GIANTS BAT REDBIRDS CROOKED AGAIN

McGRAW SLUGGERS POUND SHERDEL EARLY, HAMMER HALLAHAN LATE, AND SEND CARDINALS STAGGERING INTO DAY OF REST

ST. LOUIS, May 13 — The Giants spent Thursday afternoon knocking Cardinal pitching from pillar to post, hammering Bill Sherdel out of the box early, roughing up young Bill Hallahan afterward, and finally carrying off a free-swinging 11-to-7 slugging bee from the wobbling Redbirds at Sportsman’s Park.

By the time the whole business finally sputtered to a close, the Cardinals looked like a ball club badly in need of the open date waiting ahead on tomorrow’s schedule.

Another series had slipped away.

Another pitching performance had burst into smoke.

And another afternoon of heavy National League lumber left Rogers Hornsby’s club searching for answers around a clubhouse growing quieter by the day.

The Giants started banging away almost immediately.

Sherdel never gained solid footing atop the hill and New York kept swarming him inning after inning with sharp line drives, extra-base wallops, and constant racket around the sacks. Before long the Giant bench was leaning over the rail barking at every fresh bingle while Sportsman’s Park customers settled into the uneasy feeling that another long afternoon sat dead ahead for the local nine.

The Cardinals did manage scattered answers with the

Billy Southworth continued his savage destruction of Cardinal pitching by walloping another home run and finishing with three hits in six trips, two runs scored, and another run batted home while keeping himself lodged atop the National League batting chase. George Kelly also stayed red hot for McGraw’s outfit, gathering two safeties in four attempts, driving home a pair, and lifting his own batting mark upward toward the .350 neighborhood.

Irish Meusel joined the bombardment with a solo circuit smash during the late innings as the Giant sluggers continued turning Cardinal pitching into target practice.

The roughest work of the afternoon fell upon Hallahan.

The young southpaw was dragged into the wreckage after Sherdel’s departure and quickly discovered National League batsmen in no charitable mood. Giant hitters jumped his fast one repeatedly and sent line drives screaming through the lot while the Cardinals struggled to keep the game from flying entirely out of reach.

By the middle innings the Sportsman’s Park customers had turned restless.

Relay throws wandered.

Pitchers worked behind in the count.

The Giants kept pouring men onto the sacks.

And the Cardinals again looked like a club carrying too many leaks at once to survive against seasoned first-division timber.

Taylor Douthit’s miserable batting fog also deepened another notch. The Cardinal center gardener continues fighting the horsehide without much luck and now sits buried beneath the Mendoza cellar after another thin afternoon at the platter.

The Giants meanwhile never stopped hammering.

McGraw’s gang collected hit after hit, kept pressure boiling around the sacks, and repeatedly answered every Cardinal uprising with another fresh volley of long-distance blasting.

When the smoke finally cleared, the Giants had pounded out enough heavy timber to carry off the series while leaving the Cardinals limping toward an off day that suddenly arrives looking mighty welcome around the local clubhouse.

The Cardinals have now dropped another series after briefly appearing ready to climb back toward even footing earlier in the week.

Instead the same troubles continue returning:

ragged pitching,

late collapses,

and too many afternoons spent chasing games from behind.

For one more day at least, the Giants exposed every crack in the Cardinal machinery.

— Mike Allen, Bird Chatter Post