W L Pct. GB
Tacoma ..... 51 37 .580 —
Yakima ..... 52 39 .571 ½
Wenatchee .. 51 40 .560 1½
Tri-City ... 49 42 .538 3½
Salem ...... 39 47 .453 11
Victoria ... 41 50 .451 11½
Spokane .... 38 51 .427 13½
Vancouver .. 36 51 .414 14½
TACOMA, July 16—Tacoma Tigers moved into first place in the Western International league, taking both ends of a twin bill, 6-5 and 10-6, Sunday.
Hunk Anderson, the right hander acquired from Vancouver last month, was credited with both victories in relief pitching. The double defeat dropped Wenatchee to third place.
Although outhit 11-6, the Tigers came out with a 6-5 victory over the Wenatchee club in the first game Sunday and gained, at least temporarily, possession of first place.
Tacoma was forced to come from behind twice to tie the first game, the first time on Dick Greco's three-run homer in the first inning and then again on Orrin Snyder's two-run triple in the ninth.
First Game
Wenatchee .... 001 210 100—5-11-2
Tacoma ......... 000 300 021—6- 6-0
Ragni and Len Neal; Kerrigan, Anderson (9) and Sheets.
Second Game
Wenatchee .... 111 003 0—6-11-2
Tacoma ......... 330 103 x—10- 6-2
Breisinger, Blankenship (2), Treichel (6) and Len Neal; Loust, Anderson (2), Carter (6) and Fischer.
SALEM, July 16—The Salem Senators swept their twin bill with the Spokane Indians here Sunday by taking the second game, 4-3. They won the first contest 7-2, thanks to a five-run eighth inning.
The double victory also gave Salem a sweep of the four game Western International League series.
First Game
Spokane ....... 100 001 000—2-15-1
Salem ............100 001 05x—7-9-1
Holder and Rossi; McNulty and Beard.
Second Game
Spokane ........ 000 003 0—3-6-0
Salem ............ 030 001 x—4-6-0
Bishop, Roberts (6) and Courage; Costello and Beard.
ONLY GAMES SCHEDULED
ON THE INSIDE
By DON BECKER, Herald Sports Editor
[July 19/50]
It had to happen sooner or later. The Braves have been staying among the top four of the Western International League thus far solely because of their excellent pitching staff. That staff collapsed during the Canadian jaunt with the result the team dropped five and won two by narrow margins.
When a club lacks hitters, as the Braves do, then everything must fall back to the hurlers. And until the Vancouver and Victoria series they've been doing a man-killing job. But the dam broke up north. Veteran Lou McCollum managed to win one game, 4-3, and reliefer Jim Olsen won the other. A 6-5 victory that went 10 innings before it was decided.
That's a significant thing . Note that both Brave wins were by the narrowest possible margin. And for proof of what happens when the pitchers aren't getting any help look at some of the other scores. Vancouver won theirs, 12-2, and 8-4. Victoria took their three on counts of 11-5, 12-5, and 7-1. In other words with the Tri-City team on a thin diet of base hits, the other two clubs were getting fat at the plate. And hog-fat at that.
Against Vancouver our club hit a team average of .259, and against Victoria it was just a slightly better .264. That gave them a road trip average of .262. However, in their trips to the plate the Capilanos collected 37 base knocks for a healthy .333. And the A's did even better. They went to bat 445 times, got 52 hits, for a resounding .358. That's the rest of the answer. We were simply clubbed to death.
NO MURDERER'S ROW
It's hard to win games against hitting like that. True, teams are supposed to hit better in their home parks, and lower on the road. Even so we have no array of power to frighten opposing pitchers regardless of where the game is being played. As of today we have but one player, Al Spaeter, who is in the .300 circle. One other is in the .290 bracket, and the rest are hitting in the .280ss, and on down. We're not going to suggest a solution to this problem of getting more base hits. After all the players are more keenly interested in that than is anyone else. But we do point these things out to answer the question. "What happened to the Braves?"
MORE THAN PITCHING
It wasn't a question of why it happened. It was simply a matter of when. But this much is certain. If the Braves are to stay in the tight race for the W.I.L. pennant it's going to take a lot stronger stickwork than they've been producing. That Canadian trip proved that pitching alone is not the answer.
