1st September 1872
The Cleveland Forest City's team seems to blow hot and cold. In August they decided it was time to blow hotter rather than colder as they went 4-3 for the month. This was good enough to leave them in 3rd place in the AL but 8 games back from the leading Canaries and only a slim outside chance of the title.
The batting during this month scored a reasonable 50 runs. The best of these was the Rookie Catcher David Lenz. Lenz, an undrafted free agent signing, Posted an average of .500 from his seven games. He had 14 hits, 6 runs and 8 RBI's in 28 at bats. This was enough to earn him both the Batter of the Month and Rookie of the Month for the AL.
The pitching continues to sometimes play well and sometimes play badly. In August it played well as Cy Bentley posted an ERA of 1.66 from the 7 games played. He pitched 59.2 innings and gave up 73 hits and 11 earned runs. This earned him the AL Pitcher of the Month award. The team gave up a total of 42 runs.
Full pitching stats for August
Full batting stats for August
Cleveland played 7 games in August
They started with a 3 game sweep of the St. Louis Brown Stockings. The scores were 8-7, 13-3 and 10-5
They then lost a series against the Philadelphia Athletics 1-2. The scores were 4-5, 7-6 and 1-8
They finished with a 7-8 loss against the Baltimore Canaries
In September the team will be playing 9 games. We will bring you a full report next month.