scoring position. But Al Rosen hit a groundout to first to end the frame knotted rather than giving us the lead. Jackie Robinson got a hit in the top of the third with two outs, stealing second and third while Ernie Banks took the count to 1-2. Banks got a great fastball and hit one into right, driving in the go-ahead run with a single, sending us into the bottom of the inning with a 3-2 lead. Cohen got off a hit in the top of the seventh but couldn’t get anywhere, so we went into the stretch leading by a razor-thin 3-2 margin.

Dick Drott came in to pitch for us in the bottom of the eighth, allowing a hit and then getting two outs with ease, but then Don Blasingame hit an RBI single to tie the game up at 3-3. Hector Lopez hit a single that drove Blasingame over to third. He scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch before Drott finally got us out of the inning with a popout to short. We have a talented bullpen but they have struggled mightily this year and have for the most part been a liability to our starters in close games. Top of the ninth: Del Crandall batted out to right, but Don Demeter walked to get us a baserunner. He advanced to second on a deep right-field popout by Poppell, advancing to third on a single by Rosen. Roger Maris then became the hero of the game, hitting an RBI single to tie it up 4-4, though we were unable to take the lead when Mays hit a hard shot to right that barely missed blowing out of the park, landing in the right fielder’s glove instead. Carl Erskine came in to pitch in the bottom of the inning, giving up a hit to Walt Dropo who advanced to second on a sac-bunt by Red Wilson. He struck Aparicio out swinging and walked Bill Taylor, bringing up Bill White who popped out to right and sent us into extras. Our batters unable to make anything happen, Vern Law came out and pitched a solid inning in the bottom of the 10th to extend the game further. In the top of the 11th, with Poppell on third and Rosen on first with two outs, Maris came up and hit a power bomb to center, and though it didn’t go over the wall, it caromed off it, giving him enough time to take third and drive in two runs! Mays hit a line drive up the gap to make it a three-run lead, and we went into the bottom of the inning ready to put this one to bed. Don Gross came in to pitch, and with the three-run cushion he was able to quickly complete the final frame as we beat the Giants 7-4 in the 11th inning.

Hy Cohen gave us six innings with four hits, three walks and three strikeouts, allowing two earned runs through 111 pitches to improve his ERA to 3.26. Drott blew the save, his second of the year, but Erskine got through his inning with a hit a walk and a strikeout, followed by a hit and a walk for Law who got the win, improving to 1-0, his ERA unblemished through three innings. Gross picked up his first save of the season with two strikeouts, an impressive effort by the 25-year-old rookie. We outhit the Giants 13-8, with a solid night of baserunning all around -- Poppell stole three bases in four attempts, hitting three times while scoring a run and batting in another, while Mays had a hit and a walk, stealing three bases and batting in a run. But Roger Maris was the star this afternoon, hitting three times, picking up his first stolen base of the season and scoring a run while driving in three. He’s been a real quiet part of our lineup this year, and continues to show improvement, particularly as a fielder.

For game two we brought out Camilo Pascual (2-0, 3.65 ERA, 24.2 IP, 17 K’s, 1.14 WHIP) to pitch against Jack Sanford (0-1, 5.33 ERA, 27.0 IP, 12 K’s, 1.59 WHIP). Willie Mays got a hit in the top of the second, picking up two stolen bases and coming around to score off an RBI double by Robinson to put us up 1-0! Pascual picked up a base hit in the top of the third, but wasn’t able to get anywhere ... he’d have needed a deep hit to even advance on a flyout, as his baserunning abilities are pretty much non-existent. Jackie Robinson hit a run-scoring triple in the top of the fourth, increasing our lead to two runs and picking up his 20th RBI of the season. We loaded the bases in the top of the seventh, Al Rosen batting in two more runs with an RBI single, sending us into the stretch leading 4-0 and with Pascual having the best start of his career -- not a single baserunner through six innings! He kept it that way through two outs, but Bill White got a hit to drop into center field to break up the no-no and the perfect game via a double. Pascual barely seemed to acknowledge it, striking out Wally Post to get us out of the inning with the shutout intact. Pascual stayed out to finish the game, a dominating performance, completing the 4-0 shutout to guarantee a win in the series. We’ll have one more game tomorrow, but this has been a great start here in New York, and for the first time this year we have a winning record at 10-9!

Pascual improved to 3-0 with the complete-game two-hitter, striking out six batters without a walk to earn the shutout victory. He now has a 2.67 ERA through four starts and 33.2 innings of work -- he’s finally putting it all together and we love what we’re seeing. We had six hits ourselves, led by Jackie Robinson with two hits, a walk and two RBIs, while Willie Mays had a hit, a walk, two stolen bases and two runs scored. He now has three stolen bases this year in four attempts.

[jksander]

MAY 6, 1957 . . . For our final game of the series against the Giants, Saul Rogovin (2-2, 2.18 ERA, 33.0 IP, 35 K’s, 0.91 WHIP) started against Herm Wehmeier (1-1, 2.84 ERA, 31.2 IP, 17 K’s, 1.33 WHIP). And this game quietly became a pitcher’s duel with Willie Mays picking up the first hit for either team in the top of the fourth, driving Roger Maris (who had reached second on an error and then stolen third) home to put us up 1-0. Rogovin walked three batters in the first six innings, but did not allow anyone on base via a hit, and every runner was properly stranded. Willie Mays picked up our second hit of the night in the top of the seventh, stealing second to get into scoring position with one out. They walked Banks intentionally, and then Kaline batted into a double play to send us into the stretch leading 1-0. Rogovin walked his fourth batter to start the bottom of the eighth, but a groundout to first and a pair of strikeouts kept the Giants off balance and hitless. Bottom of the ninth: Jim Gilliam hit a pop-out to Mays at center for the first out, Bill White struck out swinging, and then Norm Sullivan hit a line drive to left that blew the no hitter one out away from completion. Damn! Don Blasingame struck out swinging to end the game as we held tough to beat the Giants in a one-run shutout.

Rogovin allowed seven hits and four walks but struck out ten batters in the one-hit shutout, bringing his ERA down to 1.71 for the year, improving his overall record to 3-2. There were only four hits total in this game, with two of our three coming from Willie Mays who hit twice, stole a base and drove in a run. Roger Maris walked once, stole two bases and scored our only run. We’ll head into the two-game road set at Pittsburgh with an 11-9 record, sitting half a game behind the Cardinals and three games out of first (Brooklyn still leads with a 13-5 record). The Pirates sit in fifth place in the NL with a 9-10 record.

MAY 7, 1957 . . . Sandy Koufax (1-1, 3.68 ERA, 22.0 IP, 16 K’s, 1.14 WHIP) went up against Bob Friend (3-0, 1.05 ERA, 34.1 IP, 13 K’s, 0.90 WHIP) in another battle of exceptional young pitchers. Poppell opened the game with a base hit, taking second on a wild pitch. Roger Maris hit one hard, the ball rolling to the right field wall and allowing him to leg out a triple, driving in a run to give us a 1-0 lead. Willie Mays hit a sac-fly to center that quickly made it 2-0 Cubs, already giving Koufax a nice cushion when he came out to pitch in the bottom of the first. He gave up a pair of hits, so no talk of a no-hitter tonight, but was able to get out of the inning without much fuss. We loaded the bases in the top of the second, Al Rosen walking in our third run with two outs. Roger Maris got his first homer of the year in the top of the seventh to make it 4-0 Cubs. Al Rosen hit an RBI double in the top of the ninth that added another run to our tally, with Maris loading the bases with a walk, though three pop-outs in a row ended the frame. Koufax held tough and we were able to shut out the Pirates tonight by a 5-0 margin.

Koufax improved to 2-1 with a 2.61 ERA, pitching a complete game three-hitter with one walk and seven strikeouts. We outhit Pittsburgh 10-3, led by Roger Maris with two hits, a walk, two runs and two RBIs. Jack Poppell added a pair of hits and scored a run, this being his third game in a row without a stolen base after having at least one steal in eight of the ten games prior. But he’s still only been caught four times, good for an 88% success rate.

