OLD PETE STOPS CARDS AS CUBS SWEEP FOURTH STRAIGHT, 6 TO 5 Alexander Grabs First Victory Of Season At Wrigley Field —

— Cardinals Threaten Late But Chicago Veteran Holds In Pinches

The Cardinals dropped their fourth straight ball game in Chicago Sunday afternoon when old Grover Cleveland Alexander reached back for one more strong afternoon and pitched the Cubs to a tight 6 to 5 victory at Wrigley Field.

For just the second time this season the aging Chicago veteran walked off a winner.

And he earned it.

Alexander came into the afternoon with one victory and with plenty of Chicago followers already muttering that the old right-hander had reached the end of the trail.

Instead the old timer turned back Rogers Hornsby’s club and held together long enough to hand the Cardinals another bitter defeat.

The loss dropped St. Louis to 8 victories against 10 defeats while the Cubs kept climbing after sweeping four straight from the Redbirds on the North Side.

The Cardinals fought hard all afternoon and carried threats against Alexander more than once, but every time St. Louis looked ready to crack the game wide open the old veteran slowed matters down and worked himself clear.

The Cardinals crowded the sacks repeatedly and kept steady pressure on Chicago pitching, but Alexander mixed curves, slow stuff, and careful control to keep the Redbirds from landing the one crushing inning they needed.

The old right-hander still has a blazing fast one, just not the one that once made National League hitters look foolish.

Now he works with nerve.

And Sunday the nerve held.

Chicago meanwhile kept pecking away at Cardinal pitching and built enough of an edge during the middle innings to survive the late St. Louis pressure.

Again the Cardinals hit enough balls to stay alive in the scrap.

Again they failed to nail down the hard innings once the game tightened.

That has become the whole ugly story of this Chicago series sweep.

The Cardinals score.

Then the Cubs answer.

By the late innings the whole park had tightened into another hard one-run battle.

The Cardinals came charging hard again late and threatened to wipe out the Chicago lead before Alexander finally settled himself and choked off the last St. Louis uprising.

The old fox bent.

He never cracked.

That was the ball game.

The Cardinals leave Chicago after four straight beatings on the North Side and the whole series has left the St. Louis pitching staff badly battered while the club slips backward in the National League chase.

— Mike Allen, Bird Chatter Post