Week Results
Record: 3-3
1-2 vs Cleveland
2-1 vs Boston
Total Record: 11-11 .500
4th Place
AL East, 1.5 GB
Mantle Performance Overview
Mantle started to show signs of coming out of his early season funk. This was one of the bright spots for the team this week. For the week, he hit
.391/.440/.565 with a
1.005 OPS. He's on a 7 game hit streak, and he's had 3 2-hit games in his last 5. He hit
1 2B,
1 HR, with
5 RBI. His season numbers still don't look great: .
238/.309/.500, but he's trending in the right direction after this past week.
Team Performance Overview
The team continued its inconsistent performance to start this season. They're .500 and only 1.5 GB, and it's only been 22 games. No reason to panic, but Yankee fans aren't used to this mediocre style of baseball. A .500 team might as well be a losing team to them. They keep seeing the 20-year old Mantle and dreaming about the glory of Joe D. They're convinced that they're watching the end of those great seasons. When Luke Easter crushed a winning 3-run HR in the top of the 9th in the 3rd game of the Indians series, you could hear a primal rage scream of anguish echo from the Bronx.
Allie Reynolds pitched the staff's first
shut-out of the season in the 1st game of the Indians series. In
9 innings, he gave up
5 hits with
9 K's and
9 BB's.
Yes, 9 BB's! He just kept walking batters but getting out of trouble. It was his 16th career shut-out.
One early observation I've made is that the Yankee pitching staff walked a lot of batters in 1952. They strike out a lot, but they seem to walk the same amount. I'm not used to that, and it gets annoying seeing good pitchers issuing so many walks. I thought pitchers were known more for their control in these old days. That's not the case this season apparently. There are quite a few batters with high walk rates as well. Eddie Yost is even nicknamed, "The Walking Man", which is hilarious. As a Reds fan, it reminds me of watching Joey Votto this past decade. He received so much grief early in his career for taking walks. It seems like it was a normal way of playing the game in the early '50s.
League Notes
Bob Rush pitched the first
No-Hitter of the season on Saturday, May 10th vs. Pittsburgh. The last No-Hitter for the Cubs was on 8/20/1946 by
Hank Borowy, and it was the 4th No-Hitter in franchise history.
Nellie Fox has broken the consecutive game hitting streak record. He has hit in
35 straight games as of May 12th, 1952. The previous record had been 29 straight games by George Burns in 1927. Obviously, Fox's streak began at the end of last season.
Elmer Valo was named
AL Player of the Week. He hit .435 with 1 HR and 5 RBIs. It was the 2nd time he's won the award in his career.
Ted Kluszewski was named
NL Player of the Week. He hit .522 with 3 HRs and 13 RBIs. It was the 1st time he's won the award in his career.
Up Next
The Yankees will work through the 2nd full week of May by making their first Western Tour of the season. They play 2 vs the Indians in Cleveland on Tuesday and Wednesday. They then head to Detroit to battle the Tigers in just 1 game on Friday. They'll close the week out with a doubleheader in St. Louis on Sunday. An odd schedule. There's no indication on Baseball Reference of rain outs or any other reason for so many days off. Hopefully, they'll find a way to string some wins together and calm the severely panic-stricken fans in the Bronx down.