Evening star., 1914-07-24
GR|FF|TH'S TEAM
IN NBETTER SHAPE
Improvement in Pitchers
Should Contribute to Sue
cessfuI Road Trip.
OPEN SERIES AGAINST
ST. LOUIS TOMORROW
Walter Johnson Likely to Pitch in
an Effort to Start With
Victory.
BY J. ED GRILLO.

went OuSH lustt Hall OI lue -AHleElCdA
League circuit Notwithstanding that
Milan will not be in the lineup this time.
the club whole. appears better fitted
for the series of hard games which un-
doubtedly are in store for it.
The main factor which seems to pre-
sage more success for Griffith's club this
time is the improved form of the pitch
ers. There is not member of the staff
who is not in better shape now than
when the disastrous trip was taken
earlier in the year And especially is
this true of Walter johnson. johnson was
not working anywhere near his best form
then. while now he is pitching brill
liantly as at any time in his career. The
same is true of the others. with the eX-
ception of Ayers The former Richmond
finger was about the only one on Crit
flth's staff who was pitching at his best
when the Nationals were in the west be-
fore.
Now that the club will have the serv-
| ices of Mike Mitchell, the player recent
ly obtained from Pittsburgh, to take the
place of any outfelder who may be out
of the game, things do not look so bad
from that standpoint. Had Grlf oesn
compelled to start on the western TRIP
without a competent utility man for the
outfield, he would, indeed, have been in a
bad way in case of an accident that
would have eliminated one of the two
regulars now playing.
The club opens the series in the west
tomorrow at St. Louis. and in order
to get off to flying start Griffith Will
be pretty apt to pitch Walter JonnsoM'
Working as well as he has been DOING
| there is no reason to believe other
than that Walter will start the ball
rolling in the right direction. And, in
| this connection, it might be well TO
bat INN form certain
to give the Nationals an advantage
in games won this time that they did
not have before. Johnson won onfy
two out of five games on that trip, beat
ing st. Louis. ) to 2, and losing to Chicago, |
Cleveland and Detroit in order. He won |
the fourth game of the series with De-
troit, breaking the .ationals' losing streak |
when he poled a home run with the |
bases loaded. 1t is almost a certainty |
that he will come back to Washington
with a whole lot better record than that
The Nationals will play nineteen
games before they return. Sixteen are
to take place against the western CLUBS
and three are booked FOR Phliade%lpnla. %
men are scheduled to meet the lead
ers Immediately after the grue1ing
opposition they are likely to encounter
in the west, but they will have to
make the best of it. Griffith probably
will aim to conserve lot of his
strength for the three contests with
the Mackmen, if such is possible be-
cause it is well realized that the team
must make an excellent record. must
win a good majority of it's games in
almost every Aeries if it is to stay in
the running in the pennant race. The
Athletics are now seven and a half
games in front of the Nationals and
if that lead is increased to any ex-
tent it will be an almost hopeless
proposition to attempt to overcome it.
No better exhibition of the uncertainty
of base ball was ever given than in the
game of yesterday. Jim Scott had pitch
ed such good ball for Chicago during the
first six innings that he had literally
made the Nationals efforts at bat seem
almost boyish. He was working with a
three-run lead. and it seemed that the
game was practically gone. The chances
are that few even thought that Howard
Shanks would score when he led off In
the seventh inning with slashing drive
to right center, and if anybody had been
so bold as to make the statement that
there would be five runs scored before
the inning ended he would have been
laughed at. Scott seemed to have about
AS much stuff as usual in that period.
but 1t was just of those times, though
they come but seldom. when the Nation
ais look like great hitting bal! club.
They began to hit and nothing could
have stopped them. They batted out
victory in that brief period to the ex-
perse of three Of the most capable pitch
ers in the American League
It makes a great difference in the playing |
of the Sox on the defenseve to whether |
Weaver is at short. He has always put |
up brilliant fielding game. but this sea- |
son he appears to be in better form than !
ever In the fifth inning Williams led off |
| with a slow boundcr that was too high |
! for Scott to field; Weaver came in almost |
| behind him, picked up the ball and cut
| it across to first with the same motion.
| 1t seemed that the ball was hardly in
| hon nf oil hafO &c
! way to first. Had n faster man than Will
! liams hit the ball. it is probable Weaver
| would not have been able to make the
| play, but even it was there was no
! neater piece of work done during the en-
| tire game. There are few intielders who
! get the ball away from them with great
er facility than Callahan's shortstop.
! motion to first base any pitcher in the
! league. There is hardly game in which
! he pitches that he does not catch some
! player off the bag And he does 1t In 4
| way that is said tohe legitimate, though
opposing players always let out howl of
! protest. Boehling has very effective
way Of tossing the ball over to first once
or twice so slowly that it is naturally
| easy to determine what he is going to
| do. He Iulls the baserunner into false
sense Of security, then he winds up and
| cuts the ball to the bag with that fast.
| deceptive motion which usually has the
! standing on the bag in fear That Is the
| case usually but many times when he
pitches to the plate instead he the
same motion. With the result that the
! baserunner is made to look ridiculous be-
! cause he thinks the throw is going to be
made to first III attempt to get him.
Many baSerunner Scurries back toward
the bag when Boehling pitches to the
batter
Ability to hold runners close to first
! IN this manner is a great asset to
Boehling. 1t prevents them from get
I ting good lead to steal, and it also
does lot to break up the hit-and-run
play. The hit-and-run depends for it's
success upon the baserunner getting
well down toward second in order to
| draw the second baseman shortstop
| over to cover the bag. but it is mighty
seldom that one gets very far away from
| first with Boehling the mound.
Had not Scott and Fournier played
slow hit ball by Acosta very poorly, the
former might have pulled himself out of
! the hole. into which he had gotten him
self, with only two runs scored against
him. Acosta swung the ball with
men on first and second. 1t rolled down
| toward first base. Scott, instead of COW