The San Francisco call., 1908-05-14
Willis and Dellar Hook Up in
Greatest Pitchers Battle
of the Season
STANDING OF THE CLUBS
By w. j. Siaffery


For II innings yesterday afternoon
Pitchers Willis of the Seals and Dellar
of the Commuters matched their skill
and cunning in one OF the cleverest
exhibitions ever seen on a diamond in
this or any other city. Unhappily for
the, local boy, things broke badly for
him during the twelfth. The ever fatal
base on balls, followed by a steal and
drive into right field by Slattery pro-
duced the only run Of the day and won
the fight for Oakland. as the Seals were
unable to land in their half OF the
round.
Hogan was the first man to face
Willis in the twelfth, and the local
pitcher hurled four wide ones 10 the
batsman. Cook tried to bunt him down
TO second, but he was headed off by
many feet Then Cook took a desper-
ate chance and neatly stole the bag,
advancing 10 third moment later
while Zeider and Williams occupied
their time in fielding Haley out.
Slattery came up and rubbed his
hands in the dirt, just like the great
Casey did the day he famed and
plunged all Boston into gloom. But
Slattery did not follow the example of
the rhyme hero when he toed the
scratch. After fouling off two. he
drove the next one right over first
base and Cook came in with the run.
the only one of the memorable strug-
gle.
PITCHERS IL RARE FORM
Even with this run over the plate
the home rooters felt that there was
still a chance for the Seals to score
run and make it a deadlock, as they
had Mohler. Williams and Melchoir
coming up. These three heavy stickers,
!.
flew to right, Williams perished by the
infield route and Melchoir made hit
which brought nothing because Zeider
ended the game with an easy dy.
1t Vas one of the hardest games that
Willis ever lost. The Seals had many
more chances than the Oaks to break
il up, but they We're never there with
men on the sacks They outhit Oakland
nearly two to one, but even this did
not go for anything.
Incidentally, Dellar celebrated his
fifth straight victory and his second
consecutive shutout. He has now
pitched 81 innings without allowing a
run; some twisting for any league.
Yesterday he did not walk man. He
waded in with his usual businesslike
tactics and did not waste any time
grabbing with the umpire over balls
and strikes He had every available
curve at his command and worked a
change of pace that helped more than
anything else, especially in the tight
places.
FATAL BUNT BY PIPER
A lucky double play saved the day
for Dellar in the tenth inning. Will
liams and Melchoir each bingled safely
and advanced on Zeiders sacrifice.
With man on second and third and
only one out of the way. things looked
nice and rosy for the Seals Larry
Piper, however. grabbed the chance by
bunting pop fly to Dollar, who in
stantly hurled the ball to third. COM
pleting double play and cutting the
Seals down when they looked in.
Oakland also had a grand chance in
the eleventh. but Slattery tossed it of
this time. He was the first up and he
landed on second when McArdle COM
mitted the only error of the game by
pegging his grounder wide at first. Del
lar bunted and Slattery was safe at
third on the fielders choIcc. After
Smith had produced a short fly to left
Van Haltren unloaded a very long one
to Melchoir 1t looked as though Slat-
terry had time to crawl in on his hands
and knees. but he held his base and
Truck Eagan famed the wind
Besides creating a years record for
the number of innings gone through
without run, the Two IedKnS eSldD-
lished a time mark that is likely to
stand for a while. They reeled off nine
rounds in an hour and 10 minutes and
completed the II in an hour and three
quarters.
CURVES HARD TO HIT
Both pitchers were so effective that
few of the batsmen We're able to get
the ball out OF the lot. Nobody man
aged to hit for anything better than a
single Truck Eagan slammed one
against the right field wire In, the open
ing inning that looked good for two or
three, but the ball bounded squarely
into the waiting mitts Of Melchoir and
Truck was held on first base. The
score:
OAKLAND
ALB. R. BIZ. sB. Po. A. E.
Sala'1i Yam Haitren. e - 9 8 9