[jksander]

JUNE 26, 1953 . . . Bob Rush gave up a run in the first inning, and with the wind pulling any hits deep into the outfield he wound up giving up two more in the top of the second before finally getting a strikeout to end the inning. In the bottom of the second, Ernie Banks had a solid double to right, reached third on a fly-out by Jackson, and then scored when Eddie Miksis singled up the gap with a wicked-quick grounder that just squeaked by the second baseman. Toby Atwell hit a line drive to left that turned into a double, sending Miksis to third, but Rush hit into an easy out at first to end the inning with just one scored. Unfortunately Rush was not on his best game, giving up a homer in the top of the third, and our fielders weren’t helping at all by being out of position CONSTANTLY, failing to catch fly balls on an almost constant basis, so he was lucky we went into the bottom of the third just trailing 4-1. In the bottom of the third,Hank Sauer loaded the bases on a single to left with just one out, and Ernie Banks was able to drive Cavarretta home from third to make it a two-point game with the bases still loaded. Randy Jackson then hit a bullet off the end of his bat that almost brained the third baseman, driving two more runs in to tie the score 4-4!

Rush gave up another two runs in the top of the fifth, but we hoped to rally in the bottom of the sixth when Miksis hit a solid single and then Atwell followed up with a deep drive to right, reaching first and sending Miksis to third with no outs. Dee Fondy pinch-hit for Rush, but the infield hit was close enough for the Giants to get Miksis out at home, leaving Atwell on second and Fondy on first. They walked Max West, loading the bases with just one out, but they got Atwell at at home with Cavaretta advancing on an infield single to keep the bases loaded now with two outs and Willie Mays up to bat. Mays managed to get his single past the second baseman into the outfield, driving home Fondy and West to tie the score again at 6-6. And on a fielding error at first, Sauer was able to reach second on what should have been the third out, scoring Cavaretta to give us the lead with two men in scoring position and two outs. Banks got the final out on a pop fly to the shortstop, but we held the 7-6 lead at the end of six with Dutch Leonard coming in to pitch.

Leonard gave up the tying run in the top of the seventh, but in the bottom of the inning with the bases loaded and two outs, Cavarretta came in and nailed a perfect triple to the deep left corner, driving in three runs and giving us a 10-7 lead while reaching third! Joe Hatten came in for the top of the eighth and got three quick outs, and he came out in the top of the ninth ready to close this one out. A flyout, a walk and two strikeouts later and he’d done just that as we beat the New York Giants 10-7 in a real slugfest!

Dutch Leonard blew his save attempt but was able to get his first win of the year, improving to 1-2 with a 5.74 ERA on two hits. Joe Hatten earned his third save of the year, throwing two no-hit innings with a pair of strikeouts and a walk. And Bob Rush was happy to come out with a no-decision, having given up 10 hits and six earned runs in six innings with two walks and a strikeout, blowing his ERA up to 4.33 on the season after 17 starts and 120.2 innings pitched. Max West, filling in for Fondy as our leadoff man, didn’t get a hit but he walked twice and was able to score two runs for us, while Cavarretta, batting second, hit twice to score two and bat in three more. Randy Jackson added three well-timed hits to bat in two, and Willie Mays hit twice, scoring and batting in two additional runs.
 
JUNE 27, 1953 . . . Dick Brodowski took to the mound today, and he continued our troubling trend of giving up early runs, throwing more than thirty pitches and giving up three runs just in the top of the first. We got one back in the bottom of the inning, but Brodowski gave up two more in the top of the third to make it a four-run lead for New York and putting a lot of pressure on our bats to dig him out of the mess. Fondy hit a brilliant line-drive to right to make it all the way to third to start the bottom of the inning, and Cavarretta hit a sacrifice deep fly to left that allowed Fondy to score, making the score 2-5, but the wind blew in to rob Mays of a potential two run homer, and that was as close as we’d get before Brodowski came back up in the top of the fourth.

