Extra Inning Thriller!

Plus: 4/18/1908 Day in Review

Extra Inning Thriller!

This one was a joy to play through. It seemed to have just a little bit of everything.

4th Inning

The best place to start this one is in the bottom of the 4th inning, with the Cubs leading 1-0.

With one out, Ed Konetchy hit a ground ball to shortstop that Joe Tinker booted. Konetchy was followed up by Joe Delahanty, whose single put runners on first and second, still with only one out.

Billy Gilbert came up next, and things started to get strange:

The error on Cubs catcher Pat Moran loaded the bases with one out for Patsy O’Rourke. One look at O’Rourke’s stat line will tell you that I was bunting all the way:

Well, Moran certainly made up for his miscue, picking Konetchy clean off of third base. I’ve got to wonder who in the world has a “39” play result on a “13” role.

Three Finger Brown got out of the inning, but there was more to come.

Dramatic 9th

It looked like Brown would go all the way for the easy win. These Cardinals are no pushovers, however.

Right fielder Red Murray led things off for the Cardinals in the bottom of the 9th:

Murray went into double columns, coming out with a clean double — and suddenly everything felt a lot different.

Up next was Al Shaw:

I had decided not to bunt with Shaw in this instance. His ground ball back to Brown was as good as a bunt.

That set the stage for Konetchy once again:

Another double column roll, another double, and suddenly we were tied, 1-1.

The Cubs haven’t lost a game yet in this young season. It looked like they might lose one here. I decided to play it safe with the slow Konetchy on second base. Up came Delahanty:

Well, playing it safe was the right call. I probably should have told Joe not to attempt to steal as well. Konetchy didn’t try to score on Delahanty’s single. However, Delahanty was thrown out stealing for the second out of the inning.

Up came Gilbert. Instead of dealing with that awful card again, however, I decided to use a pinch hitter. Against my better judgment, I put in Ed Karger, a pitcher, to do the pinch hitting:

Now, before you get upset with me, keep in mind that it wasn’t actually all that unusual for pitchers to be used as pinch hitters in this era. We’ll talk more about that in a future blog post. Karger was the best hitter on the awful St. Louis bench, and I was playing to win, as always.

And so we went to extra innings.

11th Inning

We’ll skip right to the good stuff.

Moran came up in the top of the 11th with nobody out and Frank Chance perched on first base:

That “36” result with the hit and run play on led to a real wild time on the basepaths. Bugs Raymond, still in the game after 10 innings, simply lost his control.

Moran then bunted, and his bunt was a good one. And, just like that, the Cubs were up 2-1.

The Cardinals weren’t going down without a fight, though. John Barry came in to pinch hit for Raymond in the bottom of the 11th. He hit a ball to second that Johnny Evers booted. Now St. Louis was cooking again, and up came Murray:

The hit and run worked wonders. Barry (named Shad in some sources) moved up to second base, and the Cardinals were in prime position.

Up came Shaw:

That fly ball was the second out of the inning, and just tightened the screw one more notch.

Back came Konetchy, whose name came up a lot in this one:

Ed got the big base hit off of Brown, who had lost all his effectiveness. Barry was just fast enough to score, and the game was now tied at 2.

And on we went.

12th Inning

Chick Fraser came on to relieve Brown for the Cubs in the bottom of the 12th. His first opponent was Raymond Charles:

Up came O’Rourke with a real chance to do something. I decided to hit and run yet again to force the issue:

And, well, that “39” on dice roll 13 came to haunt me again. It feels like player abuse at this point.

That did it for the Cardinals.

13th Inning

Evers led off the top of the 13th inning by doing something he did so often in those days:

Tinker came up next, and you know I was going to bunt all the way:

And, for the third time this game, I was bitten by that “39” result on dice roll 13.

Joe did wind up getting a base hit out of it in the end, though. That set the stage for Chance:

The Cubs were off and running again, following up the long single with a stolen base. Up came Moran with runners on second and third and only one out:

I decided to walk Moran and pitch to Jimmy Sheckard instead. Sheckard doesn’t have the best card in the world, after all. St. Louis was hoping for some double play magic here.

Well, there was no double play magic to be had. Sheckard sacrificed himself for the good of the team, driving in the run that would prove to be the game winner.

What a game this one was. There were 4 stolen bases and 6 men caught stealing. There were 3 sacrifice bunts in all, including the game winner by Sheckard. We had only 17 hits between the two teams combined, and both Brown and Raymond were able to keep their microscopic ERAs intact.

And there’s more where that came from!

Other Action

Red Sox 1, Athletics 0: At Boston, Cy Young held the Athletics to only 2 hits in a masterful complete game victory. Read the summary here. Watch the game here.

Giants 4, Superbas 2: At Brooklyn, Christy Mathewson was too much for the hapless Dodgers. Watch the game here.

Browns 3, White Sox 2: At Chicago, St. Louis pushed over a game winning run in the top of the 9th to cap off a thriller. Read the summary here. Watch the game here.

Pirates 8, Reds 1: At Cincinnati, Honus Wagner led the way for the Pirates, going 3 for 4 in the route. Watch the game here.

Tigers 7, Naps 1: At Detroit, the Tigers exploded for 15 hits to tear apart Cleveland’s pitching. Watch the game here.

Senators 10, Highlanders 4: At New York, Washington erupted for 5 runs in the top of the 7th to ruin Jack Chesbro’s day.

Doves 2, Phillies 0: At Philadelphia, Patsy Flaherty threw a masterful two hitter for Boston. Read the summary here.

Cubs 3, Cardinals 2 (13): See above.

Standings

It’s still early, but we can see the makings of a pennant race already. The Cubs look likely to run away with the National League. Meanwhile, the Red Sox and Highlanders have been the huge surprises in the American League so far.