Game 28 - A New Low

May 19, 1911
Philadelphia 8, Detroit 9

The A's get some offense going, clubbing 19 hits against a trio of Tiger hurlers (including 4 by Collins - guess his ankle is feeling better). But this is the fifth game in a row in which they've allowed six runs or more. That's not the way to win games in the deadball era, and today, they let Detroit get one man too many across the plate. The Tigers collected just 8 hits, but the 4 errors, 4 walks, and 2 HBP by the A's helped turn them into 9 runs.

Let's turn things over to Sporting Life to see how things went down and get a casualty report:

“Stanage’s home run in the eighth won the game. Lively was hit on the head by a pitched ball in the second and was forced to retire after pitching the third inning. Coombs, who collapsed in the first inning of the game, was not overcome by the heat, as generally believed, but was struck on the side of the head by a ball thrown by first baseman Davis, of the Athletics. Coombs was but three or four feet from Davis, when the latter threw hurriedly to the plate in an attempt to prevent Bush from scoring. The ball was deflected only slightly and no one in the press box saw it strike Coombs. Lefty Russell, who relieved Coombs, allowed seven hits.”

Yikes, two pitchers suffering head injuries in the first two innings. Of course, head injuries in sports are a big story these days, but there was very little knowledge about either the short- or long-term effects of concussions back then. At least both pitchers were removed from the game eventually.

Mack and his White Elephants have now dropped six games in a row and have fallen back into the second division. They're twelve games out of first, the farthest they've been all season. Here are the standings:

Team Name                 G    W    L    T   PCT    GB    RS   RA
Detroit Tigers           32   27    5    0  .844     -   194  124
Chicago White Sox        30   16   13    1  .552   9.5   168  124
Boston Red Sox           30   16   14    0  .533  10.0   157  134
New York Highlanders     28   14   14    0  .500  11.0   110  138
PHILADELPHIA ATHLETICS   28   13   15    0  .464  12.0   158  140
Cleveland Naps           33   14   18    1  .438  13.0   153  159
Washington Senators      28   10   18    0  .357  15.0    95  168
St. Louis Browns         31    9   22    0  .290  17.5   130  178

Spoiler Alert From the Future: This will be the longest losing streak of the season for the A's, and it will be the most games out of first they'll fall. Seems like a good time for a turnaround to me, don't you think?

[Today's source: http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/SportingLife/1911/VOL_57_NO_12/SL5712011.PDF]