1905 Chicago Cubs replay update: Giants’ Big Six is unstoppable

by Scott Fennessy

New York, NY 7/12/1905

The Cubs face the Giants today in game two of this series. Both teams have players returning from the DL. Thirdbaseman Jim Casey for the Cubs returns after a 3 day stint with a minor ankle strain, while Giants catcher Mike Bowerman is back after missing almost a month with a serious injury to his hand after a beaning. The Cubs are struggling and dealing with huge losses to their rotation while the Giants are in top form and beginning to run away from the Cubs/Pirates combo. Mordecai Brown, now the default ace until Reulbach and Weimer return faces a serious challenge as they face Christy Mathewson who is as tough as it gets and is having a truly MVP campaign.

“Big Six” comes out firing bullets in the first as he strikes out two of the first three and the Cub hitters were clearly overpowered in this inning. Brown answers the call, and strikes out one as he gets a 3 up three down inning, including the red hot Mike Donlin. The Cubs break the ice in the second with Frank Chance, arguably the hottest hitter on the team right now stroking a single into shallow center field. Chance decides to test Bowerman’s arm after a long absence and steals second base. One out later Johnny Kling hits a single to right center where Sam Mertes scoops it on one hop and fires into Bowerman at home and the throw is a good one so it will be close. Chance slides in just under the tag and the Cubs get a run to take the lead. Kling steals second and the Cubs are trying to extend the lead. Unfortunately Mathewson shuts them down and the inning ends 1-0 Cubs on top. Now it’s Brown’s turn to impress in the second as he strikes out the final two hitters, and now has 3 in two innings and the Giants are down in order again.

Mathewson gets a 1-2-3 inning and another K as the Cubs are done in quick order again. While they do lead it is clear that both pitchers are throwing as hard as possible today and runs may be hard to come by. Sammy Strang draws a leadoff walk to start the home end of the inning, and the perfect game is gone. Dahlen pops up down the right field line and Jimmy Slagle makes the catch. John McGraw sends the runner with Mathewson at the plate. Don’t let the fact that Christy is a pitcher fool you. He is as good at hitting as he is at pitching, and Strang’s off with the pitch. Chance had called for the pitch out and Sammy is out by a mile. Finally the Cubs are starting to get some breaks. Mathewson fans to end the inning, and that’s number 4 in 3 innings for Mordecai. Still 1-0 Cubs.

Mathewson keeps the Cubs in check in the 4th, and his teammates help him out. Art Devlin lofts a blooper that drops in front of Billy Maloney for a single. He steals second easily, and Sam Mertes puts a charge into a 1-2 pitch. This one hops the wall in center and Devlin scores standing up. Mertes hustles into second base as the Giants tie this one at 1 run apiece. Moving to third on Donlin’s grounder Dan McGann hits a shallow fly to Frank Schulte in right and Mertes has to hold at third. Brown then gets out of the inning with an easy third out, but this one is knotted up!

Mathewson gets perfect innings in the 5th and 6th innings and has now retired 14 straight hitters. Bowerman gets a single to lead off the inning for the Giants but is stranded at first as the Cubs defense looks sharp in the 5th. (Fielding one pays off here). The Giants push hard in the bottom of the 6th and it looked grim for the men in blue, but after Devlin walks and moved to second on a hard grounder that would have been two had the hit and run not been on. Donlin and Brown have a great duel in which “Turkey Mike” gets a walk. McGann hits a fly to deep right field and Schulte is at the wall and pulls this in with a homer robbing catch. Take that G-Men!!. George Browne grounds to Joe Tinker at second and the inning ends still tied at 1 each.

The Cubs FINALLY show signs of life in the top of the 7th when Schulte fouls off a few of Mathewson’s better pitches before getting a fastball that was too good to miss and gets a single to right. Schulte moves over on Chance’s grounder and Bowerman and Mathewson pay him no mind, so he gets a terrific jump and steals third just under the tag by Devlin. Slagle fouls out to Bowerman and Johnny Kling, who had been struggling for a bit gets a single to center. Browne in center comes up firing and the throw is just a bit off the mark and the Cubs take the lead. Kling gets his second steal of the day, but does not score.

The lead was short lived, as the Giants show again why they are the most feared team in baseball. Bowerman takes Brown’s 2nd pitch of the at bat the opposite way and this splits the gap in right center field and rolls to the wall. Maloney gets the ball in, but not before the Bowerman chugs into third. Bowerman was hitting over .350 when he went down and is showing no signs of slowing down. Roger Bresnahan hit over .400 during his time stepping into the lineup. Sammy Strang then hits a single to left scoring Bowerman and the game is tied at 2. Strang moves into second with a steal and to third on Bill Dahlen’s grounder. Mathewson then gets a sac fly to score Strang and now the Giants take the lead. Devlin grounds to Casey at third, but the inning ends with the Giants on top 3-2.

Mathewson is starting to roll again as he strikes out Casey and Brown to start the 8th (now 3 in a row) and gets Maloney on an easy pop up to Dahlen at short to end the inning. In the bottom of the inning the Giants flex their muscle a bit as Donlin rips a fly to deep left. It’s off the wall. Slagle is there, but the throw is not going to be in time. McGann then takes the very next pitch to deep left center and this one nearly leaves the yard as it hits high on the wall. Maloney over pursues, but Slagle is there to back him up, the play is not very close at second and Donlin comes in to score the insurance run. Brown does get out of the inning, but now it’s 4-2 Giants with a dominating pitcher facing them in the 9th.

Mathewson gets two quick outs before Chance puts one into the left field corner and gets a stand up double. Unfortunately “Big Six” completely overpowers Slagle with three straight heaters and the game is over. A very big win for the Giants 4-2. Chance and Kling each have 2 hits, but Kling was the only hitter to drive in anyone with both RBI today. They played well and had their chances but came up short when it mattered most. Christy Mathewson was the driving force today for the Giants. He did give up a fair number of hits, but when McGraw needed to keep this close until the offense would eventually wake up, and they ALWAYS seem to, he retired 16 of 19 batters at one point as the Giants do come back again. Mike Bowerman came back like he never left the lineup and Sammy Strang was on twice in three plate appearances. But no Giants game is complete without a Mike Donlin sighting. He had another hit and is now hitting .371. This race is already over and while there is still plenty of season on the calendar, I see nothing that can stand in their way, especially with the Cubs best pitcher on the shelf for significant time and their number two down for some time now as well. Here is hoping to stop the bleeding tomorrow.

Giants 50 14 .781
Cubs 44 21 .677

[photo credit]