STATUS QUO MAINTAINED ATOP NL STANDINGS
Giants Maul Cubs
Kremer, Bucs Blank Robins
NEW YORK, September 21 (AP) - Both National League pennant contenders took care
of business on Sunday, thereby maintaining Pittsburgh's 1 1/2 game advantage
over the New York Giants. The two teams will meet for a three-game series
at the Polo Grounds beginning September 23, following a mutual off day.
The series could well determine the identity of the NL's World Series
representative for 1924.
In Upper Manhattan, Giants starter Jack Bentley (14-8) continued his recent
renaissance on the hill, blanking the Chicago Cubs for eight innings before
tiring in the ninth as New York posted a lopsided 9-1 victory. The
left-hander, whose ERA stood a hair under five following an August 21 loss at
St. Louis, was coming off a key complete game shutout of Cincinnati just three
days prior. He was stout again at the Polo Grounds on Sunday afternoon,
pitching into the ninth before being removed by manager John McGraw with one out
to go. Bentley left to a raucous standing ovation from the 19,215 in
attendance and watched Claude Jonnard record the game's final out.
Bentley's teammates gave him plenty of support. The Giants took a 1-0 lead
in the second inning when Hack Wilson tripled to right-center field off Cubs
starter Tony Kaufmann (13-11) and scored when shortstop Sparky Adams booted
Travis Jackson's routine grounder.
New York added to its lead when Ross Youngs belted his sixth home run of the
year, a two-run shot into the seats in right field, in the third. The
Giants then began to pull away in earnest in the fourth. Bill Terry led
off the frame with a single, and scored on Wilson's second triple of the
afternoon. Jackson's single made it 5-0.
The Giants essentially iced the game in the fifth, driving Kaufmann from the
hill in the process. Youngs drew a one-out walk and, one out later, scored
on Bill Terry's fifth home run of the year, just inside the right field foul
pole. That ended Kaufmann's day.
Adding insult to injury, New York padded its lead with a pair of unearned runs
in the sixth off reliever Rip Wheeler. Jackson led off with a single and
two outs later Freddie Lindstrom reached when Chicago second baseman Bill
Barrett kicked a ground ball that should have ended the inning. A Bob
O'Farrell passed ball moved the runners to second and third and then Jimmy
O'Connell tripled into the right-center field gap, making it 9-0.
Bentley, meanwhile was cruising, but his pitch count was piling up and he was
working on short rest. The Cubs finally got to him in the ninth.
Cliff Heathcote led off with a double and Barrett's single advanced him to
third. The Giants turned Hack Miller's sharp grounder into a double play
that scored Heathcote with Chicago's first run, but cleared the bases.
When pinch hitter John Churry singled, McGraw sensed that Bentley was
done. With the game's outcome not in doubt and Bentley undoubtedly needed
to start one more game down the stretch, McGraw lifted his starter for Jonnard
who quickly ended the game by inducing Otto Vogel to roll into a fielder's
choice.
The Giants' easy win masked some worrisome signs for New York. Starting
third baseman Heinie Groh missed his second straight game--he was replace in the
lineup by Lindstrom--with a knee injury. Groh's availability for the
season's final week is in doubt. Second baseman Frankie Frisch missed the
contest as well after apparently turning an ankle in yesterday's game; his
availability for the critical upcoming series with Pittsburgh is
uncertain. George Kelly was forced to take over at second base. And
left fielder Irish Meusel continues to be limited to occasional pinch hitting
and late inning defensive duties as a result of a mysterious pulmonary
ailment. Meusel last started a game on September 10. The Giants
remain hopeful, however, that Meusel will recover sufficiently to start in the
series with the Pirates.
Pittsburgh rebounded from a very difficult loss on Saturday by winning a
pitchers' duel on Sunday afternoon, led by none other than Ray Kremer, the man
who absorbed the defeat in relief in the aforementioned contest. Kremer
(15-8) was absolutely brilliant, shutting Brooklyn out on just four hits.
It was Kremer's third shutout of the year.
Robins starter Burleigh Grimes (20-13) matched Kremer zero for zero until the
seventh inning when the Pirates finally broke through. Earl Smith singled
with one out and was replaced by pinch runner Clyde Barnhart. Kremer
sacrificed Barnhart to second by dropping down a tremendous two-strike bunt and
then Eddie Moore doubled off the Gem Blades sign in right field, scoring
Barnhart and given Kremer the only run he would need.
Pittsburgh added insurance runs in the eighth and ninth off Grimes.
Charlie Grimm's two-out two-run double to right-center field scored Kiki Cuyler
and Rabbit Maranville in the eighth to make it 3-0 and Max Carey singled home
Moore with two outs in the ninth to cap the scoring.
The Robins sole threat came when trailing 3-0 in the bottom of the eighth, and
even then they never advanced a runner past second base--something they were
unable to do all game against Kremer. Tommy Griffith singled to open the
inning and pinch hitter Dick Loftus followed with a base hit of his own, giving
Brooklyn runners at first and second with none out and bringing the potential
tying run to the plate. But Grimes struck out, Andy High flied to right
and Johnny Mitchell rolled out to first base.
That was the Robins' last gasp. Kremer firmly slammed the door shut in the
ninth.
