REDBIRDS POUNCE ON CELLAR BRAVES

MUELLER’S FIRST-INNING CLOUT STARTS ROUT AS KEEN GOES ROUTE IN 12-7 CARDINAL WIN

— The Cardinals finally got their crack at Boston Saturday afternoon, and for once the local club did not waste the soft spot on the card.

With the Braves dragging the poorest mark in the National League into Sportsman’s Park, Rogers Hornsby’s outfit jumped on Joe Genewich early, kicked dust all over the base paths, and carried off a 12-to-7 verdict in a loose, noisy, error-spattered ball game that looked half like a contest and half like a Boston fielding drill gone sour.

The Redbirds put the whole works in motion in the opening frame.

Ray Blades reached, Taylor Douthit helped stir the pot, and Heinie Mueller then climbed into one of Genewich’s offerings and sent the apple sailing for his first circuit clout of the season. Before Boston could get its collars straight, the Cardinals had four tallies on the board and the grandstand customers were hollering like the Giants had never been in town at all.

That was only the first helping.

St. Louis broke the game wide in the third, pouring six more runs across while the Braves booted the horsehide around the lot and Genewich stood on the slab taking punishment. Boston kicked away seven chances all afternoon, and the Cardinals treated every miscue like an invitation to start another parade around the sacks.

Mueller had the liveliest day of the lot, scoring three times, driving in two, and giving the Cardinal attack the early wallop it needed.

Jim Bottomley added two safeties, including a double and triple, scored twice, and drove home a run. Les Bell also cracked two hits, including a three-bagger, and crossed the platter twice while adding sacrifice work when the situation called for it.

Douthit, buried in a miserable batting fog earlier in the week, finally gave the press box something brighter to write. The young center gardener slapped three safeties in four trips and drove home two runs, a welcome sight for a club badly needing his legs and bat back in working order.

Hornsby chipped in a two-bagger and drove home a pair himself.

Bob O’Farrell tripled and brought in a run.

Even the lower end of the order kept Boston pitching under the gun.

Vic Keen went the route for St. Louis and earned his fifth triumph against one setback, though it was no polished parlor job. The Braves nicked him for eight safeties and seven runs, six earned, while drawing five passes. Keen did not fan a man, but he kept throwing, kept taking the ball, and had enough daylight from the Cardinal bats to finish the chore without Hornsby reaching for help.

Boston did its damage late.

The Braves were blanked through five innings before finally scratching three runs in the sixth, then added four more in the eighth as the Cardinal lead grew less comfortable than it ought to have been. Welsh, Burrus, Brown, High, E. Taylor, and Siemer all helped Boston’s late racket, but the Braves had already dug themselves too deep a grave with loose fielding and early pitching trouble.

The Cardinal defense was not clean either.

Bottomley booted one, and Tommy Thevenow was charged with two miscues, keeping the afternoon from looking tidy even on the winning side. But St. Louis also turned two double killings, including a sharp Thevenow-to-Hornsby-to-Bottomley job, and the odd Douthit-to-Thevenow-to-Hornsby play helped cut down Boston traffic before it could grow worse.

Boston turned three double plays of its own, which says plenty about how much baserunning racket filled the afternoon.

Genewich took the licking for Boston after surrendering twelve runs, though only six were earned thanks to the Braves’ butter-fingered support. Cooney finished the final inning for the visitors.

For the Cardinals, the victory lifted the club to 13 wins against 17 defeats and came at a badly needed hour.

The Giants had just knocked St. Louis around.

The clubhouse had grown tight.

The pitching staff had looked worn.

And the Braves, cellar-dwellers or not, represented exactly the kind of club the Cardinals had to beat if they meant to stop sliding deeper into May trouble.

Saturday, they did it with heavy lumber, fast legs, and a little help from Boston’s leaky gloves.

It was not elegant baseball.

But it was winning baseball.

And after the week the Cardinals just survived, that was plenty enough.

— Mike Allen, Bird Chatter Post