Can Anyone Beat The Pirates?
Plus: Day In Review, 4/27/1949
The Record
Most baseball fans know that both the 1982 Atlanta Braves and 1987 Milwaukee Brewers won 13 games in a row to start the season. The 1982 Braves barely managed to hold on to win their division; the Brewers, in contrast, were beaten out by both the Tigers and Blue Jays in one of the most memorable races in the division era.
But do you know which team would have held the record in 1949?
Here’s a chart, courtesy of Champs or Chumps:
The 1944 St. Louis Browns, 1918 New York Giants, and 1940 Brooklyn Dodgers jointly held this record in 1949, each with 9 wins in a row. None of those teams managed to win the World Series, though the Browns did manage to hold on to win the pennant. All three were competitive.
And my 1949 Pirates come into this game with 7 straight. I know it’s no guarantee of what might happen in this project. However, I’m convinced that the Pirates are going to be in the thick of things come the end of the season. This team is certainly much better on paper (or, in this case, in computer data) than they were in real life.
Scoreless in St. Louis
We’ll start the action here in the bottom of the 4th, with the score 0-0. In fact, St. Louis hadn’t had a hit to this point, its vaunted offense having been stymied by the unheralded Murry Dickson.
But here came Enos Slaughter:
Slaughter’s triple was not only the Cardinals’ first base hit: it also offered the first real scoring chance in this game.
In my reckless style, I decided to have Eddie Kazak bunt:
Yep, it was a suicide squeeze — and with an excellent bunter at the plate and a very fast runner at third. And, well, we just didn’t have good luck. Johnny Hopp made the key play, and Slaughter was out at the plate.
After Stan Musial popped out, Nippy Jones tried to keep things alive:
We had two on and two out now, with the go-ahead run as close as he could be. Up came Chuck Diering:
That play by play text sure can get your hopes up, can’t it?
The Cardinals rallied again in the bottom of the 5th, but that came to an end when Red Schoendienst was caught off first by Dickson:
That ended another potential rally in a hurry.
Kiner
Ralph Kiner is the undisputed MVP of the early season.
Here he is in the top of the 6th inning:
Cardinals ace Howie Pollet had pitched well to this point, but gave up the first run with a single swing of the bat.
The Comeback
It didn’t take long for the Cardinals to come back.
Jones led off the bottom of the 7th:
There seems to be some poetic irony in the fact that Jones’ home run went over Kiner’s head in left field.
That wasn’t it for the Cardinals, by the way. Diering came up next:
Dickson seemed rattled now. However, the comeback was stopped short as the Cardinals failed to advance Diering any further.
And we went scoreless into extra innings.
10th Inning
Pollet was good for 9, but started to lose it in the 10th. First up for the Pirates was catcher Clyde McCullough:
Now it was Diering’s turn to misplay the ball - and now the Cardinals had a problem.
Up next was Stan Rojek:
And up now was Monty Basgall, who was known for anything but his bat:
That was a little Texas Leaguer to right field that found a place to drop. It was more well placed than it was well hit. And now the Pirates were up, 2-1.
That was it for Pollet. I brought in Kurt Krieger to try to stop the bleeding. He faced Dickson, the pitcher:
That was a huge out, keeping the score at 2-1 and possibly turning the momentum over to the Cardinals.
Hopp popped out for the second out, bringing up Wally Judnich:
That base hit made it 3-1. Even after Kiner popped out to shortstop for the third out, the lead seemed insurmountable.
Marty Marion led things off for the Cardinals in the bottom of the 10th:
I thought we might be getting to Dickson. I went to my bench, picking out Solly Hemus to pinch hit for the catcher Del Rice:
Well, so much for that strategy.
Up came the pitcher’s spot, which meant it was Tommy Glaviano’s turn to pinch hit:
Now was our chance with Slaughter back up there. It was now or never. I thought Dickson might be losing his control, but he stayed in the game. And here it went:
Well, so much for the comeback.
St. Louis managed only 5 hits in that game. Dickson threw a 10-inning complete game, throwing only 126 pitches in the process. I believe the home run to Jones is the only run he’s given up so far this season.
The Cardinals haven’t been awful. The Pirates, in contrast, have been absolutely incredible.
Other Games
Athletics 17, Red Sox 9. At Boston, Philadelphia’s offense completely dominated Boston’s pitching. With the wind blowing out at Fenway, the Athletics scored early and often, battering 6 Red Sox pitchers in the process. Watch the game here.
Indians 2, White Sox 1. At Cleveland, starter Bob Lemon overcame a late White Sox rally to hold on to the victory. Watch the game here.
Browns 4, Tigers 2. At Detroit, Dick Kokos put this one out of reach in the 7th for the Browns:
Yankees 5, Senators 4. At Washington, the Senators remain winless, missing a golden chance to end the losing streak. Watch the game here. Read the writeup here.
Giants 7, Dodgers 4. At New York, the Dodgers continued to struggle. Johnny Mize provided the big blow in the 5 run New York 3rd inning:
Braves 6, Phillies 1. At Philadelphia, Johnny Sain comes close to throwing a no-hitter, taking one into the 7th. Bill Nicholson finally broke the spell:
The Braves managed to hold on for the easy victory. Watch the game here.
Cubs 2, Reds 1 (10). At Chicago, the Cubs offense finally wakes up for the final three innings of the game. Read the writeup here.
Pirates 3, Cardinals 1 (10). See above.
Standings
Well, the picture tells the story here. The Pirates are undefeated, the Giants are one step behind them, and the rest of the National League looks pretty pathetic. Meanwhile, as we all predicted, the Red Sox and Yankees are battling it out for American League supremacy.