by Scott Fennessy
It’s the fourth of July and America is celebrating its 129th birthday! All games in the major leagues were scheduled double headers. How cool is that! Unfortunately for me because of schedule adjusting the Cubs only play one today against the Cardinals once today. Although he is not yet born Ernie Banks is crying somewhere.
For the Cardinals they are making an adjustment to their normal roster and Charlie Brown pitches for the Cardinals (yes, his name really is Charles Brown) against Jake Weimer. I am hoping for similar results to the fictional pitcher today. Jake has been the anchor of the rotation this year and is recently removed from his no hitter.
Weimer looks unhittable again today as he fans the first two hitters on his way to a perfect first inning. The Cubs as they usually do strike in the first inning. Jimmy Slagle hits a ball that Homer Smoot cannot come up with and Jimmy’s on first via an error. Slagle is off for second on the first pitch and while Mike Grady makes a good throw Jimmy slides in just ahead of Harry Arndt’s tag for the steal. Frank Schulte continues to hit lining Brown’s 3rd pitch up the box and Slagle scores easily. Schulte also steals second, and while Frank Chance hits an infield single moving him to third the Cubs can’t do anything else and the inning ends with the Cubs on top 1-0.
Brown settles in and Weimer continues to roll and we go to the bottom of the fifth still 1-0. Billy Maloney who is getting hot again and he seems to be the spark for this lineup takes Brown into the left center gap, and Maloney is around first hard, and sees Dunleavy’s throw come in and heads back to first. He steals second for his league leading 35th base and scores on Schulte’s two out single. Chance hits a sure out right at Shay at short, but the decent hitting, weak fielding shortstop boots it. Wildfire heads to third, but Kling grounds out to end the inning with the Cubs bumping the score to 2-0.
The redbirds try to get back into this as Dunleavy crushes a Weimer mistake into the right field corner and he’s into third with ease. Shay draws a walk, and the speedy runner draws several throws from Weimer. The throws work and Jake gets out of the inning scoreless as the dangerous Clarke and Smoot go hitless. Brown who was making his first start of the year begins to tire in the 6th as Tinker leads off with a single and is forced to second on a walk to Hofman. Jim Casey hits a single to right scoring Tinker and runners are on the corner with nobody out. Weimer tries to bunt Casey over, but cannot get the job done and grounds out holding both runners. Maloney comes through though with a great at bat battling the struggling Brown and on a hit and run single to right both runners score. Slagle then walks and runners are on first and second. Schulte grounds out and runners are now on second and third. Chance hits a single scoring Maloney, Dunleavy makes a strong throw to third and Slagle looks out for sure but in the collision at third the ball drops. Nobody advances but Art Hoelskoetter is hurt. It looks bad as he is a J-4 subbing for the struggling George McBride and the injured Jimmy Burke. Burke seems to be the curse for Hoelskoetter got hurt for almost a month in April filling in as a late inning replacement for Burke and here is the word, Hoelskoetter is out until August first. Yikes. Given the redbirds depleted roster McBride has to come in at third. Kling ends the inning but the Cubs score four and the lead is now 6-0. Jim McDougal had come in for Brown while Art is carried off the field.
Although Weimer continues to cruise and McDougal and Win Kellum who came in in the 8th are not sharp, they keep the Cubs off the scoreboard. Jake looks great as he has two out and Clarke on first after a single and he loses focus for just one pitch and BAM! Mike Grady, probably the best hitter crushes it high and deep. Maloney can only watch as it clears the wall well into the seats and the shut out is gone. Jake gets Arndt on a grounder to end the game 2-6 Cubs.
The redbirds did not do much well today as Weimer holds them to just 4 hits, two of them in the 9th.
This was a game more like how the Cubs had played in early June. Maloney got 3 hits. Slagle has a two game streak and reached 4 times despite only one hit. Schulte got two more hits and is on a two game streak as well. Chance had two hits and is hitting .311 for the year while stealing his 31st base of the year and driving in his team leading 38th run. They stole 6 bases as a team. Casey now has a 3 game hitting streak. Hofman continues to struggle and is only in the lineup due to Evers injury now.
Giants 46 14 .767
Cubs 41 16 .719
Scott, I may have asked you this before but how are you handling injuries? Do you use the injury chart?
Hi Tom,
No you have not asked before, and I do use the chart. I have had several J-3 and J-4’s have very long injuries, and one or two that missed most of the season from just 2 injuries. I forget who it was, but during my 1901 replay someone on the A’s ended up missing the final two months of the year.
Sometimes, like when Reulbach went down it really hurt; but injuries are part of the game.