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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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THE 1914 "MIRACLE" BRAVES September 9, 1914 ... Thanks to the Giants downfall at Brooklyn and their own ability to split even with the Phillies, the Braves were able to increase their very slight lead in the National League to 1 1/2 games. Stallings' team was soundly beaten in the morning game, but came back strong in the afternoon to split a doubleheader. The first game the Phillies won by a 10 to 3 score and the second game was won by the Braves 7 to 0 with a no-hit, no run game tossed by George Davis, the former Williams College and now Harvard Law student. The Braves made a dozen hits against Ben Tincup, Eppa Rixey and Joe Oeschger. For the Braves, young Davis had an excellent fastball and his base on balls were due mainly to his effort to nip the corners of the plate unsuccessfully. The youngster kept his cool and retained his confidence against the hitters, who had hit so well in the earlier game. The first game found Gene Cocreham, who pitched so well in Philadelphia last week, starting the game for the Braves. He did not have his stuff however, lost his control and left the game very early in favor of Dick Crutcher, who was later taken out and replaced by Paul Strand in the eighth-inning. Grover Cleveland Alexander was on the mound for Philly and allowed only two hits until his team had a 10 to 1 lead. The Phillies romped away in the opening inning as Cocreham passed Hans Lobert, who took third on a wild throw to first, in an attempt to catch him napping. Beals Becker popped out to Red Smith but Sherry Magee doubled to bring home Lobert with the first run. Cocreham then passed Gavvy Cravath and Bobby Byrne to fill the bases. At that point manager Stallings did not like what he saw and brought in Crutcher. Dode Paskert greeted him with a double and went to third when Herbie Moran lost Martin's fly ball in the sun, but the bases were cleared. Up 5 to 0, the Phillies got two more in the second inning on a pass to Lobert, Becker's right-field double and Magee's line drive base hit to center to make the score 7 to 0. The Braves got a run in the fourth as Joe Connolly's single went through the legs of Cravath for a three bases, and scoring on Whitted's base hit to right. In the sixth inning the Phillies made the score 10 to 1 with Martin and Killifer starting with base hits and a pass to Becker to fill the bases. With two outs Magee hit a fly ball to right-center and all the runners were going on the pitch. Herbie Moran, Johnny Evers and Whitted all ran for the ball that dropped safely in between them, allowing all three runs to score. Stallings then made some shifting in the lineup to save his regulars for the second game and the second stringers got runs in the sixth and eighth innings to make the final score 10 to 3. In the second game the Braves broke out with a two run lead in the second inning. Whitted singled and Smith hit one safely to left, sending Whitted to third. When Byrne lost Maranville's high bounder, the bases were full. Hank Gowdy then hit one down to Jack Martin the shortstop, who forced Maranville at second while Whitted scored. Smith came home on a bad throw by Byrne on his ground ball. The Braves added two more runs in the fourth, Smith leading off with a hit and Maranville getting a pass. After Gowdy flied out to center, George Davis helped his own cause with a single shot through Becker in left that went for three bases, two more runs scoring and giving him a 4 to 0 lead. In the fifth inning Philadelphia passed up a good chance. Davis passed Byrne, Paskert and Martin before anyone was out. He then settled down and fanned Burns but pinch-hitter Cravath hit one straight at Maranville for an inning ending double play. Rixey came into pitch and was not scored against until the Braves seventh inning. Leslie Mann batted for Moran and opened up with a single. Evers sacrificed to Lobert, but after Connolly and lined out, Whitted slammed a hit through the box to score Mann. Davis easily shut out Philadelphia, without the semblance of a base hit, and this without making his fielders work very hard behind him. Only two runners reached first base on errors, and five others received base on balls. The nearest thing to a single took place in the eighth inning, when George Burns lifted a short fly to right-field, that Whitted barely got with a clever one-handed stab at his shoe tops to save the no-hitter. |
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