Monday, June 11, 1888
Detroit Wolverines (23-14 .622 0 GB in 2nd place in the Liberty League) at
Boston Shamrocks (22-18 .550 2.5 GB in 3rd place)
Al Rice, Det. (23-7.6) (R 12-4 1.92 7.0-0.8-5.7 H/9-BB/9-SO/9) vs. William Little, Bos. (27-6.0) (R 10-5 2.89 9.4-1.7-4.5)
Won - 12 to 11 in 11 innings
The wind was whipping and the park is a bandbox and I think some Leprechauns were running around in the grass kicking at the ball. When you play on days like this, you need to worry about 2 things more than any other: don't walk people and limit your errors in the field. Well, we walked people and we made errors in the field and tried our best to lose the game. In both the 9th and 10th innings, the Shamrocks had the winning run at third base with nobody out, but could not score.
Al Lewis (22-9.1) ended up being the hero. They had already scored one in the bottom of the 11th and had runners at 1st and 3rd with 2 outs when Mike Stables (32-7.1) put a charge into one to left-center that looked like a sure bet to tie the game and maybe even win it outright, but Lewis streaked to the ball, caught it, crashed into the fence and held on for the final out.
Rice allowed 18 hits, 5 walks and struck out 5.
Little gave us 20 hits, 1 walk and struck out 7. At bat, he had a hit and a walk and an RBI.
We made 6 errors and Boston made 9.
There were so many offensive fireworks that we'll just publish the box score at the end of the dispatch.
Two notes: Mike Stables hit for the cycle in his 1st 4 plate appearances and then went silent. He is the 3rd player in Liberty League history (5th overall) to hit for the cycle and the 1st in 5 years.
Trivia: Who was the 1st player to hit for the cycle in the GNA? Our own Ben Smith (28-6.7) in 1884 when he was playing for the now-defunct Philadelphia Quakers.
Also, 3 of Al Lewis' 4 hits did not leave the infield.
Liberty League:
Pittsburgh (0) at Louisville (2): William McLeod (29-5.6) (8-8) over Tom Lilly (28-6.4) (11-5). McLeod allowed 6 hits, 4 walks and struck out 5. At bat, he had 2 hits and an RBI. Lilly allowed 6 hits, no walks and struck out 3. Rookie 2B Tom Walker (25-3.8) will miss a week or two with a sore shoulder.
Indianapolis (8) at Cincinnati (1): Frank McSherry (32-4.1) (4-7) over John Stevens (31-8.2) (7-9). McSherry allowed 7 hits, 4 walks and struck out 5. 3B Fred Boss (25-6.0) hit 2 doubles and drew a walk, scored 3 runs and had 3 RBIs.
Cleveland (3) at New York (0): Lou Townley (26-3.4) (12-5) over Miah Turner (27-5.3) (7-7). Townley allowed 2 hits, 2 walks and struck out 3. At bat, he had a hit, 2 walks and scored a run. Turner allowed 5 hits, 2 walks and struck out 2.
Grand National Association:
Providence (5) at Washington (2): Tom Ashton (24-5.2) (9-7) over Pop Yurkovich (36-5.6) (7-7). Ashton allowed 6 hits, 3 walks and struck out 4. 2B Dave Stricker (26-5.2) had 3 hits and a walk, stole 2 bases and scored 2 runs.
Kansas City (13) at Chicago (11) in 10 innings: Dan Butler (30-4.7) (3-6) in relief of Lew Burnett (27-4.5) over Pat Seguin (24-4.4) (10-8) in relief of Tom Washam (35-6.1). C Gene Stone (31-5.4) hit 3 doubles, tying the GNA record, drew a walk, scored 4 runs and had 2 RBIs. 3B Al Sarbacker (27-4.8) had 3 hits with a home run, stole a base, scored 3 runs and had 3 RBIs.
St. Louis (8) at Milwaukee (9): Freddy Wood (32-6.3) (4-6) over Tom Wilmarth (28-5.4) (4-8). 1B Dave Gray (27-4.9) had 3 hits with a triple, scored a run and had 2 RBIs.