Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-10-04

ALEXANDER MUST HAVE SUPPORT
TO BEAT RED SOX IN BIG SERIES
Philles Will Have to Uncover Second Hero to Continue
Triumphant March-Rice Compares the Two
Contending Clubs
By GRANTLAND RICE

three games. The odds then will be well
IN tho Phillics' favor. but even under
those conditions II will be no cinch.
For even then Chalmers. Rixey, Mayer
or Demaree must land a game from Fos-
ter Ruth, Shore or Leonard, where Bos-
ton has all the best Of It.
II Alexander wins two out OF his three
starts-which is Just about what he will
do, certainly nothing less-then Chalmers,
etc, must win two more. Chalmers, Rix-
ey, Mayer and Demaree must beat back
a pitching stan that overthew Coveleskie,
Dubuc, James and Dauss, backed up by
Cobb, Crawford and Veach.
II can be done, but it's quite an assign
ment as assignments go.
The Two Pitching Stats
Alexander stands in baseball today
among pitchers wnere Mathewson stood
10 years ago. The Red Sox will find him
the hardest man to beat they have ever
tackled, for they have never before faced
pitcher with that puZzling side-arm mo-
tion or one who had such control OF
low ball, the hardest ball of them all to
hit.
The Red Sox can applaud their lucky
fortune IL they beat big Alec one time out
of three starts. But, having accomplished
this task, they will then have all the
Leonard to throw against the rest of
Morans stan.
George Chalmers is flrst-class pitcher.
There is good stun in the arms Of Rixey,
Mayer and Demaree Also McQuillan.
But none of these can be figured upon n
par With any one of the Red Sox four
ap fine pitchers and more than ordinarily
good against the test.
For at home and on the road, at tight
o1a ~. Aan
able to break through their barbed-wire
defenses-not even an attack launched by
the greatest attacking machine of the
year-the Tigers led by Cobb and Craw-
ford.
The Tigers were unable to bag a series
from the Red Sox-out of the six played.
They won but eight of their % games
against the leaders-and the Tigers, with
a batting average above .265 an, ma
chine always rushing forward ith ag-
gressive speedway be used as a COM
plete test
Picking the Pitchers
Moran has Alexander primed for three
starts Next to Big Alex, Mayer and
Demaree have done the best work, with
Rixey and Chalmers trailing a length or
so back.
Yet Chalmers, now in fine condition. is
rated by many as Alexander's main aide
Which doesn't mean tnat Moran isn't
banking just as heavily upon Scissors
Mayer, the lank young citizen with the
spiral twist.
Carrigan will have a harder time pick
ing his pitchers. Shore has won 20 games
and lost q Foster mas won % games and
lost 8; Leonard, after a late start, has
won IA games and dropped 6; Ruth has
attached l6 victories against defeats.
These four were the ones used with al
most equal effectiveness in the more i'm
portant series of the year. There is no
vast difference in their work upon a gem
eral average. All four can throw tnat
baseball which is leading feature Fos-
ter probably has a slight shade on the
bunch, with Shore rated second. But
any one of the four is well capable of
giving even Alexander a close, hard bat
tie. And any one of the four will carry
to battle an advantage over any other
Philadelphia pitcher.
But for Boston to win, one of the four
must beat Alexander in one of his three
starts. Which will develop into a pretty
fair afternoons woTk-plus trihe on the
side.