Evening star., 1915-04-18

ed regularly. 1t is just as harmful to
give them long rests as it to work them
too much, and Boehling seems to have
suffered from the fact that he has not
pitched in game in some time.
The second guessers, of course, are
there with the criticism that Griffith
erred in taking Boehling out in the
ninth and substituting Johnson. Yet
this change would most likely have
been made by any manager in the
business. Lewis thrives on left-hand-
ers, and knowing this Griffith ordered
Johnson. who had been warming up
in right field for some time, to come
into the game. Lewis singled and
broke up the ball game, but the theory
on which he was asked to face John
son instead of Boehling was well based,
though the chances are if a peek had
been taken in some old score books it
would probably have been found that
there have been innumerable occasions
when Lewis has not found Walter
johnson an enigma, but this was evil
IDENTIFY overlooked at the time.
While there have been a great many
instances where Walter Johnson has
saved games by relieving some other
pitcher, he also has been scored on
Walter is not an ideal relief pitcher as
a general thing. He will not be
charged with yesterdays defeat. which,
of course, was Boehlings. for Johnson
and that worthy accomplished enough
to make the victory of the Sox pos
sible.
While home crowd always is better
pleased with a victory than a defeat.
Yesterdays game was a splendid one
from a spectators point of view, be-
cause of the many things which hap
pened in it. The Nationals made a
game fight, yet had it not been for
the break they got in the seventh in
ming. when Cady dropped the third
strike on Moeller. thus giving him
life, the Nationals would never have
been in the running. Shore gave quite
an exhibition of effectiveness in this
inning. Henry, the first man to face
him, had hit for three bases. He was
perched on third and would have been
left there but for the dropped third
strike on Moeller. for Shore famed
Mcbride and Boehling in rapid order.
by Cady's mishap. That opening was
taken advantage of and two runs were
scored, evening the count.
Howard shanks is using much
shorter bat than formerly and he
seems to have improved his batting as
a result. Since the season opened
Shanks has shown good form with the
stick. and his triple yesterday made
it possible for the Nationals to score
couple of runs in the fourth inning
and get within hailing distance of
their opponents.
At the rate Shanks is going there
is not much hope of his being replaced
for the present, for when he hits well
there is not more valuable player
on the team in the field.
Though the sox were outhit almost
2 to /. they won. The Griffmen had
nine hits, with total of fifteen bases,
to their credit, against five for the
Sox, with a total of five. but, unfortu-
nately, several of the locals hits did
not come at the right time. A very
lucky stab by Wagner in the seventh
inning probably prevented couple
of more runs being scored by the
Griffmen Milan was on first when
Williams hit high bounder which
seemed destined to roll safely past
second Wagner made one-handed
stab at the ball and it happened toi
stick in his hand, that he could
easily force Milan at second and re-
tire the side.
Manager Carrigan surely has very
nifty team, on which he has speed and
hitting ability. and il compares IA
vorably with any of its rivals in the
matter of field ng- Just now strong a
pitchtng staff Carrigan has remains to
be seen, for if the accusation that
shore uses the emery ball is correct
he will not have much stuff when he
is prohibited from resorting to this
forbidden delivery.
There is no getting away from the
fact the Red Sox are a splendid-loolS- |
ing ball team There is none stronger
in the race. A team which wins a
must, of course, be blessed
with the breaks of luck, but If this
element should not cut figure in the
present campaign, and the teams are
compared on their actual strength, the
Boston aggregation is pretty certain
to be given the head position in such |
Foster started out we'll enough. but
the Nationals soon solved his delivery
and in the fourth inning drove him
to the bench. Foster was the second
most effective pitcher in the league
last season, being led only by his
teammate Leonard. He is picked to
he one of Carrigans biggest winners
this wear, but he did not seem to be
at his best yesterday
The present American League race
is rather close. with Boston leading by
a short margin. There are six clubs
all at the 500 mark. with the Ath-
Ictics bringing up the rear with a per-
centage of 1913. OF course, there will
be a lot of changes in the present sit
uation ere long, for the teams really
won't get down TO their normal strides