Evening star., 1948-06-16
Club 5 Ascent Rapid
As Hal, Trout Again
Become Win Twins
By the As,oeio,ed Press

Prince Hal Newhouser is hot and
the Detroit Tigers are beginning to
catch fire all over.
Barely a week ago the Bengals
were flirting with seventh place
Five straight victories have, lifted
them into a firm fourth, just two
games back of the third-place New
York Yankees.
That's no immediate cause for
alarm among the league-leadine
Cleveland Indians, seven full games
away, but it's adequate warning De-
troit may cut a figure in the Amer
lean League flag fight after all.
Steve O'Nenl, the Tigers portly
pilot, is glowing in the upsurge, but
the man from Minooka, Pa, isn't
exactly excited about it.
Were still seven games behind
and that's a lot, even at the middle
Of June" Steve said cautiously. "But
we're coming along, playing the kind
of ball I was confident we would
when we got squared away. II we
keep getting the pitching we can
cause trouble"
The Tigers move upward stems
directly from their steadying mound
staff. Not once in Detroits last
eight games has the pitching yielded
more than eight hits. Only one of
those games went into the defeat
column.
Newhouser, who came back with
a bang after dropping four of his
first five games, now has won seven
straight, the latest last nights two
hit performance that enabled De-
troit to slap the Philadelphia Ath-
letics, 4 to /, in the first big league
game ever played in Detroit at
night. It was the fourth time in
month Hal has yielded only a
single run.
Trout Also on Beam.
Paul Dizzy Trout. right-hand
punch of Detroit's brilliant wartime
Win Twins" is back in form as
we'll. Trout has won four of his
last five starts and has seven VIC
tories, just one less than New
houser.
Between them Newhouser and
Trout have more than half of the
Tigers q wins.
That isn't all. Only two men,
bers Of Detroit's 10-man pitching
staff have lost more games than
they've won. Virgil Trucks (4-O is
returning to his effective form of
early season. Art Houtteman finally
caught the winning fever to break
out of his unexplainable eight-game
losing streak. Freddie Hutchin-
son is ready to work again after
| three weeks without a starting
assignment because of sinus head
aches.
O'Neil admits "it's encouraging.
but almost as encouraging as the
return to pitching form is an &C
companying brilliance at bat and
in the field.
Six Tigers are hitting 300 or bet
ter, including four outfielders-Pat
Mullin 1929, Hoot Evers (318),
a revitalized Dick Wakefield (.303)
and Vic Wertz C306). With Wake
field betting the ball at q cool 500
clip since he was restored to the
lineup week ago Wertz must
ride the bench.
.Kell Heading Attack.
Third Basernan George Kell. with
20 hits in his last AZ times up, leads
the club with a mark of .351.
Kell, Rookie Shortstop Johnny
Lipon and Second Baseman Eddie
Lake have been fielding magicians
since the Tigers started winning.
Though they're a fourth-place
club, the Tigers are playing like
they have eyes on the pennant. At
the. current pace, they can mean
business yet.
A near-capacity crowd OF 54,480
which came to view the new $400 600
lighting plant saw the Tiger out
field provide Newhouser with all the
backing he needed. Wakefield belt
ed his third home run of the season,
(See TIGERS, Page A-25D