Wild Pitch

A thriller ends on an awful note

White Sox at Browns

As I’ve said before, sometimes the less competitive teams give you the best games.

Chicago was leading this game 3-2 going into the bottom of the 6th, when Eddie Pellagrini came up with a runner on third and two out:

That tied things up, and set us up for the drama that would follow.

8th Inning

Chicago managed to put together a 4th run in the top of the 8th. But the Browns weren’t quite done yet.

Roy Sievers started things off the right way for St. Louis:

Whitey Platt ground out, moving Sievers to third. And that brought up Jack Graham:

That was another do-or-die decision, and the White Sox died on it.

Up next came Les Moss:

I decided to play it safe with Graham in this situation. I also thought we might be able to piece together another run, and decided to bunt with Pellagrini this time around:

That brought up Dick Kokos with two outs and runners on second and third:

And so now the bases were loaded for the pitcher’s spot. I chose Sherm Lollar as my pinch hitter. I thought Lollar might punish the White Sox for that intentional walk.

Guess I thought wrong.

9th Inning

We put Bob Malloy in there to pitch the 9th. And, well, it might have been a mistake.

Gus Zernial came up for the White Sox with a runner on first and only one out:

Thankfully, Malloy was able to get out of the inning without any more damage. However, we were now behind 5-4 with time running out.

Bob Dillinger came up with one out in the bottom of the 9th:

Man, that’s about as lucky as you can get.

Up next was Sievers, and I thought he might end it himself:

That was the second out. Now it was Platt’s turn again:

And then came Graham:

Jack bit off a bit more than he could chew there, but I think we can forgive him for it. His single tied the game, and now we were going to extras.

10th Inning

Don Wheeler came up for the White Sox with one out in the top of the 10th:

It must have been some spectacle to watch Wheeler, a catcher, leg that one out!

Chicago called on Joe Tipton to pinch hit for the pitcher:

Malloy recovered after this wild pitch to get the next two hitters out, but it was too little, too late. The damage had been done, and the score was now 6-5 Chicago.

St. Louis didn’t go down quietly, however.

Chicago went to Al Gettel in relief to try to put things away. And Moss greeted him right off the bat:

Up next was Pellagrini:

Charge that bizarre error to Cass Michaels, yet another blog legend.

Kokos was up next, with runners on first and second and nobody out:

It was time for a pinch hitter, as Malloy was done. I put Paul Lehner in there:

That was deep, but just not deep enough. And up came Jerry Priddy for the Browns’ final chance:

The wild pitch wound up being the difference in this one.

That was a very well played game by two evenly matched teams. The White Sox and Browns aren’t the best teams in the world, but they sure knew how to put on a show.