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Message #: 15298
After managing the incredible feat of losing at home to a team which had won *ZERO* road series in 1946 (naturally we'd be the ones to break the streak) the woefully underachieving Cubs tried to rebound at the Polo Grounds. We should've swept, came very close to just splitting (or worse), and settled for the outcome in between those two.... Game 1: CHN starter Claude Passeau blew half of the 4-0 lead he was given when the Giants broke up his no-hitter in the 5th and opened the floodgates. Since the Cubbie offense would produce no more runs, it was left to our peerless Arson Squad to complete the choke. But they didn't, quite. Final score: 4-3. A critical error by defensive replacement Don Johnson at 2B opened the always-dreaded Bottom Of The Ninth and, unsurprisingly, the unearned runner scored even though New York never got a hit in the frame. A 1-out walk to a .147-hitting catcher ended Emil Kush's day, and Tiny Bonham -- who pitches great in any inning with a number less than '9' -- needed just 4 pitches to load the bases via another generous free pass. A groundout got the Giants within one but Bonham fanned Gil Coan (who would get his revenge later) and preserved the potential 4-run win that became a 1-run win. NYN got only 4 hits today, but certainly got the most out of them. ========================================================= Game 2: The only semi-easy game of the series, as Jess Flores managed NOT to blow his 4-0 lead and Perfect Paul Erickson registered a routine 3-inning save and allowed no hits in the process. Final score: 5-1. Andy Pafko's double in the 1st plated a pair of unearned runs before the third would-be run was nailed at the plate; Jim Russell's automatic BPHR made the score 4-0 in the 3rd. New York's only run came on a surgical split card gopher in the 4th. ========================================================= Game 3: Oscar Judd has been less than stellar for the Giants in 1946 but he's saved his 2 best starts of the year for -- who else? -- the Cubs. Back on May 11th he held the Luckless Cubbies to 1 run in 7 IP and today it was 1 run in 6 IP. Both starts resulted in no-decisions, however. Chicago's All Star pitcher Murry Dickson had only a 1-0 lead to work with, but he did just that until being victimized by the combination of another one of our patented horrible split cards and a clutch 2-out single that tied it up in the 7th. The coffin was nailed shut when Dickson allowed a BP gopher to weakling NYN outfielder Coan in the 8th, and for another example of ridiculous low-probability events happening to the Cubs, there's this: recently-acquired punching bag Rex Barney had allowed 2 or more runs in every appearance so far this year, so naturally he tossed 3 hitless and scoreless innings to get the win. Final score: another 1-run loss, by the count of 2-1. Despite being held to just 3 hits, the Cubs managed the relatively astronomical total of 9 LOB (while the super-efficient Giants LOBbed just 3) thanks to drawing 8 walks; Dickson walked no one and fanned 9 Giants in 7.2 innings. ========================================================= Game 4: Johnny Schmitz blew 100% of the 3-run lead he was given despite blowing away the New York batters all day long. Schmitz walked just 1 and of the 16 outs he recorded (it would have been more, but he died during surgery) 10 of them came via strikeouts. Up 3-0 in the 6th, Schmitz allowed 4 hits to 5 batters, then was carted to the morgue and replaced by Frank Papish, who kept the rally alive by allowing a 1.000 batting average to the first 2 batters he faced. We seemed to be headed for a series split when NYN loaded the bases in the 8th with the help of a timely Cubbie error, again by Johnson. That brought up .100-hitter Vince Dimaggio, who apparently isn't much of a bunter either. He laid one down, but with only a 15% chance of plating the run. Of course the split card came up nice and low for our opponent. Perhaps inspired by being screwed once too often, the Cubs rebounded with 5 runs in the 9th. Barney relieved midway through the rally and resumed his normal effectiveness by allowing an RBI walk followed by a 3-run triple. Final score: 8-4. What should have been a blowout all along became one in the end; the Cubs racked up a whopping 12 in the 'RLISP 2-Out' category. The teams combined for 19 hits, the first 18 were singles and Stan Hack's first triple of the season was the 19th. Alan |
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