It's All Up To Ralph!
Plus: Day in Review, May 15, 1949
It’s All Up To Ralph!
There’s no question that Ralph Kiner was one of the best hitters in the National League in 1949. He’s also played well in this replay so far, benefiting from the extra at bats he gets because I hit him at the top of the lineup.
However, the Pirates have been struggling lately. And, man, they were struggling in this one against St. Louis.
Pittsburgh found itself down 3-0 early. A massive 3 run home run by catcher Clyde McCullough, not exactly the most famous hitter in the lineup, tied the game at 3 in the bottom of the 5th.
And on it stretched into the late afternoon.
9th Inning
The Cardinals finally figured out whatever spell Tiny Bonham cast over them in the top of the 9th. The bases were loaded for Ron Northey:
That made this a 4-3 ballgame, and on it went into the bottom of the 9th.
That’s where Ralph comes in.
He came up with nobody on and two outs, the final chance for the Pirates:
And that was that.
Kiner went 0 for 5, dropping his average to .364. He strikes me as one of those all-or-nothing type hitters: he either has an absolutely marvelous game, or he winds up doing nothing.
Other Action
Senators 7, Red Sox 2: At Washington, the Red Sox leave 14 men on base but failed to follow through. Watch the game here.
Indians 12, White Sox 10: At Chicago, the Indians won an absolutely wild game with tons of lead changes. Watch the game here.
Indians 5, White Sox 4 (10): At Chicago, the Indians won an exciting and crazy one, capping off a wild doubleheader. Watch the game here. Read the summary here.
Browns 6, Tigers 3: At Detroit, the Browns rally to knock off the Tigers. Watch the game here.
Browns 5, Tigers 4: At Detroit, Shoeless Marlin Stuart walked in the winning run. Watch the game here. Read the summary here.
Athletics 5, Yankees 0: At Philadelphia, Dick Fowler threw a 3-hit shutout for the Athletics, holding the Yankees scoreless despite giving up 6 walks. Watch the game here.
Yankees 4, Athletics 3: At Philadelphia, the Yankees came back to win an exciting game. Watch the game here. Read the summary here.
Braves 6, Dodgers 5: At Boston, the Dodgers’ 8-game winning streak finally came to an end. Hodges made the final out with the tying run on second:
Reds 5, Cubs 4: At Cincinnati, Johnny Vander Meer throws a complete game to beat the Cubs.
Reds 4, Cubs 0: At Cincinnati, Eddie Erautt throws a complete game, wrapping up an excellent doubleheader for the Reds.
Phillies 6, Giants 2: At New York, the Phillies surprise the Giants with their bats. Watch the game here.
Cardinals 4, Pirates 3: At Pittsburgh, see above.
Standings
Things are really heating up now.
The Giants hold on to a slim lead, despite losing. That’s because the Pirates also lost, as did the Dodgers.
Meanwhile, the Indians have caught up with the Yankees in the American League. Boston remains 2 1/2 games out, and needs to start turning things around.
Batting Statistics
The most surprising thing here has got to be Eddie Joost with 10 home runs. We’ll see if he can keep it up!
To put this into some perspective, the American League hit .263 / .353 / .379 in real life; the National hit .262 / .334 / .389. Diamond Mind seems to be right on in both fields, though the slugging percentages do seem a little bit high.
We’ve got 187 sacrifice hits in 16,579 plate appearances, for a sacrifice 1.13 percent of all plate appearances. The real life ratio for both leagues was one bunt for 1.46% of all plate appearances, which means that we’re just a hair behind where we should be in terms of sacrifices. My guess is that I don’t sacrifice as often as I should.
Pitching Statistics
I don’t have too much to say about pitching, other than that the WHIP in the National League was 1.40; in the American, it was 1.516. I haven’t broken the replay stats down into league-by-league figures, but a quick glance tells me that we’re right on the money.
Fielding Statistics
I’m still not sure what the best way to look at double play figures is. The combined real life total for both leagues was exactly 2700. Most teams are only about 17% of the way through the season (27 out of 154 games). If there were to be exactly 2700 double plays in this replay, we’ve seen 17% of them so far (456 divided by 2700). It might be that the double play totals are finally coming back down to earth.
Of course, the only way we can really know for sure is by playing the games.