Season 2
Final
CARDS TAKE PENNANT BY SINGLE GAME; FAVORITES PROGRESS
It came down to the final weekend and the 2013 St. Louis Cardinals closed a furious pennant race to top season two. The Cards were lead by their top starters as Adam Wainwright and Shelby Miller won 20 games. Matt Holliday even in his advanced age hit .339 including a 31 game hit streak and paced this team that finished second in runs. Tony LaRusa found a way to do it his way.
The Joe Maddon lead 2016 Cubs have to feel irked for losing out to their rivals, but they still had an excellent season. John Lester and Kris Bryant were just wonderful all season. Bryant had 49 long balls as the team hit an amazing 225 of them. Lester won 27 games while striking out 321 batters. The Cubs lead the league in defense as well and had an amazing bill of health all season with no significant losses. But to lose to St. Louis....
Ted Williams as expected lead the 1949 Red Sox to a strong third place finish. Williams had more then 20 RBI than anyone else at 147 and faded a bit to hit "only" ,339. Mel Parnell was the star on the mound winning 25 games and logging 292 innings. Vern Stephens also belted 40 home runs while Bobby Doerr drove in 91 runs. The Sox won 51 times at Fenway.
Rounding off the top four strongly were the 1915 White Sox. All they did in the process was run. The team stole 559 bases (!) and Eddie Collins lead the way with 128 (remember these are 1986 settings). Even with all the speed the Sox finished only 6th in runs and needed good pitching from a 20 game winner Jim Scott as well and the needed efforts of the dependable Ed Walsh. Joe Jackson was not part of this roster.
The 2006 Athletics made some noise early in the season but could not keep up the pace of the top four. The A's known for their pitching didnt get the job done as the curve of Barry Zito lost him 20 games. Jay Payton had a big year at the plate and Nick Swisher hit 37 home runs even if he wasn't the best teammate. Thirty eight year old Frank Thomas drove in 98 runs and was a pleasant addition this season.
Not all that much was expected from the 1982 Braves but they were competitive for the most part. Bob Horner hit some bombs with 38 home runs while Dale Murphy was a bit of a let down driving in 90 runs while hitting .279. Larry McWilliams won 21 games and the Braves pen was actually the most stingy in the league lead by a young Steve Bedrosian (18 saves). The club had a tough time away from home losing 50 times.
Not a good season for the Giants and the 1936 club lost 104 games. The pitching at the Polo Grounds just wasn't what one expected with even Carl Hubbell having a losing record with 17 losses. Mel Ott hit 27 home runs and hit .340 and the club as a whole hit .287. Just not enough outs for the Giants were well in the hole after a 9-20 month of May.
John McGraw surely had some choice words for his 1919 Giants that lost 106 games and took the bottom floor. The team did fight the most injuries in the league and couldnt find a starting pitcher at this level to save their lives; a 6.15 team ERA says it all. Benny Kauff was a star in his won right hitting .356 with 31 doubles. This team really should have been better than their record showed but late games also tended to slip away much too often.
