Evening star., 1948-06-14
Five Teams in Battle
For Lead Shared BY
Giants and Braves
Dy me Asseeiaisd Pssss

The National League. noted 70,
its close pennant races. u staging
one this year that promises to make
all others look like runaways by
comparison.
With the season nearly one-third
gone the gap between the co-lead-
ing New York Giants and Boston
Braves and the fourth-place St
Louis Cardinals Is only one and q
half games. Pittsburgh is in third
place, a game behind the leader.
The tight situation does not end
there. The fifth-place Phillies are
only two and half games of the
pace. Only eight and a half games
separate the last-place Chicago
Cubs from the leaders.
For comparative purposes the
ur-place Detroit Tigers in the
American League are eight games
in back Of the pace-setting Cleve-
land Indians.
National 1908 Race Tightest.
The regular National League
campaign ended in a deadlock in
1916 between Brooklyn and the
Cardinals and necessitated a play
off. That was only two-team race,
however. The third-place Cubs
were fully 16 games off the pace
that year.
The tightest race ever staged in
the National League involving
more than two teams took place in
1908. The Cubs won the flag, finish
ing one game ahead Of the Pirates
and Giants. who tied for second.
The Phils, in fourth place. were is
games in arrears, however.
The Braves, who dropped out OF
the lead Saturday when they suf-
fered a double loss to Cincinnati,
bounced back into . first-place tie
with the Giants yesterday by dump
ing the Reds twice in Cincinnati,
81 and 1915. The Reds blew q six
run lead in the first game. Eddie
Stanky drove in Bobby Sturgeon
with the winning run to climax a
four-run ninth-inning rally.
In the second game Bob Elliott's
fifth-inning home run, with two
mates aboard, gave the Braves a
commanding lead. Hank Sauer of
the Reds hit his 18th and 18th
home runs and tripled In the sec
ond game.
Giants, Cards Play Close Ones.
The Giants and Cardinals split
a couple of close decisions. The
Giants won the first game, 81. and
the Cards took the second, 80.
The Cards squelched a ninth
inning Giant uprising to exc out a
second game win. Harry Brecheen.
who was charged with the first
game defeat, retired the last two
men in the ninth of the nightcap
with the tying and winning runs
on the bases. St. Louis largest
crowd of the season. $4,000. saw the
Cards snap five-game losing
streak
Ralph Kiner hammered out his
18th and 17th home runs OF the
season to lead the Pirates to q 90
second-game victory over Philadel-
phia, after the Phils had copped
the opener. 8-7.
Johnny Schmitz registered his
sixth victory of the season and his
third over Brooklyn when he
hurled the Cubs to q 81 victory
over the Dodgers in Chicago. Gil
Hodges spoiled Schimtz' shutout
bid with his third homer.
Yanks Salvage Final Game.
The New York Yankees salvaged
the final of a four-game series with
the Cleveland Indians, defeating
Bob Feller and the Tribe, 5-3. Feller
had 10 lead for five innings, but
a triple by Joe Di Maggie and a
home run by Yogi Berra in the
sixth forced his retirement for q
pinch hitter in the next inning.
Phil Rizzutto's homer of Gene
Bearden in the eighth offset coun-
terattack by the Indians in the
ninth.
The Philadelphia Athletics split
a double-header with the st. Louis
Browns to creep within three games
of the American League leading In
dians. They won the second game,
81 after having dropped the
opener, 7-5.
Rain forced the postponement of
the scheduled double header in
Boston between Chicago White Sox
and the Red Sox.