Big Series
Early National League Front-Runners
Big Series
It’s time for a game between the two current National League front-runners: the Boston Braves and the New York Giants.
That’s right — Brooklyn is way down at the bottom of the league, and these two somewhat surprising teams find themselves on top of the world. You never know what a replay will bring you!
On we go to the Polo Grounds for a fascinating contest between two unheralded teams.
Early Power
Sid Gordon, who I prefer to hit leadoff, lead things off the right way for New York:
New York kept threatening after this, manufacturing a second run and winding up with Bobby Thomson on first with two outs. Boston (or, rather, the Diamond Mind computer manager) elected to intentionally walk Jack Lohrke in the first inning — not a move I would have made, but I can’t prevent it. The computer pitched to Buddy Kerr instead, who popped out — making the AI look like a genius.
The reigning National League champions are no pushovers, however. Boston came back with a run in the 2nd, and then Bob Elliott led off the top of the 3rd:
The Giants struck back right away, adding one more on a walk, an error, and single in the bottom of the 3rd, all with no outs. Johnny Mize struck out, however, and Lohrke made us wonder why the computer bothered walking him intentionally in the first place:
Boston Strikes Back
The Braves came right back in the top of the 6th, down 3-2.
Earl Torgeson led it off with a single and promptly stole second. Tommy Holmes advanced him to third on an infield grounder. And that brought up Jim Russell:
Suddenly it was 4-3 Boston, and they weren’t done yet. Alvin Dark singled, which brought up catcher Phil Masi with one out:
Another bad luck play for Lohrke, who wasn’t having the best game of his life.
Warren Spahn struck out, though, and the Giants were able to get out of the jam without any further damage.
Controversy
That’s when things got interesting.
Bob Elliott led off the start of the 7th with this:
It was another one of those plays that would have been replayed endlessly on television in a later era. Elliott managed to worm his way onto first base with that slithery single, and now the Braves were coming for more.
The Giants were able to get out of it in the end, though. Holmes came up with two out:
That makes two controversial calls at first in the same half inning, one helping each team. And we weren’t done there.
Gordon, who made that big play to get the Giants out of the top of the 7th, singled to lead off the bottom of the inning. It always feels like the player who just made a big play in the field winds up leading off the next inning, doesn’t it?
Spahn now faced Willard Marshall, who he had already walked 3 times in this game:
It’s not every day that you see Spahn with control problems like this. Somewhere in the background, Boston Braves fans stopped singing their songs about Spahn, Sain, and two days of rain, and started hoping for outs.
And, well…
Late Inning Drama
We moved into the 8th with the score still 5-4 in favor of the Giants.
Larry Jansen, the New York starting pitcher, came up with a runner on first in the bottom of the 8th and two outs. I thought about it for a few minutes, and decided to leave him in there, hoping to reward him with a somewhat messy complete game.
Boy, he sure rewarded me:
Down 6-4 going into the top of the 9th, the computer manager surprised me again by electing to keep Spahn in the game instead of going to the bench:
Decisions like this are a known issue in Diamond Mind Baseball. Without an “undo” button, there is sadly nothing we can do about the computer making illogical moves (or, in this case, committing unforgivable sins of omission).
Spahn and Eddie Stanky made two quick outs. Larry Jansen now faced Elliott again:
And that brought up Marv Rickert as the tying run, with the game resting on his shoulders:
The 6-4 line score might not look very close at first glance, but this really was a tense game from start to end. And, my goodness, those New York Giants sure look good, don’t they?
