Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-05-21
BY j. ED GRILLo.


! While Detroit retained its two-and-a-
| half-gamc lead over the Nationals by its
victory over Boston yesterday. the defeat
Of Philadelphia allowed the locals to pass
/ the champions in the race, and second
! place is now occupied by the Griffmen
! While Detroit and Philadelphia are bat
| Ting for the next three days the Ma
| tionals will have the St. Louis Browns as
their guests.
4, Judged on the showing the team has
| made to date. it may prove more stub
! born opponent than has either Chicago
| or Cleveland. Manager Hickey is well
| supplied with pitchers Some of them are
stars of the first water and capable of
! holding any line of batsmen in check
! Besides, the Browns are hustling as they
never did before, and it will take a high
| grade of ball on the part of the locals to
| continue their present winning streak
| 1t is not unlikely that two of the
, leagues best left-handers will meet in
| the opening game of the series today
Gr1fhth has as good as chosen Joe Boehl-
| ing for his slab work, and Weilman, the
talest Southpaw the game has ever pro
! duced. is slated to work for the Browns
| If the pitching is anywhere near even
4
| for the Nationals. for the team is pIay-
! ing splendid ball now and will be hard to
| stop.
Walter johnson looked more like him
self yesterday than he has at any time
TINS season. 1T was the first game he has
pitched in which he could take things
easy during the closing innings After
Johnson got out in front he did not exert
himself. using just ordinary speed. and
theah ..t1
danger of being scored on. That he had
all his stuff was demonstrated on occa-
SONS when ii was necessary for him to
stop the threatening advance of the Maps
but there We're only few such occasions.
johnson can now be relied upon to pitch
UP to his standard, and that means much
to the team.
Seven of the eight games the Nationals
have played against western teams have
been victories. Three out of four were
won from the White Sox and the Maps
dropped four in a row here. Neither of
these teams displayed much strength. The
Maps are badly crippled and disrupted.
and while there appears to be a nucleus
for a winner in Birmingham's command,
there is just enough lacking to make the
team a rather doubtful proposition so far
as the first division is concerned. St
Louis and Detroit have yet to make their
stand here. and judged on their perform
ance against other clubs, they are to be
much harder proposition than the west
ern teams which preceded them.
1t is questionable if the Nationals have
ever shown better form since Griffith took
charge here than they are of late.
The teams wonderful defense has been
materially helped by intelligent inside
play. which seems to have been develop
ed this spring to a greater extent than
ever before While the team has not
done any smuggling, it has. made its hits
count, and there is no question that
there will be Improvement in it's batting.
The pitching. too, has been of the best.
Griffith has four or five twirlers who
are showing good form.
There are never any long-drawn- out
games when Walter johnson is pitching,
and yesterday he was ably assisted in
hurryng things along by Vean Gregg,
who opposed him. The game lasted ex-
actly one hour and twenty-seven min
utes, which surely is the record for the
present season, during which SO many
ong-drawn-out struggles have been
played. There is nothing more enjoyable
than well played ball game which is
rushed through in as short time as pos
sible.
Eddie Foster had better luck in his bat
ting Yesterday than for some time. In
til yesterday Foster has had many hard
drives caught which ordinarily would
have been base hllS. BUT Ire8S ueiiF-
ery seemed just to his liking and he
pounded out three clean singles and on
his other trip to the plate drew pass
Foster gave clever exhibition or place
hitting in the first inning when he hit
safely into left field, pulling the ball
through Olsens position when the latter
left it to cover second base on Moeller,
who had started to steal Foster just
showed the ball through the very spot
which Olsen had occupied but moment
before. and Moeler. by a good sprint,
managed to reach third base. In the mat
ter of place hitting Foster is in class
by himself. He can come nearer to hit
ting the ball where he wants to than
any other player before the public today
Rippy Williams again caught good
game of ball for Walter johnson, ham
ding his delivery in a very competent
manner. The Maps, however, made no eff
fort to steal. so that Rippy really had a
very easy afternoon of it.
In the four games the Maps played