HUB PERDUE

THE 1914 "MIRACLE" BRAVES
The Braves lose two in a row ...
in the fog and the rain

August 27, 1914 ... From any angle or from all angles that a Braves fan may select, today's game, the first in the series between the Braves and the Cardinals, was not a good one. It was started in a drizzle and the greater part was played in a gentle rain. It went into extra innings and it ended in darkness, fog and a heavy downpour. The worst of it all is that it resulted in a defeat by a score of 3 to 2 in 10 innings. The game should not have been allowed to go into extra innings, because at the end of the ninth, with the score tied, the playing conditions were very bad.

It was a certainty that if another inning were played by both sides, each team would be handicapped. How the batters could see well enough to connect is a mystery. In the 10th inning, Lee Magee poked one into the fog down the right-field line for a single and Cozy Dolan put one up into the clouds in left field which Joe Connolly never saw until it came down 25 yards beyond him in left field. By that time Magee was over the plate with the winning run.

That was last run of the game, but the first one was made by Walton Cruise in the second inning after two men were out with a home run. A good throw to the plate by Rabbit Maranville on the relay, would have caught Cruise, but the ball went 10 feet wide of the plate to the left and the Cardinals had a 1 to 0 lead.

Neither of the Boston runs were earned. In the third inning, Herbie Moran drew a pass and Evers flied out to deep right field. Joe Connolly singled past Miller Huggins to right and Moran stole third, but for some reason Connolly held at first while the play was being made on Moran. Cardinals starter Hub Purdue, made a bluff throw to first trying to catch Connolly and then made a sure throw but the umpire called a balk. Moran came home with the tying run and Connolly went to second. Joe then tried to steal third, so that he may score on a sacrifice fly, but he was nipped by Ivey Wingo.

The Braves second run came in the fifth inning and it gave them the lead. Dolan misjudged Connolly's fly ball to left, but finally managed to get under it and then dropped it. The ball rolled into deep left field and Connolly scored, just beating the throw to the plate, giving the Braves a 2 to 1 lead.

Purdue held his former teammates to three hits in seven innings but was replaced for a pinch-hitter. Dan Griner came in and finished the game and the Braves failed to score, although they made more hits off him than they did off Hub in the seven innings he pitched. They could not get the hits when it counted and although the Cardinals made some clean hits off Rudolph, he worked well when he was in the hole.

The Braves missed chances to score after Griner came in to pitch. With one out in the eighth, Gilbert singled and Mann was sent in to run for him. Schmidt followed with a single to put Mann on third and then stole second, but Red Smith popped out to Dots Miller and the Rabbit struck out to end the threat.

A second home run for the Cardinals was made by Lee Magee in the eighth-inning that tied the score. The hit was badly misjudged by Mann in center field, who ran in half a dozen strides before we realized that the ball was going faster and higher than he thought. He turned and ran back and tried to make a one-handed jumping catch, but failed and the ball rolled all the way out to the flagpole.

In the 10th inning, Evers opened up with a single and Connolly flied to deep right. Josh Devore came in to bat for Mann and singled to center. Here Griner tightened up and Schmidt was called out on strikes, followed by Smith who flied out to right.

It certainly was not the Braves day. With the win the Cardinals pushed their way into second place, one half game ahead of the Braves. There were about 5000 fans on hand which was very good considering that rain was threatening almost any time after noon. Fans here believe the Cardinals have a first rate chance of winning the pennant and their chances are just about as good as anyone's. Is been quite a while since the Braves lost two games in a row, the last time being on July 14th and 15th, when they were last here in St. Louis..

Larry Gilbert started in today's game, the first one since was hurt in Boston back on July 4th.

In Chicago, the New York Giants maintain their hold on first place today by beating the Cubs 9 to 2. Jeff Tesreau pitched an excellent game and in the third inning George Burns took the life of the Chicago by knocking out a triple with the bases loaded.