W L Pct GB
Yakima ..... 55 39 .585 —
Tacoma ..... 53 39 .576 1
Wenatchee .. 54 40 .574 1
Tri-City ... 52 43 .547 3
Salem ...... 39 50 .438 12½
Victoria ... 41 53 .436 14
Spokane .... 40 53 .430 14½
Vancouver .. 37 54 .407 16½
YAKIMA, July 20—The front-running Yakima Bears swept a three-game series with Salem by trouncing the Senators Thursday night 14-5.
Bob Costello pitched effectively for the Senators until lifted for a pinch hitter in the fifth, but his replacement, John Tierney, could not find the strike zone and the Bears broke through for six runs in the fifth to assure victory. Four walks, a hit batsman and singles by Will Tiesiera and Jim Westlake did the damage.
Salem ........... 010 011 002— 5 8 1
Yakima ......... 000 360 23x—14 14 3
Costello, Tierney (5), Valentine (5), Spaeter (7) and Beard; Larner and Tiesiera.
SPOKANE, July 20—The Tacoma Tigers outlasted Spokane 8 to 5 in 14 innings Thursday night to retain their hold on second place in the Western International league.
The thriller here was the second longest game of the WIL, season. Tacoma won it when Dick Greco opened the inning with a blooper single and scored on Orrin Snyder's triple. Two more runs crossed the plate for the Tigers but they weren't needed. Spokane loaded the bags with none away in its half of the frame but Mel Knezovich pulled the string on the attempted rally.
Tacoma ......... 100 000 121 000 03—8 15 1
Spokane ........ 000 041 000 000 00—5 13 3
Kerrigan, Anderson (5), Carter (7), Knezovich (8) and Sheets; Holder, O'Flynn (8), Conant (9) and Rossi.
WENATCHEE, [Victoria Colonist, July 21]—There is an old saying in baseball that a player always comes back to hurt you if he is sold or traded to another club in the same league.
Joe Blankenship, ace of the Victoria mound staff when he won 25 games for the Athletics in 1948, bore out the old adage last ngiht as he turned in his neatest effort of the season to give Wenatchee Chiefs a 10-1 triumph over the A’s.
Marty Krug, Jr., greeted Blankenship with a lead-off double in the first inning and later scored Victoria’s only run but Billy Dunn’s fourth-inning single was the only other hit given up by the Chief hurler. He walked three and retired the last 17 men in order after Dunn’s single.
KRUG SCORES
Krug advanced to third after the catch on Charlie Bell’s fly to right and scored as Jimmy Moore went out to put the Athletics ahead 1-0.
Jim Hedgecock started on the mound against his ex-teammate but was charged with his sixth setback in 14 decisions as he was the victim of shoddy fielding in the first inning. Charlie Bell, the A’s shortstop, again had first-inning jitters and committee three consecutive bobbles after Larry Neal’s single to hand the Chiefs three unearned runs.
Apparently shaken, Hedgecock walked Blankenship and Larry Neal in the second and both scored on Walt Pocekay’s homer to give the Chiefs a healthy 6-1 lead on only two hits.
PROPST RELIEVES
Jim Propst replaced Hedgecock in the third and turned in a good relief performance despite three runs in the fourth. He walked four and struck out seven in five innings, winding up by striking out the side in the seventh. John Brkich made his second appearance for the A’s in the eighth and was tagged with the final Wenatchee run.
The victory gave the Chiefs a sweep of the three-game series and their 15th verdict in 18 games with the A’s this season.
The A’s move to Yakima tonight to meet the leading Bears in a four-game series. Lefty Aldon Wilkie will likely draw the starting assignment.
Victoria .......... 100 000 000— 1 2 3
Wenatchee ..... 330 300 01x—10 7 2
Hedgecock, Propst (3), Brkich (8) and Danielson; Blankenship and Len Neal.
KENNEWICK, July 20—Charlie Mead smacked a three-run homer in the eighth inning Thursday night to bring Vancouver a 6 to 5 victory over the Tri-City Braves in the second game of a Western International league doubleheader.
Tbe Braves won the seven inning opener. 10 to 3.
Mead's drive came with the Caps behind, 5 to 3.
Reggie Clarkson kept Vancouver in tne game until Mead could come through with the winning hit. Clarkson tripled, scored the first Capilano run in the first inning and then socked a home run for the second tally in the third.
The loss was charged to Tri-City's Gene Roenspie who gave way in the ninth to reliefer Jim Olsen. Roenspie, though he lost his fourth game against eight wins, helped the Braves build up an early lead with a pair of singles that brought in two runs.
- - - - -
KENNEWICK, July 21 [Don Becker, Herald] — A time-out period between the seventh and eighth innings jolted the Tri-City Braves out of another game last night. The Braves were leading Vancouver 5-2 going into the eighth inning. But the cool off period sapped hurler Gene Roenspie's arm, and the jinx that beat the Braves the same way they took that kind of a rest the last time, came through again.
Roenspie gave up a triple, single, a base on balls, and a circuit smash by Charlie Mead. All in the eighth. That did it. The Braves were on the losing end 6-5 then and they never did recover.
Tri-City had things pretty much their own way in the seven inning opener as Cy Greenlaw won his fifth victory of the season on a 10-3 count. Greenlaw gave up nine hits, but kept them well spaced. The only extra hit inning for the Capilanos was in the fifth when they got three for one run.
Charlie Peterson, the Braves manager, will send Dick Stone (1-5) to the mound tonight in the opener with the Tacoma Tigers. The two teams play a double-header Saturday night and a single game Sunday.
