by Scott Fennessy
8/10/1905
Chicago, IL
The Cubs face the Giants in the series finale with New York holding a 2-1 advantage. Cub manager Frank Chance has given Jake Weimer the most formidable task of the season to date. Stop the Giants and Joe McGinnity. Jake has been the true ace this year, no disrespect to Ed Reulbach who has had a great season to date, but when the Cubs have had to have a win Weimer has been the go to guy.
Both pitchers look strong today but the Cubs fielding one defense earns its pay today when Chance made a rare error on a Dan McGann grounder, but on the very next pitch George Browne hits a liner right at second baseman Joe Tinker who easily doubles up McGann, who had been off with the pitch. The Giants defense also saves the day in the bottom of the inning when McGinnity misplays a grounder putting Chance on first with nobody out. (karma?) But not before Johnny Kling is injured by a foul ball off the bat of Mike Bowerman. While not a serious injury, Kling will be out for the next 10 games. Backup catcher John O’Neill, who has been horrible when spelling Kling this season, takes his place.
Chance moves to second on a grounder, and the struggling Jimmy Slagle comes through with a gap double to right for the RBI. Equally light hitting Tinker then gets a single to center to score Slagle. Joe’s had a tough year at the plate, but has started to turn things around a bit. “Iron Man” stops the rally, but the Cubs are on top 2-0.
Weimer continues to cruise and the Cubs strike again in the bottom of the 5th when McGinnity has an unusual wild period. With two out he walks Johnny Evers. After a bit of cat and mouse he steals second. Frank Schulte drops a single to right that scores Evers with the third run of the day for the home team. Chance than draws another walk after a lot of pitches, and hopefully this will tire the big man down. Unfortunately Jim Casey pops up to end the inning, but the Cubs now had a 3-0 lead, but from game one of this series they know it’s not over yet.
The Giants finally breakthrough in the top of the 6th. Sam Mertes gets a single to left and steals second. Mike Donlin gets a solid single to right and Mertes scores the first run of the day. McGann, who killed the Cubs yesterday then gets some payback as he hits a grounder right at Evers, and here we go. Evers to Tinker to Chance. Inning ending double play. Nice work boys.
Unfortunately for McGinnity, who clearly is having a tough day the run is given right back. Tinker gets a one out single for his second hit of the day. Billy Maloney then gets a belt high fastball, and luckily for McGinnity he does not have a lot of power as this one gets hammered off the top of the wall. Browne over reacts and the ball bounces past him and Billy’s off to the races. Tinker scores with ease, and Tinker pulls in with a stand up triple, his 6th of the year. The inning ends with an Evers strike out, but the lead is now 4-1 Cubs.
That would conclude the scoring for the game. The Giants tried to come back in the ninth, as Donlin rips a double, but Weimer holds serve and the Cubs win the game 4-1 and get a series split. I still think they will have to settle for a second place finish, but they showed a lot of heart for a change and we will see. They have the lowly Dodgers coming in next, but with some Brooklyn regulars losing their jobs the bats have improved a little, but the Cubs need to win this series, preferably a sweep.
And a tip of the cap to Detroit Tigers superstar Sam Crawford. Although his 14 game hitting streak ended today in game two of a double header against the Red Sox he has now raised his average to .294. The AL may yet get a .300 hitter. The streak is the second longest of the season only to the Indians Napoleon Lajoie at 15 games. Ironically the AL has had amazing pitching and the batting numbers are very suppressed. Mike Donlin of the Giants has the NL best 11 games.
