Evening star., 1933-04-21
HOPE TO SNAP OUT
OF HITTING SLUMP
Average Under 6 Hits in Last
Five Games-CroWder,
Weaver AS Next Foes.
BY JOHN b. KELLER.
. HILADELPHIA, April 21.-
r. Three beatings in a row
have not, Sapped the Spirit

i have not Sapped the spirit
of Clark Griff1th's hired
hands. They can take it and
come back bristling for battle.
This morning found the Ma
tionals still highly hopeful of sue
cess in their series with the Ath-
letics. despite the awful shellack-
ing the Mack Minions gave them
in the American League season
inaugural here.
They base their optimism on the
fact that the AS have but one Robert
Moses Grove. That fork-hander hav-
ing fired full course yesterday can
not be expected to do much more
in the current series and the Griffith
guards are confident they can make
respectable showing against any other
hurler Connie Mack may hustle to the
hill in Shibe Park.
Maybe so, but not unless there is
mighty upheaval in the Washington
clouting column. Batting against the
great Grove yesterday, the Nationals
were even more helpless than when they
took their trimming from his master of
the mound in the Capital last week.
They dropped to their season low in
batting, for the second time in their
last three engagements amaSsing only
four safeties.
In their last five tussles, the Griffith
guards have collected but 90 hits. No
wonder they absorbed beatings in four
of the tuSsles. And even though Grove
is out of the way for the nonce, they
still will have lot Of slick slabbing to
combat here. Mack has ready to shoot
at them such sterling veterans as George
Earnshaw, Rube Walberg and Tony
FreitaS
The Nationals probably will need
more than optimism to get by that
gang.
Joe CRONIN, the boy field boss, is
reserving Monte Weaver, the college
professor who was so poisonous to
the AS last year, for the pitching task
in the series wind-up tomorrow and was
to use Alvin Crowder this afternoon.
The swing to Crowder was due to
Cronin's eagerness to get his crew in
good running order quickly. With the
Nationals getting SO few runs lately,
they need all the good pitching possi-
BILE ard the ace of the '32 washington
staff looked the best bet to the man
ager. Cronin had hoped to hold back
Crowder for the opener of the Yankee
set in Griffith Stadium next Sunday.
He regarded the situation so desperate
though, that well laid plans were
Scrapped.
Should this latest pitching program
fail to get satisfactory results here, the
boy field boss may feel it necessary to
put uniforms on Mike Martin and
frankie Baxter and have them chuck a
few. The players who have submitted
to the trainers muscle mauling claim
Martin has mighty arm and the as
sistant trainer is renowned for his fast
ones around the Washington club house.
1T is to be hoped that Walter Stewards
i unfortunate start will not develop
a depressing mental quirk in the
southpaw slabman. There have been
instances, many of them, of good
pitchers getting away poorly and find
ing themselves unable to recover their
true forms the remainder of the sea-
son as result. 1t would be sad blow
to the Washington club should this
happen to Stewart.
In training down South, the transfer
from the st. Louis Browns progressed
splendidly and when the Nationals
reached Washington the week before
the championship campaign opened
Stewart looked the most advanced of all
the hurlers of the Cronin staff. But
he has been well beaten in both his
starts and without going the route in
either.
Stewart has been doubly unlucky in
both his games in running up against
the great Grove and in having his club
foundering about in a batting slump
His pitching in both games was not
poor by any means. In Washington last
Friday, Walter limited the AS to seven
hits and two passes. one of them inten-
tional, in eight innings. Five of the hits
were spread over the first seven rounds
and properly supported Stewart prob
ably would not have been scored on in
the eighth. Here yesterday, he gave
up five hits in six sessions. Two of the
hits, though, happened to be enough
to spoil his game. But Jimmy Fcxx.
with his homers, spoils games for all
pitchers.
Goose Goslin and Fred Schultz, who
were with Stewart on the Browns, claim
the pitcher is not one to be disheartened
easily. In fact they say they always
have found him pretty much OF a
fighter all the way Being that, Stew
art should be great help to the Ma
tionalS this year. There is a remark
able amount of pitching ability in his
left ARMAND above his shoulders, too.