RHEM SWINGS BIG STICK THROWS 7. REDBIRDS BEAT McGRAW GANG

— Flint Rhem spent Tuesday afternoon pitching ball, swatting horsehide, and generally making life miserable for John McGraw’s Giants while the Cardinals lugged off a hard-fought 6-to-5 triumph at Sportsman’s Park.

The blonde Cardinal right-hander worked seven sturdy innings atop the hill, drove home a pair of tallies with a timely bingle, and departed only after the Polo Grounds gang finally began raising smoke against him during the late going.

Jesse Haines climbed out of the bullpen afterward and cooled the Giant uprising before the whole works could bust loose.

Rhem bagged his third triumph of the campaign without a setback.

Haines finished the last two innings of fireman labor and preserved the verdict after New York came boiling hard down the stretch.

The Giants scratched first blood in the opening inning when the Fordham Flash, Frankie Frisch, started another afternoon of base-path deviltry against the Cardinal pitching corps. Frisch finished with a pair of safeties in three official swings and spent the afternoon kicking dirt around the sacks while keeping the St. Louis infield buzzing nervously.

The Cardinals answered the Giant jab with heavy lumber of their own.

Jim Bottomley climbed into a New York offering and uncorked a long two-run circuit smash that sent the grandstand customers into full howl and shoved the Redbirds out front. The Cardinal first-sacker finished the afternoon one-for-three but drove home three runs altogether and supplied most of the local blasting power.

The Redbirds kept pouring it on during the middle innings.

Bob O’Farrell lashed three safeties in four trips and crossed the platter once while Heinie Mueller, batting in the fifth notch of Hornsby’s order, gathered a pair of bingles and another run batted home. Tommy Thevenow added a safety of his own while the Cardinals kept pecking away at Giant hurling from inning to inning.

Rhem meanwhile helped his own cause considerably.

With traffic clogging the sacks during one Cardinal uprising, the hard-throwing slabman ripped a clean single that drove home two additional counters and sent Sportsman’s Park into another uproar. By the time the dust settled, the Cardinals had built enough daylight to survive the late Giant charge.

McGraw’s gang never stopped scrapping.

Billy Southworth kept up his savage stick work by collecting two more bingles in four swings and lifting his batting average to a sizzling .462 mark. The Giant outer gardener has been stinging the apple all through the series and again proved one of the toughest outs in the New York batting order.

Even youngster Mel Ott joined the parade.

The seventeen-year-old Louisiana schoolboy walloper climbed off the Giant bench as a pinch batsman and cracked a hit in his lone appearance before later trotting home with a run. Ott now sits at a .333 mark in his brief taste of National League warfare and continues drawing neck-stretching curiosity every time McGraw sends him toward the plate with that famous high-kicking batting lash of his.

The Giants finally began smoking the ball harder during the seventh inning after Rhem had already spent most of the afternoon wrestling with New York traffic around the sacks. McGraw’s sluggers started bunching bingles together and chopping into the Cardinal lead while the Sportsman’s Park customers grew uneasy watching another late Redbird wobble begin taking shape.

Hornsby finally yanked Rhem after seven rounds and tossed the horsehide to Haines.

The veteran right-hander answered smartly.

Haines stiffened the whole shooting match, cut down the remaining Giant threats, and kept the Polo Grounds gang from stealing the affair during the stretch drive.

The Cardinals finished with five regulars batting above the .300 shelf and collected enough timely wallops to survive despite another shaky afternoon from portions of the pitching staff.

For the second straight afternoon, the Redbirds managed something they have too rarely shown this spring.

They held their footing once the late-inning smoke started rising.

St. Louis now owns 12 victories against 15 setbacks.

— Mike Allen, Bird Chatter Post