WHITE HOT TRIBE CONTINUES TO ROLL
DH Sweep of Browns Extends W Streak to 9
ST. LOUIS, Sept. 7 (AP) - The Cleveland Indians extended their winning streak to
nine consecutive games with a doubleheader sweep of the St. Louis Browns at
Sportsman's Park. The pair of victories offset a win by the New York
Yankees over Washington and pushed Cleveland's lead in the American League to 1
1/2 games.
In the opener, Mike Garcia continued his brilliant run of late, despite
struggling with his control. Garcia walked six batters, but held the
Browns to five hits en route to the 8-0 whitewashing. It was Garcia's
league leading fifth shutout of the year and second straight. Garcia's
consecutive scoreless innings streak is now the longest in the majors this year
at 23 1/3, one inning longer than teammate Early Wynn. The scoreless
innings streaks for both Garcia and Wynn remain active. The win by Garcia
was his 18th of the season, which ties him with Wynn for the AL lead.
Garcia's teammates made it relatively easy for him, handing him a two-run lead
in the first inning on Larry Doby's run-scoring triple and an RBI double off the
bat of Luke Easter. The Indians doubled the lead in the third off St.
Louis starter Ned Garver on Al Rosen's 21st home run of the year, a two run shot
into the left field bleachers.
Garcia, meanwhile, bent but didn't break, pitching out of a two on, none out jam
in the second and a bases loaded, no outs threat in the third. After the
fourth inning, the Browns managed only three scattered baserunners (two walks,
one single) and never moved a runner past first.
Cleveland extended its lead to five in the sixth on Ray Boone's leadoff home run
and then conclusively put the game away with three runs in the eighth off a
tiring Garver, which included Bobby Avila's capping two-run homer into the left
field pavilion.
The nightcap appeared headed to another easy Cleveland victory early on.
The Indians and Browns traded fourth inning solo home runs--Easter for
Cleveland, Jim Delsing for St. Louis. The Indians then appeared to break
the game open in the fifth, driving Browns starter Tommy Byrne from the hill in
the process. Things started innocently enough with a walk to Jim Hegan.
Bob Feller sacrificed Hegan to second and he moved to third on Dale Mitchell's
single. Avila's slow grounder to third scored Hegan and advanced Mitchell
to second, giving Cleveland a 2-1 lead, with two outs in the inning. It
was the last batter Byrne would retire. A walk, a pair of singles and a
hit batsman allowed two more runs to score before Jim Suchecki replaced Byrne
and recorded the final out with his team trailing 4-1. The Indians upped
their lead to four in the top of the sixth on Avila's RBI single.
Feller, meanwhile, had essentially cruised through the first five innings,
Delsing's solo home run notwithstanding. But he collapsed in the
sixth. Sherm Lollar led off with a single and was forced at second by Hank
Arft's fielder's choice. Delsing singled Arft to second. Earl Rapp
flied to deep left, with Arft tagging and taking third after the catch and Fred
Marsh followed with a double, plating Arft and chasing Delsing to third.
Bill Jennings then singled home Delsing and Marsh to cut the lead to 5-4 and
after pinch hitter Ken Wood singled, Feller's day was done. Lou Brissie
came on and retired Bobby Young to end the inning with St. Louis now down just
one run.
That turned out to be as close as the Browns would get. After a scoreless
seventh, the Indians exploded for five runs in the top of the eight on
Mitchell's solo home run and Easter's grand slam off the right field foul pole,
making the score 10-4. The slam was Easter's second home run of the game
and 23rd of the year. For the game, he finished with six runs batted
in. To add insult to injury, the Indians added three more runs in the
ninth, finishing with a 13-4 blow out win.
The Indians have been on fire for more than two months. Following play on
July 3, the club's record stood at 35-35. Since then, Cleveland has posted
a 50-17 record. With one more victory the Indians will post their second
double digit win streak since the beginning of August.