MAY 8, 1957 . . . Just one more road game and then we can head back to Chicago and give our home crowd a chance to see the team now that we’re starting to click as a unit! Bob Purkey (1-1, 2.08 ERA, 26.0 IP, 6 K’s, 0.77 WHIP) gets the start this evening, going up against Gene Conley (3-1, 2.06 ERA, 39.1 IP, 17 K’s, 1.07 WHIP). Roger Maris got a homer in his second consecutive game, scoring two runs to put us up 2-0 in the top of the first! But the Pirates got on the board quickly themselves, Leon Wagner hitting an RBI single in the bottom of the inning to make it a one-run lead. Ernie Banks tripled to start the top of the second, and a Lee Moss sac-fly to deep left drove him home to increase our lead to 3-1. Purkey loaded the bases in the bottom of the fourth, and a line-drive into left field by Billy Klaus tied us up at 3-3 with a two-RBI double. But we got out of the inning without giving them a lead, thanks to solid infield defense. Don Gross came in to pitch in the bottom of the sixth, getting three outs off just eight pitches, and we quickly loaded the bases in the top of the seventh, with Al Rosen batting in the go-ahead run to make it 4-3 heading into the stretch. Gross made efficient use of his pitches in the seventh as well, getting three outs by contact on three pitches that inning, and he struck out a pair in the eighth to keep our one-run lead safe! Carl Erskine came in with one out and a man on first in the bottom of the ninth, giving up a hit that put runners on the corners before striking out Rocky Nelson to end the game as a 4-3 Cubs win!

Purkey held tough for five innings with seven hits and three walks, allowing all three of our runs to ding his ERA up a tad to 2.68. But Don Gross came in and gave us 3.1 innings with just one hit, striking out a pair and keeping his ERA unblemished through 4.1 innings. Erskine allowed one hit with one strikeout and improved his ERA to 7.11 on the season with his first save of the year. We outhit Pittsburgh 12-9, with Poppell, Rosen, Banks and Kaline each hitting twice, while Mays led the team with three hits, a walk, a stolen base and a run scored.

We get a much-needed day off tomorrow, and then return to Wrigley for a four-game set against the Redlegs. Over the next two-and-a-half weeks, we’ll play every NL team but the Cardinals on our field. At 13-9 we trail the Dodgers (15-5) by just three games. Over in the AL, the Yankees (15-4) have a three game lead over Detroit (14-9), with Baltimore (11-10, 5 GB) trailing behind. Both Sox teams are at the bottom of that league, with Boston (8-12) and Chicago (7-14) looking like they’re on the verge of collapse.

[jksander]

MAY 10, 1957 . . . We’ve spent 82% of our season on the road, which is as hard to believe as the fact that, of our four home games prior to today’s return we’ve only won once. Luckily for us we finished the long road trip strong, and we’re 12-6 in that regard, which has kept us from falling out of the race for the NL’s lead. We’ve played the fewest home games of all major league teams this year, with the Yankees (5), Orioles (5), Red Sox (5), Cardinals (6) and Braves (6) not far off. The Dodgers, meanwhile, have a 15-5 record overall, but have played 16 of their first 20 games on their own field.

This afternoon Hy Cohen (1-2, 3.26 ERA, 38.2 IP, 26 K’s, 1.11 WHIP) started against Don Drysdale (1-3, 3.20 ERA, 39.1 IP, 22 K’s, 1.02 WHIP) in our first of four games against the Redlegs, on a clear, cool Chicago day with the wind blowing in hard from center. Good pitching weather! The Redlegs got on the board in the top of the second, Hal Smith batting in a run to put them up 1-0 with a single. Another run scored in the top of the fourth, off an RBI single by Drysdale, as Cohen continued to have difficulty getting outs off contact -- allowing eight hits in the first four innings of play. I can tell he’s becoming frustrated, as our batters never seem to find hits against opposing pitchers when he’s on the mound this year to back him up. Roger Maris got a hit and stole two bases in the bottom of the fourth, but Mays and Robinson couldn’t get a hit to bring him home, keeping us scoreless. Kaline had a great hit into right that should have been a homer, but the wind blew it foul and we failed again to score in the bottom of the fifth. Cohen bunted successfully for a hit to start the bottom of the sixth, and Poppell hit a sac-bunt to move him to second base. Al Rosen then finally got a hit into right field, advancing Cohen to third, and Cohen made it home to score our first run thanks to a sac-fly to deep center by Maris. A wild pitch advanced Rosen to second, so they walked Willie Mays for the second time this afternoon, setting up Robinson nicely ... but they walked him too, bringing Ernie Banks up with the bases loaded and a pair of outs. He hit it straight to their center fielder, however, sending us into the seventh still trailing 2-1. Don Demeter came in to pinch-hit for Cohen in the bottom of the seventh, laying down a soft hit into left field, and a Jack Poppell hit into a fielder’s choice moved Del Crandall to third, Poppell quickly stealing second to give us two in scoring position. But Rosen grounded out to first and ended the rally attempt quickly.

Don Gross came in to pitch in the top of the eighth, and he pitched efficiently to get us back up to the plate. Maris got us going with an infield single, and yet again we wound up with the bases loaded, two outs, and this time Del Crandall up to the plate. And yet again, groundout to first, end of inning, still trailing by one. Gross stayed out and got us three quick outs in the top of the ninth, and with Carl Erskine and Dick Drott warming up in the bullpen, Ed Bouchee came in to pinch hit with a chance to rally to tie the game or walk off with a win. Bouchee batted out to the left fielder at the wall for out number one. Poppell walked and stole second, and Al Rosen got a wicked hit off the end of his bat but it, like the one by Kaline earlier in the game, blew way foul. Damn it! His next hit popped out straight to the catcher for our second. Poppell quickly stole third to get in quick scoring position, and they walked Maris, putting Mays on base with a plunk to the shoulder -- bases loaded, AGAIN ... two outs, AGAIN ... but this time Robinson was patient from the plate and wound up taking his base on balls to tie this game up 2-2! They then walked Banks as well, suddenly gifting us the game! That was unexpected, but we got out of here with a 3-2 victory!

Hy Cohen pitched seven innings and allowed eight hits, striking out seven without a walk -- his two earned runs giving him a 3.15 ERA through his first six starts for his third no-decision of the season. Don Gross has proven to be cool, calm and collected out of the bullpen, allowing one hit in his two innings, keeping them from scoring and giving us a chance in this one. Cincinnati outhit us 9-7, but we made up the difference with strong baserunning -- Poppell had a walk, three steals and a run scored, while Maris hit twice, walked once, stole two bases and scored a run, batting in another. We also had eight walked batters, while they had none, so while I’m glad we picked up the win, I’m concerned that we made it so hard on ourselves.

MAY 11, 1957 . . . Saul Rogovin (3-2, 1.71 ERA, 42.0 IP, 45 K’s, 0.83 WHIP) is ready to go today against Cincy’s Max Surkont (3-0, 1.30 ERA, 27.2 IP, 12 K’s, 1.01 WHIP), a recent claimed acquistion off waivers from Detroit who pitched a five-hit shutout of the Giants in his first game with the Redlegs. We loaded the bases in the bottom of the first but came up empty. And the Redlegs took advantage in the top of the third, getting runners on the corners and then Frank Robinson hitting a three-run blast out to left, digging us a nice deep 3-0 hole. But Ernie Banks hit an RBI double that scored two runs to get us right back into the game in the bottom of the fourth, a Kaline RBI single tying it all up 3-3, and it stayed that way deep into the game, both pitchers dueling efficiently to keep their teams in it. In the top of the ninth Rogovin gave up a two-run homer to Frank Robinson, his second multi-run homer of the game, and Carl Erskine came in, no outs, no one on, to try and give us a chance. He got us the three outs we needed, but Rosen, Maris and Mays were unable to rally and we lost this one 5-3.

Rogovin slips to 3-3 with the loss, an eight hit, nine strikeout effort that led to five earned runs, all off Frank Robinson’s bat. This time we outhit Cincinnati 12-8, outwalked them 2-0 and Robinson stole his fifth base, but our continued inability to prevent the long ball damned us yet again. Robinson had three hits, a walk and scored a run on the ground, while Mays hit three times and scored as well. Banks and Kaline batted in all our runs. The series is going to come down to tomorrow’s doubleheader, as right now we’re tied up.

After the game, a writer from the Sun-Times pointed out to me that Al Rosen, who didn’t get on base today, snapped a 55-game streak of at least getting on base. That’s an incredible stretch even if it doesn’t come close to either of Ted Williams’ epic on-base streaks.
 
