Can Rain Stop The Pirates?
A wild and wet ride in St. Louis.
Can Rain Stop The Pirates?
This is it. If the Pirates win this game, they’ve tied the record for most consecutive wins to start off a season.
We went over those stats last time, in case you weren’t with us.
This Pittsburgh team has been very good — surprisingly good, in fact. They swept the Cubs, demolished the Reds, took 2 in a short series with the Giants, and have beaten the Cardinals black and blue so far. They’ve played 3 extra inning games so far, winning them all.
But they haven’t played in the rain yet. Well, not until today, that is.
A Wild One
We’ll start this game off in the top of the 5th, with St. Louis up 2-0.
Wally Westlake came up in a key situation, with runners on second and third and only one out:
I took a chance by throwing home instead of going for the double play. Johnny Hopp scored, however, and now the score was 2-1, with Ralph Kiner coming up.
It’s moments like this that make me love this game.
Kiner has been tearing apart the National League to this point. He’s a threat to hit a home run every time he comes up. I imagine that he just missed one here.
Pitcher Cliff Chambers might not be the fastest runner in the world, but sending him in this case made sense. It took an excellent through from Enos Slaughter and a great defensive play by Joe Garagiola to get that out.
And the score was still 2-1 St. Louis.
The Rain
We had a 62 minute rain delay before the top of the 6th started.
That was enough to force Cardinals starter Red Munger to leave the game. And, as I’ve been saying all along, going to the bullpen this early is always a tricky proposition.
I had to bring Jim Hearn on to pitch. And, as you can guess, Hearn got himself into trouble pretty quickly.
With one out, Clyde McCullough lined a single to right. That brought up Monty Basgall:
And now, with runners at first and third, it was time for Eddie Bockman:
The score was now tied at 2. There were runners now at second and third, and with only one out.
Up came Hopp:
That was another one of those plays that we simply had to make. Pittsburgh was 8-0 coming into this game, and I was going to do everything in my power to stop them from getting the lead. It just didn’t work out.
Up next was Chambers, who stayed in the game despite the rain delay:
We got one, but not the other. And now the Pirates were winning, 4-2.
That was it for the 6th inning. In the top of the 7th, though, the Pirates added on a few more. Kiner came up with a runner on and nobody out:
I thought this one was over. But oh how wrong I was.
Comeback
It rained for another 42 minutes in the bottom of the 7th.
The Cardinals were able to piece together two runs, scoring on a Garagiola double play and later on a Eddie Kazak single. As the inning went on, Vic Lombardi eventually came out in a relief role for Pittsburgh.
With two outs, Stan Musial came up with runners on first and third:
Just like that, the score was 6-5 Pirates, and St. Louis was back in it.
8th Inning
Of course this wasn’t the end.
We put Cloyd Boyer in to pitch in the top of the 8th. He promptly gave up two straight singles and a walk. With one out, Pete Castiglione came up with the bases loaded, up 6-5:
That three run double made the score 9-5.
The Cardinals did come back with one in the 8th, thanks to Chuck Diering:
However, with the score 9-6, it looked like the Pirates’ winning streak was going to stay alive.
Last Chance
The Cardinals made a desperate attempt in the bottom of the 9th to right the score.
After Slaughter struck out, Kazak tripled to deep left center. That brought up Musial, who drove him home with a single to right. The score was now 9-6 Pittsburgh.
In came Bob Muncrief to try to put out the fire. And up came Nippy Jones:
That wasn’t exactly the sort of welcome Muncrief was hoping for.
Marty Marion was the next Cardinal hitter:
That brought up Red Schoendienst:
I was surprised that the computer decided to stay with Muncrief at this stage. However, we’re playing this the right way. I resisted the temptation to take over and make a change myself, and instead ordered Diering to bunt:
That brought up Garagiola, with runners on 2nd and 3rd. It had been a long afternoon for Joe, and it showed. He worked Muncrief to a full count, but, alas…
Ed Stevens had to make the tag play at first instead of the force. If Joe had been just a step faster, this game would have been tied.
This one was crazy. We had 104 minutes of rain delays. There were 19 total runs and 31 total hits, to go along with 8 walks. This felt more like a 1930 game than a 1949 game.
Pittsburgh held on to win, though, and are now 9-0. One more win and the record is theirs.
Other Action
Athletics 4, Red Sox 0: At Boston, Joe Coleman overcame 5 walks to shut out the first place Red Sox. Watch the game here.
Browns 3, Tigers 2: At Detroit, the Tiger comeback attempt came just short. Read the writeup here.
Senators 2, Yankees 0: At Washington, the Senators finally won a game. Read the writeup here. Watch the game here.
Giants 10, Dodgers 0: At New York, the Giants blew the Dodgers out of the park.
This one started off with Willard Marshall:
It continued with Bobby Thomson:
And then came Johnny Mize:
And all of that happened before the Dodgers got a single man out in the first.
Phillies 6, Braves 5: At Philadelphia, the Phillies came up with one of the most amazing comebacks I’ve ever seen. Read the writeup here.
Cubs 4, Reds 2: At Chicago, Dutch Leonard struck out 6 Reds in a convincing complete game performance.
Pirates 10, Cardinals 9: See above.
Standings
The American League is pretty wide open at this stage. Meanwhile, the Pirates and Giants seem to be in a two horse race in the National. It’s early, true, but it’s also getting late — especially for the favored Brooklyn Dodgers.