Season Wrap-up
This pennant race was another nail-biter. Going into August, the Cubs held a 4-game lead over the surging Cardinals with the Phillies and Pirates close behind. By August 21st, the Phils were on an 8-game winning streak while the Cardinals had lost 7 straight and the Pirates had lost 5 straight. Pittsburgh would never be a serious contender again the rest of the season, and St. Louis would remain on the outside looking in.
At this point in the season, the Phillies had taken a slim half-game lead over Chicago. By Labor Day, the Cubs would hold an equally slim 1.5-game lead over Philly. On September 22nd, the Phillies again held the lead, this time by 1.5 games. Then they lost their next two games to the Reds while the Cubs finished a sweep of the Cardinals, once again placing the Cubs in first by a half-game.
The Cubs and Phillies both won 2 of their first 3 in the season's final week. The Cubs then dropped their final series opener to the Braves in Atlanta 5-4 when Braves third baseman
Jimmy Collins (.266, 19 HR, 65 RBI) hit a solo homer off Cubs closer
Tom Hughes (6-11, 30 Sv, 4.14 ERA). That meant the Cubs and Phillies were tied with three games left.
On September 28th, the Cubs beat Atlanta 6-2 while the much-improved Giants defeated Philadelphia 3-2 in 12 innings. On the following day, the Giants again came back to score 2 runs in the 9th to tie the game before winning 6-4 in the 11th. The Cubs, though, failed to clinch when they lost 2-0 to
Kid Nichols (10-16, 3.79 ERA) and the Braves.
On the final day of the season, Phillies outfielder
Roy Thomas (.275, 23 RBI in 142 AB) hit a bases loaded single in the bottom of the 9th off Giants reliever
Jack Taylor (9-8, 5.56 ERA) to win the game. At the same time, the Cubs scored 3 runs in the 9th but lost to Atlanta 7-5, forcing a one-game playoff. Neither starting pitcher had their best stuff during the extra game, but the Phillies scored a run in the 6th, two in the 7th and four more in the 8th to win at home in Philly 8-3, reclaiming the pennant.
There was no more exciting way to finish the first quarter century of MLHR and the final NL-only season than this one-game playoff. The Phillies close out the 19th century as possibly one of the most dominant franchises we will ever see. They won 9 pennants over 13 seasons from 1888 to 1900. It will be interesting to see if any other franchise can come close to that level of dominance. Perhaps the best chance we have of seeing that occur are the Yankees of the 1950's and 1960's, but we will have to wait a while to see.
As for this season, Giants centerfielder
Mike Tiernan (.297, 27 HR, 88 RBI) joined the 400 home run club while leading the league in OPS. 36-year-old Phillies pitcher
Bill Vinton (15-8, 3.44 ERA) proved that age is just a number, while having his best season in three years and recording his 250th win. He finished the season with 259, which is good for 2nd all-time, just 19 wins from passing
Tommy Bond for first place. Pirates ace
Rube Waddell (17-11, 2.00 ERA) had a superb season and recorded the lowest ERA ever for a starting pitcher at 1.996 - rounded up to 2.00 - well better than the former record of 2.17 set in 1881 by the Giants'
Terry Larkin. He also set single season records for H/9, WHIP, OAVG and OOBP!
Standings
Batting Leaders
Pitching Leaders
Records
ERA: Rube Waddell, PIT, 2.00
Games Pitched: Jack Taylor, SFG, 89
H/9: Rube Waddell, PIT, 5.92
WHIP: Rube Waddell, PIT, 0.89
OAVG: Rube Waddell, PIT, .185
OOBP: Rube Waddell, PIT, .238
Career Walks (Batter): Cupid Childs, PHI, 1342
Career Walks (Batter): Billy Hamilton, PHI, 1341 - both batters passed Dan Brouthers' 1285 this season
Career Saves: Jack Sharrott, SFG, 332 - passed John Cattanach (331) for 3rd all-time
Career Innings Pitched: Bill Vinton, PHI, 4107.2 - passed Terry Larkin (3986.1) for 2nd all-time
Career Strikeouts (Pitcher): Bill Vinton, PHI, 3554 - became 4th pitcher to surpass 3500