Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-04-24

NATIONALS, VICTORIES HAVE
MADE PLAYERS CONFIDENT
Manager Griffith Makes Claim That His
Team Will Bea Big Surprise
This Season.

present campaign. Strict orders have
been given to let the umpires alone. GYi{
| goes on the theory that umpires. while
they make mistakes. are apt to make
them one way OF another, and he re-
| sents the insinuation that he Is trying
to make his players bait umpires.
| schaefer Is Of the greatest value to the
team. not only at the bat and by rea-
I son Of the ginger he displays, but hie
base running IL OF the best. Yesterday
| he pulled the delayed steal once And on
another occasion he had Wood throwing
over to first trying to stop him from get
ting a lead. and finally started for sec
ond just as Wood threw. and before
Stahl could get the ball to the next bag
| he had slid to safety. schaefer Is one Of
are to cut figure In the race this year.
and he Is doing his share to bring 1t
about.
Jack knight realizes that he made a
| mistake when he failed to report for the
spring training trip. Jack 10 far from
being at his best, and he feels that he IL
not aiding the team In his present con-
dftion. He has promised 0rimth, without
being asked, that he will never miss an
that II he is member Of the team next
| spring he will be one Of the first ones to
report Knight. by his failure to go south
this spring. has greatly injured his
We're It not Tor the fact that Grinith has
confidence in him he would have been
replaced at second base long ago. But
knowing that he has been q good ball
! with Knight, and he shows his apprecia-
ton Of the good treatment by his declara-
ton to train faithfully II he is given an
other chance
John Henry does much to help Groom In
his pitching John is not q nervous, ex-
citable person behind the bat. and does
much to steady Bob. With Street 1t was
different. When Bob got himself In q
hole Gabby would hand the ball back to
him as quickly as possible and Groom
was not helped by this practice. Henry
uses entirely different tactics. When
Groom is not going well Henry is apt to
carry the ball to him on the pitchers slab
and he takes plenty Of time in giving him
the signal. The result was that yestef-
days game lasted over two hours and q
quarter, but the time was not wasted
by any means
Dan Moeller is proving himself a brill
liant fielder. and. in fact, a hish-class
ball player. though as yet he IL not hit
ting AZ he should. He is waiting the
pitchers out however. and getting lots OF
what to do But his fielding is Of the
highest order and It IL this which
IL doing much for the team. It Ii, in
fact, the first time In many years that
Washington has been able to boast Of
and show up well as = fielder.
Bunching Of hits atNa time when the
Red Sox were making errors helped the
was Wild. but only one OF his eight bases
on balls cut any figure in the scoring.
Groom. too was mons too steady. and in
almost every inning he had men on the
bases either because Of his Tack Of con-
pinches he was invincible. to which he
owes his victory.
Groom gave the Bostons the first run
in the second. which Lewis opened with
a hit. went to second on sacrifice.
pitch.
A cluster OF three runs came to the
Nationals in the third. Henry. the first
man up. hit safely. but Groom struck
for pass and then Foster hit safely
to center. sending Henry home Speaker
fumbled tne hit and Moeller went to
third. whence he scored on Milan's out
at first. Sehaefer came along with lit
tie hit over third and Foster ran home.
There was luil for q few innings, but
in the sixth the Red Sox scored again
and, in fact, seemed for a time to jump
into the lead. Morgan's error on Gardner
started trouble. Lewis was not trouble
some. but Wagner singled. Nunnamaker
followed with . hit which Milan FUN
bled and Gardner scored. Cunningham
caught Wood difficult ny In short right
and threw to the plate IN time to stop
Wagner from scoring. but Henry in run
ming him back threw too late and the ball
got away from Foster, making Wagner
safe at third. Groom did brilliant work
on Hooper and struck him out. ending the
inning.
In the eighth the game was cinched,
Flynn opened with a double past Speaker
which on fast grounds would have been
an easy. home run. 1t netted but two
bases. Cunny sacrificed and when Stahi
threw to third Flynn beat the throw
there with q clever slide. Morgan came
through with q clean HIT scoring Flynn.
Henry's out moved Morgan to second and
Cunny to third, from where both scored
when Groom hit q screeching single to
center. That ended the scoring, though
both sides got men on flrst In the ninth,
but failed to advance them. The score: