Marching to the Front: The Doubleheader Victory that Put the "Whiz Kids" on the Road to the Pennant

Bubba Church                             Robin Roberts

The 1950 Philadelphia Phillies did not sneak up on any of the other teams in the National League. They had made it known they were a young and improving team in 1949, when the Edie Sawyer led club finished 81-73, in third place. There was still plenty of work to be done to reach the top, however. That third-place finish was 16.5 games behind the pennant winning Brooklyn Dodgers and 15.5 behind the second-place St. Louis Cardinals. In 1950 the Dodgers, Cardinals, New York Giants and Boston Braves all figured to challenge the Phillies for the pennant. 

The spring and summer saw the Phillies jockeying back and forth with the Cardinals for the top spot. No one team could get more than a one or two game lead on the other. On July 24, the Phillies lost, 2-1 to the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates, while the Cardinals had an off day. The teams were again tied at the top of the standings. On July 25, the Phillies were scheduled to play the sixth-place Chicago Cubs in a doubleheader at Shibe Park. The Phillies sweep of that twin-bill, before 32,736 fans, put them into the lead in the National League. A lead that they never relinquished. 

Rookie Bubba Church pitched game one for the Phillies. Bubba had recently been given a regular spot in the rotation after serving as a long reliever/spot starter for the team. Church's best pitch was a sharp breaking curveball. When Church was controlling the breaking pitch, he could be very hard to hit. He was on this day. Church's mound opponent was also a rookie, Johnny Klippstein, a hard thrower, who also had bouts of wildness.

The Phillies lineup was Sawyer's go to lineup for much of the season and would be familiar to anyone who followed the Whiz Kids:

Eddie Waitkus - 1B
Richie Ashburn - CF
Dick Sisler - LF
Del Ennis - RF
Willie Jones - 3B
Granny Hamner - SS
Andy Seminick - C
Mike Goliat - 2B
Bubba Church - P

The Cubs lineup featured former Phillies Emil Verban at second base and Ron Northey in right field. Future Phillies utility man Roy Smalley was the shortstop. The Cubs main offensive threat was slugging first baseman Hank Sauer. 

Church's task was made easier when the Phillies staked him to a four-run lead in the bottom of the first. Waitkus led off the with a walk and Ashburn singled him up a base. Sisler doubled off the right field wall, scoring Waitkus and the speedy Ashburn. Ennis flew out and Jones grounded out, but Hamner singled to score Sisler and then came all the way around to score himself, when Sauer cut off the throw home and threw wildly into centerfield attempting to catch Hamner moving up to second. 

The Phillies increased their lead in the third, when Sisler banged another double and then scored on an Ennis single. In the fourth, Waitkus singled and, after two out, Ennis stroked his 18th homerun of the season, an upper deck shot to left, to make the score, 7-0. Meanwhile Church was in complete control. He allowed just three harmless singles and did not walk a batter. He recorded two strikeouts. No Cub baserunner advanced to second base. When Roy Smalley grounded out to end the game after one-hour and forty-one minutes, the Phillies had a .5 game lead on the Cards.

The Phillies sent their ace, Robin Roberts, to the mound in the nightcap. The Cubs countered with their own ace, Bob Rush. The Phillies lineup was otherwise unchanged for the second game. The Cubs lineup had just one change, Rube Walker did the catching in this one, relieving Mickey Owen.

There would be no runs for Roberts, or Rush for that matter, to work with in this one. The Phillies got base runners on in every inning but one. Ashburn had three hits, including a double, Hamner slugged a triple to dead center, and even the weak hitting Roberts had two singles. The Cubs threw two runners out at the plate and only a great stab and throw by third baseman Bill Serena of a Seminick smash kept the Phillies off the board after Hamner's triple in the eighth. The Cubs had plenty of runners, too, as Roberts gave up six hits and two walls. Still neither team could dent the plate and the score stood 0-0 going into the ninth. 

Roberts worked around a one out Andy Pafko single in the ninth, getting Northey to lineout to Ashburn and then striking out Serena. The Phillies came up with a chance to win it in the bottom of the inning. 

After Goliat grounded out to third, Sawyer allowed Roberts to hit for himself. Robbie worked out a walk. Cubs' manager, Frankie Frisch, objected vociferously to the called fourth ball, and home plate umpire Augie Donatelli tossed him from the game. Sawyer sent Putsy Caballero in to run for Roberts. Waitkus then grounded out to first, but Caballero was able to move up on the play. Ashburn sent everyone in the crowd home happy when he bounced a single over second, bringing Caballero around with the only run of the game. 

In his autobiography Throwing Hard Easy, Roberts recounts this story of the aftermath of the doubleheader win. 

After the game, Bubba [Church] approached me in the locker room. "I can't believe you did that to me," he protested.

"What do you mean Bubba?" I asked.

He said, "I pitch a three-hit shutout and I can already see the headlines tomorrow, and then you come along and pitch a shutout and win 1-0 in the second game. I don't think that's fair." Of course, Bubba was kidding. At least I think he was.

The walk off victory temporarily gave the Phillies a one game lead in the pennant race. The Cardinals cut that lead back to .5 by beating the Dodgers later that night, but after this doubleheader victory, the Phillies never relinquished first place again. Things got a little tense when a seven-game lead had been reduced to one game on September 30, but as all Phillies fans know the Phillies clinched the pennant with a 10-inning nailbiter against Brooklyn on October 1.