#The Battle for the Final Spot

Birmingham lowered their magic number to 1 with an 8-4 victory over Philadelphia. Cupid Childs broke out of a slump with 3 hits including his 5th homerun of the year and Sam Streeter improved to 7-6 with a strong 7 plus innings. The only bad news for the Black Barons concerned young Nate Colbert, who was forced to leave the game with a high ankle sprain that will keep him off the playoff roster as well.

PHI 4 (Carlton 8-13) @ BBB 8 (Streeter 7-6)
HRs: PHI – Davis 19, Judge 7; BBB – Nieman (16), Childs (5).
Box Score

Mike Schmidt had 3 hits and Babe Ruth hit his 47th longball of the season as the Black Yankees did what they could, beating Cleveland 7-2 to keep their hopes alive. Waite Hoyt picked up his 11th win of the year.

These two results mean that any combination of wins by Birmingham or losses by the Black Yankees will end New York’s season, but for now, hope prevails.

NYY 7 (Hoyt 11-6) @ CLE 2 (Gastright 1-1)
HRs: NYY – Ruth (47); CLE – Trosky (2).
Box Score

#Playoff Seeding

Boog Powell had 5 hits and drove in 4 runs and Lou Brock added 4 hits as Kansas City gave up a 7 run lead, but prevailed in 11 innings over Baltimore. The loss for the Black Sox kept Chicago’s hopes of overtaking them for the lead in the Cum Posey Division alive. The American Giants responded by riding a strong start from Ben Sheets to a 3-1 win over Brooklyn. Joe Jackson hit his 30th homerun of the year to give Chicago the lead, and to pull them within 2 games of Baltimore.

Portland and the New York Gothams combined for 21 runs and 33 hits as the Sea Dogs used 9 runs from the 6th inning on to stage a come from behind 12-9 win. For Portland, Joe Mauer and Buddy Bell had 3 hits each and–who else–Gavvy Cravath delivered a key homerun to give them the lead. For the Gothams, Will Clark had 4 hits and drove in 3 and George Van Haltren, Benny Kauff, and Buster Posey added 3 hits each in the losing effort.

#Other Games

Lefty Grove ran out of steam, missing out on a shutout in his final game of the season. Still, his 8 innings was more than good enough, earning him the victory in the 8-1 triumph over Indianapolis. Grove improved to 14-7 on the year, and finished with a league-leading 207 strikeouts. The Sea Lions’ Rickey Henderson had 3 hits (2 of which were triples, tying the league record) and Jimmie Foxx added 3 hits and 3 RBI’s.

Harry Stovey went deep twice, doubling his total for the year and Roy Oswalt was strong in his final start of the year, finishing at 14-8 as the Colt 45’s thrashed Ottawa, 10-2. Pete Hill had 4 hits and Jim Wynn 3 in the blowout win.

Bill Doak and 3 relievers combined to shutout Los Angeles over 12 innings in a 1-0 victory for Memphis over the Angels. Doak and Tim Wakefield allowed 8 hits over 10 plus innings, and Lance Broadway and Jonathan Papelbon finished it out, with Broadway picking up his 1st WBL career victory and Papelbon his 18th save. Gerrit Cole pitched excellently, allowing 5 hits and whiffing 9 over 8 innings, but finishes the year at 16-9. Sammy Sosa delivered the only RBI of the game in the top of the 12th.