Evening star., 1931-04-19
ON THE SIDE LINES
With the Sports Editor
BY DENMAN THOMPSON

T<AKING three cut of four from
the world champion Philadel-
phia Athletics may be termed
getting of to a running start.
That's Just what the Nationals did by
grabbing that 2-to-1 verdict in a hard
fought battle before close to 1900 Gus
toners at Griffith Stadium yesterday.
A single series doesn't make season,
but the one just ended at least served
to indicate the Nationals are in dead
earnest about this pennant business, for
in knocking of the Mackmen they
gained at the expense of the one club
most to be feared and in doing so they
successfully contended with the best
the AS have to offer in a pitching way
-Earnshaw, Walberg and Grove.
The mighty Robert Moses, apparently
as fast as ever and q tough nut to
crack as he demonstrated yesterday when
ne whitfield no fewer than 10 of the Griff
men, proved unequal to the task of
matching the combined efforts of Sam
Jones and Fred Marberry In the mat
ter of hits ne had an edge, yielding
only five, but every one of them was
good for extra bases, and he had to
utilize all his cunning to escape serious
danger that confronted him on no less
than three occasions other than the
cne Where ManuSh's walk Cronin'S
triple and BluegeS double netted the
Nationals their two tallies.
To Jones goes the credit for winning
the game, as the rules are specific on
that point, but, considering the exhibi-
ton he gave when called to Sans
rescue, Marberry certainly is entitled to
noI nn gYin fhR1I0h
entered in the official records.
What Marberry Tackled.
Two en- base, only one out and two
balls credited to the batSman was the
situation when Fred got into the
pastine almost stone cold. He COM
pleted the pass to Haas and almost
issued another to Cochrane before he
could make the ball behave and dis
pose of Mickey. Then all he had to
contend with was AL Simmons, and he
did it by tanning that redoubtable slug
ger as the fans roared with a mixture
of appreciation and relief.
An odd angle to the battle was that
the Macks' lone tally was gift, pure
and simple, from Cronin, who made a
wild heave after spectacularly knocking
down a hit from the bat Of Simmons,
but Joe atoned for this in the follow
ing frame when his wallop to deepest
center scored one run and paved the
way for the other.
Splendid wallops produced by the
Rice boys led to nothing at all. Harry's
double to left with one out In the
second was wasted, as was a triple he
lined against the right field wall with
no one out in the seventh and three
Dagger by Sam in the eighth when
there was but one gone. With single
tally looming so large it seemed the
squeeze might well have been eSSayed
on either of these last two occasions,
for Groves stuff certainly Is no tougher
to bunt than to hit. But then the Ma
tionals won and its not easy to quar-
rel with success.
. And speaking of Harry Rice. whose
six hits in IA times at bat thus far
this season, including two triples and
double, give him an average of .429
to balance his sensational fielding, it
Is safe bet Pilot johnson will allow
West plenty of time to recover from
his recent spell of illness.
A New Deal Today.
THERE will be new deal at Griffith
i Stadium this afternoon, when the
Boston Red Sox make their initial
appearance of the season to open a set
of three games, and despite the fact
they got of to poor start against the
Yankees, turnout of close to 10000
may be expected with good weather,
for the Hose always give the Nationals
battle regardless of their perennia1ly
low position in the race.
The Sox this year are under the
leadership of John (Shano) Collins,
whom old-time fans will recall as a
star outfielder at the Hub, and he has
the players hustling for all they are
worth. His ambition Is to get them
cut of the American League cellar,
which they have occupied for the last
six seasons in q row and for eight of
the last nine years. Collins has a dy-
manic personality and the confidence
of all his men, but It Is exceedingly
doubtful the bunch he IL boSsing this
year can attain his goal.