In the bottom of the fifth, Willie Mays hit another towering ball to deep center, but the wind again blew it just shy of home-run territory, making it an easy catch -- but he drove Cavarretta to third and Fondy scored, making it a two-run game with just one out. And Ernie Banks hit a fly-out to left which drove Cavarretta in to make the score 4-5. In the top of the seventh they added two insurance runs, making it 4-6, but in the bottom of the eighth, Willie Mays finally got his 21st homer of the year, putting us back within two. But we went into the top of the ninth still down 7-5 against the Giants. Brodowski stayed out to complete the game and did not surrender any more runs, giving us the chance to at least come back in this one. We pinch-hit Ramazzotti for Miksis to start the inning, but he was tagged out at first. Baumholtz then came in for Brodowski, but he hit a line drive directly to the first baseman. And Fondy would have been the third out, but for a bobbled catch at first base, allowing him to reach safely and sending the potential tying run, Cavarretta, up to the plate! And Cavarretta hit a line drive to center that their guy couldn’t catch, allowing Fondy to make it all the way to third, with Willie Mays coming up ready to be the hero ... hitting a weak squib that bounced just out of reach of first base, allowing him to reach and drive Fondy home from third ... ONE RUN LEFT! Ernie Banks came up to bat with Cavarretta on second as the potential tying run and Banks on first as the potential game winner. AND HE HIT A WALK-OFF THREE-RUN HOMER TO WIN THIS ONE 9-7! UNBELIEVEABLE!!!!

Brodowski, who stayed in for the entire nine innings and 152 total pitches, got the win to improve to 4-3, giving up 13 hits and seven earned runs but striking out five and walking five, keeping his ERA at 3.07 for the year. Ernie Banks is obviously the hero of the game, with his three-run walk-off homer giving us the win, batting in five runs total in the game. But Fondy hit three times to score four runs on his own to keep us in it throughout the game, and Willie Mays stayed tough despite some disappointing fly-outs early, hitting three times, scoring twice and driving in three runs. Banks now has 10 homers this year, tied with Sauer for second on the team behind Mays.

With this win we’re assured the series win against the Giants, but if we can win tomorrow we’ll sweep and improve to just one game shy of .500 on the season heading into what we fully expect to be a difficult stretch in July before the All Star break. So at this point every win is precious. This win moved us half a game up on the Giants to take fourth in the NL, but we’re still 13 games out of first and seven games out of third.

JUNE 28, 1953 . . . Warren Hacker took the mound for us tonight as we hoped to close out the sweep against the Giants and keep our win streak alive. And true to our recent form he gave up two runs in the first inning, giving up only a pair of hits but also walking three which was uncharacteristic for him. He was somewhat maddening in that way through the game, giving up another run in the top of the third by giving up easy hit opportunities, but also having struck out four batters by the end of three innings. Tommy Brown hit a towering two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth, his first four-bagger of the year, and Hacker really started to settle in, giving us a real chance. When Willie Mays homered over the right field wall to put us up 5-3 in the bottom of the fifth, this place went nuclear. The Giants got a run back in the top of the sixth, but we still held the lead, and we held it through eight, going into the top of the ninth with Bob Kelly on the mound and a one run lead. And he got us out of the inning with some excellent pitching, allowing us to take this one by a 5-4 margin to sweep the Giants in the series!

Hacker earned the win to improve to 11-4, throwing seven innings of seven-hit ball, with seven strikeouts against three walks -- the four earned runs didn’t hurt him much, his ERA remains a strong 2.71 overall. And Kelly was impressive in his eighth save of the year, throwing two innings with only one hit, striking out one batter and walking another, bringing his ERA down to 5.62 through 40 innings pitched. Willie Mays’ homer was one of his two hits tonight, as he scored one and batted in three to reach 65 RBIs this year! And backup shortstop Tommy Brown’s homer was a key moment in the game, batting in two runs to help give Hacker the confidence he needed to buckle in and start throwing all those K’s.

We improved with the win to 36-37 as we prep to drive to St. Louis to play a three-game road series before returning to Wrigley for the Independence Day series against St. Louis (Friday and a doubleheader Saturday) and Cincinnati (a doubleheader on Sunday). How long can we keep the streak alive? And can this momentum help us get to the All Star break with a surge of confidence?

We’re moving Klippstein back into the starting rotation, expecting him to pitch in the opening game of the St. Louis series against Harvey Haddix tomorrow evening, with Minner and Rush expected up in the other two games. Newcombe is stepping back into a bullpen role as we head into the July stretch.