Evening star., 1950-08-21
Castoffs Play Big par1
AS Tigers and Indians
Lose Ground in Race
BY the Asseciessd Press

Three ScOrned SouthpaWS-
Stubby Overmire, Bill Wight and
Billy Pierce-have proved once
again how embarrassing it can be
to underestimate a CASTOR. What
they did yesterday brought moans
and groans from the Tigers and
Indians and may have consider
able effect on the American
League pennant race.
Overmire. cast adrift by Detroit
last winter, gained sweet revenge
on his former employers yester-
day when he hung 6-2 defeat
on the league leaders to give the
Browns an even break in their
doubleheader. The Tigers had
come from behind to win the
opener. 5-4.
Wight and Pierce, traded of by
the Yankees and Tigers, respec-
lively, turned in sparkling per-
formances in pitching the White
Sox to I'll and 6-5 triumphs over
the Indians.
Yankees Make Up Ground.
All three triumphs came in the
nature of huge surprises as the
Tigers and Indians were favored
heavily to sweep their games with
their lowly rivals. Before yester-
day the Tigers had whipped the
seventh-place Browns 10 times in
IL meetings, while the Indians
had beaten the sixth-place White
Sox 10 games out Of is.
Taking advantage of their RI
vals' lapses. the Yankees won two
games from the hapless Athletics
Ga and So, to climb into second
place past the Indians. The
Bronx Bombers, who open a long
home stay tomorrow with an i'm
portant three-game series against
the Tigers, thus knocked a full
game of the Tigers lead and
moved another game in front o1
the Tribe. The Tigers margin
over the Yanks is three games.
The idle Red Sox remain ir
fourth place, six games of the
pace. A washout Of their sched-
uled game with Washington halt
ed temporarily their seven-game
winning streak.
Rain Cuts Activity.
The weather also cut the Ma
tional League activity. With the
four Eastern teams rained out,
the spotlight was thrust on the
Cardinals, who rose to the occa-
sion by coming from behind to
nip the Reds, 80. Stan Musial
drove in all the st. Louis runs
with three singles. The victory
moved the Cards into a third
place tie with Boston.
Paul Minner and Frank
(Dutch) Hitler. another pair of
discards, pitched the Cubs to a
A. So sweep of a doubleheader
from Pittsburgh. Minner, a
former Brooklyn lefthander, al
lowed eight hits for his seventh
victory in the opener. He was
helped by Andy Pafko's 29th
homer.
Hitler, an ex-Yankee, spaced
seven hits for his ninth victory
against two losses. Ralph Kiner
raped his 37th homer for the
Pirates.
Another Cast0ff Hits Homer.
The Tigers were forced to over
come Al deficit to beat the
Browns in the opener. They won
in the ninth when Aaron Robin
son singled Vic Wertz home with
two out.
The 31-year-old Overmire, who
was able to win but four games
for Detroit in the last two years,
gained his fifth victory for the
Browns In the nightcap.
A home run by another CASTOR,
Outf1elder Marv Rickert. gave
Wight the edge in his pitching
duel with Cleveland's Bob Lemon.
Wight gave UP five hits to six for
Lemon Ricketr's homer came
with one on in the fourth.
Pierce allowed only six hits in
the second game, which was de-
cided by a seventh-inning home
run by Gus Zernial.
The big bat of Joe Di Maggie
and some slick pitching by Eddie
Lopat and Eddie Ford gave the
Yankees their two victories over
the AS. Di Maggio's three
homer and two subsequent singles
helped Lopat gain, his l4th win
in the opener. Ford checked the
AS with six hits in the nightcap
for his fourth victory.