The daily monitor. (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1940-1942, 1941-09-11
Duo Too Evenly
|Mait|led; Birds
Hold Bare Edge
Have Won 10 Genes
in 20 Stovts; One
Closh Was Tied
BY JUDSON BAILEY


Associated Press Sports Writer
oThe breath-taking battle for
the National League pennant has
come to another crisis.
The Brooklyn Dodgers and
st. Louis Cardinals open cru
cial three-game series in st.
Louis today and the nations
baseball fans, q little limp from
the frenzied fight that has been
going on all summer are ex-
pectantly looking for these
games to point out the eventual
champion.
As q spectacle 1t will be a
magnificent sight to see, but as
q test of strength it is likely to
be inconclusive simple because
the teams appear to be so even
ly matched.
They have collided 20 times
already this season with st.
Louis winning ten, Brooklyn
nine and one game ending in a
tie after IL innings. They have
played every day for five
months and have arrived at this
critical point in the schedule
with only a single game separ-
ating them in the standings.
On that basis there seems
little chance of either team
sweeping the series and moth
ing less would be decisive. If
Brooklyn wins two and loses
one it will have a two game
lead. If st. Louis wins two the
teams will wind up in virtual
tie.
Today the standings were:
Brooklyn $50. 80 AZ SAP
st. Louis So. 86 49 .637
The buns from Brooklyn
were bruised and beleaguered
by an ambush at Chicago yester-
day. Up till then they had hop
ed to parade into st. Louis and
salt away the pennant with an
impressive display of fireworks
in the enemy's own yard. They
had a three-game lead and were
cocky. They had lined up their
pitching staff for the Cardinal
series a week in advance. They
considered the Cubs as close
friends if not personal relations.
After all, about half the Dodgers
were former Cubs and last
Thursday, while Brooklyn was
being kept out of trouble by
drizzling rain, Chicago chopped
the Cardinals out of the league
lead by capturing a double
header.
DAGGER IN BACK
It was a terrible shock, there
fore, to have the Cubs stick a
dagger in the backs of the Buns
yesterday by winning two games
5-4 and So. Kirby Higbe, the
only 20-game winner in the
National League, had 80 lead
going into the last half of the
eighth in the first game and the
Dodgers were entirely unsus-
pecting.
When Phil Cavarretta tripled
and Bill Nicholson doubled,
Whitlow Wyatt rushed onto the
scene in full majesty. Dom
Dallessandro singled, but Wyatt
put out the fire. 1t broke out
again in the ninth, however,
with three more runs-two sim
giles, a double by Lou Stringer,
and finally a single by Bill
Nicholson for the winning run.
On top of this Paul Erickson
pitched six-hit ball in the night
cap and Bill Nicholson hit
two-run homer in the seventh
inning for the margin of Chica-
COS second victory.
BARELY EDGE PHILLIES
The Cardinals met stubborn
from the poor but
proud Phillies. yet managed to
cop their doubleheader 3-2 and
10. The Cards were held to
six hits in the first game, but
one Of them was a two-run
homer by Johnny Hopp and Lon
Warneke and Bill Crouch let
the tail-enders have only seven
Then in the second
game Harry Gumbert pitched a
three-hit shutout and
a triple by Johnny Mize follow
ed by Martin Marion's single in
the fourth provided all the mar
gin he needed.