The Pirates had a travel day after their 21-5 shellacking of Brooklyn. The time off didn’t cool their bats, though, as they opened their five-game series in St. Louis with a 24-6 rout of the Cardinals. This time they hammered 21 hits, including six home runs, two of them grand slams. They also took advantage of seven walks and seven Redbird errors.
The game turned into a blowout quickly as the Pirates scored eight first-inning runs. The scoring started with one out, when Kiki Cuyler belted his eighth home run with Max Carey on base. The next three batters reached, two on walks, and Boots Grantham blasted a grand slam, his third homer of the year. The next batter was retired, but an error and Carey’s second single of the inning finished Cards’ starter Flint Rhem. Reliever Johnny Stuart balked to move the runners in to scoring position and Eddie Moore singled them both home.
Pirates’ starter Vic Aldridge didn’t last very long, either. In the bottom of the first, Aldridge gave up a two-run home run to the second batter he faced, center fielder Jack Smith, following a single by left fielder Ray Blades. With two out in the second inning, Stuart tripled and Blades doubled. When Rogers Hornsby doubled and Jim Bottomley singled to start the third, Bill McKechnie brought in Ray Kremer. He walked the first batter he saw, but got a 1-2-3 double play and a strikeout to end the inning.
Stuart and Kremer both finished the game, but it went a lot rougher for Stuart, who gave up 16 runs, 12 of them earned. The Pirates got single runs in the second, fourth and sixth. Grantham drove in a run in the second with a sacrifice fly, then homered again, his fourth, in the fourth. Clyde Barnhart led off the sixth with his third home run of the year. Barnhart drove in three more with a bases-loaded double in the seventh, following a Kremer double and two walks.
The Bucs piled on for ten runs in the eighth, sending 15 batters to the plate. Earl Smith homered for sixth time on the year after a leadoff hit by Grantham. Three singles, combined with an error and a bases-loaded walk to Barnhart, brought in two more runs. Pie Traynor then launched his third home run of the year for the team’s second grand slam. Sadly for poor Stuart, the inning didn’t end there. Two more walks, two more errors and a single by Carey brought in the ninth and tenth runs of the inning.
Kremer had a few problems over the last seven innings. He gave up a two-run home run to Hornsby in the fifth. Three straight singles brought Hornsby home again in the seventh. Kremer finished with three runs and seven hits allowed, picking up his fifth win against four losses.
Grantham finished 4-for-4 with four runs and six RBIs. Carey also had four hits and four runs. Barnhart drove in five runs. The win brought the Pirates back to within a game and a half of the idle, first-place Giants, who won yesterday.
