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Week 19 Summary

Week 19 is done and after a few more days every team will be below the 30 games remaining mark. In a few more days the schedule will move into September as well, so the replay continues to move along quite well. We have reached that point in the schedule where teams are starting to wrap up either home or road series against opponents and it won't be much longer before they start to wrap up their season series as well.

Sam Chapman
At the end of last week I figured I was heading into a more-or-less monotonous final quarter of the replay but after all, it is baseball and anything can happen, and often does. Besides a lot of unexpected wins and losses, the highlight of this week was a Perfect Game by Hal Newhouser over Washington, the third no-hitter of the season.

In the AL Boston is riding a four-game losing streak. Their lead is still safely in double digits, but it is Cleveland who it sitting behind Boston in second place and not New York. Cleveland finally put together a week of good pitching and good hitting at the same time and they are on a nine-game winning streak. In 1949 it was New York that was sitting comfortably in first place until about the time that Yogi Berra got hurt (broken finger) and Boston was able to catch them, although New York would rally back following Berra's return. Perhaps New York can rally back again, although second place may be there limit. Detroit is another team that finally put their hitting and pitching together and they are back over .500 for the first time in a long time. Philadelphia would like to get back to .500, but they may have to settle for being able to inflict some misery on New York over the past week. Chicago swept doubleheaders from both Boston and New York over this past week and that may have to serve as their highlight for the season. Washington's losing streak is up to 23 games. It seems like a long time ago now but Washington had temporarily fought their way up into third place in the standings for a few days. St. Louis is still in last place but is only one game behind Washington and these two teams play tomorrow.

Granny Hamner
In the NL St. Louis has definitely cooled off, but still maintain an 8.5 game lead over their second place opponent, not New York, but Brooklyn, who is back in second. New York had managed to cut the St. Louis lead to 7.5 games in mid-week and had a chance to make it lower but St. Louis beat them in their series finale in New York, and then New York ended the week by getting swept in a doubleheader by Cincinnati and opening the door for Brooklyn to pass them in the standings. Brooklyn was happy to oblige of course, but they know if they are going to catch St. Louis they need the Cardinals to stay cooled off and they need to get on a hot streak themselves. Boston continues to play well but is the odd man out in this pennant race. Philadelphia continues to struggle, especially in the offensive department. Pittsburgh, as we have seen all season long, has Ralph Kiner. It's enough to keep them ahead of the two teams behind them, but it isn’t enough to be able to move up. Both Cincinnati and Chicago had some unexpected wins this week and they look to play spoiler and they now find themselves tied for seventh.

Ted Williams continues to lead the AL in hitting (.374), ahead of George Kell (.359) and Bob Dillinger (.343), plus Williams leads in runs (134) by a wide margin over teammates Vern Stephens (110) and Dom DiMaggio (106), plus Williams leads in RBI’s (142) over Stephens (129) and Vic Wertz (98). We aren’t done with Williams yet – he also leads in hits (170) ahead of Detroit teammates Kell and Wertz, both with 166. Kell maintains a slight lead in doubles (31) over Stephens (30) and Mickey Vernon and Williams, both with 29. Williams still has the homerun lead (43), ahead of Stephens (39), and Tommy Henrich (30). Ellis Kinder (19-3) is the only AL pitcher with nineteen wins, ahead of Eddie Lopat (18-3) and Mel Parnell (18-7).

Preacher Roe
During the first game of their Sunday doubleheader Enos Slaughter saw his average temporarily fall below .400 thanks to Warren Spahn, but in the second game he picked up four hits and ended the week at .403. Slaughter’s teammates Stan Musial (.361) and Red Schoendienst (.336) are next in line. The same three lead in hits: Slaughter (185), Musial (177), and Schoendienst (169). Musial leads in runs (112) just ahead of Schoendienst (109) and Ralph Kiner (108), while Kiner still has the RBI lead (122) on top of Musial (111) and Bobby Thomson (102). Del Ennis leads in doubles (36) ahead of Andy Pafko (32) and Whitey Lockman (30). Similar to the AL, the doubles category has a lot of competitors who are one good week from moving up the list. Kiner (39) is still ahead in homeruns, leading Musial (32) and Thomson and Hank Sauer, both with 25. Warren Spahn (20-5) became the first to reach the twenty win mark, just ahead of Harry Brecheen (19-5).

Washington's losing streak is at 23 games. That's a lot in real life, and that's a lot in a replay. This week ended on August 28. The Senators last win was on August 5. During this time Washington has:
  • Lost to every team in the AL
  • Allowed 215 runs and scored 71
  • Reached double figures in runs allowed nine times
  • Lost eight at home, fifteen on the road
  • Lost one extra inning game
  • Been shut-out three times (including a perfect game), and had six one-run losses
  • Been swept in four doubleheaders


All this, and they are still ahead of St. Louis in the standings. These two play tomorrow, so let’s go see what happens.


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