- Poor Hitting Cost Cards At Least Two Games in Chicago
- Willie Doak came through with a bang-up performance.
- Butler Also Has Been in a Hitting Slump and Good Pitching Is Being Wasted.
April 22, 1914 Age 23
By W. J. O’Connor. St Louis Post Dispatch
One bright feature of the Cardinals’ first stand at home, which closed Tuesday with three victories, four defeats and one 15-inning draw, was the work of Huggins’ pitchers. Had the batting measured up in any proportion to the pitching the Cardinals would have bagged at least two more games, especially the I5-inning affair Tuesday.
Willie Doak came through with a bang-up performance. Sallee pitched well enough to win two games, but didn’t break into the “W” column at all. Hageman did well under fire Tuesday, while Big Bill Steele, the rheumatic mountaineer, proved almost conclusively that he’s a comeback by his tight performance in the last four rounds of Tuesday’s game.
Hug Isn’t Getting On.
The Cardinals’ chief source of worry at the current writing is the failure of Manager Huggins to get on. In eight games at home he compiled a batting average of .200. He was up 37 times, coaxed seven passes, combed six hits, and scored only four runs. If the Cards are to win regularly, Hug must get on oftener, as he’s the premier base runner of the team and by all odds the best run-getter.
Artie Butler also has been in thee throes of a batting slump. Art hasn’t even delivered a sacrifice fly for several days, and as a result the club has looked woefully bad despite the fact the pitching was better than ordinary.
To get a draw, 2-2, with the Cubs in 15 innings Tuesday, the Cardinals were forced to put in three hours and 37 minutes of hard labor on the diamond. This was caused chiefly by desultory fielding by Magee in the seventh, when he failed to grab Johnston’s high fly and it went for a double. Subsequently two runs scored because of this boot.
Grand stand managers questioned Hug’s judgment in the tenth, after the first two Cardinal batters coaxed passes. When it was Robinson’s turn to bat, a panic was detected on the Cardinal bench. Players went running hither and yon and after order was restored it was discovered that Hug had taken Robinson, a good pitcher, out, and put Cather up to sacrifice. He also had substituted Whitted for Cruise as a runner on second. Cather delivered the sacrifice, but Hug came next and missed a squeeze bunt, ruining a perfectly good rally.
Heine Zim grew weary of the proceedings In the eleventh, and made himself so disagreeable that he was banished to a warm dinner a humiliating penance.
Cards Off for Pittsburg.
The Cardinals quit St. Louis Wednesday morning on a slow train for Pittsburg, where they open the season there Thursday. The Pirates are leading the League, and the attendance should be big In the three-game series. So far at Robison Field the turnouts have been very minor leageish.
By winning two games from the Mackmen, Frank Chance’s Yankees shattered their 1913 record all to smithereens. Last spring the Yanks didn’t win a game at home until June 9, but already they have double what they had accomplished by June 10, 1913.