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BOB ELLIOTT |
BOSTON BRAVES
...
SPAHN & SAIN and PRAY FOR RAIN ...
Bob Elliott
and Alvin Dark beat down the Cubs
August 8, 1948 ... The
Braves gave great support to Bill Voiselle's effective pitching in
the clutch, with 10 base hits for a 6 to 3 win over the Cubs before
41,527 fans at Braves Field this afternoon. It was the largest crowd
to see a game in two seasons. Voiselle was taken for nine hits as he
chalked up his 12th victory, getting out of jams in the fourth, sixth
and ninth innings, when the Cubs had chances to knock them out of the
game. The victory however, did not improve the Braves' status as the
front runners in the National League. They dropped a half game off
the lead to the Cardinals, who took a doubleheader from the Phillies
and reduced the Braves margin over them to four games. Bob Elliott
paced the team with a perfect day on a pair of doubles and two passes, driving
in two runs. Alvin Dark lined three consecutive hits, scored two runs and drove
home another, leading the league in the recognition for the outstanding rookie.
When the Braves were presented with scoring opportunities in the first two
innings, they cashed in on their good fortune. With two gone in the first, Earl
Torgeson reached first on a booted ball by Emil Verban. Then he dashed all the
way to the plate on the first one of Elliott's doubles, which rattled off the
left-field fence.
The Braves lead went up the three runs in the second inning, as the Braves
cashed in on the presents the Cubs are handing out. Phil Masi opened up the
inning with a neat bunt down the third-base line. Without a chance to get him at
first, Andy Pafko fired the ball just the same. It went into right field and
allowed Masi to scamper down the third. Bobby Sturgeon then hit a ground ball to
Roy Smalley and the routine play should have held Masi on third, but catcher Bob
Scheffing dropped Smalley's throw to the plate, allowing Phil to score. Sturgeon
was then sacrificed to second by Voiselle and scored on a line single to left by
Dark.
For three innings, Voiselle faced only nine batters, but in the fourth ran
into some trouble, as Verban and Eddie Waitkus singled in succession. Phil
Cavarretta's sacrifice fly scored the first Chicago run. Consecutive doubles by
Dark and Torgeson wiped out this run in the fifth. Then Verban and Waitkus did
it again in the sixth and duplicated the fourth inning performance, with Verban
scoring as Cavarretta grounded into a doubleplay.
Another double off the fence, this time by Mike McCormick, and Phil Masi's
single gave the Braves one run in the sixth, to make it 5 to 3. Dark's single
and Elliott's double completed the scoring for the Braves in the seventh with
their sixth run.
Voiselle had retired eight men in a row when he got himself into a jam in the
ninth. With one out, he walked Bill Nicholson and after a fly ball, Scheffing
doubled Nicholson home. Hal Jeffcoat beat out an infield hit, but Bob Elliott
threw out the next batter to close out the game.
Bob Elliott was walked twice, raising his season's total to 100, more free
passes then he has ever received. The Cubs have given him 31 free tickets. |
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