Cincinnati's Revenge

Plus summary of games from May 8, 1949

Cincinnati’s Revenge

If you thought the last 1949 game was exciting, wait until you see what happens here!

We’ll start this one off in the late innings again. The Reds came up in the top of the 8th inning of a 2-2 tie.

Grady Hatton led things off for the Reds:

Blame that misplay in left field on Del Ennis.

After a strikeout and a walk, Dixie Howell came up with runners on first and third and one out:

It’s not every day that you see two bad outfield plays lead to two triples in an inning. Cincinnati was now in front by a 4-2 margin.

The Reds added to their lead with a big home run by Ted Kluszewski in the top of the 9th inning, making this a 5-2 ballgame. And, no, I didn’t bother to take a screenshot of that one, figuring that this game was over.

Bottom of the 9th

I was wrong, of course.

The Phillies pieced together a run in the bottom of the 9th on a single, a pop out, and a double. After another ground out and a walk, Putsy Caballero found himself up as a pinch hitter once again — a role he’s clearly becoming familiar with:

The score was now 5-4, and it looked like the Phillies were really going to make something happen. Up came Andy Seminick, who was one of the heroes in the first game:

Well, I guess you can’t win them all.

Neither the Phillies nor the Reds are any good so far in this replay. However, sometimes the worst teams give you the best games. This is why you’ve got to make sure to play every game by yourself. You don’t want to miss any of the fun!

Other Action

Browns 2, Red Sox 1 (Game 1): At St. Louis, Red Embree worked around 6 walks to earn the complete game victory. St. Louis turned 4 double plays in the process. Read the summary here.

Browns 10, Red Sox 9 (15) (Game 2): At St. Louis, St. Louis came back 4 different times to win this one in dramatic fashion. Remember this game if the Red Sox fall just short of the pennant. Read the summary here.

White Sox 4, Athletics 1 (Game 1): At Chicago, the Athletics infield turned 4 double plays in a losing cause.

Athletics 3, White Sox 1 (Game 2): At Chicago, the Athletics won in another game with numerous double plays — this time 5 combined between the two teams.

Indians 7, Senators 4 (Game 1): At Cleveland, Early Winn shut down the Senators with a 4 hitter.

Indians 9, Senators 4 (Game 2): At Cleveland, Mike Garcia threw a complete game victory, one that he earned the hard way. Garcia went 3 for 4 at the plate, scoring 2 runs and driving in 1.

Yankees 18, Tigers 10: At Detroit, the Yankees obliterated the Tigers pitching, going up by as many as 14 runs at one point. Watch the game here.

Dodgers 4, Cardinals 1: At Brooklyn, the Dodgers’ bats are finally starting to come alive.

Braves 6, Pirates 2 (Game 1): At Boston, Vern Bickford threw an excellent complete game. Watch the game here.

Pirates 3, Braves 0 (Game 2): At Boston, Rip Sewell scattered 6 Braves hits in a masterful complete game victory. Watch the game here.

Giants 5, Cubs 2: At New York, the Giants made short work of the hapless Cubs.

Phillies 8, Reds 7 (11) (Game 1): At Philadelphia, the Phillies come back from a 3 run deficit in the bottom of the 11th to win. Read the summary here.

Reds 5, Phillies 4 (Game 2): At Philadelphia, see above.

Standings

The Pirates still look incredible, of course. I’m wondering what their Domination Index will look like if they can keep this up.

The Yankees, meanwhile, are clearly the best offensive team in the American League, and might have an argument for being one of the best offensive teams of all time. It’s amazing that they are outscoring the Red Sox without Joe DiMaggio in the lineup.

We’re to the point now where we can start looking at extended standings. As you can hopefully see, I haven’t included any biases by managing the home team in every game. I’m also surprised that we’ve only had 4 games in Pittsburgh to date.

“RLPct” here refers to the team’s real life winning percentage. The Pirates are outperforming their Pythagorean winning percentage, and the Athletics are slightly underperforming theirs.

Statistics

Now that we’ve got a somewhat significant number of games under our belt, I’m going to start sharing daily statistics with you. You can also find these statistics over on the 1949 splash page.

Team Offense

One interesting thing here is that the White Sox have ground into 35 double plays, which sounds like a nightmare.

Team Pitching

It doesn’t matter how many ways you look at it: the Pirates simply have an incredible pitching staff, one that continues to surprise.

Team Fielding

I’m going to keep you updated on these double play statistics with each game we complete.

I might also be a little bit too aggressive with the Dodgers on the basepaths. That 41% stolen base percentage isn’t great.

Batting Leaders

Dom DiMaggio is slowly coming back to earth. Meanwhile, Ralph Kiner’s killer offensive numbers have really helped the Pirates greatly.

Pitching Leaders

Again, it’s a little bit early to draw conclusions here, but it’s clear that the Pirates are doing well by not giving up many walks or base hits.