9/7/1951, Cle51-SLA51, game 1, Sportsman's Park (A) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP 1951 Indians 2 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 3 8 12 0 6 1 1951 Browns 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 10 1 Indians AB R H BI AVG Browns AB R H BI AVG Mitchell lf 5 1 2 1 .352 Young,B 2b 5 0 1 0 .284 Kennedy,Bo pr 0 1 0 0 .242 Mapes lf 4 0 1 0 .265 Avila 2b 4 1 2 2 .287 Batts c 4 0 1 0 .258 Stirnweiss 2b 0 0 0 0 .206 Arft 1b 4 0 0 0 .305 Doby cf 3 2 1 1 .283 Delsing cf 3 0 0 0 .258 Simpson cf 1 0 0 0 .280 Rapp rf 2 0 0 0 .045 Rosen 3b 5 1 1 2 .243 Marsh 3b 4 0 1 0 .222 Easter 1b 4 0 1 1 .226 Jennings ss 3 0 0 0 .208 McCosky rf 3 0 0 0 .227 Thomas,B ph 1 0 0 0 .000 Chapman pr 0 0 0 0 .160 Garver p 0 0 0 0 .208 Boone ss 4 1 2 1 .237 Wood ph 1 0 1 0 .268 Tebbetts c 3 0 2 0 .237 31 0 5 0 Hegan c 1 0 0 0 .225 Garcia p 4 1 1 0 .230 37 8 12 8 Indians INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Garcia W 18-8 9.0 5 0 0 6 1 146 88 2.78 9.0 5 0 0 6 1 146 88 Browns INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Garver L 11-14 9.0 12 8 8 4 5 150 99 3.06 9.0 12 8 8 4 5 150 99 Cle: Hegan inserted at c in the 7th Chapman ran for McCosky in the 8th Simpson inserted at cf in the 8th Chapman moved to rf in the 8th Kennedy,Bo ran for Mitchell in the 9th Kennedy,Bo moved to lf in the 9th Stirnweiss inserted at 2b in the 9th SLA: Thomas,B batted for Jennings in the 9th Wood batted for Garver in the 9th 2B-Easter(14), Tebbetts(5). 3B-Doby(5), Garcia(1). HR-Avila(8), Rosen(21), Boone(10). RBI-Mitchell(55), Avila 2(57), Doby(62), Rosen 2(86), Easter(89), Boone(65). SB-Chapman(1), Delsing(6). CS-Avila. K-Easter 2, McCosky 2, Garcia, Jennings. BB-Avila, Doby, Easter, McCosky, Delsing, Rapp 2, Garver 3. WP-Garcia, Garver. GWRBI: Doby Temperature: 90, Sky: clear, Wind: in from left at 2 MPH. Attendance: N/A Game Time: 2:19 9/7/1951, Cle51-SLA51, game 2, Sportsman's Park (A) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP 1951 Indians 0 0 0 1 3 1 0 5 3 13 14 1 10 1 1951 Browns 0 0 0 1 0 3 0 0 0 4 11 0 8 1 Indians AB R H BI AVG Browns AB R H BI AVG Mitchell lf 5 3 2 1 .353 Young,B 2b 5 0 1 0 .284 Avila 2b 3 1 1 2 .287 Mapes lf 5 0 0 0 .258 Simpson cf 0 0 0 1 .280 Lollar c 4 0 3 0 .241 Doby cf 4 2 2 0 .285 Saucier ph 1 0 0 0 .214 Stirnweiss 2b 1 0 1 2 .217 Arft 1b 4 1 0 0 .301 Rosen 3b 4 1 1 1 .243 Delsing cf 4 2 4 1 .265 Easter 1b 5 2 3 6 .230 Rapp rf 3 0 0 0 .040 Kennedy,Bo rf 4 0 0 0 .238 Marsh 3b 3 1 1 1 .223 Combs ss 0 0 0 0 .292 Jennings ss 4 0 1 2 .209 Boone ss 5 0 1 0 .236 Byrne p 1 0 0 0 .263 Gromek p 0 0 0 0 .290 Suchecki p 1 0 0 0 .167 Hegan c 4 3 2 0 .228 Wood ph 1 0 1 0 .270 Feller p 1 0 0 0 .164 Paige p 0 0 0 0 .000 Brissie p 0 0 0 0 .296 Markell p 0 0 0 0 .000 Chapman ph 2 1 1 0 .163 Thomas,B ph 1 0 0 0 .000 38 13 14 13 37 4 11 4 Indians INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Feller W 14-11 5.2 8 4 4 1 1 89 56 3.74 Brissie H 1 1.1 1 0 0 0 1 17 11 4.03 Gromek 2.0 2 0 0 0 0 22 15 2.33 9.0 11 4 4 1 2 128 82 Browns INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Byrne L 4-10 4.2 5 4 4 4 2 88 47 5.05 Suchecki 1.1 2 1 1 0 0 25 16 5.26 Paige 1.1 3 4 4 3 4 51 27 4.15 Markell 1.2 4 4 4 2 0 34 15 15.43 9.0 14 13 13 9 6 198 105 Cle: Chapman batted for Brissie in the 8th Simpson inserted at cf in the 8th Stirnweiss inserted at 2b in the 8th Combs inserted at ss in the 8th Chapman moved to rf in the 8th SLA: Wood batted for Suchecki in the 6th Thomas,B batted for Markell in the 9th Saucier batted for Lollar in the 9th E-Easter. 2B-Delsing(15), Marsh(19). HR-Mitchell(16), Easter 2(23), Delsing(9). RBI-Mitchell(56), Avila 2(59), Rosen(87), Easter 6(95), Simpson(41), Stirnweiss 2(5), Delsing(55), Marsh(32), Jennings 2(15). SB-Avila(13). K-Doby, Rosen, Kennedy,Bo, Hegan, Feller, Chapman, Young,B, Mapes. BB-Mitchell, Avila 2, Doby, Rosen 2, Easter, Hegan, Simpson, Marsh. SH-Feller 2, Rapp. HBP-Kennedy,Bo. HB-Byrne. GWRBI: Avila Temperature: 90, Sky: clear, Wind: in from left at 2 MPH. Attendance: 3,327 Game Time: 2:41