Tomorrow night they open an night-game home stand. The team has always done well in Sanders Field. It could be these two series. Vancouver and Tacoma, could take the spell off the Brave bats. Although your printed schedule shows just three games with the Caps this week, there will be, four. The double-header, probably Wednesday night, will be the postponed game from Vancouver's last trip here.
NO 100,000 MARK
If the fans gave the club the same support they did while at home the last time, the attendance mark could easily pass the 60,000 mark. More than 10,000 attended the last series here, pushing the season's total past 50,000. However, even at that rate, Tri-City will not pull 100,000 for the season as was anticipated. So, your Insider loses a cup of coffee to Fred Olsen of Richland. Fred predicted 90 odd thousand for the year, while we rashly went out on the limb at 100,000. But if you care for the word of a predictor, Olsen also maintains that next year, the club will pull about 125,000.
It had to happen sooner or later. The Braves have been staying among the top four of the Western International League thus far solely because of their excellent pitching staff. That staff collapsed during the Canadian jaunt with the result the team dropped five and won two by narrow margins.
When a club lacks hitters, as the Braves do, then everything must fall back to the hurlers. And until the Vancouver and Victoria series they've been doing a man-killing job. But the dam broke up north. Veteran Lou McCollum managed to win one game, 4-3, and reliefer Jim Olsen won the other. A 6-5 victory that went 10 innings before it was decided.
That's a significant thing . Note that both Brave wins were by the narrowest possible margin. And for proof of what happens when the pitchers aren't getting any help look at some of the other scores. Vancouver won theirs, 12-2, and 8-4. Victoria took their three on counts of 11-5, 12-5, and 7-1. In other words with the Tri-City team on a thin diet of base hits, the other two clubs were getting fat at the plate. And hog-fat at that.
Against Vancouver our club hit a team average of .259, and against Victoria it was just a slightly better .264. That gave them a road trip average of .262. However, in their trips to the plate the Capilanos collected 37 base knocks for a healthy .333. And the A's did even better. They went to bat 445 times, got 52 hits, for a resounding .358. That's the rest of the answer. We were simply clubbed to death.
NO MURDERER'S ROW
It's hard to win games against hitting like that. True, teams are supposed to hit better in their home parks, and lower on the road. Even so we have no array of power to frighten opposing pitchers regardless of where the game is being played. As of today we have but one player, Al Spaeter, who is in the .300 circle. One other is in the .290 bracket, and the rest are hitting in the .280ss, and on down. We're not going to suggest a solution to this problem of getting more base hits. After all the players are more keenly interested in that than is anyone else. But we do point these things out to answer the question. "What happened to the Braves?"
MORE THAN PITCHING
It wasn't a question of why it happened. It was simply a matter of when. But this much is certain. If the Braves are to stay in the tight race for the W.I.L. pennant it's going to take a lot stronger stickwork than they've been producing. That Canadian trip proved that pitching alone is not the answer.
Tomorrow night they open an night-game home stand. The team has always done well in Sanders Field. It could be these two series. Vancouver and Tacoma, could take the spell off the Brave bats. Although your printed schedule shows just three games with the Caps this week, there will be, four. The double-header, probably Wednesday night, will be the postponed game from Vancouver's last trip here.
NO 100,000 MARK
If the fans gave the club the same support they did while at home the last time, the attendance mark could easily pass the 60,000 mark. More than 10,000 attended the last series here, pushing the season's total past 50,000. However, even at that rate, Tri-City will not pull 100,000 for the season as was anticipated. So, your Insider loses a cup of coffee to Fred Olsen of Richland. Fred predicted 90 odd thousand for the year, while we rashly went out on the limb at 100,000. But if you care for the word of a predictor, Olsen also maintains that next year, the club will pull about 125,000.
NON WIL MINOR LEAGUE NEWS
TV Blamed For Closing Of Loop
STAMFORD, Conn., July 16 (UP) — Competition from the television of major-league games was blamed today as the class-B Colonial baseball league voted itself out of existence.
League President John A. Scalzi, Jr., said television cut down attendance at league games, which also suffered from bad weather. He said all outstanding financial obligations of the six-team loop would be met, but that the league could not continue.
Member teams were the Waterbury Timers, Torington Braves, Bristol Owls, Bridgeport Bees, Kingston, N.Y., Colonials, and the Poughkeepsie, N. Y., Chiefs.
No comments:
Post a Comment