by Scott Fennessy
9/8/1905
St. Louis, MO
The Cubs arrive in St. Louis to face the struggling Cardinals and renew their rivalry. The Cards have made a ton of moves now that they are officially eliminated from the pennant chase, and send their hottest pitcher, Jake Thielman (right) to the bump today. Jake is 20-16 for the year after a 6-1 stretch, and considering the Cubs bats have been pretty silent through the last week this could be interesting.
Meanwhile Jake Weimer will go for the visitors. Jake has 29 wins, but has had some issues with free passes over his last two starts. Jim Casey returns from another DL stint, and manager Frank Chance has used this moment to shake the lineup greatly. Casey moves into the number to spot as the struggling Johnny Evers moves into Casey’s 6 spot. Tinker moves into the 7 hole as reserve John O’Neill is getting some rare starting time this series as Art Hofman has not performed up to expectations this year.
The Cubs make Chance look like a genius right from the startas Billy Maloney, who has regained some of his earlier form gets a leadoff single. The hit and run is called for and as Maloney breaks for second Casey slips a grounder right where shortstop Danny Shay would have been and runners are on the corners. With the suddenly red hot Frank Schulte at the plate Chance calls the hit and run again. Schulte gets a “get me over” curve ball and he slaps a solid single to right and Maloney scores, and Casey takes third as the throw comes into second. Chance now comes to the plate and smells blood in the water and sends Schulte with the pitch and once again what should have been a routine ground out turns into a single. Casey scores run number two and the Cubs still have runners on the corners with no outs.
Chance decides to press his luck with the hit and run and Johnny Kling, another slumping hitter that has shown signs over the last two to three days of coming around hits a soft fly ball that may drop in for another single, but John Dunleavy makes a terrific diving catch, gets to his knees and throws it back in to Jake Beckley at first for the double play. Schulte scores the third run on the throw and now the bases are finally empty with two out. Evers lifts a single to left as the Cubs appear to have Thielman’s number. The redbird’s skipper makes a trip to the mound as light hitting Joe Tinker steps to the plate. Apparently he said “give him a BP fastball” as Tinker gets a very hittable pitch and Joe crushes this into the right field power alley for an RBI double. O’Neill pops up to Harry Arndt to end the inning, but not before the Cubs score 4 runs, and if not for the double play may still be batting.
Weimer gets a perfect first, and Thielman shakes off his first inning doldrums and the score is still 4-0 bruins with the Cardinals batting in the bottom of the 4th. Pepper Clarke draws a leadoff walk and a Homer Smoot single puts runners on first and second with the Cardinals second best hitter Mike Grady at the plate. Grady takes a very good slider for strike one, but guesses off speed and is correct. He hits a booming drive into the left field corner that scores both runners for his 29th double of the season and now cuts the lead to two runs. Weimer calms down and stops the rally as the inning ends 4-2 Cubs.
The Cubs come right back in the 5th however as Schulte gets his third hit of the day and steals second easily. Chance then rips a liner that is just past Beckley’s reach at first and goes to the corner. Chance slides in just ahead of the throw with a triple and another RBI. Kling then hits a grounder up the middle for an RBI single and the Cubs take a 6-0 lead. That ends Thielman’s day as Win Kellum comes in to try and stop the bleeding. Kellum has been pretty awful this year, but looked good in his last appearance, and gets the next three hitters with ease to end the inning.
Nothing else happens until the 7th when the levee breaks (somewhere Robert Plant is smiling) Schulte leads off with a sharp single over short, his 4th of the day. He then takes third as Chance gets his third hit of the day. Chance calls for the hit and run yet again, as Kling has had a decent day. Kellum’s slider tails badly and this one hits Kling in the hand. He’s in a lot of pain and is crumpled in the batter’s box. The trainer comes out and while it does not appear to be broken it is swollen already and he clearly won’t finish the game. Hofman will be coming in and O’Neill will finish the game behind the plate. Hofman takes first for Kling and Evers hits a changeup hard and deep. Smoot gives chase and grabs this one at the last minute. Schulte tags and scores as the other runners have to hold up. Tinker rips a single that scores both runners, giving him a rare 3 RBI day as the Cubs now lead by a comfortable 9-2 score as the inning ends abruptly on a crisp double play.
The Cardinals finally get something going in the bottom of the frame as Casey makes a good stop on Arndt’s grounder, but his throw is high and past Chance for an error. Moving to second on a grounder pinch hitter Art Hoelskoetter, who has been hobbled by injuries most of the season and really struggling gets a solid single up the middle and the Cards score a run. Weimer shuts the offense down though and the score is still 9-3.
Charlie Brown comes in to try and close this down, but he does not fare any better as Weimer, who really does not have a good hitters card somehow gets his second hit of the day. I am still trying to figure out how this card has generated a .268 average, but it has. Maloney is hit by a pitch and Casey gets an infield hit to fill the bags. Schulte looks for a 5 hit day but strikes out on a changeup that he was fooled by. Chance then draws his league leading 67th free pass to drive in another run. Runners move to second and third on the throw and Hofman lifts a fly to deep right to score another run. The inning mercifully ends as the Cubs now lead 11-3, which is how the game ends.
The Cards pitching really let them down. The bullpen failure is nothing new as they have floundered all year, but Thielman’s crash and burn was a big surprise. That said, Smoot and Grady have really found their stride and had two hits each. For the Cubs it was a refreshing return to their early season hitting and everyone contributed. Weimer becomes baseball’s first thirty win pitcher as the Cubs remain a ½ game behind the Giants who are playing the woeful Braves in New York. The only downside in today’s victory is that Johnny Kling will miss 7 games with a swollen wrist.
“Charlie Brown comes in to try and close this down, but he does not fare any better…”
Did Lucy come in from center field??
Sorry, I couldn’t resist. :)
Actually that’s why I called him Charlie instead of Charles, because he was pretty awful for the redbirds all year.