BUCS STAY HOT, WIN 7TH STRAIGHT
Best Record in Baseball
PITTSBURGH, April 29 (AP) - The surprising Pittsburgh Pirates continued their
early success with another late inning comeback victory. This time, the
Pirates slipped past the Cincinnati Reds, 2-1, at Forbes Field.
Pittsburgh, picked by many prognosticators to finish at or near the bottom of the
National League, presently leads the Senior Circuit with a 9-1 record, three
full games ahead of second place Brooklyn. The victory over the Reds was
the second this year when trailing after seven innings for the denizens of the
Steel City and represented the club's third one-run victory.
Cincinnati pushed across an unearned run off Pirates starter Vern Law (1-0) in
the second inning. With one out, Johnny Pramesa reached on first baseman
Ralph Kiner's error. Lloyd Merriman's single advanced Pramesa to
second. Roy McMillan grounded to Kiner, with Law covering first, for the
second out with the runners moving to second and third and then Reds pitcher Ken
Raffensberger reached on an infield hit, scoring Pramesa. Law retired
Bobby Adams on a pop fly to Kiner, but the Reds led 1-0.
Law allowed a pair of singles in both the third and fourth innings, but the Reds
never advanced a runner past second base. From that point on the
Pittsburgh starter entered a groove, retiring nine in a row at one point and
allowing only a single safety and one walk in the final five innings of the
game.
Raffensberger (1-1), meanwhile, took a shutout into the eighth inning,
scattering four Pirates hits without issuing a single walk. But then came
the faithful eighth. It started with a walk to Law. Pete Castiglione
dropped a sacrifice bunt, moving Law to second. Catfish Metkovich followed
with a single to center, finally drawing Pittsburgh even by driving home Law,
and advancing to second himself on the unsuccessful throw to the plate.
That would prove key as Gus Bell lined a single to right-center, plating
Metkovich and giving the Pirates a 2-1 lead. Kiner rolled into an inning
ending double play, but the damage had been done.
In the ninth, Law got off to a shaky start by walking Merriman on five
pitches. McMillan sacrificed the runner to second--the first runner the
Reds had advanced to scoring position since the fourth--but Law rose to the
occasion by retiring pinch hitter Wally Post and Adams on consecutive ground
balls to Castiglione at third.
The Pirates have Monday off to travel to Gotham where they will play five games
next week against the Dodgers and Giants.
4/29/1951, Cin51-Pit51, game 1, Forbes Field 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP 1951 Reds 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 8 2 9 2 1951 Pirates 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 x 2 6 1 5 0 Reds AB R H BI AVG Pirates AB R H BI AVG Adams 2b 5 0 1 0 .220 Castiglione 3b 3 0 1 0 .500 Hatton 3b 4 0 1 0 .290 Metkovich cf 4 1 2 1 .255 Adcock lf 4 0 2 0 .310 Bell rf 4 0 1 1 .326 Kluszewski 1b 4 0 1 0 .119 Kiner 1b 4 0 0 0 .211 Wyrostek rf 4 0 0 0 .238 Restelli lf 3 0 0 0 .000 Pramesa c 4 1 0 0 .158 Strickland ss 3 0 0 0 .282 Merriman cf 3 0 1 0 .278 Basgall 2b 3 0 1 0 .158 McMillan ss 3 0 0 0 .300 McCullough c 3 0 0 0 .162 Raffensberger p 3 0 2 1 .429 Law p 2 1 1 0 .200 Post ph 1 0 0 0 .400 29 2 6 2 35 1 8 1 Reds INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Raffensberger L 1-2 8.0 6 2 2 1 1 96 66 2.41 8.0 6 2 2 1 1 96 66 Pirates INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Law W 1-0 9.0 8 1 0 1 6 130 90 0.50 9.0 8 1 0 1 6 130 90 Cin: Post batted for Raffensberger in the 9th E-Adams, McMillan, Kiner. RBI-Raffensberger(1), Metkovich(4), Bell(6). K-Adams, Adcock, Pramesa, Merriman, McMillan, Raffensberger, McCullough. BB-Merriman, Law. SH-McMillan, Castiglione. GWRBI: Bell Temperature: 61, Sky: clear, Wind: out to center at 7 MPH. Attendance: 15,781 Game Time: 1:44