Sweeping the (Boston) Braves, September 1949

Last week, July 28 to 31, 2017 the Phillies swept the Braves in a four game series. Nothing terribly remarkable about this. Two mediocre teams already playing out the string of the long season in midsummer. One thing did catch my attention in this four game sweep, however. This was the first four game sweep by the Phillies of the Braves in Philadelphia since September 2-4, 1949, when the Phillies played at Shibe Park (not to be renamed Connie Mack Stadium for four years yet) and the Braves were playing in Boston (not Milwaukee or Atlanta).

This tidbit of information sent me scrambling to BaseballReference.com to see the statistics from the long ago encounter. In some ways what I found was just as unremarkable: two mediocre teams playing out the string of the long season (Boston had won the pennant in 1948, but was struggling to maintain a .500 record in '49 and the Phillies were showing signs of becoming a good team, but were still 14 games behind the Cardinals at this point.). The Phillies completed the sweep by taking both ends of a Sunday doubleheader (remember those?) in what can only be described as remarkable fashion. This was a doubleheader with some crazy, unprecedented occurrences, great performances by players famous and obscure, a come-from-behind, walk-off home run in one game, starting pitchers who could not get anybody out, and two pitchers pitching multiple innings in both games. This twin bill is a fascinating look at how the game has both changed and stayed the same over the past 70 years.

Let's start with the unprecedented. The Phillies won both games of the doubleheader despite having their starting pitchers get a grand total of one out and despite falling behind by 4-0 in both games before they ever came to bat. In the first game, Hank Borowy, well past his prime as the star of the 1945 Cubs pennant winners, faced five batters, gave up two hits, two walks, and four runs. The only out he got was on a Sibby Sisti sacrifice bunt. As bad as Borowy was, he out-pitched the Phillies starter in the second game, Blix Donnelly. Blix gave up a walk and four hits, including a three run home run to the Braves third baseman, Bob Elliot, and was gone without retiring a batter. To sum up: two games, two starting pitchers, ten batters faced, one out recorded, six hits, three walks, one double, one home run, eight runs allowed. I cannot find one other example of a team who won both ends of a double header when their starting pitchers recorded only one out total.

That the Phils were able to come back and win both games was largely due to some excellent relief pitching from Curt Simmons and Ken Trinkle. Regular Phillies fans are likely to recognize the name of Simmons, who was the top left-handed pitcher for the team in the Whiz Kid days, before becoming a stalwart for the very good '60s Cardinals teams.  Ken Trinkle is probably not on your radar. Trinkle was a relief pitcher with the Giants in the forties, before landing with the Phillies in a cash transaction for his final season in the majors in 1949.

Simmons pitched 3.2 innings in the first game without giving up a run and allowing the Phils to catch up. He was right back out on the mound in the second game pitching 4 more innings, giving up two runs, but this time finishing off the game and picking up the win. At this point in his career, Simmons was a twenty-year-old phenom who was still trying to find his bearings. It is hard to imagine a team in 2017 pitching their rising star in back-to-back games of a doubleheader for multiple innings as manager Eddie Sawyer of the Phillies did here.

Meanwhile, Trinkle pitched a scoreless ninth inning in the first game, picking up the win when Willie "Puddin' Head" Jones cracked a two out, two run, walk-off home run to the left center field bleachers, driving home Bill "Swish" Nicholson, who had doubled, ahead of him. Trinkle then went out in the second game and replaced Donnelly, pitching an additional five innings, giving up only one run on a Marv "Twitch" Rickert home run.

The Braves, by the way, ran out two much more heralded pitchers in Johnny Sain and Vern Bickford. But this was not a day for starting pitchers. The usually dependable Sain threw just 3.2 innings and gave up six hits and five runs. In the second game, Bickford allowed 12 hits and six runs in 5.1 innings.

The two games featured plenty of offense from both teams. The final scores were 9-8 and 8-7. The teams combined for 32 runs and 49 hits on the day. Future Hall of Famer Richie Ashburn, had six hits, including a triple, while first baseman Dick Sisler had five hits including a home run and a double. Granny Hamner, Del Ennis, and of course, Jones also homered for the Phils. In addition to Elliott and  Rickert, Tommy Holmes and Connie Ryan homered for the Braves.

The two teams also featured a sort of All Stars of Nicknames contest, fielding the following players with these colorful monikers.

Willie "Puddin' Head" Jones
Bill "Swish" Nicholson
Richie "Whitey" Ashburn
Marv "Twitch" Rickert
Eddie "The Brat" Stanky
Ed "Horn" Sauer
Sebastian "Sibby" Sisti
Elburt "Elbie" Fletcher
Charles "Red" Barrett
Stan "Stash" Lopata
Sylvester "Blix" Donnelly
Robert "Buddy" Blattner
"Pistol" Pete Rieser
Tommy "Kelly" Holmes
Cornelius "Connie" Ryan
Lynnwood "Schoolboy" Rowe
Granville "Granny" Hamner

All in all a great day to be at the ballpark.