RHEM MUSCLES REDBIRDS OUT OF THE DITCH

BIG FLINT HALTS FOUR-GAME TAILSPIN, CARDS ROUGH UP COOPER AND HAND CUBS A 5-2 LICKING TO OPEN CHICAGO SERIES

After four straight beatings in Cincinnati, the Cardinals rolled into Chicago looking like a prizefighter who had spent a week getting worked over in a back-alley gymnasium.

By sundown Sunday, they looked like ballplayers again.

Flint Rhem put the club on his broad shoulders, the Cardinals jumped Wilbur Cooper before the old southpaw could properly settle himself, and St. Louis marched away with a 5-to-2 victory over the Cubs before a lively North Side gathering at Cubs Park.

The win stopped a four-game skid, lifted the Cardinals to 22 victories against 23 defeats, and kept the club within sight of the National League traffic ahead of them.

More importantly, it stopped the bleeding.

After Cincinnati treated the Cardinals like a truckload of free whisky rolling through a dry county, St. Louis desperately needed somebody willing to grab the wheel.

That somebody was Flint Rhem.

The Cardinals wasted little time helping him.

St. Louis came out swinging lively timber and quickly put Cooper in a jam. The Cardinals had spent much of the Cincinnati series looking tight at the platter, chasing bad balls and failing to land the timely wallop.

Sunday was different.

The Redbirds punched the horsehide early, moved runners, and forced Chicago to play catch-up from the opening chapters of the affair.

That became the game's defining storyline.

The Cubs never led.

Not once.

Every Chicago rally began with hope and ended with Rhem standing on the mound holding the upper hand.

The big right-hander wasn't merely throwing the apple.

He was pitching.

Changing speeds.

Moving hitters around.

Showing enough smoke when necessary and enough soft stuff when they expected heat.

The Cubs collected a few safeties and scratched together a pair of runs, but they never found the big inning they spent all afternoon hunting.

By the middle frames the crowd had grown restless.

The North Siders kept threatening.

Rhem kept escaping.

One inning bled into another until the Cubs began looking like a crew of dry agents chasing a bootlegger who already crossed the state line.

The Cardinals meanwhile continued adding insurance.

Not with a single thunderbolt.

With baseball.

A hit here.

A runner advanced there.

A productive out.

Another safety.

The sort of baseball Hornsby preaches daily and occasionally receives.

The featured figure is unquestionably Rhem.

The Cardinals needed a stopper.

They needed a slabman willing to end the Cincinnati misery before it infected the entire road trip.

Rhem answered with exactly that sort of route-going labor.

The victory further strengthens his growing claim as the club's most dependable arm. Jesse Haines remains the respected veteran. Bill Sherdel remains steady. But when the Cardinals absolutely need somebody to stop a slide, Flint Rhem increasingly looks like the fellow carrying the biggest stick.

The standings make the win even sweeter.

The Cardinals entered the day at 21 victories against 23 defeats following the Cincinnati brooming. The victory pushed them to 22-23 and prevented the club from drifting further toward the second division swamp.

Chicago, meanwhile, missed an opportunity to take advantage of a wounded visitor.

The Cubs came into the series expecting to catch a Cardinal club still staggering from Cincinnati.

Instead they found a club swinging back.

And that may be the larger story moving forward.

The Cardinals have spent much of May climbing out of holes they dug themselves. They fought back to .500 during the Philadelphia series, got mugged by the Reds, then immediately answered in Chicago.

That kind of resilience keeps clubs alive during long summers.

One additional note worth watching:

Taylor Douthit continues to look more comfortable by the day. The youngster's confidence has grown noticeably over the past two weeks. His revival may prove one of the more important developments on the entire roster as the season moves into June.

As for Chicago, the Cubs spent most of Sunday looking like a gang waiting for a payoff that never arrived. Plenty of planning. Plenty of whispering. No loot.

The Cardinals took the cash and caught the evening train.

One wonders now whether Rhem has become the true ace of this staff or merely the hottest hand at the moment. Bird Chatter readers are encouraged to weigh in before the next edition rolls off the presses.

After all, pennants are rarely won by one pitcher.

But they often start with one.

— Mike Allen

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