The Wilmington morning star., 1940-09-21
|BENCALSN NOW LEAD
BY FULL CONTEST
Wild And Woody Rally In The
Eighth At Expense Of Mel
Harder Wins Opener
BY DALE STAFFORD

ries days of 1884 and 1885, the Tigers
today nosed out the Cleveland In
dams, 6 to S, in the opening battle
of the three-game series for Ameri-
can league supremacy. By the vic
tory Detroit took a one-game lead
over Cleveland in the American
league pennant race.
For seven innings Detroit had
seemed a hoplessly beaten baseball
team. Me- Harder, 80 year-old Cleve-
land right-hander, held the Tigers
to three hits and a single run and
was riding along on a comfortable
4 to 1 lead.
Then, without warning, Detroit
struck and before the eighth inning
was over the Tigers had scored five
runs, chased Harder and Bobby Eel
Ter, who was charged with the loss,
and locked up the ball game. Play
was halted repeatedly in the inning
while groundkeepers removed from
the field straw hats and debris
thrown by enthusiastic members of
the partisan crowd of 22,508.
The Tigers were outhit by the stag
gering margin of Is to 9 but the In
dams, as panicky as they were when
they lost three straight games here
earlier in the month, kicked in with
four errors.
The story of today's game is the
eighth inning and therefore it is re-
peated here:
Billy Sullivan batted for Dick Bar
tell and grounded out. Barney Nc
Cosky walked. Charley Gehringer
singled to right, McCosky going to
third, Manager Oscar Witt of the In
dams came from the Cleveland dug
out and, after a five-minute confer
ence with Harder, Catcher frankie
Pytlak and other Indian strategists,
the Tribe boss lifted Harder and Eel
Ter was summoned from the bull pen.
Hank Greenberg smashed a line
single to center that scored McCosky
and sent Gehringer to third. Rudy
York belted a 5 and Q pitch to right
for a single counting Gehringer and
when Roy Bell fumbled the ball mo-
mentarily Greenberg surprised Cleve-
land by tearing around the bases
and scoring the tying run. York
reached second On the boot and came
home when Frank Higgins singled
to right. That vas all for Feller, who
had ~endeavored to pitch with only
one days rest, and Joe Dobson be-
came the third Cleveland pitcher.
Pete Fox slapped a single off Ken
glove and Higgins reached
third. On an attempted squeeze play
George Tebbetss missed the ball and
Higgins was trapped on the base line
by Catcher Pytlak. Tebbetts then
walked. Bruce Campbell, a former
Indian, batted for Pitcher Harold
and singled to right. Fox
scored but Tebbetts was out when
he overslid third.
There was plenty of second guess
ing tonight as to whether it was ad-
visable strategy to have lifted Har-
der, who had stood the Tigers on
their heads for seven innings.
With Alton Benton, Detroit's No.
1 relief pitcher, on the hill, the In
dams made a gallant attempt to tie
the score in the ninth, scoring a
run after one was out on a double
by Roy Weatherly and singles by
Lou Boudreau and Hal Trosky. With
the tying run on third and a win
ner on second, Benton struck out
Bell and got Ken Keltner on a weak
tap to Bartell.
clustering Louis Buck) Newsom
for Detroit but was removed
five and two thirds innings Of
feeble pitching in which he allowed
II hits and four Of C%leveland's five
runs.
The Indians took the lead in the
third when they acquired a run on
double and Boudreau's
Detroit tied the score in the
fourth on a walk to Gehringer, a
by Greenberg and a long fly
from the bat Of York.
Two Cleveland runs crossed the
plate in the fifth. Pytlak opened with
a single and went to second on Ben
base hit after Harder had
famed. Weatherly scored Pytlak
with a single to right and Chapman
reached third from where he scored
the catch on Boudreau's long
to right.
Newsom was finally batted from
the hill in the sixth. Bell opened with
a double and scored on Keltner's
single to left. Keltner was forced by
Ray Mack. Pytlak flied out but when
Harder singled Manager Del Baker
decided to remove Newsom and Clay
Smith, a rookie righthander, came
In and retired Chapman on a pop fly.
11n AR r. H II AL