Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-07-26
IMPROVED BATTING FORM
APT TO HELP CRIFFS HERE
Pounded Ball at 1874 Rate During Swing Through
West Overcoming Pitching Staff Weakness.
Speakers Hitting To,l- Feature.

to function we'll from the outset of
| the trip.
Only three starting hurlers went
the route during the trip. Walter
Johnson tw.ce pitched nine innings.
| beating the Indians and the White
| SoX. Irving Hadley also went full
game against the Srhalkmen and
| Tom Zachary, helped by one big in,
| ing. in which his club Tailed nine
runs. stuck to the finish against the
| Browns.
| But Hadlcy had to be relieved in
| four other games he started. while
| Johnson and Zachary each gave way
to relief men after opening contest.
Hollis ThurSton started five times
and Horace LiSenbce four times. only
to be yanked. Bob Burke was driven
out in both of the games in which
he opened fire, while Dick Coffman
and Al CroWder were chased to cover
in their lone starts. 1t was CroWder
poor aftort against the Yankees as
much as anything else that caused
Manager Harris to decide the pitcher
was Of no more use to the Nationals.
This poor pitching by starters
brought Fred Marherry and Garland
BraXton into action often. Each OF
these relief men participated in eleven
Nationals had the names of "a pitchers
in the box scores of the % cares
they played after leaving home on
July 3.
Cutscore Rivals, III to 100.
The Nationals just had to bat at
a terrific rate to get anywhere under
such pitching handicap. While their
slugging netted them III runs in the
IS engagements. their pitchers were
reached for 100 tallies. They had to
struggle for almost every game they
took.
A great help during the tour was
iris Speaker This veteran of many
campaigns, who since the middle of
June had gradually been swinging
into the batting stride that had made
him so effective in attack in other
wears, attained his best hitting form
of the season soon after The trip START
ed. He batted at 800 rate in New
York. then began clubbing the sphere
savagely in Cleveland and carried on
to get an average of .4S9 for the en-
tire tour.
iris was the bane of Western pitch
ers. Facing them on their own lots,
he swatted for the fine average of
.513 and pulled up to third place in
league batting. In the % games he
got 40 hits, of which IA were doubles,
one triple and one homer. his first
round-tripper of the year. Spoke was
the most potent factor in the Ma
tionals' offensive, scoring Is runs and
driving home 25 of the III the club
made.
In addition to his effectiveness in
attack, Speaker performed brilliantly
afield. With Sam Rice faltering in
right field, Spoke virtually was called
upon to care for that garden as we'll
as his own position in center. and he
proved equal to the task.
Rice Bats Better.
Rice, who had been hitting weakly,
showed marked improvement on the
trip and got an average of ABB for
the % games. Goose Goslin went
through the trip at 1928 rate and
Joe Judge. after a poor start in New
York, finished with a tour rating of
1927. He hit for 1867 in the West to
attain his good trip figures.
Bucky Harris and Muddy Ruel also
were of the 800 class, the former
seeking for 1909 and the latter for
1866. Bob Reeves and Ossie Bluege,
however, were below the select class.
Reeves went through the trip at
264 clip, and Bluege, who was in all
except the St. Louis series, batted
only .254. Topper Rigney, who was
used a couple of times as a pinch
batter and substituted at third base
in st. Louis while Bluege was i'll,
helped the Nationals cause greatly by
hitting for 49,