Evening star., 1946-05-21
Lower Outfits Beaten
In11 Of MEETINGS.;
Chisox Bow Early
BY Burton Hawkins
Stor Sioff Correspondent

ST. LOUIS, May 21.-The red-ho
Mats, breathing on the necks of the
third-place Detroit Tigers, have the
formula for pennant winning out
fit. They're numbering the second
division clubs and finding it pleas
ant.
Washington has won II games
and lost 2 against Chicago, Cleve-
land and Philadelphia The White
SoX have been licked four straight,
the Indians four times in five meet
ings, the Athletics three times in
four. Only st. Louis among the
Second-division clubs has an edge
over the Mats, winning the only
game the teams have played, and
Washington hopes to remedy that
situation when it opens a two-game
series with the Browns here tomor-.
row night.
Against Detroit the Mats display
a split in four games, but Boston
and New York represent the reason
Washington still is 71a games behind
the league leaders. Boston has bat
tered the Mats in four of five games,
while the Yankees have won four
and lost two against Washington.
The Mats are performing at .786
clip against the second division and
have only to display moderate i'm
provement against the top three
clubs to become installed as full
f1edged pennant threats. Their
pitching is rounding into shape,
what with six hurlers travelling the
route in the last eight games.
Mats Learn to Hit Lefties.
Washington is demonstrating, too,
that it no longer is susceptible to
any left-handed pitcher who takes
the mound. The last seven south
paws to pitch against the Mats have
failed to achieve victory and the
only one of them to go the distance
over that span was Chicago's Ed
Lopat, who absorbed IL licking.
Possessor of a 4-game winning
streak-their' longest of the season
as the result of a 1912 triumph
over the White Sox yesterday at
Chicago, the Mats have won eight
OF 10 games on their current trip
and now envision occupancy of
third place when they return to
Washington to face the Athletics
in double-headers on Saturday and
Sunday.
Dutch Leonard won his seventh
straight victory in two years against
the White Sox yesterday, pitching
full game for the first time this
season in achieving his fourth win
with no losses. Dutch was ham,
mered for II hits, including eighth
inning home runs by Taft Wright
and Whitley Platt, but wasn't
troubled because the Mats had
staked him to an 30 lead.
Leonard took command of the
game in the second inning when
he singled with the bases loaded to
score two runs. Gil Torres out
field fly scored Al Evans for the
third run of the inning and the
Mats added two more runs in the
third off Edgar Smith as the re-
suit of singles by Stan Spence and
JEFF Heath, a wild pitch and Cecil
Travis infield out.
Vernon Still Hitting.
Frank Papish yielded three runs
to the Mats in the sixth inning as
Torres doubled with the bases
loaded. Leonard, who had walked
after Travis and Evans singled,
moved to third on Torres hit and
scored after Spence flied to center.
After the White Sox reduced Leo
nard's lead to 80 in the eighth, the
Mats mustered two more runs off
Ralph Hammer in the ninth. Lewis
was safe and continued to second on
Bob Kennedy's tumble of his
grounder. Buddy took third as
Spence grounded out and scored on
Mickey Vernon's double to left. Yer
non scored as Second Baseman Don
Holloway threw wildly past first
after scooping up Heath's grounder.
Vernon's double, his only hit in
five attempts, heightened his hitting
streak to 18 consecutive games.
Mickey dropped II points off his
batting average, but continues to
lead the league with fancy 400
figure.
Travis was the only Nat to get
two hits, but everybody else in the
lineup got one safety as the Mats
picked up half game on the idle
Tigers.
Against the Browns in pair of
night games tomorrow and Thurs
day, Manager Ossie Bluege plans to
pitch Walter Masterson and Ray
Scarborough, provided Ray has re-
covered from an ailing arm which
has been bothering him for 10 days.