REDBIRDS FINALLY FALL ON BRAVES WITH HEAVY TIMBER RHEM GOES ROUTE AS CARDINALS BAT BOSTON PITCHING ACROSS LOT

REDBIRDS FINALLY FALL ON BRAVES WITH HEAVY TIMBER

RHEM GOES ROUTE AS CARDINALS BAT BOSTON PITCHING ACROSS LOT IN 13-2 MAULING AT SPORTSMAN’S PARK

ST. LOUIS, May 16 — The Cardinals finally got their crack at the cellar-dwelling Braves Sunday afternoon and spent most of the day knocking the Boston pitching corps clean around Sportsman’s Park in a one-sided 13-to-2 shellacking before nearly 10,000 customers.

And after the punishment the Giants handed St. Louis earlier in the week, the local club looked mighty pleased to spend an afternoon swinging the heavy timber instead of ducking it.

Flint Rhem climbed the slab for the Cardinals and turned in one of his strongest route jobs of the young campaign, scattering six safeties and allowing only a pair of Boston tallies — one of them unearned — while lugging off his sixth triumph against a single licking.

The Braves never truly climbed into the fracas.

Boston starter Lefty Werts lasted only four innings before the Cardinal bats drove him from the hill, and the rest of the Brave mound corps fared little better once the St. Louis swatters got their eyes fixed squarely on the horsehide.

The Redbirds started pecking away immediately.

Ray Blades opened the Cardinal first with a safety and later crossed the platter as Hornsby’s gang scratched out the afternoon’s first tally. St. Louis added two more in the second and kept piling fresh trouble atop the Braves inning after inning while Boston pitchers struggled to stop the avalanche once it began rolling downhill.

Rogers Hornsby again led much of the racket.

The Cardinal skipper gathered three safeties in five swings and crossed the platter twice while continuing to pound line drives around the lot at a murderous clip. Les Bell joined the batting carnival with three bingles and a pair of runs batted home, while Tommy Thevenow collected three safeties himself from the tail end of the order.

Even Rhem joined the wrecking crew.

The Cardinal slabman helped his own cause by slapping out a pair of safeties and driving home three runs while the Braves increasingly came apart around him. Every time Boston appeared ready to crawl out of one jam, another Redbird stepped forward swinging lumber.

The roughest beating arrived during the sixth.

St. Louis exploded for five counters in one wild uprising as the Braves kicked the ball around, Cardinal bats sprayed safeties into every corner of the park, and Boston hurlers struggled merely to survive the inning. By the time the smoke cleared, the Redbirds had the whole affair safely tucked into their hip pocket.

The Braves finally scratched across their only pair of tallies during the fifth inning after two safeties and a Cardinal miscue briefly stirred life inside the Boston dugout. But Rhem quickly stiffened again afterward and kept the Braves from mounting any further racket through the late frames.

Taylor Douthit remained hitless in four trips but still managed to shove home a run, while Heinie Mueller crossed the platter twice despite gathering only a lone safety. Bob O’Farrell also joined the batting parade with a hit and run batted home as nearly the entire Cardinal order took turns harassing Brave pitching.

By the closing innings the whole business had turned into target practice.

Boston used three hurlers altogether.

None solved the problem.

The Cardinals finished with sixteen safeties and pounded eleven runs across officially while leaving the Braves staggering toward the depot after another rough National League afternoon.

For St. Louis, the victory offered badly needed breathing room after the bruising Giant series.

The Cardinals have spent much of the past two weeks wobbling through late-inning collapses, ragged pitching, and defensive leaks. Sunday, however, the club finally looked loose, loud, and dangerous again.

And against a Boston outfit buried deep in the cellar, the Redbirds at last played like the heavier club from opening pitch onward.

— Mike Allen, Bird Chatter Post