[jksander]

June 1, 1947: Today we have a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Athletics, and though we had a doubleheader yesterday as well, all our pitchers are rested (and Dutch Leonard says he’s ready to pitch on three days’ rest tomorrow, so we went into the game not necessarily needing to pitch a bullpen start in either game. Tom Seats (5-3, 3.86 ERA, 63.0 IP, 19 K, 1.52 WHIP) pitched the early game against Ted Alexander (3-3, 4.10 ERA, 59.1 IP, 23 K, 1.52 WHIP), and we went in knowing we had a fully rested bullpen as well, so we had all our options open early. And that’s great because this one turned into a pitching duel almost immediately, a duel we drew first blood in when a Phil Cavarretta sac-fly put us up 1-0 after six innings. Unfortunately Seats was wild in the top of the seventh ... after getting the first out, Buddy Rosar singled, Ted Alexander drove him to third with a single of his own, and Al Smith was hit by an errant pitch, loading the bags. I’d seen enough, and brought Amos Watson in out of the bullpen ... he got George Kell, who has been red hot lately, to pop out to Cavarretta in shallow left, preventing the runner from making a move from third, and Elmer Valo grounded out on a 4-3 play to get us into the stretch still with the one run lead. He got three more quick outs for us in the eighth, and we added on in the bottom of the inning with RBI singles by Cavarretta and Vern Stephens to extend our lead to three heading into the top of the ninth. Our man on the mound handled it perfectly, getting three more quick ones in the ninth as we held tough to win 3-0 in game one! Seats (6-3, 3.50 ERA) got the win with just five hits and two walks against him, striking out one and not allowing a single run, and Watson completed the shutout with 2.2 innings and just one walk, earning his fourth save as he brought his ERA down to 1.02 through 17.2 innings. We outhit them 7-5, led by Stephens with two hits, a walk and an RBI and by Seats himself, who hit twice and scored the winning run in the sixth.

Diomedes Olivo (3-6, 3.95 ERA, 73.0 IP, 33 K, 1.11 WHIP) pitched against Russ Christopher (3-5, 3.21 ERA, 73.0 IP, 34 K, 1.27 WHIP) in the late afternoon game, and the A’s took the lead in the top of the first with am RBI single by Willard Brown, assuring we’d get no shutout this time around. But we led off in the bottom of the inning with a solo homer out of right by Harry Walker, and we quickly added on with an RBI single by Les Moss that extended the lead by driving in Robinson, giving us a 2-1 lead heading into the top of the second. In the bottom of the fourth Richie Ashburn, who was playing right field for us in his MLB debut, hit into a U5 fielder’s choice with the bases loaded, driving home Moss for our third run while taking first. Olivo walked the bases loaded, and Harry Walker hit into a 3-6 fielder’s choice to drive in Witte, giving us a 4-1 advantage heading into the top of the fifth. Moss scored off an RBI single by Ashburn in the bottom of the fifth, his first official major league hit, and Jack Kramer took over on the mound going forward, owning a four-run advantage. Ned Garver took over in the eighth with no outs and a man on first, still leading by the same margin, and he got us the rest of the way as we won 5-1, sweeping the doubleheader. Tomorrow we’ll play one more against the A’s, but we’ve proven we’re still capable of going toe to toe with one of the league’s best teams. Olivo improved to 4-6 with a five inning four-hit game, walking one, striking out three and allowing just the one earned run as his ERA improved to 3.81. Kramer and Garver then combined for three hits and two strikeouts -- no free passes! -- and we outhit the Athletics 8-7 in a hard-fought victory. Ashburn had a great debut, going 2-4 with two hits and two RBIs, and Arky Vaughn kept several key drives going with his four walks, a St. Louis Browns record!

June 2, 1947: Dutch Leonard (5-4, 2.96 ERA, 85.0 IP, 30 K, 1.22 WHIP) threw 153 pitches three days ago in an eight-inning loss, but he and our pitching coach agree he’s ready to go on short rest so we’re going to keep the rotation going in order. He pitched today against Philly’s Max “Dr. Cyclops” Manning (3-0, 1.15 ERA, 31.1 IP, 17 K, 1.09 WHIP), who is starting for just the fifth time all year. Leonard pitched four brilliant innings of shutout baseball, and then our offense caught a spark in the bottom of the fourth -- Wally Moses reached on an E3 error to lead off, took second on an error on a pickoff play, and Vern Stephens walked the bases loaded, setting up Wally Judnich -- who has been ice cold lately -- to hit a powerful grand slam home run out of left field to put us up 4-0! Philly got on the board in the top of the fifth with an RBI single by Willard Brown, and Buddy Rosar batted one in for them in the sixth to cut our lead to two runs. But Vern Stephens hit a solo homer in the bottom of the sixth and we were able to bring in Sam Zoldak in the top of the seventh leading 5-2. But that’s when the wheels fell off ... Zoldak didn’t even manage to get a single out before Willard Brown, a giant thorn in our side, hit a three-run homer himself to tie things at 5-5. Ned Garver took over from there, getting three quick outs to send us into the stretch, but suddenly we were locked in a fist-fight and the A’s had all the momentum. Garver pitched around a double by George Kell in the eighth to keep it tied up, and Amos Watson took over in the top of the ninth with one out and a runner on first, quickly getting the two outs we needed. In the bottom of the inning, with two outs, Joe Schultz hit a double into deep center, bringing up Richie Ashburn, who they walked to avoid the risk of him doubling in the winning run. We then made a tough choice to keep Watson in the game, and he rewarded us with his solid eye, walking the bases loaded to bring up the top of our lineup. Bases loaded, two outs, Jackie Robinson came up to the plate ... and he popped out harmlessly to right and sent this one into extra innings. Jack Kramer took over in the top of the 12th inning, and managed to pitch his way out of a bases loaded jam without any runs scoring. They hit him with a pitch in the bottom of the inning as our leadoff hitter, but we weren’t able to get him anywhere and we had no arms available to relieve him, so he had to stay out in the 13th and that’s when the levee broke. By the time he got us out of the inning the A’s had piled on four runs, and we went down quietly from there as we lost 9-5 in the 13th inning. Kramer (3-2, 3.67 ERA) took the loss, allowing six hits, two walks and four runs (three earned) in his two innings, striking out one. But he threw 44 pitches yesterday and 51 today, so he had no business having to work so hard today ... he deserves credit for even giving us a chance. Philly outhit us 19-8, and without that grand slam in the fourth we were completely outmatched but kept fighting for nearly five hours. Judnich led the way with two hits, a run and his four RBIs, while Vern Stephens added a hit, a walk and two runs scored.

