REDBIRDS TAKE BREATHER AFTER GIANTS PASTING.

HORNSBY CLUB HOPES OFF DAY STOPS PITCHING LEAKS, BATTING SLUMPS, AND SERIES SKIDS BEFORE BRAVES ARRIVE

— The Cardinals spent Friday without a ball game on the docket, and around the clubhouse the timing suited just about everybody wearing a Redbird flannel.

After four straight afternoons wrestling the Giants in a bruising series that finally slipped toward New York, the local club looked like a ball outfit badly in need of quiet benches, rubbed-down throwing arms, and twenty-four hours without another National League slugging bee breaking loose around them.

The Giants left town Thursday carrying the series and leaving plenty of smoke behind.

Cardinal pitching absorbed another shellacking during the finale. Bill Sherdel was battered from the hill. Young Bill Hallahan took further rough handling after being tossed into the wreckage. The bullpen has now carried a heavy load for nearly two weeks while Hornsby continues juggling hurlers almost daily searching for steadier route work.

At moments the Cardinal slab corps still flashes enough life to look dangerous.

Flint Rhem has worked like a first-division wheelhorse so far this spring. Jesse Haines remains the steadiest relief hand on the staff. Vic Keen has lugged off important victories.

But the whole pitching machine keeps springing leaks.

Too many counts run deep.

Too many innings suddenly explode.

Too many ball games drift from manageable scraps into wild batting carnivals once opposing clubs begin bunching safeties together.

And right now the Cardinals are not fielding crisply enough behind the hurlers to survive that sort of traffic every afternoon.

The club has booted key chances, rushed relay pegs, and repeatedly allowed one ugly inning to snowball into complete disorder. Hornsby has barked constantly from the dugout rail during the past week trying to tighten the whole operation before another series slides into the ash can.

The off day arrived at the proper hour.

Several Cardinal regulars looked worn down badly by the end of the Giant wrangle.

Taylor Douthit remains trapped in a miserable batting fog and continues swinging himself deeper into trouble at the platter. The fleet center gardener still covers acres of outer pasture afield, but his batting mark has sunk into dangerous territory and every trip to the pan now seems to tighten the youngster another notch further.

The pitching staff is not the only concern.

Outside of the heavy stick work being supplied by Rogers Hornsby, Jim Bottomley, Ray Blades, and Les Bell, the Cardinal attack still arrives in uneven bursts rather than steady pounding. One afternoon the club looks capable of tearing the cover from the apple. The next day the whole batting order goes sleepy with men stranded all over the sacks.

Hornsby himself continues swinging murderous lumber.

The Cardinal skipper remains perched among the league batting leaders and keeps stinging line drives around the lot even while the club around him struggles to gain stable footing in the standings chase.

The atmosphere around the clubhouse Friday carried more fatigue than panic.

Players moved quietly between lockers.

Pitchers rubbed sore arms.

Trainers stayed busy.

A few reserves drifted onto the field for light pepper games while coaches hit fungoes beneath gray skies hanging over Sportsman’s Park.

Mostly the club looked thankful for the pause.

The Braves arrive next, and the Cardinals know perfectly well another poor series could bury them deeper in the second-division muck before May is half finished.

For now, however, Hornsby’s men have one day to let bruises fade, cool battered pitching arms, and try gathering themselves before another week of National League warfare begins rolling through town.

— Mike Allen, Bird Chatter Post