Browns delegate Potter to ward off defeat in last-ditch sixth tilt
By Leo R. Petersen, United Press staff writer
Sportsman’s Park, St. Louis, Missouri –
Manager Billy Southworth of the St. Louis Cardinals sent Max Lanier, his star lefthander, to the mound today in an attempt to close out the first All-St. Louis World Series in six games just before the Cardinals, host team for the sixth game, began their batting drill. Lanier told his boss that he was “fit and ready.”
Nelson Potter, ace of Luke Sewell’s staff, carried the Browns’ hope of evening the series at three games each. Potter and Lanier met in the second game but neither was involved in the decision which the Cardinals took, 3–2, in 11 innings.
The sun broke through heavy clouds shortly before noon, but it was topcoat weather and the absence of lines outside the ticket windows led speculators to offer reserved grandstand and box seats at cost.
Cooper strikes out 12 to win, 2–0
But Mort Cooper finally got his blasting fast ball zipping over the corners yesterday as the Cards won, 2–0, to take the lead in the series for the first time and cut down 12 Brown batters on strikes.
His opponent, Denny Galehouse, who had beaten Cooper in the first game, 2–1, was almost as good, fanning 10, but he threw home run balls to Ray Sanders in the sixth inning and Danny Litwhiler in the eighth and that was the difference.
Their strikeout total of 22 set a new World Series record. The former mark for a single game was 21, made in the 1906 World Series between the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox and tied in 1929 when Howard Ehmke of the Philadelphia Athletics set the World Series record for strikeouts in a single game, 13, while his opponent, Charlie Root, was setting down eight.
The 22 strikeouts yesterday also set a new mark for five games, the total being 78 against the former mark of 77 made in the 1929 World Series.
Cooper throttles Browns
Cooper, whose homerun ball has ruined him in three of his five World Series starts and two appearances against the American League in the All-Star game, kept the Browns throttled and wound up the game by fanning three pinch-hitters in the ninth. Only once was he in serious trouble – in the sixth inning when the Browns filled the bases with only one out – but his high, hard one pulled him through as both Al Zarilla and Mark Christman were called out on strikes.
Except for the fat ones he served up to Sanders and Litwhiler, Galehouse matched Cooper pitch for pitch but those home runs brought about his downfall, just like a homer by George McQuinn, with a man on base, had beaten Cooper on a two-hit performance in the opening game of the series.
The largest crowd of the series, 36,368, saw the Cardinals start off as though they were going to break the game open in the first inning when Litwhiler doubled. But Galehouse’s strikeout pitching pulled him out of that spot. He was sailing alone smoothly when Sanders came up with two men out in the sixth. Sanders worked the count to three and one and hit the next pitch over the right field pavilion roof.
Knew it was a homer
“I was behind on him and had to come down with the pitch,” Galehouse said in the clubhouse after the game. “I knew when he hit it that it was going out of the park.”
Both Galehouse and Sewell felt, however, that Litwhiler’s drive onto the pavilion seats would have been caught had not the wind swerved it over.
He allowed seven hits, one more than Galehouse, with Vernon Stephens getting three of them, but his control was perfect and his fast ball never had more zip.
The betting commissioners withdrew all prices on the series with the Cardinals needing but one victory and quoted the National League champions as 11–20 to take the sixth game if Lanier pitches. The Browns were short enders at 8–3.