CARDINAL WALLPERS CRACK THREE LONG CLOUTS WHILE KEEN OUTLASTS FRISCH RALLY TO BAG 5-4 STRUGGLE FROM GIANTS

— The Cardinals finally managed to keep a ball game from blowing into the ash barrel Monday afternoon at Sportsman’s Park and shoved aside John McGraw’s Giants, 5 to 4, behind the heavy timber of Ray Blades and Les Bell.

It was the sort of rough-and-tumble National League scrap the Cardinals have lately been losing.

This time they hung onto it.

Vic Keen went the route for the Redbirds and survived a hard afternoon against the Giant swatters, who banged ten safeties off the Cardinal right-hander and kept runners scampering around the paths nearly every inning after the fourth.

But the St. Louis club finally answered pressure with pressure instead of folding its tent at the first sign of trouble.

The Giants drew first blood in the fourth when Frankie Frisch, the peppery Fordham keystone rider, lashed a double into the outfield pasture and Billy Southworth followed with another two-ply smash that shoved the Giant captain over the dish.

Keen escaped further wreckage for the moment, though New York already had the Cardinal slabman working from the stretch and sweating under steady fire.

The Cardinals came right back in their half.

Jim Bottomley opened with a ringing double and Heinie Mueller followed later by driving a triple deep into the far reaches of the park, sending Bottomley trotting home with the tying marker. Les Bell then lifted a long sacrifice fly to the outer garden and Mueller scampered across with the go-ahead tally while the Giant outfield heaved the apple back toward the infield.

The Polo Grounds gang tied matters again in the fifth.

Frisch walloped another double, his second two-base poke of the afternoon, and came skidding home moments later after Southworth lined another safety into the outfield grass. The Giant captain finished with three bingles in four attempts and crossed the platter twice while spending the afternoon kicking dust around the base paths and worrying the Cardinal infield into hurried pegs.

The deadlock lasted only a few minutes.

Taylor Douthit reached ahead of Ray Blades in the Cardinal fifth and the hard-swinging outfielder then climbed into one of Wisner’s offerings and sent the horsehide sailing deep into the stands for a two-run circuit clout that shook Sportsman’s Park awake and shoved the Cardinals back in front, 4 to 2.

McGraw yanked Wisner later after the Cardinal bats continued stinging the Giant right-hander.

Bell added another smash in the sixth when the Cardinal third-sacker caught hold of a delivery and drove it into the seats for a lone counter that eventually stood as the deciding marker.

That extra run proved mighty useful.

The Giants came roaring back in the eighth after Frisch reached the sacks again ahead of Irish Meusel, who uncorked a two-run wallop that sliced the Cardinal lead down to a single tally and sent fresh uneasiness rippling through the grandstand customers.

But Keen, wobbling badly at moments through the middle innings, finally stiffened during the stretch drive and held the Giants scoreless the rest of the route.

Bell meanwhile turned in one of the afternoon’s slickest glove plays when he speared a hard hopper at the hot corner and started a sharp 5-to-4-to-3 twin killing that chopped the legs from another Giant uprising before it gathered full steam.

Neither outfit booted a chance.

Southworth continued his savage batting spree by collecting two more bingles and keeping his mark perched at a dizzy .457 figure, while Meusel drove home a pair of Giant runs with his late-inning swat.

The Cardinals managed only seven safeties themselves but made the heavy lumber count.

Blades drove home two with his homer.

Bell accounted for two more with his sacrifice fly and four-base smash.

Mueller’s triple plated another.

Young Mel Ott again climbed out of the Giant dugout as a late pinch walloper and drew fresh neck-craning from both dugouts and grandstand customers alike. The seventeen-year-old Louisiana youngster still sees only scattered duty under McGraw, but every batting appearance by the schoolboy slugger now starts fresh chatter around the circuit.

Wisner absorbed the beating for New York after the Cardinals battered him from the hill, while Davies finished the chore for the Giants.

The victory lifted the Cardinals to 11 triumphs against 15 setbacks and, for one afternoon at least, allowed the local club to play steady enough baseball to keep the hard-charging Giants from stealing the whole works in the late going.

— Mike Allen, Bird Chatter Post