Evening star., 1946-09-02
General Slump al BAT
Costs Griifs -Four
Losses in Row
By Burton Hawkins

at mystifies me-" says President
Clark Griffith of the Washington
clubs hitting collapse. II can't. un-
derstand how our whole team can
get into a slump at the same time.
I guess you'd have to say the boys
just can't hit. but when I start
looking around for replacements
find a lot of others can't hit either.
There doesn't seem to be much we
can do about it.
"Joe Grace, Buddy Lewis. Stan
Spence, Mickey Vernon and Cecil
Travis figure to be pretty good hit
ters," continued the Mats boss, but
they're not hitting worth q nickel.
Gerry Priddy figures to help out
some at that plate, too. but he's
tailed of. I just don't know what b
to make of II"
The Mats, in the throes OF their
worst batting slump of the season,
have totaled five runs in their last
A innings, and three of those runs
have been unearned Until they
came up with a brace Of runs In the
eighth inning yesterday en- route to
taking To licking from the
Yankees, the Mats had been held
scoreless for rs consecutive innings.
Mats Hit .l7s in Defeats.
New owners of four game losing
streak, the Mats hoped to do someth-
ing about breaking 1t today when
they clashed with Philadelphia in q
double header at Griffith Stadium.
Bobo Newsom and Early Wynn, who
have been hurting well, were Man
ager Ossie Bluge's choices to face
the Athletics.
In their last four games, the Mats
have batted feeble ITO. Over a
stretch of II games, the Mats
haven't obtained more than nine
hits in any contest and they have
enjoyed the spectacle of a Wash
ington home run just once in their
last 10 games.
Bluege doesn't know where his
next hit is coming from. Vernon
has collected one hit in his last 13
attempts. Spece has gone hitless In
IA straight efforts. Lewis has fash
ioned two safeties in his last 19 trips
to the plate, while Priddy has
notched three hits in 81 times.
From his catching department,
Bluege has seen one hit in 10 times
at bat.
Season Gate Hits sO9, ,000.' y
That sort of swatting doesn't win
games and doesn't make it interest
ing for the customers, but the fans
keep coming. There was q crowd
of 17.718 yesterday, lifting the Mats
attendance for the season, to ap-
proximately 909, 900 and giving them
a fighting chance to reach the mil
lion mark.
Including today's double header,
six playing dates remained for the
Mats at Grifflth Stadium and five Of
them will be with the league-leading
Boston Red Sox, who will appear
here in night games on Wednesday,
Thursday and Friday. The Red
Sox will show here later in ths
month on Saturday and Sunday.
The Mats gave Spud Chandler no
trouble as he registered his 17th
victory. BY the time the Mats got
around to scoring. the Yankees had
compiled a TO lead at the expense
Of Mickey Haefner and Walter Mas
terson and Washington's two runs
! in the eighth merely served to make
the score more respectable.
+ Yanks Pile .Up Runs.
New York clustered two runs In
: the first inning when Tommy Hen
rich doubled with two out, Joe Di
Maggie and Charley Keller walked
and Nick Etten doubled OF the
right-f1eld fence. Phil Rizzuto's
single and Bill Johnson's double
j netted the Yankees another run In
the fourth and they nicked Haefner
for twonmore in the seventh on Hen
rich's single and doubles by john
: son and Di Maggie.
Masterson was clipped for two
runs in the eighth before the Mats
produced their runs. George Binks
opened the Mats eighth by walking
and Sherry Robertson singled to
right. Gil Coan was safe when Et-
J ten fumbled his grounder, filling the
bases, and Binks scored when Grace
smashed into a double play. Lewis
, safe bunt fetched Robertson across
, before Spence grounded out.
PIEDMONT IEAGIr. 2,