|
THE 1914 "MIRACLE" BRAVES
The Phillies knock out Hub Perdue
April 18, 1914 ... A savage and consistent attack on the best that Hub Purdue could serve up, gave the Phillies the opening game of the series with the Braves by a 5 to 3 score at Baker Bowl. Hub was batted hard from
the time Dode Paskert came up in the first inning and smashed the ball into the left-field bleachers for a home run, until he retired in the seventh to let Les Mann bat for him. During his stay, the Phillies gathered all of their five runs and 10 of their 12 hits off him. Had the Braves not given Perdue great support, he would
have been driven to the showers before the seventh inning.
The failing of the Braves is the evidence that they could not hit with men on base. While Phillies starter Cy Marshall got credit for holding them five hits, he was very fortunate. Time and again, Braves batters hit balls at either an infielder or outfielder with the precision of a bullet
from a gun. They connected with Marshall's pitches hard and often enough, but could not hit the ball between the fielders.
Down 1 to 0, the Braves started in on Marshall in the second inning. With one down Larry Gilbert beat out a bunt and then stole second base. After Jack Martin struck out, Marshall passed Hank Gowdy to get to Perdue. But Hub crossed them up and walloped the second pitch on a line over Dummy
Murphy's head and before the ball could be retrieved, he was standing on third base, with Gilbert and Gowdy having scored, putting the Braves ahead, 2 to 1. When Perdue went to the mound in the bottom of the inning he was huffing and puffing from his sprint around the bases. He put away with
the Phillies in that inning, but starting with the third, they smashed his offerings around without mercy, until finally in the sixth inning, they scored three times and put the game away.
A great catch by Paskert in the seventh inning did a whole lot in preventing the Braves from at least trying the ballgame, if not winning the game. With the bases loaded and two outs, Johnny Evers smashed one right on the nose to deep center field. The ball went sailing over the Philly
infield like a shot, but Paskert ran straight back and turned just in time to yank down the line drive.
Boston added one more run in the eighth. Joe Connolly belted a double to left and moved to third on Tommy Griffith's ground ball out. He scored when Murphy threw out Butch Schmidt. Manager Stallings tried two pinch hitters in the ninth-inning, but they could not get the ball out of the
infield. The game ended when Wilson Collins pinch-hit for Dick Crutcher, who had relieved Perdue in the seventh. Collins led three straight ones come over the plate and was called out on strikes to end the game. |
