The Pirates got an excellent start from Vic Aldridge, but they needed a three-run rally in the top of the ninth to beat Brooklyn, 4-2. The win kept them a game ahead of the Giants, who beat the Cubs.
Both starters–Aldridge and the Robins’ Bill Hubbell–were tough, with neither team getting on the board until the bottom of the fifth. Hubbell drove in the first run with a single, after Cotton Tierney singled and moved up on a hit batsman. Brooklyn went up, 2-0, in the next inning when Jack Fournier homered to right.
The Pirates managed just three hits in the first six innings against Hubbell. Finally, in the seventh, Clyde Barnhart singled with one out and Pie Traynor tripled, making it 2-1. Traynor was stranded, though, when Glenn Wright popped out and George Grantham lined out.
Aldridge retired the Robins with little trouble in the seventh and eighth, while the Pirates wasted a leadoff double in the eighth. That sent the 2-1 game into the ninth.
The Pirates quickly tied the game when leadoff hitter Kiki Cuyler took second on a wild throw by second baseman Milt Stock, then scored on a single by Barnhart. Traynor put runners on the corner with a single and Barnhart scored the go-ahead run on a fly ball by Wright. A Grantham single and another sacrifice fly, this one by Johnny Gooch, gave the Bucs a 4-2 lead.
Aldridge avoided any more drama, setting the Robins down in order in the bottom of the ninth. The win moved him to 5-4. Traynor had three hits. The series concludes tomorrow.
