The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-05-17
Cardinals Not
 So Good On Home Field
By CARL LUNDQUTsT Limited Prsss Sports Writer)

New York, May l7 = (UP) - It may be true that there is no place like home, but 1t would be hard to prove 1t to the St. Louis Cardinals today.
 The Cards, baseball's happy way farers, have won nine out of 10 games on the road this season, which is definitely a championship pace. But ct home they are moving at . second division clip with six wins against seven losses.
 It took . 10th inning steal of home by pinch-runner Joffre Cross to pull Q hard-won, 9 to & game out of the fire against the Braves at Boston last night. It was the third straight victory by Q one-rln mar gin on the important eastern road trip which the Cards started by winning two in . row at Brooklyn.
 StOle Home
 Catcher Ken O'Dea opened the 10th with a double of relief pitcher Jim Konstanty and took third on Marty Marion's inheld out. Cross was sent in and things looked bad when pinch-hitter Har- " Walker famed. But while Lou Klein was batting he streaked for home and got the umpire's decision.
 The Cardinals started out by serenading bridegroom Morton Cooper with Q charivari of base hits, knocking their ex-team mate out of the box in the sixth inning and sending him of to an early honeymoon with Viola Smallwood Cooper, whom he married earlier yesterday.
 Cooper had hoped to present his bride with a. wedding present vic- tory over his ex-team mates, but the best he could do was to escape being tagged with the defeat. Card inal outf1elder Enos Slaughter was almost too expressive. in his senti- ments, hitting two-run homers of Cooper in the first and third in- nings. Slaughter added single and double for perfect night at bat in which he drove in four runs and scored four himself. Tommy Holmes led Boston with 6 double and three singles driving in three runs. By winning, the Cardinals took a haf-game lead over the second place Brooklyn Dodgers.
 The humiliation of the Boston Red Sox sluggers reached 8 new high at St. Louis when right handler Jack Kramer, a So-so pitcher who had been batted out of the box three times this season, shut them out on three hits, 3 to o. Near Collapse
 The Red Sox, who have been on a base-hit famine ever since leav- ing Fenway Park last week, now have made a total of only A hits in their last six games for an aver age of four per game. It was their third defeat on the trip and only the fact that their pitching has been superb has kept them from virtual collapse.
 Joe Dobson in losing his first game after four straight wins, gave up only i've hits to the Browns, but three of them were punched in the first inning for two runs. Chet Laabs singled. stole second and Johnny Berardino doubled him home. Walt Judnich singled home the other run. Judnich started 8 seventh inning rally with a double and moved to third on Mark Christman's long fly, scoring when Dobson committed a balk. Kramer struck out eight and didn't permit a runner to reach third until the ninth when Johnny Pesky doubled and took third on Ted Williams long fly. George Metkovich got the other two Boston hits.
 All other major league games were postponed because of rain.
 YESTERDAYS STAR = Pinch runner Joffre Gross of the Card inals, who stole home in the 10th inning to beat the Braves 9 to 8.