Breaking Free

Cardinals at Braves, May 11, 1949

Breaking Free

Boston just doesn’t have any good luck — not even with Warren Spahn on the mound.

Boston had a 2-1 lead over the Cardinals going into the top of the 7th. But, as you can guess, the Cardinals figured out a way to spoil it.

Marty Marion singled, followed quickly by Joe Garagiola:

And, of course, that set things up for Nippy Jones:

Nice catch by Jeff Heath — but he still couldn’t stop that tying run from scoring. And now it was a 2-2 game.

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It All Falls Apart

Eddie Kazak came up for the Redbirds in the top of the 9th:

Heath was oh-so-close to making another spectacular catch, but, sadly, he just missed it. And up came Marion again:

Now, that’s not me doing the bunting. That’s the computer manager. I don’t know if I agree with this decision in this particular situation, since Marion was 2 for 3 up to this point.

Up next was Garagiola:

That brought up Jones again, this time with runners on at first and second:

I thought for sure that Spahn would be able to get Red Schoendienst out. I think you can guess what really happened, though…

And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, Red still had the rest of his at bat:

That was all the shouting. The Cardinals held on to win, 3-2, and the Braves are really reeling.

It was a quiet game, played at a quick tempo and with a good amount of pace. Boston should have been the favorite for a pitching duel like this one. It just hasn’t been their season.