June 3, 1947: Today we hosted Boston for the first of two games on our field, and our pitching is suddenly in a rough spot, with nobody in our minors looking ready to come up for more than bloodbath support ... so while we look for a temporary stopgap on the free agency market, we’ll be counting on the pitchers we have to continue to hold the line -- we knew this was going to be a year where we’d be punching above our weight, and I knew coming in that our farm, while stocked with plenty of ‘players,’ is mostly full of guys who other clubs wouldn’t touch. That’s just how it is starting from rock bottom.

Fred Sanford (2-3, 4.21 ERA, 62.0 IP, 19 K, 1.47 WHIP) came in fully rested, going up against Boston’s Tex Hughson (3-9, 5.49 ERA, 95.0 IP, 49 K, 1.71 WHIP) knowing he was going to need to pitch deep into this game to avoid us further taxing our exhausted bullpen. Wally Judnich hit a solo blast out of center in the bottom of the second, continuing to come out of his slump as he pushed us to a 1-0 lead, but Bobby Doerr answered with one of his own in the top of the fourth to tie us up. Sanford was a real workhorse, powering himself through exhaustion in the seventh to get us into the stretch still tied 1-1. Ned Garner, who threw 40 pitches yesterday and 22 two days ago, came out to pitch in the eighth, getting two outs before giving up a two-run triple to Frank McCormick ... but he got us out of the inning. Sam Zoldak came out in the ninth to just get us out of the game, but he proved why I didn’t want him out there in the eighth even if it meant Garner pitching for the third day in a row ... he loaded the bases and gave up two runs in the inning, and we lost this one 5-1 after fighting the Red Sox hard for seven innings in a dead heat. Sanford pitched seven innings with four hits, two walks, two strikeouts and an earned run, but was gassed at 116 pitches, so Garner wound up with the loss, fallign to 1-3 with a two hit two walk two run effort. We were outhit 9-5, led by Judnich for the second day in a row with his solo homer.

June 4, 1947: Tom Seats (6-3, 3.50 ERA, 69.1 IP, 20 K, 1.49 WHIP) has been really hot this season through 10 starts, the 36-year-old having his best season at age 36 after spending most of his career toiling away in the minors. Today he pitched on three days’ rest against Boston’s Nick Strincevich (5-2, 4.56 ERA, 53.1 IP, 14 K, 1.46 WHIP), an evenly matched battle on paper for two veterans with vastly different major league trajectories, who both rely heavily on their control over raw stuff. Boston took a two-run lead in the top of the third thanks to a two-run double by Frank McCormick, and they added on in the fourth with an RBI single from Johnny Hopp to go ahead 3-0. His night did not improve from there, and though he got us through the sixth inning, Nick Strincevich added to Boston’s run tally in that inning with an RBI single. Jack Kramer took over in the top of the seventh trailing by four in the shutout, and the game became a full-on rout from there, as Kramer gave up two more runs before getting us mercifully into the stretch trailing 6-0. We finally got on the board with a run in the bottom of the eighth, Vern Stephens grounding into a 5-4-3 double play that scored Wally Moses. Kramer took one for the team and stayed out to finish the rest, throwing 62 pitches in the process, but it didn’t matter, as we still lost this one by a brutal 6-1 margin, the Red Sox outhitting us 16-7. Seats allowed 10 hits, a walk and four earned runs in his six innings, falling to 6-4 with a 3.70 ERA. Kramer then pitched three innings with six hits, a walk, a strikeout and two earned runs, giving him a 3.86 ERA through 37.1 innings over three starts and 10 bullpen appearances. Cavarretta and Stephens combined for four of our hits, and neither got anywhere.

June 5, 1947: We’ve signed Al "Beartracks" Javery, a 29-year-old right-handed starter, to a minor league deal, and we’re making room for him on the major league roster by dropping shortstop Ellis Clary back to the minors. He doesn’t have great command of his pitches, but he mixes a changeup that has great movement and a sinker that can be solid when he gets in a groove. But he hasn’t pitched more than 100 innings in a major league season since 1944 -- after being dropped by the Boston Braves in July of ’46, he signed with the Cardinals in August and never made it back to the bigs ... they released him three weeks ago after putting up a 9-5 record and 2.29 ERA with three saves in 78.2 innings with single-A Omaha, Deluth and Columbus.

Though he has good stamina, he lacks the pitch mix I would want to see from a starter in this league, so we still see him as an emergency starter or long reliever for bullpen depth. We’re off today, so tomorrow we should be able to get our rotation back to a healthy start with Olivo at the helm, but for now we’ll keep five arms in the pen instead of four. With four games in three days this weekend against the 30-23 Yankees, it’s safe to say he’s going to get plenty of action right out of the gate. Whether he’s able to handle it will be the question.