The Pirates swept a doubleheader from St. Louis, giving them a sweep of the four-game series. It also left them with a perfect, 7-0 homestand. They won game one, 4-1, behind a strong outing from Emil Yde. Game two was a 15-5 laugher.
Yde came into game one from a pair of rough outings in which he allowed eight earned runs in three innings total. You wouldn’t have known it from this game, as he went the distance while allowing eight hits, seven of them singles. The only time the Cards got to him was in the top of the third, when Rogers Hornsby homered for the second time in the series.
The Cards’ best chance to break through came in the seventh when two walks and an infield hit loaded the bases with nobody out. Yde got out of it by getting former Pirate Walter Schmidt to hit into a 5-2-3 double play, and then getting Chick Hafey on a bouncer back to the mound.
Yde’s escape act in the seventh kept the Pirates up, 3-1. Following Hornsby’s homer, they tied the game off starter Allan Sothoron in the bottom of the fourth on a two-out single by Max Carey that drove Johnny Gooch in from second.
The Bucs took the lead in the sixth. George Grantham led off with a double and took third when Gooch beat out a bunt. One out later, Carey singled in Grantham. The Cards threw Carey out at second, but with two out Eddie Moore beat out a roller back to the mound to drive Gooch in from third.
The game’s only other run came home in the seventh when Grantham doubled in Glenn Wright, who’d walked. Yde stranded a pair of runners in the eighth and, after a one-out single in the ninth, got Schmidt to hit into another double play to end the game.
The win improved Yde’s record to 2-4. Grantham had three hits.
In game two, both starters — Pea Ridge Day for the Cards and Johnny Morrison for the Bucs — got off to rough starts.
St. Louis scored a pair off Morrison in each of the first two innings. Following a walk to Jack Smith, Hornsby homered again in the top of the first. In the second, Bob O’Farrell tripled after a leadoff single to account for one run. After Day fanned, Ray Blades walked and stole second. When the next batter bounced back to the mound, Yde caught O’Farrell in a rundown between third and home. Pie Traynor made the tag on O’Farrell, but then threw wildly trying to get Blades going to third, allowing Blades to score.
In between the two Cardinal rallies, the Pirates put up three in the bottom of the first. After a one-out triple by Moore, Kiki Cuyler got hit by a pitch. Clyde Barnhart tripled both runners home, then scored on a sacrifice fly by Traynor.
After the early scoring, Morrison settled in and Day didn’t. Morrison gave up only one more run, on a single by Les Bell that drove in Hornsby in the fifth. All Morrison allowed over the last four innings was an infield hit and two walks.
Day made a quick exit in the bottom of the third. Cuyler led off with a triple and scored when Barnhart singled. Eddie Dyer replaced Day, but he didn’t help things. Traynor doubled, Wright tripled and Grantham singled, each driving in a run. That put the Pirates up, 7-4.
The Pirates kept after Dyer, who stayed on to allow ten runs. Carey led off the fourth with a triple and scored on a two-out error on Barnhart’s grounder. Traynor doubled Barnhart to third and Wright beat out an infield hit to score one run. The Pirates then pulled off one of their specialties, the delayed double steal. Traynor stole home and Wright second, then Wright came around to score when the throw to second was wild. The Pirates led, 11-4.
Four more runs followed. Barnhart tripled in two runs in the sixth. Earl Smith led off the seventh with his fifth home run of the year. In the eighth, Traynor tripled to drive in Barnhart, who’d singled.
The win left Morrison at 6-4. The Pirates had 19 hits, 11 of them for extra bases, including eight triples. Barnhart and Carey each had two triples, and Traynor two doubles and a triple. Barnhart overall was 4-for-5 with four runs and five RBIs, and Cuyler scored four times.
The Pirates are now 21-16, four and a half games out of first. They open a two-game series tomorrow in Chicago.
Before the games started, the Pirates made a move that was no doubt connected to yesterday’s signing of first baseman Stuffy McInnis. They traded first baseman Al Niehaus to Cincinnati for right-handed pitcher Tom Sheehan. Niehaus came to the Pirates, along with George Grantham and Vic Aldridge, from the Cubs in the trade that sent Wilbur Cooper, Rabbit Maranville and Charlie Grimm to Chicago. With the Pirates, Niehaus hit just 219/242/344 in 17 games.
The 31-year-old Sheehan has spent all or parts of five seasons, stretching back to 1915, in the major leagues. With the Reds last year, he went 9-11, 3.24, in 39 games, 14 of them starts. He’s run into problems this year, going 1-0 with an ERA of 8.07 in ten games, three of them starts. Sheehan has had success with St. Paul of the American Association, winning 26 games there in 1922 and 31 in 1923. The Pirates could use some better relief pitching after their six top pitchers (Lee Meadows, Yde, Morrison, Ray Kremer, Aldridge and Babe Adams). The team has recently assigned the contracts of Don Songer and Lou Koupal to Oklahoma City and Kansas City, respectively.