The pitching matchups for the big series at the Polo Grounds:
Sept. 23: Lee Meadows (16-8, 3.20) vs. Hugh McQuillan (11-10, 3.14)
Sept. 24: Emil Yde (16-6, 2.46) vs. Virgil Barnes (16-8, 3.14)
Sept. 25: Wilbur Cooper (20-13, 3.44) vs. Artie Nehf (16-4, 3.05)
9/21/1924, ChN24-NYN24, Polo Grounds 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP 1924 Cubs 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 7 3 5 0 1924 Giants 0 1 2 2 2 2 0 0 x 9 11 0 7 2 Cubs AB R H BI AVG Giants AB R H BI AVG Adams ss 3 0 0 0 .254 Lindstrom 3b 5 1 1 0 .238 Heathcote cf 4 1 2 0 .371 O'Connell cf 3 1 1 2 .293 Barrett 2b 4 0 1 0 .298 Meusel lf 1 0 0 0 .285 Miller lf 4 0 0 0 .275 Youngs rf 4 2 2 2 .345 Friberg 3b 3 0 0 0 .250 Kelly 2b 5 0 0 0 .306 Churry ph 1 0 1 0 .500 Terry 1b 4 2 3 2 .214 Vogel rf 4 0 1 0 .277 Wilson lf 3 2 2 1 .320 O'Farrell c 3 0 0 0 .234 Southworth ph 1 0 0 0 .246 Kearns 1b 3 0 1 0 .222 Jackson ss 4 0 2 1 .302 Kaufmann p 1 0 1 0 .333 Gowdy c 4 0 0 0 .358 Jacobs p 0 0 0 0 .058 Hartley c 0 0 0 0 .500 Hartnett ph 0 0 0 0 .327 Bentley p 4 1 0 0 .250 Wheeler p 0 0 0 0 .056 Jonnard p 0 0 0 0 .000 Weis ph 1 0 0 0 .319 38 9 11 8 Keen p 0 0 0 0 .200 31 1 7 0 Cubs INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Kaufmann L 13-11 4.2 6 7 6 2 3 90 56 3.85 Jacobs 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 6 3 3.24 Wheeler 2.0 3 2 0 0 1 37 25 4.38 Keen 1.0 2 0 0 0 0 16 12 4.18 8.0 11 9 6 2 4 149 96 Giants INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Bentley W 13-8 8.2 7 1 1 2 5 125 76 4.37 Jonnard 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 3 3 2.23 9.0 7 1 1 2 5 128 79 ChN: Hartnett batted for Jacobs in the 6th Weis batted for Wheeler in the 8th Churry batted for Friberg in the 9th NYN: Southworth batted for Wilson in the 7th Meusel inserted at lf in the 8th Southworth moved to cf in the 8th Hartley inserted at c in the 8th E-Adams, Barrett, Miller. 2B-Heathcote(29). 3B-O'Connell(3), Wilson 2(14). HR-Youngs(6), Terry(5). RBI-O'Connell 2(11), Youngs 2(64), Terry 2(19), Wilson(86), Jackson(96). CS-Vogel. K-Heathcote, Miller, Vogel, Kearns 2, O'Connell 2, Kelly, Gowdy. BB-Adams, Hartnett, O'Connell, Youngs. PB-O'Farrell. Temperature: 62, Sky: clear, Wind: in from center at 4 MPH. Attendance: 19,215 Game Time: 2:12 9/21/1924, Pit24-Brk24, Ebbets Field 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP 1924 Pirates 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 1 4 12 1 10 0 1924 Robins 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 1 5 0 Pirates AB R H BI AVG Robins AB R H BI AVG Moore rf 5 1 3 1 .316 High 2b 4 0 0 0 .327 Carey cf 5 0 1 1 .341 Mitchell ss 4 0 0 0 .269 Cuyler lf 5 1 3 0 .366 Wheat lf 4 0 0 0 .365 Bigbee lf 0 0 0 0 .278 Fournier 1b 4 0 1 0 .330 Wright ss 5 0 1 0 .280 Brown cf 4 0 0 0 .309 Traynor 3b 5 0 2 0 .282 Taylor c 3 0 0 0 .334 Maranville 2b 3 1 0 0 .281 Griffith rf 3 0 2 0 .273 Grimm 1b 3 0 1 2 .301 Stock 3b 2 0 0 0 .276 Smith c 2 0 1 0 .440 Loftus ph 1 0 1 0 .230 Barnhart pr 0 1 0 0 .292 Johnston J 3b 0 0 0 0 .270 Schmidt c 1 0 0 0 .222 Grimes p 3 0 0 0 .268 Kremer p 3 0 0 0 .139 32 0 4 0 37 4 12 4 Pirates INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Kremer W 15-9 9.0 4 0 0 0 3 114 79 2.85 9.0 4 0 0 0 3 114 79 Robins INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Grimes L 20-13 9.0 12 4 4 3 1 144 87 3.77 9.0 12 4 4 3 1 144 87 Pit: Barnhart ran for Smith in the 7th Schmidt inserted at c in the 7th Bigbee inserted at lf in the 9th Brk: Loftus batted for Stock in the 8th Johnston J inserted at 3b in the 9th E-Cuyler, High. 2B-Moore(4), Cuyler(23), Grimm(25). RBI-Moore(20), Carey(69), Grimm 2(80). SB-Moore(6). CS-Cuyler. K-Kremer, Brown, Taylor, Grimes. BB-Maranville, Grimm, Smith. SH-Kremer. WP-Grimes. GWRBI: Moore Temperature: 74, Sky: clear, Wind: left to right at 10 MPH. Attendance: 8,860 Game Time: 1:58