1st October 1879
The month of September saw the fans starting to look over their shoulders as they saw the rival White Stockings team put in their usual strong month. The Reds could only manage to win 6 of the 13 games during the month to allow the White Stockings to close the gap to 3 games. The Reds need to win 2 of their last 4 games to secure the pennant. The fans are hopeful they can do this.
The batting was on fire for most of the month as they scored 86 runs. The star of the show was Third Baseman Cal McVey. McVey started all 13 games and claimed 23 hits from 55 at bats. He also scored 14 runs with 15 RBI's for an average of .418 on the month. This earned him the plaudits in the NL as the Batter of the Month for September.
The pitching on the other hand was a struggle again as they lost their second starter to injury. The best came from Al Pratt who started 7 games and won 3 of them. He pitched 60.1 innings to give up 60 hits and 25 earned runs for an ERA of 3.73. The team gave up a total of 76 runs.
Catcher Bill Phillips returned from injury mid month.
The Reds pitching staff suffered another blow as they lost starter Monte Ward mid month for the season. He picked up an Elbow Strain that will require a 3 month recovery period.
Full pitching stats for September
Full batting stats for September
The team played 13 games in September
lost final 2 games of road trip to the Boston Red Caps 5-7 and 5-6
2-1 on road trip to the Chicago White Stockings 16-4, 16-9 and 2-7
2-1 on road trip to the Brooklyn Atlantics 10-1, 5-4 and 12-5
2-1 at home to the Boston Red Caps 4-3, 1-3 and 7-4
lost first 2 games of home series against the Chicago White Stockings 3-8 and 0-5
The team will be finishing the regular season with 4 crucial games. We will bring you a full season round up once they have been played.