Scheib's Save

Athletics at Senators, April 23, 1949

Scheib’s Save

The real close ones don’t always start out that close.

This Athletics - Senators game, for example, looked like a wash on paper. It turned out to be a lot of fun.

Cruising Fowler

It looked like Athletics starter Dick Fowler was going to cruise all the way through this one at the start.

The Athletics put together two runs from the first two at-bats of the game. Elmer Valo tripled on the very first pitch, and Eddie Joost then homered on the second pitch, and I thought this was getting ridiculous in a hurry.

Senators stater Ray Scarborough settled down after that, but I thought there was no way Washington could come back.

It wasn’t until the 5th inning that the Senators finally got their first run. Buddy Lewis was hit by the first pitch of the bottom of the 5th. Scarborough sacrificed him to third on a 3-1 pitch that he probably should have took instead. Eddie Yost ground out for the second out, though, and there was nothing but despair in Washington (as usual).

But then up came the other Eddie:

That made the score 2-1.

Philadelphia Responds

Don’t count the Athletics out, though.

They responded in a big way in the top of the 6th. Sam Chapman hit a little tapper past the first baseman for a base hit, and Ferris Fain, off to a slow start this season, walked. That brought up Wally Moses:

Up came Hank Majeski:

All of this happened with no outs, by the way.

Scarborough did manage to get out of the inning without any more damage, though it wasn’t pretty. The score was now 4-1 going to the top of the 7th, and Philadelphia wasn’t done yet.

Walks by Joost and Fain brought up Moses again with one out:

In came Ed Klieman to pitch for the Senators. Majeski greeted him with a single, and up came the youngster Nellie Fox:

This one had me looking in the rulebook for the mercy rule.

Mike Guerra finally grounded into a double play to end the inning, but the damage had been done. It was now 7-1 Athletics.

The Comeback

Washington slowly started to come back.

It wasn’t a lot at once. They seemed to peck back, scoring two in the bottom of the 7th and one in the bottom of the 8th.

These runs weren’t scored on spectacular offensive plays, mind you. They were scored the scrappy way: a walk here, a base hit there, that sort of thing.

Now, the Senators did almost throw it away. With one out in the top of the 9th and Fox at bat, they made this boneheaded defensive play:

Guerra grounded into yet another double play after this one, however, and the Senators came up in the bottom of the 9th within striking distance, down only 7-4.

I decided to go with Carl Scheib in relief for the Phillies, hoping to prevent Washington from completing an unlikely comeback

Yost walked to lead it off, bringing up Robinson again:

It was a bad throw and a bad play by Majeski. Now there were two on with nobody out, and suddenly the tying run was at the plate.

Bud Stewart was that potential tying run:

The score was now 7-5 with one out. Clyde Vollmer came up next, and promptly a ground ball to third, forcing Robinson at second. He did manage to beat out the double play, however.

And that brought up Al Evans with two out:

Two out and two on now for Al Kozar:

By this time I was asking myself whether Scheib understood the concept of a “save.” All we needed him to do was to throw strikes, which he seemed incapable of doing.

I stayed with my man, though, as Sam Dente came up with the bases loaded:

I could use a little bit less of this stress in my life.