by Scott Fennessy
9/4/1901
Pittsburgh, PA
The Cubs brief home stand has come to an end and they travel east again and match up with the Pirates yet again. Today’s game features Jake Weimer, who struggled badly in his last outing against Sam Leever. The Cubs are dealing with the injury bug again, as Jim Casey will be out for a few more games, forcing the struggling bottom of the order to be even more overmatched. The good news for Frank Chance is that Billy Maloney and Frank Schulte are starting to come around, providing him with more opportunities to score. Given the tension at the end of the finale in Chicago seeing both teams with multiple hit batsmen the umpires have warned both teams before the game.
The game starts and Leever quickly moves through the first two hitters, but Schulte gets a single and steals second quickly enough and Chance singles up the middle to give the Cubs a 1-0 lead, which is how the inning ended shortly afterwards. Weimer gets a 1-2-3 inning, but only because Schulte makes a great running catch on Ginger Beaumont’s deep fly ball to right center.
The Cubs get some offense from an unlikely source as John McCarthy, spelling Art Hofman gets a leadoff double to start the second. Moving to second with one out Joe Tinker hits a fly to deep center field and gets the sacrifice fly, making it 2-0 Cubs. Weimer strikes out to end the inning, and gets a scoreless third after picking Claude Ritchey off first to end the inning.
The Cubs score again as Maloney gets a single to right to start the inning, and steals his 57th base of the year, setting up Chance for another RBI and he delivers with a double deep into the right field corner. Leever settles down and gets the final out, but the Cubs now lead 3-0.
Leever finally keeps the visitors off the scoreboard in the 4th, and Weimer, who has really been scuffling today allows the bucs back into the game when Fred Clarke slips a grounder between Tinker and Lobert for a leadoff single. Dave Brain, who has really disappointed due to limited playing time thanks to numerous injuries comes through with a hit and run single putting runners on the corners, and takes a rare chance on the bases, stealing just his 8th base of the year. Bill Clancey then rips a two RBI double into the gap in right to close the gap to 1. Clancey has been very hot lately and after a struggle in the first half is really helping keep the Pirates afloat lately. Weimer gets the final out, but again he does not have his best stuff today.
Both pitchers prevent any further offense, but the Cubs look to pad the lead in the 7th when Tinker hits a routine grounder to Clancey at first, but it hits the heel of his glove and bounces away allowing him to reach base. Joe steals second just ahead of Hillebrand’s throw, and is still there after Weimer strikes out for the second time; but Maloney draws a walk, and it is nice to see him starting to reach base more often, even if he is not getting as many hits as I would like.
Johnny Evers then hits a Baltimore chop that Brain decides to let roll foul, but it dies on the grass and never rolls to the left and the bases are loaded with a player on a solid tear in Schulte. Leever gets a visit from Hillebrand and they get “Wildfire” on an easy pop fly to Honus Wagner in foul territory behind third and the runners hold. Chance then gets a critical two out hit with a single up the middle, driving in two more. Leever then strikes out Johnny Kling to end the inning, but the damage is done and it is now 5-2 Cubs.
The Pirates immediately come right back with Brain getting his second hit of the day with a single between Evers and Chance on the right side. Ritchey then gets his second double of the game, and I believe his 6th of the week that scores Brain and once again cuts the lead to 2, and this time Chance stops by his struggling hurler to offer some encouragement. Weimer then gets the next three hitters and keeps the lead at 5-3 Cubs.
McCarthy gets his second hit of the day in the 8th, but the Cubs fail to score. Leever ends the inning by striking out Weimer for the third time today. Congrats Jake. Here’s your golden sombrero. Jake counters with just his second perfect inning of the day and we go to the 9th inning in a close game.
The Cubs waste a great opportunity when Maloney draws his second walk of the game and moved into scoring position by Evers. Schulte was pitched to very carefully and he draws a walk and somehow Leever gets out of the inning untouched. The Pirates then muster their last ounce of energy as Weimer strikes out Clarke to start the inning. Brain then grounds to Hans Lobert at third for the second out. Of course the Pirates don’t make it easy for Jake as Clancey then gets his third hit of the day and moved to second as Weimer’s pitch gets away from Kling for a wild pitch. Claude Ritchey then gets his second hit of the day to score the 4th run of the day and suddenly it is a one run game. Hillebrand hits a one hopper right at Lobert, who fires over to first and the Cubs secure a 1 run victory over a very good ballclub. This victory puts the Cubs temporarily in first, but the Giants have yet to play. Both teams have a double header.
The Pirates bottom of the order has really come around lately. Clancey and Ritchey have hit so well that manager Fred Clarke has hinted at moving Dave Brain down in the lineup to take advantage of the momentum they have provided.
While Jake Weimer struggled with control and allowed the Pirates more than enough hits to win this got some assistance by the defense for the win. Weimer also helped his cause by picking two runners off in the game. Maloney and Schulte are really providing some help for Chance, who had 3 more hits today as well as a walk, 4 RBI and two steals on his way to a possible MVP award. John McCarthy has not played much this year, but had a good day today. Left field has been a black hole for offense this year for certain.
Scott, great recap once again. Weimer struggling in Sept, but he still won here….Chance must have been a great player in the clutch through out his career, and his statistics showed that from many of the first hand accounts I have read over the years. He is that in your replay too. Brain twice was picked up for stetch drives, 05 Pgh and 08 Giants, and he didnt really deliver in either case as expected. Shame, becuse he actually had a pretty good 5-6 year career in the NL with Boston and St L.
Yes, Chance certainly has been carrying the team this year, and that seems to come from him being extremely patient at the plate. I have two cards for him and they are both loaded with 14’s.
Dave Brain was seemingly what you look for in a thirdbaseman. He could hit for power and provide decent defense. In the deadball era he was one of the few you could look to to hit a lot of homers (granted a lot takes a different meaning in the early years) and I believe he led the NL in homers in either 1904 or 1906.