Ray Kremer threw a complete game to lead the Pirates to a 5-2 win in the opener of a three-game home series against St. Louis. The game extended their winning streak to nine, a season high.
The Bucs’ hitters kept after Cardinals’ starter Bill Sherdel throughout the first five innings. They started in the bottom of the first with four singles. The last two, by Pie Traynor and Glenn Wright, each drove in a run.
In the second, Kremer doubled and Eddie Moore got hit with a pitch. When Johnny Rawlings grounded to Les Bell at third, Bell stepped on the bag to force Kremer but threw wildly to first, letting Moore score to put the Pirates up, 3-0.
The Bucs added single runs in the fourth and fifth. Kiki Cuyler singled home Moore in the fourth, and Wright singled to score Traynor, who’d doubled, in the fifth.
Kremer set the Cards down with just four singles through the first five innings. In the top of the sixth, they cut the Pirates’ lead to 5-2. With two out and two on, Chick Hafey and Bell each singled to drive in a run. Bob O’Farrell followed Bell’s hit with a single, but Moore, playing right, threw Hafey out at the plate to end the inning.
Kremer got another assist in the top of the seventh. Sherdel doubled to center sigh one out, but the relay from Cuyler to Wright to Traynor caught him trying for a triple. That saved a run, because Ray Blades followed with another double. Kremer didn’t let anybody get past first in the eighth or ninth.
The win improved Kremer’s record to 13-8. Wright had three hits. The Bucs gained half a game on the idle Giants, extending their NL lead to a season-high nine games.
