Letting the Pitcher Hit

April 21, 1949 Replay Results

Cardinals at Reds

This was a tight one right from the start. I’ll start this description from the bottom of the 6th with two outs, which is where the fun really starts. St. Louis led 2-1 at this point.

Jimmy Bloodworth hit a one-out double for Cincinnati , which led to an interesting chain of events.

The computer manager decided to walk Virgil Stallcup intentionally, putting runners on first and second. Lloyd Merriman, a rookie, came up next. I thought for a moment about bunting with him. He’s only 0 for 5 so far this year, after all. I decided against it in the end, though, and swung away.

I wasn’t expect this:

Merriman then popped out to make it two away.

Then came Dixie Howell, with two men in scoring position and two outs:

Tie ballgame, 2-2. I guess I could be faulted for being too greedy by running Stallcup, though I’d do it again in a heartbeat if I were given the chance.

And we stayed tied.

Big Fielding Plays

Eddie Kazak led off the top of the 8th with this wallop:

You’re going to have to use your imagination to figure out how Merriman made an incredible play in center field at old Crosley Field. Was it a diving catch? Did he rob Kazak of a home run? It’s up to you — you write the script.

Merriman found himself on the other end of a great fielding play in the bottom of the 9th:

Not bad for a rookie, eh?

Again, you’ll have to use your imagination to figure out what made one play “incredible” and the other “spectacular.”

The next batter up for Cincinnati was Dixie Howell, once again:

Now I had a decision to make. Pitcher Howie Fox was up next, and he had pitched fairly well, giving up 2 runs on 9 hits in 9 innings. I decided to lift him for a pinch hitter, putting Ray Mueller in to hit.

Now, as we just saw, Howell is pretty fast. We were indeed able to get him into scoring position without doing too much damage:

Now it was Grady Hatton’s turn:

That was the third great defensive play in two innings. This one was an absolute thriller!

Taking Chances

Diamond Mind Baseball’s computer manage makes some interesting decisions. In this one, the computer decided to let starting pitcher Al Brazle hit for himself in the top of the 10th inning. He bounced out, which would lead to all sorts of second guessing if it happened in real life.

Kazak came up later in the inning with two outs, and finally figured out how to get through Merriman:

That brought up Stan Musial with two outs. If you think I’m pitching to him in the top of the 10th with a runner on second, you’re nuts. I walked him, which was the only sensible thing I could do, and elected to pitch to Nippy Jones instead:

The gamble paid off, and we got out of that jam.

Stranded

Things were quiet until the top of the 12th, when Brazle came up to hit for himself again. And it worked:

Brazle finally left the game at this point, as the computer decided to use rookie Rocky Nelson to pinch run for him. But it was all for naught in the end:

Now we were facing Ted Wilks. I thought we had a chance after this Grady Hatton at bat:

However, Danny Litwhiler stranded him, and on and on it went.

The 13th

It felt like Kazak was born on base in this game:

That brought up Stan Musial, and had me sweating. But not for long.

Cincinnati threatened yet again in the bottom of the 13th. It pays to have Ted Kluszewski on your side:

The computer walked Johnny Wyrostek intentionally, which brought Bloodworth back up in yet another clutch situation.

I knew that Bloodworth wanted to redeem himself, but I also wanted to stay away from any rally killing double play. I decided to bunt with him instead:

And now up came Virgil Stallcup. The computer surprised me by electing to pitch to him. I would have walked him to set up the double play with only one out. Of course, this doesn’t happen if you walk him:

That was a huge play, a HUGE play. Stallcup striking out effectively ended the rally as much as any double play would have.

Merriman was back up, but couldn’t do much.

Final Act

We’ll now skip ahead to the 15th in the interest of keeping this blog post readable. I put Eddie Erautt in to pitch, and, well, he couldn’t get past Enos Slaughter:

Erautt was so shaken up that he threw 8 straight balls to walk the next 2 batters:

Out went Erautt, in came Johnny Vander Meer, and the St. Louis rally ended.

That was far from all, of course. Kluszewski wasn’t going to go down quietly as he led off the bottom of the 15th:

You knew what we were going to do. You knew all along that we were going to play hit-and-run with Ted. And Wyrostek worked it perfectly:

Bloodworth came up in yet another bunting situation:

Now there were two outs. St. Louis elected to pitch to Virgil Stallcup once again — and, well, that was the right decision:

What a thriller!

Results and Standings

April 21, 1949

Red Sox 4, Athletics 2: In Philadelphia, Williams and Stephens continued their assault on American League Pitching. See extended writeup here.

Tigers 2, White Sox 1 (12): In Detroit, Hoot Evers singled to end a tense marathon. See extended writeup here.

Indians 8, Browns 4: In St. Louis, the World Champions batted around in the first inning against Cliff Fannin. St. Louis outhit Cleveland 15 to 12, but never looked close to being in this one.

Yankees 9, Senators 3: In New York, the Yankees powered their way past Washington, relying heavily on Tommy Byrne’s 8 strikeouts.

Giants 4, Dodgers 3 (10): In Brooklyn, the Giants squeezed this one by the winless Dodgers. See extended writeup here.

Pirates 4, Cubs 2: In Chicago, the Cubs managed only two consolation runs against Pittsburgh. Chicago looks awful so far. See extended writeup here.

Cardinals 3, Reds 2 (15): In Cincinnati, St. Louis ended the marathon with a clutch home run by Enos Slaughter. See extended writeup above.

It’s really too early for much analysis — other than repeating that the Cubs look awful, of course.