MAY 12, 1957 . . . Camilo Pascual (3-0, 2.67 ERA, 33.2 IP, 23 K’s, 0.89 WHIP) got the start in game one against Larry Jansen (0-1, 10.12 ERA, 5.1 IP, 4 K’s, 2.25 WHIP). We got on the board in the bottom of the fourth with an RBI single by Ernie Banks, giving us a 1-0 lead. But they tied it up in the top of the seventh, a Frank Robinson sac-fly to center driving in a run by Kluszewski. Del Crandall hit a solo homer in the bottom of the seventh, just his second of the year, to make it 2-1 Cubs, and Al Rosen hit his first homer of the year in the bottom of the eighth to give us a two-run lead. Pascual got himself through the rest of the game unblemished, throwing 88 pitches as he helped us beat the Redlegs 3-1.

Pascual only surrendered three hits all day, striking out four and walking no one, allowing just one earned run as he improved to 4-0 with a 2.32 ERA this season in just his fifth start. We outhit the Redlegs 8-3 in a game that barely lasted two hours! Rosen and Crandall led with their homers, while Maris had two hits and a walk, and Robinson hit twice and scored a run on the ground.

Sandy Koufax (2-1, 2.61 ERA, 31.0 IP, 23 K’s, 0.94 WHIP) pitched in the second game, facing Luis Perez (2-2, 2.79 ERA, 29.0 IP, 18 K’s, 1.31 WHIP). Maris batted in a run by Poppell to get us going in the bottom of the first, and Willie Mays hit a two-run blast in the bottom of the third to make it a 3-0 lead thanks to his sixth homer of the season. Don Gross came in to take over in the top of the eighth, pitching around a runner who reached base on a Banks error, getting us through the inning with the shutout still secure. Willie Mays hit a two-run blast out to right, his second homer of the game, to make it a 5-0 lead in the bottom of the eighth, and Gross stayed out to finish the game as we easily bested the Redlegs.

Koufax is now 3-1 with a 2.13 ERA, giving us seven innings today with six hits and 10 strikeouts. Don Gross earned his second save of the season, allowing one hit during his two innings. Since debuting with two walks and no outs in the overtime loss to Philly on May 4th, he’s been exceptional in relief, getting through 8.1 innings with just three hits allowed and no earned runs, giving him a 0.60 WHIP. Cincinnati outhit us 7-5, but Willie Mays was too much for them, going off for two homers with four runs batted in, propelling him right back into this year’s home run race, just one behind Mickey Mantle as he defends his long-ball title.

[jksander]

MAY 14, 1957 . . . Bob Purkey (1-1, 2.61 ERA, 31.0 IP, 6 K’s, 0.97 WHIP) pitched the first game of a two-game set against Pittsburgh, facing Gene Conley (3-1, 2.38 ERA, 45.1 IP, 19 K’s, 1.19 WHIP). We come into the series with a 16-10 record, while they’re 12-13 and still figuring out whether they have what it takes to get back into the race. Jackie Robinson hit a solo homer in the bottom of the second, his sixth of the year, to put us up 1-0 on the Pirates, and Del Crandall hit a run-scoring double to expand the lead. Then, with the bases loaded, Roger Maris hit his third homer of the year, a grand slam, to extend the lead to six runs! The Pirates got a run in the top of the third, a homer by Rip Repulski, but we quickly answered in the bottom of the third, Al Kaline hitting an RBI double and Crandall hitting a sac-fly to center to make it 8-1. Maris came up again with the bases loaded and this time hit an RBI single that scored another pair, and Mays delivered an RBI double that added another. Pittsburgh in full meltdown mode by this point, we wound up leading 13-1 heading into the top of the fourth. Ernie Banks hit his fourth homer of the season in the bottom of the sixth, and Poppell hit an RBI double moments later to add to their pain. Maris batted in another run with a single to make it a 15-run lead heading into the seventh. Banks hit another homer in the bottom of the seventh, his second of the day, and though the Pirates got a run back in the top of the eighth (an RBI single by Rocky Colavito) the damage was already too deeply inflicted. Al Rosen added a solo homer in the bottom of the eighth, and though the Pirates never quit fighting, they still lost this one horrendously, 18-3.

Purkey pitched a complete game, giving up 10 hits with four strikeouts and no walks, allowing three earned runs to ding his ERA slightly to 2.70. But we had 20 hits ourselves, led by Roger Maris who had three hits for two runs and seven RBIs. Ernie Banks added three hits and a walk for four runs and two batted in, and Al Rosen added four hits and a walk for three runs and an RBI. Robinson also had three hits and a walk, scoring two and batting in three. It was a bloodbath out there, let me tell you.

MAY 15, 1957 . . . Hy Cohen (1-2, 3.15 ERA, 45.2 IP, 33 K’s, 1.12 WHIP) is going up against Johnny Kucks (1-1, 1.99 ERA, 22.2 IP, 7 K’s, 1.28 WHIP), which surprised us as he’s supposedly still fighting with a strained hamstring and was listed as day-to-day on their injury report. Poppell scored from third base in the bottom of the first off a groundout by Maris, giving us a 1-0 lead after a single inning. Al Kaline added a two-run blast out of right field in the bottom of the second, his second homer of the season, and in the bottom of the third Poppell strole third base and came around to score a fourth run due to an E2 throwing error, making it a 4-0 lead. Cohen had one of his best games of the season, and we added a run in the bottom of the eighth, Poppell picking up his fifth steal and then scoring from third on a popout by Maris to make it 5-0 Cubs! We loaded the bases but they got out of the inning without us running up the score, and Cohen stayed out to close out the complete game as we held on to easily beat the Pirates in a five-run shutout.

This was Cohen’s first complete game since his 10.2 inning effort in the loss to Cincinnati back on April 25, just his third nine-inning-or longer effort of the year. He allowed just six hits and struck out seven, improving to 2-2 with a 2.63 ERA. We had eight hits as a team, with “Jackrabbit” Poppell leading the way with three hits, one walk, five steals and three runs scored, giving him a staggering 42 steals so far this year. He’s easily been the best leadoff man in the game, and is becoming incredibly popular with our fans. Kaline also had a solid night, batting in two with his home run, but beyond that it was pretty much the Poppell show.

We’ve got Brooklyn up next with three games over the next three days. We’re 18-10 and on a four game winning streak, while Brooklyn (20-5) is riding a nine-game winning streak of their own. Somebody’s gonna have a bad weekend, but we’re within 3.5 games of them, so it should be a good weekend for baseball!
 
MAY 16, 1957 . . . Time to take on the Dodgers! Heading into this series we’ve got a 1-1 record against them, and as I mentioned before, we’re both riding legitimate winning streaks (us at 18-10 and on a four game streak, them at 20-5 and on a nine-game streak), and have built significant leads on the rest of the NL, with no other team in the league boasting a winning record. Saul Rogovin (3-3, 2.34 ERA, 50.0 IP, 54 K’s, 0.86 WHIP) will be going up against reigning Cy Young winner Connie Johnson (4-2, 1.77 ERA, 56.0 IP, 65 K’s, 0.61 WHIP) in this first game of the series. And as one would expect from a matchup of pitchers of this caliber, the game rightfully was a pitcher’s showcase. Del Crandall became the first player of the game to make it into scoring position, leading off with a double in the third, but their fielding was impeccable and he wasn’t able to advance. In the bottom of the fourth, Maris and Mays got us going with back-to-back singles, but Robinson hit into a double play, pushing Maris to third. Banks nearly grounded out, but an E6 throwing error allowed him to reach safely, driving in Maris to put us ahead 1-0. Rogovin blew a no-no in the top of the fifth, but was pitching with a real sense of urgency and control, striking out six batters in those first five frames. Robinson had himself a triple with one out in the bottom of the sixth, coming in to score off a flyout by Banks to make it 2-0. Al Rosen hit a solo homer in the bottom of the seventh to extend our lead to three runs via his third homer of the season, and Kaline hit one in the bottom of the eighth, his third, to make it 4-0. Rogovin held tough and added a pair of ninth inning strikeouts as we shutout the Dodgers by four runs to start the series off right!

Rogovin improves to 4-3 with a 1.98 ERA, allowing just two hits with 11 strikeouts against a single walk in the complete game shutout. We outhit the Dodgers 12-2, led by Maris (three hits and a run) and Rosen (two hits, a run and an RBI). Kaline hit twice as well, including his homer, and Crandall was solid at the bottom of the lineup with two hits as well.

