With the Giants losing yesterday, the Pirates entered today tied for first. Today they beat the Phillies twice, both times by 3-2 scores, while New York lost a single game to St. Louis again. The Bucs now have a one and a half game lead in the NL.
The first game saw a combined effort by Emil Yde and Babe Adams to make three runs stand up. The Pirates got the first two in the bottom of the second, when Boots Grantham belted his fifth home run of the year with Pie Traynor aboard.
The Bucs didn’t get another runner until the fifth. Grantham and Johnny Gooch led off with singles, Grantham taking third. Yde hit into a force out to drive the run in.
The Pirates had only one scoring chance after that. Clyde Barnhart doubled in the seventh and his pinch runner, Carson Bigbee, got thrown out at the plate trying to score on a fly ball. The Bucs got only six hits for the day off Carlson.
Yde meanwhile kept the Phillies off the board through the sixth. He didn’t allow a hit until the fourth, then got double play balls to help him in the fifth and sixth.
The Bucs’ lefty couldn’t get through the seventh. With one out, he gave up four straight singles. That made the score 3-2 and brought on Adams, who got Carlson to pop up and Heinie Sand to ground out.
Adams had little trouble over the last two innings, giving up just a one-out single in the ninth. The game left Yde with a 14-5 record, including 13 wins in his last 14 decisions.
Game two was an 11-inning pitching duel between Vic Aldridge of the Pirates and Johnny Couch of the Phillies. The first five innings saw little action and no scoring. The Pirates got Kiki Cuyler to third with two out in the first and had a runner thrown out at third in the second. The Phillies couldn’t get a runner past first.
In the top of the sixth, the Phillies put together three, one-out singles. The last, by Johnny Mokan, brought in one run and a sacrifice fly by Jimmie Wilson brought another.
The Pirates scratched out one run in the bottom of the sixth. Max Carey singled and moved up on a two-out walk to Glenn Wright. Carey then stole third and the two pulled a delayed double steal. The two steals gave Carey 25 on the year. In the seventh, the Bucs tied the game, 2-2, on a two-out home run by Earl Smith, his seventh of the year.
The Phillies didn’t get another runner past second as the game went into the 11th inning. They had some runners, but got two caught stealing and grounded into a double play.
The Pirates had their own chances. Eddie Moore, who’s been shifted to the leadoff spot, doubled to start the eighth and Carey bunted him to third. The next two batters failed to get the run in. They got two on with two out in the ninth, but Aldridge grounded out.
In the bottom of the 11th, Traynor led off with a single. The next two batters failed to advance him, but he took third on a single by Smith. With Aldridge up and two out, Smith stole second. Aldridge then came through with a single to center to end the game.
With the win, Aldridge improved to 7-5. The teams finish the five-game series tomorrow.
