A TALE OF TWO GAMES; GIANTS, BUCS SPLIT BIZARRE DH
N.Y. Wins Opener, 1-0; Pitt. Takes Nightcap with Record Outburst
PITTSBURGH, Aug. 15 (AP) - It was no ordinary doubleheader; the New York Giants
and Pittsburgh Pirates split a twinbill at Forbes Field, but the two games
couldn't have been less alike. The Giants won the opener, 1-0, when New
York starter Freddie Fitzsimmons aided his own cause with a run-scoring single
in the top of the ninth to break a scoreless deadlock. The Pirates
demolished the Giants in the nightcap with a major league season best 24 runs
and 29 hits en route to a 24-4 victory. Three Pittsburgh hitters banged
out five hits apiece, marking the first time this year that more than one player
on a team had as many as five hits in a single game. Paul Waner was one of
the three, and a grand slam was among his five hits.
The opener was a nail biter from start to finish as Fitzsimmons and Pirates
starter Larry French matched zeroes for eight innings. Each club had a
shot to break the scoreless tie in the third inning. In the top of the
frame, the Giants received a one-out single from Johnny Vergez who advanced to
second on a ground out off the bat of Fitzsimmons. Jo-Jo Moore's infield
single left runners on the corners with two outs but Hughie Critz lined to Pie
Traynor at third to end the threat.
In the bottom half of the inning, French singled with one out and advanced to
third on a pair of wild pitches, before Lloyd Waner walked, putting runners on
first and third with one out but Paul Waner grounded into an inning-ending
double play.
The Giants had runners on first and third with one out in the top of the fifth
but French retired Critz and Bill Terry to keep New York off the
scoreboard. Fitzsimmons, for his part, pitched around one-out doubles in
the fifth (Tommy Thevenow) and eighth (Earl Grace).
The Giants finally broke through in the ninth. French retired Mel Ott and
Travis Jackson on fly balls to center for the first two outs but back-to-back
singles off the bats of Gus Mancuso and Vergez left runners on first and
third. Fitzsimmons then picked on the first pitch he saw from French and
looped a single to center to score Mancuso to give New York a 1-0 lead.
Moore popped out to end the inning, but the Giants needed only three outs to
pick up the win.
Fitzsimmons retired Paul Waner on a grounder to third but then yielded a double
to pinch hitter Woody Jensen. With the potential winning run at the plate,
Fitzsimmons was able to bear down and retire Arky Vaughn on a comebacker and Gus
Suhr on a fly to left to preserve the win and his second shutout of the season.
Game 2 was another story entirely. The Pirates erupted for four runs in
each of the first two innings, ending the day for Giants starter Hal Schumacher
almost before it started. In the first inning, consecutive singles by the
Waner brothers and Fred Lindstrom resulted in the first two runs and Vaughn's
double sent Lindstrom to third. Traynor eventually singled both runners
home to make it 4-0.
In the second, the Giants got a run back when Ott tripled and scored on
Jackson's base hit, but the Pirates more than made up for it in the bottom half
of the frame. Pittsburgh pitcher Waite Hoyt drew a lead-off walk, and base
hits by both Waners loaded the bases. Lindstrom struck out but Vaughn
cleared the bags with a three-run double to right-center and Suhr's base hit
brought home Vaughn to give the Pirates an 8-0 lead, driving Schumacher from the
mound in the process. Hi Bell replaced him and eventually loaded the bases
again, but escaped further damage--for the moment.
The game was effectively over and things appeared to calm down as neither team
scored again through the top of the sixth. But the bottom half turned out
to be the most prolific scoring innnig of the year for Pittsburgh.
Vaughn led off with a double and scored on Suhr's two-bagger. Traynor's
infield hit put runners on first and third and Joe Bowman replaced Bell on the
mound. It made no difference. Thevenow doubled Suhr home and
advanced Traynor to third. Tom Padden walked to fill the bases and Hoyt's
base hit plated Traynor and left the bases loaded. Lloyd Waner dropped a
two run single into left, leaving runners on first and third and brother Paul
drilled a double to right-center, scoring Hoyt and advancing Lloyd to
third. Lindstrom's base hit scored both Waners and Bowman departed, having
retired no one, in favor of Al Smith, who promptly walked Vaughn to put runners
on first and second. Suhr finally produced the first out, flying to
right. The first 10 batters of the inning had all reached base safely, a
record number in a National League game this season. Traynor promptly
doubled home both baserunners before Smith retired Thevenow and Padden to bring
the inning to a close. The Pirates had sent 14 men to the plate and scored
10 runs--three more than the club had scored in an inning all year
previously--on nine hits and two wlalks. The Pirates now held an 18-1
lead.
Incredibly, Pittsburgh wasn't done scoring. They picked up another run in
the seventh when Paul Waner singled home Hoyt, who had doubled. In the
eighth, they scored four more times when Paul Waner crushed a two-out grand slam
to give his team a 24-1 lead.
The Giants scored three meaningless runs in the ninth, but to say it was too
little too late is an understatement of gargantuan proportions.
The 29 hits ammassed by the Pirates was four more than any other major league
club has managed in a single game thus far this season. The 24 runs scored
bests the previous top mark by two. Lloyd Waner, Paul Waner and Pie
Traynor each finished with five hits in the game, driving in two, six and four
runs respectively. The six runs driven in by Paul Waner is the most by a
Pirates player in one game this season. Both Waners, Vaughn and Hoyt all
scored four runs apiece. Pittsburgh tied a major league season high with
nine doubles, three of them off the bat of Vaughn.