MAY 17, 1957 . . . Camilo Pascual (4-0, 2.32 ERA, 42.2 IP, 27 K’s, 0.77 WHIP) started tonight’s game, facing Billy Loes (3-1, 2.57 ERA, 14 K’s, 1.26 WHIP). Robinson batted in a run in the bottom of the first with a single, allowing Maris to score from second to put us up 1-0. We loaded the bases, but they kept us from doing massive damage, settling for just the one run. Willie Mays added an RBI single in the bottom of the third, and in the bottom of the fourth Al Rosen hit a two-run blast to right, his second homer of the series, to put us up 4-0! Pascual had some trouble in the top of the seventh, loading the bases, but was able to get out of the inning without a run scoring, Don Gross came in to pitch in the top of the eighth, and didn’t have the best start to the inning, giving up back to back hits to put runners on the corners, but a heads-up play from Maris to Crandall off a fly-out by Frank Thomas got us two outs quickly. The Dodgers got on the board with an RBI double by Tommy Davis, and Carl Furillo batted one in with a single to make it 4-2. Carl Erskine came in to pitch with two outs and men on the corners, and a flyout to Maris by Roy Campanella got us out of the inning. We quickly loaded the bases in the bottom of the eighth, and Maris took full advantage, hitting an RBI single into right field to get us back to a three-run lead. Mays popped out to center, driving in another run, and Erskine came back out to pitch in the ninth, shutting them down efficiently as we closed out the 6-2 victory!

Pascual came out of the game with his fifth win in a row, giving him a 5-0 record and a 1.99 ERA with five hits, a walk and five strikeouts through seven innings. Gross struggled, giving up five hits and two earned runs, but his ERA remains a solid 2.00, this being the first time he’s given up a run through six appearances and nine innings of work. Erskine, meanwhile, notched his second save of the year, striking out one batter and not surrendering a single hit in 1.1 innings, improving his ERA to 5.19. We outhit them 15-10, led again by Al Rosen with three hits, two runs and two RBIs, while Mays added three hits and two RBIs. Ernie Banks hit three times as well, bringing his average back up to .250 after a slow start to the year.

MAY 18, 1957 . . . Sandy Koufax (3-1, 2.13 ERA, 38.0 IP, 33 K’s, 0.92 WHIP) started our final game of the series against the Dodgers, facing Sal Maglie (2-1, 2.78 ERA, 22.2 IP, 13 K’s, 1.10 WHIP), and this quickly turned into a pitching duel of the highest order! Koufax allowed the first hit for either team in the game to start the top of the fourth, and an RBI double by Duke Snider put the Dodgers ahead 1-0 for the first time of the series, but Koufax continued to pitch well, striking out batter after batter with pinpoint precision. With two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning, Al Rosen continued his hot streak, hitting his third homer in three days to tie us up 1-1! Koufax stayed out in the top of the ninth with the score still knotted at one apiece, striking out leadoff man Don Hoak, getting Gil Hodges to bat himself out to Kaline in right field, and getting Duke Snider to hit a weak grounder to Poppell, who easily made the throw to Rosen for the third out. With one out in the bottom of the ninth, Rosen hit a blistering drive into left, legging out a double, and they walked Maris intentionally, Mays then hitting into a fielder’s choice that pushed Rosen over to third. Reliever Joey Jay then committed a huge blunder, a wild pitch caroming off the backstop as Rosen came in to score the go-ahead run! Cubs win 2-1, and we swept the visiting Dodgers, pulling to within half a game of the NL lead!

Koufax threw 103 pitches in his complete game outing, allowing three hits and an earned run while striking out 10 batters, improving his ERA to 1.91 through his first six starts! We had three hits ourselves, led yet again by Al Rosen who hit twice, scoring two runs and driving in another. He is hitting .330/.453/.527 this year and has batted in 18 runs.

Tomorrow we have a double-header against the Phillies here at home, and then will welcome the Giants for a pair on the 21st and 22nd, followed by a four-game weekend set against Milwaukee before we go back out on the road for three weeks.

[jksander]

MAY 19, 1957 . . . Bob Purkey (2-1, 2.70 ERA, 40.0 IP, 10 K’s, 1.00 WHIP) is up to pitch in game one this afternoon, against Philly’s Don Newcombe (1-3, 5.52 ERA, 31.0 IP, 18 K’s, 1.48 WHIP). Purkey got the first two outs quickly, then surrendered a home run to Jackie Jensen to put the Phillies up 1-0 in the top of the first. He then stunned the crowd silent by giving up another, this time to Del Ennis, before getting the third out to send us up to the plate trailing by two. Ernie Banks batted in a run with a sac-fly in the bottom of the second, however, and Del Crandall hit a two-run blast moments later with two outs to make it a 3-2 Cubs lead! The Phillies got a run back in the top of the third, Smoky Burgess batting in the tying run, Al Rosen hit a sac-fly that drove in a run from Poppell to make it 4-3 in the bottom of the third, but they got it back in the top of the fourth with an RBI single by Newcombe. Purkey loaded the bases from there, with one out, but got a strikeout and a groundout at first to get out of the inning still tied 4-4. In the bottom of the fifth Rosen got a sharp hit into deep right, doubling to drive Poppell in for the go-ahead run, sending us into the top of the sixth leading 5-4. Ernie Banks hit a homer in the bottom of the sixth, his sixth of the year, to add some insurance, and Purkey pitched solidly through the top of the seventh, sending us into the stretch with a 6-4 lead. In the bottom of the seventh, Poppell picked up his third hit, stealing another pair of bases and Maris batted him home with another sac-fly to make it 7-4, giving him six stolen bases in today’s game! Poppell now holds the regular season NL record for steals in a single game. Dick Drott came in as our closer in the top of the ninth, He got the first two outs quickly, allowed a pair of baserunners, and then struck Jackie Jensen out swinging to end this one as a 7-4 victory!

Purkey improved to 3-1 with a 3.00 ERA, allowing eight hits with two walks and five strikeouts, to go with four earned runs. Drott got his second save of the season, allowing a hit and a walk but getting through with no runs surrendered, giving him a 6.75 ERA through seven appearances. We outhit the Phillies 10-9, led by Poppell who had three hits, six steals and scored three of our seven runs. Crandall and Banks had solid power tonight, each of them batting in two runs.

In the second game, Carl Erskine (1-1, 2 SV, 5.19 ERA, 8.2 IP, 4 K’s, 1.85 WHIP) got the spot-start, facing Harry Cox (0-0, 1.80 ERA, 10.0 IP, 6 K’s, 0.79 WHIP). Robinson hit his seventh homer of the season in the bottom of the second to put us up 1-0, and in the bottom of the fourth he hit another to extend the lead! Philly got on the board with a homer by Del Ennis in the top of the sixth, and we still held that 2-1 lead when Don Gross came in to pitch in the top of the seventh. He got an out quickly, and then Granny Hamner hit a solo blast over the center wall to tie us up 2-2. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh, there was no way they were going to risk throwing to Robinson, who was walked to put us into the lead again 3-2, with Banks and Don Demeter striking out to end the frame. But the Phillies wouldn’t surrender -- top of the eighth, one out, Del Ennis hits an RBI double to tie it back up, Gross getting us out of the inning tied at three. Ed Bouchee pinch hit for Lee Mise but batted out to left., while Mike Krsnich pinch hit for Gross, striking out swinging. Poppell got off a good hit in the infield, but they were too quick and were able to get him out at first for the third out. Dick Drott came in to pitch for Gross, with Del Crandall coming in to take over at catcher in the top of the ninth, and Drott was incredible, getting three batters out in a row on a combined total of four pitches! And with one out in the bottom of the ninth, Rosen standing on first, Willie Mays hit a towering blast out to left, walking this one off with a two-run homer -- we’d win the game 5-3 to keep our win streak alive.

Carl Erskine was solid as a spot starter, putting together a quality start, six innings with seven hits, five strikeouts, a walk and one earned run to improve his ERA to 3.68. Gross blew the save, allowing three hits and two runs (one earned) with a strikeout in two innings, but Drott got the win, improving to 1-2 with a 6.10 ERA in his hitless ninth inning. We outhit the Phillies 11-10, led by Jackie Robinson with two hits (both homers) for two runs and three RBIs. Maris had three hits and a run, while Rosen hit twice and walked twice, scoring a run as well. Demeter started in place of Rosen to give him a rare day off, coming out with a hit and a walk to give him a .667/.727/1.222 slug line through his first eight games (and nine at-bats). He’s still a liability in the outfield, but can handle games like this on a limited basis.

