Evening star., 1914-08-15
GRIFFITH SIGNING PLAYERS
TO LONG-TERM CONTRACTS
Nationals Manager Making Efforts to Pre-
vent Federal League Worries During the
of Season-Ainsmith Handles john
son Delivery in Splendid Manner.

/ hits being clean-cut drives to LETT. on,
! of these a double, came in the sixth ant
was followed by safety by Morgan
which gave the Nationals the run the!
needed to win. Griffith, by the way, ha
shifted Morgan in front of Shanks il
the batting order. This is because Ray Il
hitting splendidly and is Of more value t,
| the team behind GandiL
| Despite the fact that the Athletics pos
! sess an eleven-game lead and virtually
| have the pennant cinched. defeats here
are not taken kindly. Nothing but an &C
cident which would deprive Mack of five
! or six of his star players could possibly
, beat him out of the flag this year, ane
yet there are those here who become
fearful whenever a game is lost The de
feat yesterday was the third in twenty.
seven games.
OF considerable ability, considering the
1act that he is seeing his first year In
iast company. He is still in his teens. but
mas lot of stuff and should develop into
high-elass southpaw in due time. 1t is
remarkable how Mack has bolstered uL
his pitching staff, which in the spring
was predicted to be so weak that il
seemed hard to figure how the Athletics
could win the flag. Yet this pitching
weakness has not been apparent of late
Unexpectedly we'll
Mike Mitchell batted in hard luck. He
hit the ball hard every time up. but
could not get it out of the reach of the
fielders.
Johnsons home run drive in the third
inning. which paved the way for the
victory. was long line drive to left CEN
Yer. which went into the bleachers on
the hrst bound. Bressler had two
strikes and three balls on Johnson at the
time. and then made the serious mis-
take of growing the ball to the big fell
low.
1t has always been said that any pitch
er who can stop Collins and Baker from
hitting stands a chance to win his game.
johnson succeeded in doing this yester-
day. and he won despite the fact that he
was hit safely eleven times. Collins and
Baker, who follow each other in the
batting order. as rule do the cleanup
in check yesterday. they not even Et-
ting the bali hard when they met it: 4
Ainsmith handled johnson in splendid
style. There is no doubt that Johnson
is always more effective with Afnsmith
catching him than at any other time. He
has every confidence in Ainsmlth. and
does not hesitate to cut loose at top
speed, knowing that If the ball is not
wild pitch Ainsmith will get it. Ain
smith also got a hit, a double with one
out in the seventh, but with Johnson at
the bat he tried to steal third. and was
thrown out on a close play. Johnson
then walked and Moeller. chit between
third and second. Garry went over and
made a one-hand stop of the ball, but
his throw was late to McInnis. but
johnson, however. overran second and
he was run down and the side retired
when there was chance for more
6kores.
g; .;n1,. inning ;n the
nine that johnson did not have men on
the bases. yet only one Of them scored.
Nine of the champions were left on the
sacks, which indicates that Johnson's
support had to be of the best. for the
slightest Wobble might have meant an
other run for the champions.