8/15/1934, NYN34-Pit34, game 1, Forbes Field 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP 1934 Giants 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 9 0 9 1 1934 Pirates 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 1 5 1 Giants AB R H BI AVG Pirates AB R H BI AVG Moore,JJ lf 5 0 3 0 .330 Waner,L cf 3 0 0 0 .281 Critz 2b 3 0 0 0 .236 Waner,P rf 4 0 0 0 .373 Terry 1b 4 0 0 0 .366 Lindstrom lf 3 0 1 0 .286 Leiber cf 4 0 0 0 .238 Jensen ph 1 0 1 0 .267 Ott rf 4 0 2 0 .327 Vaughan ss 4 0 0 0 .279 Jackson ss 4 0 1 0 .252 Suhr 1b 4 0 1 0 .304 Mancuso c 4 1 1 0 .249 Traynor 3b 3 0 0 0 .288 Vergez 3b 3 0 1 0 .202 Thevenow 2b 3 0 1 0 .302 Fitzsimmons p 3 0 1 1 .268 Grace c 3 0 1 0 .309 34 1 9 1 Finney,H pr 0 0 0 0 .000 French p 3 0 1 0 .185 31 0 6 0 Giants INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Fitzsimmons W 16-9 9.0 6 0 0 1 0 109 73 2.63 9.0 6 0 0 1 0 109 73 Pirates INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA French L 15-9 9.0 9 1 1 1 1 120 78 3.55 9.0 9 1 1 1 1 120 78 Pit: Finney,H ran for Grace in the 8th Finney,H moved to c in the 9th Jensen batted for Lindstrom in the 9th E-French. 2B-Thevenow(15), Grace(13), Jensen(11). RBI-Fitzsimmons(12). CS-Lindstrom. K-Terry. BB-Vergez, Waner,L. SH-Critz, Fitzsimmons. WP-Fitzsimmons 2. GWRBI: Fitzsimmons Temperature: 73, Sky: clear, Wind: right to left at 11 MPH. Attendance: N/A Game Time: 1:47 8/15/1934, NYN34-Pit34, game 2, Forbes Field 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP 1934 Giants 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 4 10 2 9 1 1934 Pirates 4 4 0 0 0 10 1 5 x 24 29 0 9 0 Giants AB R H BI AVG Pirates AB R H BI AVG Moore,JJ lf 5 1 2 1 .331 Waner,L cf 7 4 5 2 .287 Critz 2b 5 0 2 1 .238 Jensen cf 0 0 0 0 .267 Terry 1b 3 0 0 0 .363 Waner,P rf 7 4 5 6 .378 Ott rf 5 1 1 0 .326 Lindstrom lf 7 2 3 4 .289 Weintraub cf 3 0 1 1 .377 Vaughan ss 5 4 3 2 .283 Leiber cf 0 0 0 0 .238 Suhr 1b 6 1 2 3 .304 Jackson ss 4 1 2 0 .254 Traynor 3b 6 1 5 4 .297 Mancuso c 2 0 0 0 .247 Thevenow 2b 6 2 2 1 .302 Richards c 1 1 1 0 .188 Padden c 4 2 1 1 .326 Vergez 3b 4 0 1 0 .203 Grace c 0 0 0 0 .309 Schumacher p 1 0 0 0 .333 Hoyt p 5 4 3 1 .250 Bell p 1 0 0 0 .125 Chagnon p 0 0 0 0 .000 Bowman p 0 0 0 0 .188 53 24 29 24 Smith,A p 1 0 0 0 .300 O'Doul ph 1 0 0 1 .242 36 4 10 4 Giants INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Schumacher L 15-12 1.1 9 8 8 1 2 61 37 3.76 Bell 3.2 7 3 3 1 1 54 37 4.26 Bowman 0.0 5 6 6 1 0 27 16 4.95 Smith,A 3.0 8 7 7 1 2 61 38 4.70 8.0 29 24 24 4 5 203 128 Pirates INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Hoyt W 10-6 8.0 7 2 2 2 6 119 82 3.23 Chagnon 1.0 3 2 2 1 0 20 11 5.85 9.0 10 4 4 3 6 139 93 NYN: Leiber inserted at cf in the 8th Richards inserted at c in the 8th O'Doul batted for Smith,A in the 9th Pit: Jensen inserted at cf in the 9th Grace inserted at c in the 9th E-Ott, Vergez. 2B-Moore,JJ(25), Waner,P(22), Vaughan 3(34), Suhr(23), Traynor(16), Thevenow 2(17), Hoyt(1). 3B-Moore,JJ(3), Ott(6). HR-Waner,P(11). RBI-Moore,JJ(33), Critz(34), Weintraub(3), O'Doul(30), Waner,L 2(41), Waner,P 6(56), Lindstrom 4(52), Vaughan 2(69), Suhr 3(84), Traynor 4(55), Thevenow(31), Padden(25), Hoyt(2). K-Critz, Terry, Ott, Weintraub, Vergez, Bell, Lindstrom, Traynor, Padden 2, Hoyt. BB-Terry 2, Weintraub, Vaughan, Padden 2, Hoyt. SH-Mancuso. PB-Mancuso 2. GWRBI: Lindstrom Temperature: 73, Sky: clear, Wind: right to left at 11 MPH. Attendance: 12,493 Game Time: 2:45