Evening star., 1952-07-25
Third Place al Stake
AS Mats Open Series
with Indians Tonight
By Burton Howkins
Star Stoff Correspondent

CLEVELAND, July 25.-The
Mats third-place status will be
at stake tonight when they tangle
with the Indians in the opener of
Ia four-game series. with Bob
|Porterfield trying for his eighth
victory against Early Wynn, q
former Nat.
Beaten twice in three games at
Detroit. where the cellar dwelling
Tigers have polished of the Mats
six times in nine games. Wash
ington hopes to reverse the situa-
ton here. Against the Indians in
Cleveland the Mats have won four
of five games.
The Washington club is leading
Cleveland by the slim margin of
.001 and the front-running YAM
KEGS have both clubs exactly
where they want them-at each
others throats-while New York
shifts to Detroit for a five-game
series with the Tigers.
Last Visit Recalled.
Washington is dreaming of a
duplication of its last trip, which
also was launched by losing two
Of three games at Detroit. The
Mats bounced back here, sweeping
a series with the Indians, and
carried on to complete a success
full road trip.
Randy Gumpert's bugaboo, the
home run ball, again proved his
downfall yesterday as the Tigers
surged to a AZ triumph on Walt
Dropo's two-run homer with two
out in the eighth inning. Gum
pert has been socked for eight
home runs in seven starts with
the Mats and his only wins have
been 6-5 and 8-5 conquests of
the Browns.
II Bucky Harris Is able to de-
tect a silver lining in the cloud
that hovers over the Mats hit
ting. it must lie in the fact that
Mickey Vernon has been behav-
ing like a cleanup hitter ever
since he lost the job of hitting
cleanup.
Vernon Bats in IS Runs.
Since being denoted to the No.
6 spot in the batting order Mickey
has slammed across nine runs I'M
seven games. He has belted across
Sc runs and stands q chance of
becoming the first Washington
player to bat in 100 runs since
Cecil Travis accomplished it in
1941.
Vernon delivered q two-run
homer.with two out in the eighth
inning yesterday to. give the Mats
their first runs off Bill Wight in
II innings. That blow also gave
the Mats a briefly -enjoyed "a tie.
Gumpert. who pitched two-hit
shutout for six innings, weakened
in the seventh when a walk to
Dropo, Johnny Groth's sacrifice.
Cliff Mapes' single. Matt Bats
double and AL Federoff's outfleld
ny gave Detroit q 20 lead.
A walk to Wood and Vernon,s
seventh homer locked the score IN,
the eighth. But with one out in
the Tigers eighth. Fred Hatfield
singled and with two out Dropo
again wrecked the Mats with a
shot into the lower leftfield stands.
Threat to Wight Ends.
Wight, who blanked the Mats
In his last start against them, was
In trouble in the fourth inning
when Wood and Pete Runnels
singled and Vernon walked to fiIl|
the bases with none out, but that
threat disappeared when Jerry
Snyder forced Vernon.
The Mats had scoring chance
IN the fifth. too. when Gumpert
and Jim Busby singled and ad-
vanced on a wild pitch with two
out, but Jackie Jensen grounded
to Shortstop Neil Berry. With
two out in the sixth Vernon again
walked and went to second on 4
balk. but Snyder flied to Cliff
Mapes in right.
Washington stirred up another
scoring gesture with two out In
the ninth when Busby and Jen-
sen singled, but Gil Coan batted
for Wood and sent a game-ending
grounder to Dropo.