Following a rainout yesterday, the Pirates opened their series against the Phillies with a regularly scheduled doubleheader and dropped both games. They couldn’t get much offense going, losing the first game, 3-2, and the second, 4-2. With the Giants beating St. Louis, the Bucs are now a half-game out of first place.
Ray Kremer had a rough start, getting knocked out with two gone in the fourth. He allowed only two runs, but eight hits.
The first run came in the first, when George Harper tripled in a run with two out. Kremer got a break in the second. With two out, he gave up three straight singles, the first by Phillies’ pitcher Art Decatur. On the third one, a single to center by Freddy Leach, Max Carey threw Decatur out at the plate.
The Pirates took the lead in the bottom of the second. Glenn Wright doubled, Stuffy McInnis tripled and Johnny Gooch doubled, putting the Bucs up, 2-1.
The Phillies tied it in the top of the fourth. Lew Fonseca led off with a triple and scored on a sacrifice fly. A single and a double put runners at second and third with two out, prompting Bill McKechnie to call for Johnny Morrison, who got Leach to ground out.
The Pirates had a chance to come back in the bottom of the inning. They got runners to second and third with one out, but Morrison flied out to center, too shallow to score a run.
Morrison and Decatur were both tough after that. Each team got a pair of singles in the sixth without scoring, but there were no other threats until the top of the eighth. With one out, Phillies’ catcher Butch Henline blasted a home run to left, putting the Phillies up, 3-2.
The Pirates weren’t able to get another runner on base in the eighth or ninth. Despite allowing just one run in five and a third innings, Morrison took the loss to drop to 10-9. Gooch had three hits.
Game two was remarkably similar. The Phillies took an early 1-0 lead and the Pirates came back to go ahead, 2-1. But they weren’t able to score again, getting only five hits total off Jimmy Ring.
Bernie Friberg put Philadelphia ahead in the top of the second with a two out, solo home run. The Pirates tied it in the bottom half when two singles and a walk loaded the bases with nobody out. All they got was one run, on a line drive to center field by Earl Smith that went for a sacrifice fly. They got another run in the bottom of the third. Carson Bigbee reached to start the inning when first baseman Fonseca mishandled his bunt. Bigbee went to third on a single by Eddie Moore and scored on a fly by Kiki Cuyler.
Pirates’ starter Lee Meadows preserved the lead until the top of the fifth, when he gave up back-to-back, two-out doubles to Leach and Johnny Mokan. Meadows kept the Phillies off the board in the sixth and seventh, although he had to survive three errors in the latter inning.
The defense did Meadows in, though, in the top of the eighth. The Phillies loaded the bases on two walks and a single. With two out, Ring flied to center, but Carey muffed it, letting two unearned runs score and putting Philadelphia ahead, 4-2.
The Pirates were able to put only one runner on base in the last two innings, and that one was erased on a double play. Meadows allowed only seven hits, but dropped to 14-6.
Tomorrow is Sunday, so both teams are off. On Monday, they’ll make up the Friday rainout with a doubleheader.