We’ve played four more games than the Dodgers have, but we’re now within a half game of them in the standings heading into our upcoming series against the 14-18 Giants who sit in fifth place. Our nine-game winning streak leads the majors, while the 23-5 Yankees are on an eight game winning streak, leading Baltimore (19-13) by six games.

MAY 21, 1957 . . . Hy Cohen (2-2, 2.63 ERA, 54.2 IP, 40 K’s, 1.04 WHIP) started today against the Giants’ Jack Sanford (0-3, 5.40 ERA, 46.2 IP, 18 K’s, 1.50 WHIP). Maris batted in a run in the bottom of the first to give us a 1-0 lead, but the Giants got on the board in the top of the fourth with an RBI double by Don Blasingame, tying it up 1-1. Roger Maris hit a solo homer in the bottom of the sixth to get us back into the lead, his fourth of the year, and in the bottom of the eighth Robinson hit an RBI double that made it 3-1 Cubs. Mays tagged up to score at home off a sac-fly by Ernie Banks, and Kaline hit a two-run dinger to put this one out of reach. Cohen stayed out to complete the game and we beat the Giants easily by a 6-1 margin.

Cohen improved to 3-2 with a 2.40 ERA, allowing just four hits with a walk, six strikeouts and a single earned run. We picked up nine hits ourselves, led by Maris who hit three times for two runs and two RBIs -- he’s now hitting .299 with a double, three triples and four homers, his best major league start since hitting .271 with 19 homers in ’55. Poppell picked up two hits, stole a base and scored a run and Kaline’s homer put us over the top as we won our 10th game in a row.
 
MAY 22, 1957 . . . Saul Rogovin (4-3, 1.98 ERA, 59.0 IP, 65 K’s, 0.78 WHIP) started the second game against the Giants, facing Herm Wehmeier (2-3, 2.73 ERA, 52.2 IP, 28 K’s, 1.18 WHIP). We loaded the bases in the bottom of the first, Robinson batting in a run with a one-out single to put us ahead 1-0. Kaline hit a double that drove in Maris and Mays, then Robinson tried for home successfully with Kaline getting tagged out at third for our final out -- 4-0 lead for the Cubs after one! We loaded the bases in the fourth but came up empty, loading them again in the fifth, at which point Kaline hit a sac-fly to left, driving in our fifth run of the day. Rogovin hit himself an RBI to make it a six-run lead, Poppell walked in a run, Rosen walked in another and the wheels were falling off for the Giants. Maris walked in the third run in a row, all three by reliever Howard Tresp, who had come in to relieve Wehmeier and was not looking up to the task. Willie Mays hit a sac-fly to center to drive in our 10th run of the game, Robinson batted in another, and by the time Banks hit into a fielder’s choice to end the frame we led 11-0 heading into the top of the sixth. Robinson hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh, his ninth of the season, and Rogovin locked in through the remainder to close out the 14-0 shutout emphatically, striking out their final two batters as an exclamation point.

Rogovin improved to 5-3 with a 1.72 ERA, a four-hitter with 10 strikeouts and no walks or runs. We picked up 13 hits, led by Jackie Robinson who hit four times for three runs and five RBIs. Kaline was also highly productive , hitting two times and batting in four runs. We’re now half a game ahead of the Dodgers going into our four game series against the Braves of Milwaukee, who sit in fourth place, 7.5 games back, with a 15-16 record.

MAY 24, 1957 . . . Camilo Pascual (5-0, 1.99 ERA, 49.2 IP, 32 K’s, 0.79 WHIP) gets the first start agianst the Braves in this home series, going up against Warren Spahn (3-3, 3.60 ERA, 55.0 IP, 17 K’s, 1.25 WHIP). Del Crandall batted in a run in the bottom of the second, quickly giving us a 1-0 lead, and Pascual didn’t give up a hit until the sixth inning, when Gene Mauch and Don Mincher both got on base with singles. Spahn sac-bunted to move them both into scoring position, and Gene Woodling hit a sac-fly to left that brought the tying run home. Both pitchers stayed sharp and the game remained knotted heading into the top of the ninth, with Pascual setting their batters down three in a row, two by strikeout to give us a chance to walk this one off. Spahn walked Mays to start the bottom of the inning, but a Robinson popout and Banks hitting into a double play sent us into extra innings still tied 1-1. Pascual stayed out in the 10th but surrendered a solo homer to Eddie Mathews before getting a pair of groundouts and a strikeout to send us into the bottom of the frame. With two outs in the bottom of the 10th, Don Demeter pinch-hit for Pascual, getting a bouncing hit into left for a single, but Poppell couldn’t beat out an infield hit and we lost this one 2-1, snapping our winning streak in extras.

Pascual got his first loss of the year, pitching 10 innings and allowing just three hits, with one walk and 11 strikeouts, his ERA improving to 1.96. We outhit the Braves 6-3, but no one on our team hit twice, Mays scoring our only run while Crandall batted it in. We’re now 1-5 in extra innings games, and 5-6 in games decided by a single run.

MAY 25, 1957 . . . Sandy Koufax (4-1, 1.91 ERA, 47.0 IP, 43 K’s, 0.81 WHIP) came up in the rotation today, facing Al Worthington (3-2, 3.43 ERA, 44.2 IP, 21 K’s, 1.37 WHIP). This one was a nailbiter from the word “go,” with almost no one making it on base for either team. We picked up three hits and a walk to their one hit in the first five innings, but only got one runner into scoring position and he got nowhere from there. And Koufax walked a pair and gave up an RBI single to Hank Aaron in the top of the sixth to put them on the board first, up 1-0. Don Gross came out to pitch in the top of the eighth, getting a groundout and two strikeouts to get through it. In the bottom of the inning, Del Crandall got on base with a walk, and they walked pinch-hitter Don Demeter as well, bringing up Poppell with two outs. Poppell took the count full and then swung hard, getting one on the ground just past the shortstop to load the bases! But Rosen batted out to right and ended the inning without us scoring. Dick Drott came in to pitch in the top of the ninth, getting Hank Aaron to pop out to center to start things out, and Eddie Mathews popped out to Banks for number two. Hal Smith popped out to Mays at center, and we had ourselves one last chance going into the bottom of the ninth down 1-0. Maris grounded out to first, but they walked Mays, who stole seocnd and then was picked off trying to steal third ... he got greedy! Robinson walked, and then Banks grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the game as another one run loss for us. We head into tomorrow’s doubleheader in a scoring funk as the Braves pull back above .500 on the season.

Koufax took the loss, falling to 4-2 with a 1.83 ERA, allowing two hits with two walks, four strikeouts and the one earned run. Gross and Drott each gave up no hits from the bullpen, with Gross striking out a pair, but our bats, despite outhitting them 5-2, couldn’t make anything happen. We were crushed on the basepaths, with Mays getting the one steal but also getting caught for the third time this year, while Poppell tried once and failed as well, only his sixth time being caught in more than 50 tries. Despite that, Poppell led the team with three hits -- he just couldn’t do anything with them.
 
MAY 26, 1957 . . . Bob Purkey (3-1, 3.00 ERA, 48.0 IP, 15 K’s, 1.04 WHIP) got the start in game one of today’s doubleheader, facing Milwaukee’s Johnny Antonelli (1-5, 4.88 ERA, 55.1 IP, 31 K’s, 1.37 WHIP). Del Crandall got a hit into right field with two outs in the bottom of the second, to put us up 1-0, but the Braves got it back in the top of the third with a two-run homer by Aaron to make it 2-1 Braves. Gene Woodling hit a solo shot to right in the top of the fifth to make it a two-run lead for Milwaukee, but in the bottom of the fifth with two outs Jackie Robinson hit a single that drove in two runs to tie it all up at 3-3, and Ernie Banks slapped a homer into the left field bleachers, his seventh of the season, to make it a two-run Cubs advantage! Tom Acker came out to pitch in the top of the sixth, and Mike McCormick pitched in the seventh, getting us into the stretch with our two-run lead still in hand. Mays took his base on balls in the bottom of the seventh, stealing twice and coming around to score thanks to a fly-out by Kaline to give us a 6-3 lead. McCormick stayed out in the eighth but gave up a two-run blast to Eddie Mathews to cut our lead to a run, so we brought in Don Gross with no outs to see if he could hold it. He gave up a pair of hits but got us out of the jam. We went into the top of the ninth with the one-run lead intact, Dick Drott coming in to close it out. Gene Woodling got on base with a single, advancing to second thanks to a sac-bunt by Johnny Logan. Hank Aaron batted out to right, and Eddie Matthews followed suit as we held tough to win this one 6-5.