LOTS OF WINS
And if records mean anything Tacoma isn't going to have an time of it in Sanders Field. The Braves have won 25 of their last 32 starts in their home park.
Although 'Pasco Night' didn't set any new records for attendance, 2,026 fans turned out to see the Braves split a pair with Vancouver.
Nick Pesut was the big gun of the opening game, lacing a home run and a double to drive in four of the runs for the winners. The big catcher rapped his four-master
in the second with one runner on, and his double came in the fifth driving in two more.
The Braves really had on their hitting clothes in the preliminary set-to. Dick Faber, Al Spaeter and Clint Cameron all collected triples and Neil Bryant smashed a double for another extra-base hit.
Roenspie had another victory tucked away until that historic eighth inning. The Braves had pecked away at starter George Nicholas for a run in the first, two more in the second and another pair in the sixth. This built up a 5-2 lead for the slim righthander.
Reggie Clarkson, Vancouver's left fielder, who already had a triple and a home run to his credit, opened the eighth with another triple after one was out. He scored on Dick Sinovic's single and Len Tran drew a free pass. Then Mead hit a high one that looked like a routine fly until the outfielders quit running as the ball dropped over the fence.
First Game (Seven innings)
Vancouver ......... 000 012 0—3 9 0
Tri-City ............. 021 151 x—10 11 0
King, Alvari (5), Brenner (5) and Brenner, Heisner (5); Greenlaw and Pesut.
Second Game
Vancouver .......... 100 100 040—6 10 0
Tri-City .............. 120 002 000—5 10 2
Nicholas and Heisner; Roenspie, Olsen (9) and Pesut.
WESTERN INTERNATIONAL(includes Games of July 19)
G AB H RBI HR Ave.
Greco, Tac. ..... 91 342 124 90 20 .361
Tornay, Yak. .... 56 172 62 30 1 .360
Stetter, Spok. .. 82 292 104 63 6 .356
Thompson. Vic. .. 90 336 119 70 14 .354
Rossi, Spok. .... 88 315 106 67 15 .337
Vanni, Spok. .... 66 271 91 35 2 .336
Runs batted in (top six)—Greco, Tacoma, 90; Westlake, Yakima; 75; Quinn, Tacoma, 75; Thompson, Victoria, 70; Warner, Tri-City, 68; Mead, Vancouver, 68.
Home runs (top six)—Greco, Tacoma, 20; Rossi, Spokane, 15; Thompson, Victoria, 14; Warner, Tri-City, 10; Mead, Vancouver, 9.
Pitching (top five)—Robertson, Vancouver, 9-0; Roenspie, Tri-City, 9-3; Marshall, Victoria, 11-4; Kerrigan, Tacoma, 14-6; Ragni, Wenatchee, 13-6.
ON THE INSIDE
By DON BECKER, Herald Sports Editor [from July 21/50]
There are some things about playing baseball that are very unfair to the player. Particularly on scoring. Take that play the other night when Joe Orrell made a perfect throw to Vic Buccola when the batter laid down a bunt for a sacrifice. Buccola lost the ball in the sun, which was still shining by way, and the base runner went on to second. Obviously the batter didn't get a hit. But Vic had to be charged with an error.
That's an actual example of what we mean. Here's something that you'll see happen quite frequently. The outfielder will fire the ball in to cut off a runner, but the ball hits the ground, takes a bad bounce and the base runner gets an extra base. So the outfielder is charged with a miscue. The unfortunate part is that the errors reduce the fielding averages. And anyone checking over the record book would assume they were legitimate errors.
But it's probably evened up in the hitting averages. A lot of hits that appear in the record book are nothing more than mental errors. But they don't count those and for all anyone knows they could all be blue darts.
A REAL FIREMAN
Charlie Peterson, who does the master-minding for the Braves, has found a real fireman in Jim Olsen. He seems to have a knack of going out to the mound when it's the hottest and cooling it off in a big hurry. The good thing about it is that Olsen would rather do relief pitching than taking his regular turn as a starter.
And looking at the record, Olsen seems to have a good point. In the games he's started and lost it was quite a barrage of blows fanning the air before Olsen walked to the dugout. But on the contrary when he comes in to save a game his pitching is much better. We're not going to try and explain the why of this, because frankly we don't know. . .and we doubt if Olsen does. Let's just let it set that way, it's much better.
That's an actual example of what we mean. Here's something that you'll see happen quite frequently. The outfielder will fire the ball in to cut off a runner, but the ball hits the ground, takes a bad bounce and the base runner gets an extra base. So the outfielder is charged with a miscue. The unfortunate part is that the errors reduce the fielding averages. And anyone checking over the record book would assume they were legitimate errors.
But it's probably evened up in the hitting averages. A lot of hits that appear in the record book are nothing more than mental errors. But they don't count those and for all anyone knows they could all be blue darts.
A REAL FIREMAN
Charlie Peterson, who does the master-minding for the Braves, has found a real fireman in Jim Olsen. He seems to have a knack of going out to the mound when it's the hottest and cooling it off in a big hurry. The good thing about it is that Olsen would rather do relief pitching than taking his regular turn as a starter.
And looking at the record, Olsen seems to have a good point. In the games he's started and lost it was quite a barrage of blows fanning the air before Olsen walked to the dugout. But on the contrary when he comes in to save a game his pitching is much better. We're not going to try and explain the why of this, because frankly we don't know. . .and we doubt if Olsen does. Let's just let it set that way, it's much better.
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