The Pirates got an excellent start from Specs Meadows in the opening game of their four-game series with New York. Meadows allowed only five hits, but the offense couldn’t support him against the Giants’ Jack Scott and the Giants picked up a win, 2-1. With New York also winning yesterday while the Bucs were off, their five-game lead has sunk to three and a half.
New York’s hits were all singles and three of them came in the top of the first inning. The Giants could have done more in the inning, but got only one run. Right fielder Kiki Cuyler threw Frankie Frisch out at third on Ross Youngs’ one-out single. Youngs stole second and scored on a single by Irish Meusel, then Earl Smith threw Meusel out stealing.
The Giants had only two more hits the rest of the game and scored their other run without one. Youngs scored that one, too, in the top of the fourth. He reached second to lead off the inning when Pie Traynor made a bad throw to first on his grounder. Youngs went to third on a grounder and scored on a wild pitch. No other New York runner got past first.
The Pirates had eight hits off Scott, but didn’t take advantage of them. They had two singles in the first, but the inning ended on a double play. Smith led off the third with a single, but got thrown out trying to stretch it into a double. The team got two walks later in the inning but stranded the runners.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Bucs finally got on the board. Two-out doubles by Cuyler and Clyde Barnhart cut the gap to 2-1.
But that was all the scoring. After the sixth, Scott allowed only two hits, and one was erased when the batter, George Grantham, got thrown out going for a double.
Despite the effort, Meadows dropped to 14-7. The teams play again tomorrow.