Purkey came out of the game with a win, lasting five innings to improve to 4-1, allowing five hits with a pair of strikeouts as his ERA improved to 3.23. Acker was solid through an inning and 16 pitches, and McCormick should have stuck to one inning as well ... instead the two runs he surrendered in the seventh blew his ERA up significantly to 15.00. He hasn’t gotten a lot of bullpen opportunities, and therefore is still an unknown quantity in his rookie season, though he picked up a hold today. Gross got a hold as well, improving his ERA to 2.08 through 13 innings of work this season, and Drott earned his third save. They outhit us 8-7, but we outwalked them 5-4 and picked up three steals (two for Mays and one for Banks) to give us the slight edge. Jackie Robinson led the way with three hits, two runs and two RBIs, helping to ensure we wouldn’t get swept.

Hy Cohen (3-2, 2.40 ERA, 63.2 IP, 46 K’s, 0.97 WHIP) got the start in game two, facing Bob Turley (3-3, 5.84 ERA, 37.0 IP, 29 K’s, 1.68 WHIP). And much like the other games in this series, the early-afternoon game being an outlier, this one was again a pitching duel from the start. At the end of five innings we were locked up 0-0 with just three hits between the two teams. Maris walked in the bottom of the sixth, and then Mays got our third hit of the game and turned it into a double, putting runners in scoring position for the first time! Robinson then hit one up the gap and drove in the go-ahead run. Mays scored a second run moments later, but Banks won’t get the RBI as he hit into a double play. Lee Moss reached base on an error, driving Al Kaline to second, and an error at shortstop let Cohen load the bases. But Jack Poppell struck out swinging and ended the inning with us ahead 2-0. But the Braves got on the board in the top of the seventh with an RBI single by Bill Bruton, sending us into the stretch leading by a one run margin. Willie Mays picked up his ninth homer of the year in the bottom of the seventh to make it 3-1 Cubs, and Cohen closed out the remainder of the game without incident as we kept that margin to the end.

Cohen improved to 4-2 with a 2.23 ERA, allowing just four hits with nine strikeouts and the one earned run. We came out with six hits ourselves, led by Mays with two hits, two runs and an RBI. Poppell, Maris, Robinson and Banks each hit once as well. We immediately hit the road after the second game, as we have to make the drive down to St. Louis to start our three-week road trip, as we’re now tied in the standings with the Dodgers -- though they still have played four fewer games than us so they hold the official lead due to win-percentage.

NL Standings
1 (tie). Brooklyn Dodgers (25-10)
1 (tie). Chicago Cubs (27-12)
3. Milwaukee Braves (17-18, 8 GB)
4. Pittsburgh Pirates (18-20, 8.5 GB)
5. Philadelphia Phillies (16-20, 9.5 GB)
6. New York Giants (15-22, 11 GB)
7. St. Louis Cardinals (15-22, 11 GB)
8. Cincinnati Redlegs (14-23, 12 GB)

AL Standings
1. New York Yankees (27-7)
2. Baltimore Orioles (23-15, 6 GB)
3. Detroit Tigers (22-16, 7 GB)
4. Boston Red Sox (18-19, 10.5 GB)
5. Cleveland Guardians (16-19, 11.5 GB)
6. Washington Senators (16-25, 14.5 GB)
7. Chicago White Sox (14-22, 14 GB)
8. Kansas City Athletics (12-25, 16.5 GB)

Mickey Mantle leads the home run race with 15, five more than Gil Hodges, his closest competitor. He remains on pace for 68 homers, which has the New York media already starting to go a little crazy in the annual “will someone beat the Babe’s record?” If it’s going to happen for Mantle, this seems like it would be the year ... he’s leading the majors in average (.379), slugging (.806), OPS (1.287) and batting WAR (3.7), by far his best start since hitting .342/.459/.702 with 54 homers in 1953.

[jksander]

MAY 27, 1957 . . . Saul Rogovin (5-3, 1.72 ERA, 68.0 IP, 75 K’s, 0.74 WHIP) started our game tonight against St. Louis, our first of a two-game series against the 15-22 Cardinals. They started Dave Hillman (1-1, 5.37 ERA, 53.2 IP, 27 K’s, 1.58 WHIP). Willie Mays hit an RBI triple to get us on the board in the top of the fourth, and Robinson grounded out to first but a second run scored to make it 2-0. Rogovin blew a perfect game and his no-hitter in the bottom of the seventh with a hit by Andy Carey, but got out of the inning with a double play to keep the margin at two runs, a margin he held through the remainder of the game as we shut the Cardinals out 2-0.

Rogovin improved to 6-3 with a 1.52 ERA, striking out 10 batters and allowing just the one hit off 111 pitches. We hit nine times as a team, led by Roger Maris with three hits and a run scored. Mays batted in a run and scored another, and Al Rosen put up two hits but never scored. Robinson’s groundout batted in our other run.

MAY 28, 1957 . . . Camilo Pascual (5-1, 1.96 ERA, 59.2 IP, 43 K’s, 0.72 WHIP) got the start tonight against Bob Gibson (2-1, 1.52 ERA, 29.2 IP, 8 K’s, 1.38 WHIP). Crandall popped out to center, driving in a run via Kaline from third to give us a 1-0 lead in the top of the second, and Al Rosen drove one home with a groundout to first, Poppell scoring from third to make it 2-0 in the top of the third. Pascual loaded the bases in the bottom of the fifth, but got out of the jam without a run scoring. Willie Mays then hit a three-run homer in the top of the seventh to blow the game wide open, giving us a 5-0 lead with his 10th homer of the season! The Cardinals got on the board in the bottom of the eighth with an RBI single by Willie McCovey, but they let us load the bases in the top of the ninth, a pop-out to left by Mays scoring a run for us to negate it. Pascual closed it out with ease, completing the 6-1 victory for a two-game sweep.

Pascual improved to 6-1 with a 1.70 ERA, striking out nine with three walks and the one earned run off four hits. We hit eight times, led by Willie Mays with one hit, a sac-fly, one run and four RBIs. Rosen and Kaline each hit twice and scored a run each, while Rosen added two walks and an RBI as well. We have three games in two days coming up in Milwaukee tomorrow and Thursday, followed by a four-game in three-day weekend set against the Redlegs.We’ve played six games in the last five days, and with no days off our rotation’s going to get a real workout with seven in the next five days.

MAY 29, 1957 . . . Carl Erskine (1-1, 3.68 ERA, 14.2 IP, 9 K’s, 1.64 WHIP) started tonight against the Braves, facing Pedro Ramos, a 22-year-old coming up for his first major league appearance this year, having gone 7-3 this year with a 2.08 ERA while pitching for Wichita in AAA. He’s the #21 prospect in the majors, drafted 25th overall by the White Sox back in ’53. He’s played in 15 games with the Braves over the last two seasons, but has only started three times. Del Crandall got a hit in the top of the second that drove in a run to give us a 1-0 lead, but the Braves tied it up quickly with an RBI single by Ramos in the bottom of the second. Don Gross came in to pitch following the seventh-inning stretch, the score still knotted up 1-1, and Del Crandall hit a solo homer in the top of the eighth to give us a 2-1 lead, his fourth homer of the season! Gross got two outs in the bottom of the ninth but then gave up a solo homer to Lee Walls that tied the game. He got the final out with ease, but we went into extra innings knotted 2-2.

Dick Drott came out and got us three outs in the bottom of the 10th, but he threw 21 pitches to get there, and we couldn’t buy a hit. He stayed out and got us three quick outs in the bottom of the 11th, and we finally got going in the top of the 12th, Mays and Robinson getting quick hits to put Mays on third without an out. Kaline hit a sac-fly to right to drive Mays home for the go-ahead run, and Crandall got a hit into center to push Robinson to third with Ed Bouchee coming in to hit for Drott. Bouchee struck out to end the inning, and we went into the bottom of the frame leading 3-2 with Mike McCormick coming in to pitch. He did what needed to be done, getting a strikeout and a pair of flyouts to end the game after 12 innings as a 3-2 victory for the Cubs!

Carl Erskine gave us six innings with four hits, seven strikeouts and only three walks, his one earned run improving his ERA to 3.05. Gross then lasted three innings with two hits, three strikeouts and an earned run, giving him a 2.25 ERA through 16 innings. Dick Drott got the win, improving to 2-2 with a 4.40 ERA, walking two batters, and McCormick earned his first save of the year with a strikeout to improve his to 11.25 through four innings. We outhit the Braves 8-6, led by Del Crandall, who hit three times for a run and two RBIs.

