The New York Black Yankees saw their 10 game winning streak come to an end in a 4-2 loss to the Wandering House of David. The Black Yankees are tied with the Kansas City Monarchs for the best record in the league at 11-3, with the Brooklyn Royal Giants the only other team with double-digit victories. Those 4 teams–New York, Wandering, Kansas City, and Brooklyn–each lead their divisions.
Two decent hitting streaks are still intact: Babe Ruth has a 14 game streak (see below for a dramatic extension by Ruth) and the Baltimore Black Sox‘s Dan McGann has hit safely in 13 straight games.
Philadelphia‘s Ray Collins and Brooklyn‘s Don Drysedale are the only 3 game winners in the league (both are 3-0), and Portland‘s Johan Santana leads the league with 6 saves.
Houston‘s George Brett hit .538 with 2 HR’s and 7 RBIs to win the WBL Player of the Week.
#Brooklyn Royal Giants
Orel Hershiser (1-0) gave up only 5 hits while striking out 8 in a complete game victory over Cleveland. Hershiser’s only mistake of the day was a 2-run HR to Evan Longoria as the Royal Giants eased to a 6-2 win.
#Cleveland Spiders
Cleveland has basically created a fast shuttle between their AAA affiliate in Buffalo and the big leagues. Just across these five games, here’s who used it:
- With John Ellis no longer carrying an injury, the Spiders demoted Harry Bemis.
- Jim Gantner was called up from AAA to provide some depth at 2B behind Chuck Knoblauch.
- Whit Wyatt returned from the DL, sending Sudden Sam McDowell down.
- Yordano Ventura was put on the IL even though the Spiders were, at the time, unsure as the extent of his injuries (turns out to have been fine, Ventura is out for 4 months with bone spurs).
- With the OF totally gassed and lacking depth, Peanuts Lowrey was called up.
Not all news for Cleveland was injury related: Bob Feller moved to 2-0 with 8 shutout innings against Brooklyn in a 9-1 Spiders’ victory.
#Detroit Wolverines
Phenom Ty Cobb continues to press for more playing time, going 3-for-4 with a HR in a start against Kansas City.
#Homestead Grays
With Corey Kluber still injured, Homestead recalled Cliff Lee for an emergency start. Lee was excellent, leading the Grays to keep him on the roster at the expense of Bill Fischer, who had struggled in a few early season appearances.
#Houston Colt 45’s
Bret Saberhagen was still not 100%, so the Colt 45’s did some roster juggling, sending Saberhagen to AAA for a day and recalling David Clyde. Clyde was lit on fire in his start, and sent right back to AAA after the game.
Roy Oswalt (2-1) combined with Trevor Hoffman for a 6 hit shutout against Portland.
#Kansas City Monarchs
The Monarchs’ Luke Hamlin–of all people–threw the best start of the year so far, allowing only 1 hit over 7 innings against Detroit while striking out 11. Neither Frank DiPino nor Jeff Pfeffer allowed a hit in closing the game out for a 1-0 Kansas city win.
#Miami Cuban Giants
Ramon Martinez tied the best game score of the year with a 5-hit complete game shutout of Chicago that took only 94 pitches, earning his first victory of the year.
#New York Black Yankees
With a 12-game hitting streak on the line, Babe Ruth came to the plate as a pinch hitter with his team down 2 in the bottom of the 9th and a runner on first. Ruth deposited Tom Niedenfuer‘s pitch in the left field seats for his 4th HR of the year to tie the game, extending his streak to 13 (New York would lose the game 5-4 in 13 innings).
#San Francisco Sea Lions
Lefty Grove continued his dominant start to the year, pitching 8 innings of 3-hit, 1-run ball while striking out 11 against Ottawa to go 2-0 on the season. Grove’s game score of 80 was the best in the league to date (later surpassed by Hamlin).
#Wandering House of David
OF Pete Browning continued his torrid start with a 4-for-4 game against the Black Yankees with a 2B, a 3B, and 2 RBIs to key a 13 inning HoD victory.