The Washington times., 1932-05-11
VICTIM
Of TOUGH
BREAKS
BY BABE RUTH

Is the matter with Lefty Grove.
I can tell them that there Is
nothing wrong with the big left
handler. The fact that he has
been unsuccessful during the first
month Of the season can be
charged entirely to the uncer-
tainty Of baseball. By the time
the season is well under way I
am quite sure that you will find
Groves name up around the top
Of the pitching records, just as
1t has been for years.
I still regard Grove as the best
pitcher in baseball in spite Of
the fact that he was defeated
three times in the first three
weeks of the current season. In
the past four seasons Grove has
averaged 26 victories against 6
defeats per year, and that is real
pitching. He hasn't done so
badly, as far as effective pitching
goes, in his early games this
season, but he hasn't been win
ming.
Lost Four Last Year
Last year Grove lost four games,
three which he started and one
In which he was doing relief duty.
Washington beat him by a 2 to l
score on April %, the White Sox
won by getting two runs off him
In an, extra inning game which he
was finishing on June S, and the
Browns took / to 0 decision
over him on August %. In all
these games Grove pitched brilli-
antly and with a little hitting to
help him along he might have
gone down to the last game of the
season undefeated. The day the
season ended he was badly beaton
at the Yankee Stadium, his only
real trouncing of the year.
It was because he dropped only
three starting games all last sea-
son that his three defeats, in
games which he started during
April, caused so much surprise
this year. It seemed unbelievable
that in a stretch Of 10 days Lefty
could run into as many such de-
featS as he drew in all the games
he started last season. But a
close analysis Of these three set
backs shows that Lefty was not so
bad. He allowed four runs, and
three Of these came in on two
homers, when the Yanks beat him
on April 20, Mack taking him out
after six innings. The AS had
scored one run for him up to the
time he was taken out.
Five in One Inning
When the Red Sox beat him six
days later Lefty pitched seven
innings and the Sox didn't get o
hit off him in six of these seven
innings. They got five in the
sixth inning and nailed him for
six runs, which beat him. The
AS were having another bad time
with the stick and scored two
runs up to the time Grove was re-
moved. His other defeat during
April was by Washington on April
80, and he lost this by score of
2 to /. Lefty blanked the Sen.
atorS for seven innings, but they
got two runs in the eighth and
these were enough.
You will notice that the AS
scored a grand total of four runs
in 81 innings, while Grove was
being beaten this year in as
many starting games as he lost
through the entire 1881 season.
In these three games he had
only one bad inning, that against
the Red Sox, when six runs
were scored. In only two other
innings Of these three setbacks
did Lefty'S opponents get more
than one run.
Nothing Serious
So you can see that there
isn't anything seriously the mat
ter with Groves pitching this
year, except the fact that the
AS have not been getting a
normal amount of runs for him.
You know a pitcher cannot be
expected to score a Shut-out
every time he goes into the
box. He has his part to play
and the hitters have theirs.
When he doesn't get q few rlIns
from them he can't win regll.
larly.
I still believe that Grove will
win at least IS games this year
The bad start is something of a
handicap, I know, but he is
good enough pitcher to make I'D
for this. He may not have
another such winning streak as
he had last year when he took
16 in a row before Dick Coff.
man scored that 1-to-O victory
over him in the latter part of
August. In fact the chances
are en1rely against any such
winning streak. But he will be
among the leagues leading three
pitchers when the season closes
Just remember this prediction
and see If I am not right. Re
member, too, that I said he will
have at least IS victories to his
credit at the finish.
l-11Alz
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