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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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BOSTON BRAVES
... July 9, 1948 ... Johnny Sain picked up his 11th victory of the year and turned in his 13th complete game, as he rode to a soft victory over the Phillies by a 13 to 2 score, before 27,000 fans at Braves Field. Sain gave Philly numerous opportunities to hop into the game, as he scattered and even dozen hits, leaving 13 men on base. He walked only one man. Only Jim Russell and Bill Salkeld went hitless for the Tribe. Alvin Dark stretched his hitting game streak to 21 games and thrilled the fans with a single, double and a triple, a steal home and some pretty baserunning. Along with Dark, the chief offensive threats were Jeff Heath with two doubles, a single and a stolen base, Earl Torgeson with a single, double, stolen base and three RBIs, and Tommy Holmes, with a pass, a single, double and a pair of runs batted in. The Braves obtained revenge on young Robin Roberts, the highly touted Philly rookie, who defeated them in Philly last week by a 5 to 2 score. Roberts was knocked out of the box for the first time this year, when he took a quick exit after five runs crossed in the second inning. Del Ennis, the Philly long ball hitter, homered over the left-field wall in the second inning, on a one ball no strike count. In marked the Phillies first run in 20 innings and second in the last 33. The Braves bounced right back however, sending Roberts from the premises for the first time in his five starts. Heath started the five run flurry in the second inning with a clean blow to center. After Jim Russell walked, the runners moved along on a sacrifice by Bill Salkeld. Connie Ryan was intentionally walked to load the bases and then Sain belted the first pitch he saw from Roberts to deep center, scoring Heath. Tommy Holmes' double to left then scored Russell and Ryan. Dark next pushed a single to right that scored Holmes and sped to second on Ennis' throw to the plate. Dark completed his journey around the bases, scoring the Tribe's fifth run on Earl Torgeson's two base smash to left-center. That was all for Roberts and Ken Heintzelman came in to erase Bob Elliott on a fly ball. Sain showed some brilliant clutch pitching in the sixth, when an error, two hits and a walk, only produced one run. With the big inning looming, he settled down and forced Richie Ashburn to hit one back to the mound. Unfortunately, Salkeld could not find the plate on Sain's throw to start the double-play, but was lucky enough to erase Don Padgett coming in from third. In the sixth inning the Tribe batted around, with Holmes coming the bat twice, as six runs accumulated from walks to Holmes and Salkeld, singles by Ryan, Torgeson and Elliott, and doubles by Dark and Sain. Sain, among his other accomplishments, proved the first pitcher since June 27th, to prevent Richie Ashburn, the hottest thing in Philly, from reaching first base by means of a hit or a base on balls. Sain is far ahead of the field of pitchers in the National League with 13 complete games to his credit. He threw 140 pitches, which is quite a bit, considering the good-sized lead the Braves had. The city of Cambridge turned in an impressive total of $3300 for the Jimmy Fund, to Billy Sullivan the Braves director of public relations. It is the largest single contribution from one city yet. |
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