Evening star., 1935-08-29

touring for 1885, the Nationals finished
with a record Of only % victories
away from home against 43 defeats.
This is a percentage of 1894.
Not So Bad at Home.
A T HOME the Nationals pace woul6
have won no pennant but by win
ming % and losing 20 games for the
year they thus struck a 442 pace
which isn't so bad, all things con-
sidered.
Not in single rival city did the
Washington club play to a better
than 500 percentage and only in New
York have the Nationals managed
to break even so far. In Gotham
our side won nine and lost as many
The most disastrous township oi
all as stopping point for Manager
Bucky Harris tossers this season was
Cleveland where only two games were
won. The Indians took the Other
nine. Philadelphia was the next
toughest. The Athletics. while en-
tertaining, won six of eight games
from the Griffs, In Chicago, De.
troit and st. Louis the Nationals
managed to win five games from
each club while dropping half a
dozen to each. The Red Sox hold
q 5-to-4 edge in Fenway Park.
In compiling their much more
creditable record at home the Ma
tionals have won six tits of seven
from the AS, five of seven from the
Browns. three out of seven from Chi
cago, three of nine from the Red Sox,
two Of six from the Indians, two of
seven from Detroit. and two of nine
from the Yanks.
The failure Of the Washington club
to strike anything resembling a win
ming stride away from home this
season can be attributed, generally,
to complete inability to tie up the
good pitching received with the often
times vicious batting attacks.
Pitching Is Improved.
THIS fault was not so apparent on
- the initial circuit jaunt, when the
Washingtonians took 10 of 81 games
The second swing was marked by
such heavy batting that team leader
ship in the American League was
achieved in the space of three weeks.
Unfortunately there was very little
pitching.
The third and final swing the Ma
tionals have just completed saw the
pitching at a higher level than for
months but the hitting dropped away
and at times the defense smacked of a
sieve. Contrasted to the 300 and
even 400 averages brought back by
nearly every member of the club on the
second invasion, only six of the squad,
excluding pitchers, finished with 300
averages on this swing.
Buddy Myer once again was the
batting leader, the Washington field
captain socking at rate of $50 with
IS hits in 100 trips to the plate for
the 24-game stretch The actual
leader was Cliff Bolton, whose 10 safe
ties in 26 tries gave him an average
OF 1886, but the catcher played through
only two series before he was injured
and sent home with broken finger.
Johnny Stone and Cecil Travis lost
no ground, the former sticking at a
.32l pace with 16 hits in Sc attempts
and the latter socking for .3l8 with %
safe blows out of SO chances. Red
Kress was among the leaders with
.315. The veteran shortstop made "lS
for 81" Jake Powell's average was
an even 800.
Heine Manush's average suffered
most. The big outfielder, ever noted for
his batting ability while on the road,
held only .233 pace for this trip.
Joe Kuhel and Sam Holbrook hit for
.245, Dee Miles for .264, Fred Schultz
for .275, Alan Strange and OsSie
Sluege for 200, and Bill Starr for .143.
Linke Is Slab Leader.
only two members of the curving
~ corps could point to better than