Tomorrow we’ll play a doubleheader, with Koufax and Cohen likely to pitch, so hopefully we won’t need to rely much on the bullpen which was taxed physically by the 12-inning fight this evening. We currently have a two-game lead on the Dodgers, our record now at 30-12 to their 26-12.
 
MAY 30, 1957 . . . Another doubleheader day is upon us, this time against Milwaukee on a sunny 64-degree Sunday afternoon in front of close to 22,000 Braves fans -- you can always count on this team to draw a crowd against us, even when they are clinging to a .500 record. Sandy Koufax (4-2, 1.83 ERA, 54.0 IP, 47 K’s, 0.78 WHIP) started the first game, facing Milwaukee’s Johnny Antonelli (1-6, 5.14 ERA, 61.1 IP, 34 K’s, 1.45 WHIP). In the top of the third we broke the game open with a three-run homer by Roger Maris, his fifth of the year, that gave us a 3-0 lead out of nowhere. Jackie Robinson then added an RBI double to make it 4-0 before Mays was picked off trying to add another instead of staying at third, ending the frame. With two outs and men on first and second in the top of the fourth, Jack Poppell stole third and, thanks to a throwing error, came around to make it a five-run lead. Mike McCormick came in with two outs in the bottom of the eighth to relieve Koufax, who was beginning to tire, and he got us through the remainder without a lot of fuss, holding on to the 5-0 shutout win.

Koufax got the win, improving to 5-2 with a 1.61 ERA, allowing four hits with five strikeouts and a walk through 7.2 innings. McCormick had a good night, adding another 1.1 innings with one hit, one walk and one strikeout, getting his ERA down to 8.44 now that he’s starting to get out of the bullpen a little more often. We outhit them 12-5, led by Jack Poppell, who hit three times, walked once and stole three bases, scoring twice. Maris and Robinson each hit twice, with Maris’ homer getting us going in a big way. He’s also now batting above .300 for the first time in his career! All Star voting just started, but he’s improved so much already I think he’s got a legitimate shot at his first appearance in that showcase.

In game two we had Hy Cohen (4-2, 2.23 ERA, 72.2 IP, 55 K’s, 0.91 WHIP) ready to go on four days’ rest, going up against Warren Spahn (5-3, 3.22 ERA, 72.2 IP, 21 K’s, 1.22 WHIP). Both pitchers were on the top of their games, with only one hit each in the first five innings, no runs scored. We went into the bottom of the seventh still without a score, each pitcher with a pair of hits, and then Cohen got sloppy, giving up back to back hits to Johnny Logan and Hank Aaron to give Milwaukee a runner in scoring position for the first time. But he got out of the frame with a strikeout and a double play to stay unblemished. Les Moss stunned everyone by hitting a triple to start the top of the eighth, and he scored on a sac-fly by Cohen to put us up 1-0! That wound up being all we needed -- Cohen stayed out and completed the game, and we shut the Braves out by the one run to complete the sweep.

Cohen improved to 5-2 with a 1.98 ERA, striking out five and walking one while allowing just four hits. We only managed five hits, but we also picked up five walks off a tiring Spahn, led by backup catcher Les Moss with two hits and a run scored, the run batted in by Cohen with the sac-fly. With the win we improved to 32-12 heading into our four-game set against the last place Redlegs on their field.

[jksander]

MAY 31, 1957 . . . Bob Purkey (4-1, 3.23 ERA, 53.0 IP, 17 K’s, 1.04 WHIP) started in our first game against the 14-27 Redlegs, facing Luis Perez (3-4, 3.62 ERA, 49.2 IP, 30 K’s, 1.27 WHIP). This one started off right where our last game ended, locked in a heated pitching battle with no one’s bats making any purchase. Al Rosen finally broke the stalemate, hitting one into right field to drive Poppell in to score from third, Cubs lead 1-0 in the top of the sixth. Del Crandall batted in another run in the top of the seventh with a single, sending us into the stretch leading by two runs. Mays hit a triple with two outs in the top of the eighth but didn’t get a chance to score. Dick Drott came in to pitch in the botom of the ninth, and though he put runners on the corners, he did get the outs we needed to complete the 2-0 shutout win.

Purkey is now 5-1 with a 2.80 ERA thanks to an eight inning five-hitter, striking out three and walking one. Drott earned his fourth save of the year, walking one and allowing a hit, but getting out of the jam to improve his ERA to 4.11 through 15.1 innings. We outhit them 9-6, led by Al Rosen with a pair of hits and an RBI, and by Crandall who also hit twice and batted one in. Poppell was also solid in the leadoff spot, getting a hit, stealing twice and scoring a run. He now has 57 stolen bases in 65 tries.

JUNE 1, 1957 . . . Saul Rogovin (6-3, 1.52 ERA, 77.0 IP, 85 K’s, 0.66 WHIP) got the start tonight against Max Surkont (3-3, 2.98 ERA, 54.1 IP, 27 K’s, 1.27 WHIP). Cincinnati got on the board quickly this time out, Frank Robinson hitting a two-run blast to left, his sixth of the year, to put the Redlegs up 2-0. Les Moss got an RBI single in the top of the second, pulling us back within a run, and in the top of the third Willie Mays hit a three-run blast out of right field to put us ahead 4-2! That was his 11th homer of the year. Mays picked up an RBI double in the top of the seventh to make it 5-2 Cubs, and Robinson batted in another pair with a double of his own. Kaline hit an RBI single as well, and we went into the stretch leading by six. The Redlegs picked up a run in the bottom of the seventh with a homer by Gus Bell, but that was all they’d get. We held tough and put the screws in down the stretch to come up with an 8-3 win heading into tomorrow’s doubleheader.

Rogovin is now 7-3 with a 1.67 ERA, allowing four hits and three earned runs but striking out six without a walk. We outhit them 11-4, with Robinson putting together a four-hit effort, scoring twice and driving in a pair. Willie Mays had two hits as well, including his homer, scoring twice and batting in four as well. We’ve now won nine games in a row, our second significant streak already this season, and we’ve extended our lead in the division to five games over the 27-15 Dodgers.
 
JUNE 2, 1957 . . . Camilo Pascual (6-1, 1.70 ERA, 68.2 IP, 52 K’s, 0.73 WHIP) started in game one of today’s doubleheader, facing Redlegs hurler Gary Bell (3-2, 3.55 ERA, 33.0 IP, 14 K’s, 1.27 WHIP). Jackie Robinson got a hit in the top of the second, stealing second immediately and then taking third on a one-out strike thrown to Kaline. Kaline eventually came out of it with an RBI single, batting Robinson home to put us up 1-0. Robinson has quietly worked on his baserunning, stealing successfully nine times out of 13 attempts, putting him on track to have his best baserunning season since his debut in 1946. Willie Mays hit an RBI single in the top of the third to make it a two-run lead, and Pascual kept it that way even though he did put men in scoring position in the bottom of the fourth before striking out a pair to end the inning. The Redlegs got on the board with an RBI single by Dick Groat in the bottom of the sixth, and we went into the stretch leading 2-1. Don Gross came in to pitch in the bottom of the seventh, and he was able to hold the lead for us, but he stayed out for the eighth and an error at third and a two-run homer by Ted Kluszewski put them in the lead 3-2. Without an out, Mike McCormick came out to pitch, and after getting a quick out, and then with the bases loaded and just one out, McCormick gave up a hit to Benny Valenzuela that increased their lead to two runs. Bases still loaded, he then got the outs we needed and we went into the top of the ninth down two and needing a rally. Ernie Banks reached first on an error, and with one out Del Crandall got a hit that put him into scoring position. Ed Bouchee struck out swinging, bringing up Poppell who took the count full and then struck out looking, bringing this one to a disappointing end as a 4-2 loss.

Pascual had a good night, giving us six innings with four hits, six strikeouts and just one earned run. But Don Gross allowed two hits and two runs (one earned) to blow the save and take the loss, and McCormick added a four-hit inning with one earned run, adding to our hole. The Redlegs outhit us 10-6, our team led by Roger Maris who hit twice and walked once without being able to score. Rosen scored our only run, which Mays batted in.

