Legendary Comeback
The Phillies win a thriller
Legendary Comeback
On April 28, 1949 in real life, Vern Bickford threw a three hitter against the Phillies, lifting the Braves to an easy 6-1 victory:
Fortunately for us, Diamond Mind Baseball isn’t quite the same.
Comeback
Vern did pitch a great game in this one. He entered the bottom of the 9th with a 5-1 lead that almost mirrored what he did in real life exactly.
However, Bickford ran into trouble right from the start of the 9th.
Bill Nicholson led things off with a triple. And that brought up Andy Seminick:
Andy didn’t just get his first hit of the game. He did it with style, whittling the Braves lead down to 5-3 with nobody out.
Up next was Dick Sisler:
As you can see, out went Bickford and in came Bob Hall. And, as is always the case with these pre-1990 seasons, taking out the starter in favor of a reliever is a pretty risky proposition.
Del Ennis came up next for the Phillies:
That would have been out of the park if Shibe Park weren’t so deep in center field.
Granny Hamner came up next, now with one out and a runner still on at first:
That wasn’t exactly Hall’s greatest moment as a pitcher.
Now it was time for second baseman Eddie Miller:
Earl Torgeson’s miscue was sure to be costly. It looked like the Braves were simply falling apart out there. The bases were now loaded, the lead was down to 5-3, and the few fans left in Philadelphia were going bonkers.
And now it was Richie Ashburn’s turn:
Two runners scored on that single, tying the ballgame.
The computer manager decided to stick with Hall, despite all the base hits and bases on balls.
Up came Putsy Caballero as a pinch hitter for Willie Jones, with a chance to win it. I also decided at this juncture to replace the slow Eddie Miller at third base with the much faster Eddie Waitkus: one Eddie for another.
Looks like I’m a managerial genius after all.
That was Hall’s second blown save of the young season. Boston looks similar to the 1948 pennant winning team, but it’s having a hard time with its bullpen so far. The Phillies, meanwhile, are not the Whiz Kids quite yet, but they’re getting there.