STURGEON’S SLAM ENDS MARATHON
Schmitz, Cooper Receive 12 IP No-Decisions
CHICAGO, June 2 (AP) – Bobby Sturgeon’s two-out grand slam in the bottom of the 16th inning snapped a 1-1 tie and gave the Chicago Cubs a 5-1 victory over the Boston Braves in the opening game of a doubleheader at Wrigley Field. The Cubs went on to eke out a 3-2 victory in the nightcap, completing a twinbill sweep. Both starting pitchers—Mort Cooper of the Braves and Johnny Schmitz of the Cubs—allowed only one run in 12 innings of work, but both went on to receive no-decisions. Relievers Emil Kush of Chicago and Ed Wright of Boston tossed shutout ball until Sturgeon’s game-winning heroics in the 16th inning. The affair is the longest in the major leagues to date this season.
Both teams scored in the first inning, and then no one scored again until Sturgeon’s homer, but that wasn’t due to a lack of opportunities.
Schmitz walked Dick Culler to open the game and Connie Ryan sacrificed the runner to second. Tommy Holmes reached on an infield single, advancing Culler to third, and Phil Masi drew the second free pass of the inning to load the bases. Carden Gillenwater then skied a fly ball to right that was deep enough to score Culler with the game’s first run.
The Cubs wasted no time drawing even. Stan Hack led off the bottom of the first by grounding a single to left, and Lou Stringer followed by dumping a base hit into shallow center, with Hack stopping at second. Peanuts Lowrey dropped down a bunt, sacrificing the runners to second and third, and Phil Cavaretta then lifted a fly to center that brought Hack home with the tying run.
Gillenwater’s fly out in the top of the first was the first of a stretch of 16 of 17 batters retired by Schmitz, which wasn’t broken until Cooper led off the top of the eighth with a base hit. Cooper made it to third base with two outs but Schmitz retired Holmes on a fly to left to end the inning.
The Cubs had baserunners on the regular against Cooper, but couldn’t get the big hit they needed. Through the first eight innings, Coooper had only one 1-2-3 frame—the sixth—but the Cubs never had a runner reach third base with less than two outs.
Both clubs had excellent chances to end the game in the 12th. In the top of the inning, Gillenwater led off with a base hit, and Skippy Roberge followed by drawing a walk, putting runners on first and second. Johnny Hopp, who had come into the game defensively in the ninth, popped to short, but Nanny Fernandez drew Schmitz’s second free pass of the inning, filling the bases with one out. Cooper hit for himself, but fouled to second baseman Stringer for the second out, and Culler grounded to second to end the threat.
In the bottom of the 12th, Cavarretta singled with one out and Marv Rickert followed with a single of his own, but Gillenwater, the center fielder, gunned Cavarretta down at third to take the wind out of Chicago’s sails.
The Braves stranded a pair of runners in each of the 13th, 14th and 15th innings. The Cubs stranded single baserunners in the 13th and 15th and two in the 14th.
The Braves went down in order in the top of the 16th, and in the bottom half of the inning, Lowrey led off with a triple off the center field wall against Wright. Cavarretta was walked intentionally and Rickert popped to second for the first out. With the infield in, Eddie Waitkus grounded to third and Roberge cut down Lowrey at the plate for the second out. Clyde McCullough fell behind Wright 1-2 but ultimately worked a walk to load the bases, bringing Sturgeon to the plate. Sturgeon had entered the game in the top of the ninth after starting shortstop Lennie Merullo was lifted for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the eighth. On a 2-1 offering, Sturgeon lifted a fly ball to deep left that carried into the first row of the left field bleachers for a grand slam—the first home run of the season for Sturgeon and the first grand slam hit by the Cubs this year.
6/2/1946, BoN46-ChN46, game 1, Wrigley Field
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
1946 Braves 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1946 Cubs 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
13 14 15 16 R H E LOB DP
1946 Braves 0 0 0 0 1 8 0 13 0
1946 Cubs 0 0 0 4 5 18 2 19 0
Braves AB R H BI AVG Cubs AB R H BI AVG
Culler ss 5 1 1 0 .219 Hack 3b 6 1 2 0 .330
Ryan 2b 5 0 0 0 .222 Stringer 2b 8 0 2 0 .259
Holmes rf 7 0 2 0 .316 Lowrey lf 7 0 4 0 .327
Masi c 6 0 1 0 .273 Cavarretta rf 5 1 1 1 .284
Gillenwater cf 6 0 1 1 .327 Rickert cf 8 0 3 0 .306
Roberge 3b 6 0 0 0 .236 Waitkus 1b 8 1 3 0 .362
Sanders 1b 3 0 0 0 .259 McCullough c 7 1 0 0 .280
Hofferth ph 1 0 0 0 .095 Merullo ss 3 0 0 0 .145
Hopp 1b 3 0 0 0 .310 Dallessandro ph 0 0 0 0 .000
Fernandez lf 6 0 1 0 .227 Sturgeon ss 4 1 2 4 .270
Cooper,M p 5 0 2 0 .238 Schmitz p 5 0 0 0 .174
Wright,E p 1 0 0 0 .261 Kush p 2 0 1 0 .600
54 1 8 1 63 5 18 5
Braves INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA
Cooper,M 12.0 13 1 1 3 9 173 109 1.95
Wright,E L 3-3 3.2 5 4 4 4 1 79 41 3.58
15.2 18 5 5 7 10 252 150
Cubs INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA
Schmitz 12.0 6 1 1 4 2 178 119 3.08
Kush W 1-1 4.0 2 0 0 1 2 74 44 2.14
16.0 8 1 1 5 4 252 163
BoN: Hofferth batted for Sanders in the 9th
Hopp inserted at 1b in the 9th
ChN: Dallessandro batted for Merullo in the 8th
Sturgeon inserted at ss in the 9th
E-Stringer, Sturgeon. 2B-Cooper,M(1), Lowrey(8), Waitkus(5). 3B-Lowrey(1).
HR-Sturgeon(1). RBI-Gillenwater(6), Cavarretta(20), Sturgeon 4(10). CS-Masi.
K-Ryan, Gillenwater 2, Sanders, Hack 3, Stringer 2, Rickert, Merullo 2,
Schmitz, Sturgeon. BB-Culler, Ryan, Masi, Roberge, Fernandez, Hack 2,
Cavarretta 3, McCullough, Dallessandro. SH-Culler, Ryan, Gillenwater, Lowrey.
WP-Cooper,M.
GWRBI: Sturgeon
Temperature: 79, Sky: clear, Wind: in from right at 14 MPH.
Attendance: N/A
Game Time: 4:06