With Cohen and Koufax only on three days’ rest, and all our other starters on shorter than that, we decided to go with Carl Erskine (1-1, 2 SV, 3.05 ERA, 20.2 IP, 16 K’s, 1.50 WHIP) in game two this afternoon, facing Don Drysdale (1-6, 3.38 ERA, 77.1 IP, 44 K’s, 1.16 WHIP). Willie Mays hit a sac-fly that drove in a run to put us on the board in the top of the first, but Ted Kluszewski hit a run-scoring double in the bottom of the inning to tie us back up at 1-1. Valenzuela hit a homer in the bottom of the second to put them ahead 2-1, his first of the year, but Jackie Robinson hit a slow-rolling ball into right field, coming out of it with a triple that scored two and put us back up 3-2. Robinson scored on a groundout to make it a two-run lead, but in the bottom of the inning Frank Robinson hit a two-run blast into the right-field bleachers to tie it up 4-4. Vern Law came in with one out and two men on base, and he promptly gave up an RBI double to put the Redlegs back in the lead before we finally got out of the third inning. That’s nine combined runs between teams in just the first third! Poppell got on base with a walk, stealing second and third with just one out in the top of the fourth, scoring the tying run on a groundout to first by Rosen. Les Moss got us the lead back in the top of the fifth with an RBI single, and Law got us through the bottom of the inning without surrendering it. Maris then hit a moonshot into the second deck of the right field seats in the top of the sixth, extending our lead to 8-5, giving Tom Acker a good cushion when he came in to pitch in the bottom of the inning. Gus Bell hit a longball into left to pull the Redlegs to within a pair in the bottom of the seventh, but Jackie Robinson batted in a run in the top of the eighth with a double, giving us a 9-6 lead at which point Dick Drott came out to close this thing out. He got through the bottom of the eighth on seven pitches, and closed things out perfectly in the bottom of the ninth as we held tough to beat the Redlegs by three runs.

Erskine’s 2.1 inning “start” was a disaster, allowing six hits with three walks, three strikeouts and five earned runs. But Vern Law gave us 2.2 innings with four hits and a walk, earning the win as he improved to 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA through 5.2 innings, and Tom Acker held it through another two innings with two hits, a walk and a run scored. That set Drott up perfectly -- he picked up a two inning save, his fifth save of the season, striking out two and walking another as he improved his ERA to 3.63. This was a real group effort in a game where everyone was hitting like crazy, a dozen hits for each team. Roger Maris led the way with three hits for a run and two RBIs, while Robinson hit three times to score twice and drive in three more. Maris has been really hot lately, currently batting .314/.369/.455 with three doubles, three triples and six homers.

Next up we have a trip to Brooklyn, where the 29-15 Dodgers await after a day off tomorrow. We play them for three games over three nights, and then head to Philly (21-24, 12.5 GB) for four more over the weekend. Our record sits at 35-13, so we only lead the Dodgers by four games. We’ve won nine of our last ten games, with them on a 4-6 skid, but head-to-head anything can, and often will, happen.

[jksander]

JUNE 4, 1957 . . . Hy Cohen (5-2, 1.98 ERA, 81.2 IP, 60 K’s, 0.87 WHIP) went up against Brooklyn’s Billy O’Dell (7-1, 1.75 ERA, 77.0 IP, 52 K’s, 0.88 WHIP) in a battle of top starters. And O’Dell came out and made a statement, striking out our side in the top of the first. Robinson committed an error on what should have been an easy second out in the bottom of the inning, but was lucky the ball was foul. So Cohen was able to answer with three quick pop-outs after all and keep his game perfect as well. The duel was on from there ... but the Dodgers struck first, scoring on an RBI single by Bill Mazeroski in the bottom of the second to go up 1-0. Al Kaline got our first hit of the game in the top of the third, and it was a GOOD ONE, a solo homer into right that tied us up 1-1, and Cohen struck out a pair to keep it that way as the sun set in the bottom of the third. Willie Mays hit a two-run blast in the top of the fourth to give us a 3-1 lead, and Kaline hit his second of the game in the top of the fifth to make it a three-run lead! Mays and Robinson added back-to-back RBI triples in the top of the sixth, and Kaline added an RBI single to make it a 7-1 lead heading into the bottom of the inning. Robinson hit another run scoring triple in the top of the eighth, and though Cohen gave up a meaningless homer to Duke Snider in the bottom of the ninth, this one was all wrapped up, a surprisingly easy 8-2 victory.

Cohen improved to 6-2 with a 1.99 ERA, allowing just five hits and two earned runs, walking one and striking out 12 batters. We only outhit them 8-5, but had half a dozen multi-base hits which more than made the difference. Kaline and Mays each had two hits, two runs and three RBIs, though both of Kaline’s were homers while Mays only hit one long ball. Robinson hit twice for a run and two RBIs as well, including two triples.
 
JUNE 5, 1957 . . . Sandy Koufax (5-2, 1.61 ERA, 61.2 IP, 52 K’s, 0.76 WHIP) is up tonight against Brooklyn’s Johnny Podres (4-2, 2.83 ERA, 63.2 IP, 24 K’s, 1.16 WHIP). Willie Mays hit a home run in the top of the second to put us up 1-0 with his 13th four-bagger of the season, But that was our only hit for a long while, as both pitchers were locked in. Al Rosen got our second hit of the night in the top of the sixth, and it too went all the way, giving us a 2-0 lead with his sixth homer of the year. Duke Snider hit a homer for the Dodgers in the bottom of the sixth to pull them to within a run, and Frank Thomas tripled with just one out. With two outs, Mazeroski batted in the tying run with a single, Koufax finally getting out of the inning with a strikeout to Bobby Morgan. Banks hit a single in the top of the seventh, but Kaline batted into a double play to send us into the stretch knotted up at 2-2. Mike McCormick came in to pitch in the bottom of the inning, and though Don Hoak got on base and managed to advance as far as third, McCormick got us through without surrendering a run, and Al Rosen hit another homer in the top of the eighth, scoring two runs to give us a two-run lead! Maris tripled and then Mays batted him in to score with a single, giving us a solid 5-2 cushion heading into the bottom of the frame. But the Dodgers didn’t quit -- McCormick allowed a two-run homer by Roy Campanella to pull them back within a run, and we brought Dick Drott in to get us through the remainder. The wind worked in our favor again in the top of the ninth, with Ernie Banks adding his eighth homer of the year to the tally to buy us a run back, and Drott closed things out efficiently to get us out of there with a 6-4 win.

Koufax was solid through six innings with five hits, a walk and seven strikeouts to go with two earned runs, dropping his ERA slightly to 1.73. McCormick picked up his first win of the year, starting out 1-0 with his ERA still bloated at 9.00, allowing three hits and two earned runs. And Drott came out and did what needed to be done, with 1.1 innings of one walk one strikeout ball, improving his ERA to 3.38 on the year. We had eight hits ourselves, led by Rosen who hit two homers and batted in three runs. Mays and Banks each picked up two hits, scoring two runs and driving in three between them.

JUNE 6, 1957 . . . Saul Rogovin (7-3, 1.67 ERA, 86.0 IP, 91 K’s, 0.64 WHIP) pitched in the final game against the Dodgers, facing Sal Maglie (4-3, 1.89 ERA, 57.0 IP, 36 K”s, 0.86 WHIP). Another pitcher’s duel, this one stayed scoreless until the top of the sixth, when Jackie Robinson hit an RBI single with the bases loaded, sending Poppell around to score and put us ahead 1-0. But Ernie Banks decided to take advantage from there, removing all doubt as he hit a grand slam into center to blow this one up before the stunned Dodgers fans had a chance to blink. Ernie Banks hit another homer in the top of the eighth to make it 6-0 Cubs, and Rogovin was razor sharp down the stretch to complete the game and keep it that way. With that, we swept the Dodgers and improved our NL lead to seven games.

Rogovin improved to 8-3, allowing four hits with one walk and 13 strikeouts in the complete-game shutout. We outhit the Dodgers 7-4, easily led by Banks, who had two homers and five runs batted in. Robinson, with a hit, a run and an RBI, accounted for the remainder of our offense. We’ll head into the four-game road series in Philadelphia with a 38-13 record and a four-game winning streak.

The Yankees currently lead the AL with a 35-11 record, six games up on Detroit (31-19) and 9-1/2 games up on the Orioles (27-22). But Mickey Mantle (.349/.455/.722, 9 doubles, 18 homers) has been added to the injured list for at least the next two months due to nagging acute elbow soreness, which will leave the Yankees to rely on Charlie Maxwell in center field for the forseeable future, so I expect that margin to tighten up.