Alexander Weakens in Ninth and Reds Win in Eleventh, 5 to 2

Cardinal Hurler Has Cincinnati Shut Out Up to Start of Rally

Pipp's home run with Christiansen on base ties up score—Visitors bunch blows in final session.

By MARTIN J. HALEY. - St. Louis Globe Democrat Wednesday July 7, 1926

That a ball game is not over until the last out was never more forcibly proved than at Sportsmans Park yesterday. Going into the ninth inning Grover Alexander was a brilliant 2-to-0 winner over Carl Mays and when Edd Roush fouled to Jim Bottomley at the start of the ninth, Alec needed only two more out to clinch a five-hit conquest, but the next batter, Hal Christensen, singled to right and the next, Wallie Pipp, hit a home run into the pavilion. That tied the score and enabled the Reds to win out in the eleventh, 5 to 2, on the strength of a rally which produced three runs on four hits.

Until the ninth inning, Alexander pitched so masterfully that only two Cincinnati players reached second base. Taming the league leaders in such fashion, Alec never looked better in his life. He was a smooth-working machine, with perfect control of all his pitching parts. His fast ball was good enough, but his greatest asset was his curve, breaking in and out of the corners, high and low.

Curve Fails to Break

Then, lo and behold, this same curve ball led to Alec's ruin. Seen after the game, Ernie Vick, who caught Alec until a pinch runner relieved him in the tenth, explained that Pipp's homer was made on a pitch which was supposed to be a curve but which didn't break. Vick pointed out that Alec intended the pitch to curve in such manner that it would hook an inside corner about waist high on the left-hand swinging ex-Yankee. The pitch was waist high, all right, but when the pitch failed to curve, according to Vick, it was heading right through the middle of the plate when Pipp connected.

That pitch history, Alec held the Reds safely for the remainder of the ninth and retired them in order in the tenth, but the eleventh inning had Alec all out of kilter, so that it wasn't much of a trick for the leaders to win out in the second extra session.

Roush paced his mates to conquest by singling sharply to center at the start of the eleventh. He was forced by Christensen, Bob O'Farrell to Tommy Thevenow, on an attempted sacrifice bunt in front of the plate. Up came Pipp again, and again Pipp aided his own cause by singling to center, Christensen taking third easily when Taylor Douthit returned the ball to second base instead of to third. Hughie Critz's contribution was a long wallop to right center. Douthit got his glove on the ball, but could not hold on. Critz was credited with a double, Christensen scoring, Pipp taking third. Then Bubbles Hargrave drew the only pass issued by Alexander all day, after which Babe Pinelli placed the game safely beyond recall by singling to center, Pipp and Critz scoring.

In their half of the eleventh the Cardinals got runners to second and third with two out on a pass to Douthit and Bottomley's single, but Billy Southworth ended the game by bouncing out to the same Pipp, who had picked on a curve ball that failed to curve.

The Cardinals, therefore, instead of winning a five-hit shutout, lost an overtime struggle in which they made only five hits. In the last seven innings, the Cards mustered only two hits off Mays, after bunching two hits with an error by Milt Stock and a sacrifice to score their lone two runs in the fourth inning.

Two Men Make Card Hits

The five Cardinal hits, by the way, were made by two men, Bottomley and Douthit, Sunny Jim bagging three, including his fourth-inning double to the left center wall which drove in Bunny Holm and Douthit. Holm had reached first on Stock's error and had moved to second on Douthit's single. Then both advanced to scoring position when Specs Toporcer crossed Mays and laid down a pretty sacrifice to the first-base side of the mound.

Later in the fourth, after Les Bell walked, following an out by Southworth, the Cards seemed headed for another run, but Critz went far to the left and turned Vick's bid for a ground single to right into a putout at first base to end the inning.

In the next six innings the Cards did not get a man to second base. They were retired orderly in the fifth, seventh and eighth, same as was their fate in the first inning. Only three Cards batted in the second and sixth also, when double plays erased Bottomley, who singled at the start of the second, and Douthit, who singled to lead the sixth. Jim was doubled off first when Southworth lined to Critz with the hit-and-run play in order. Douthit, after being sacrificed to second, was doubled when he ran head down around third, thinking Bottomley's line drive to Roush was a sure hit.

Belated Rallies Fail

Douthit doubled to right center with two gone. He perished at second when Christensen rolled out to Toporcer, subbing for Rogers Hornsby.

Fifth and final game of the series today.

Reds Close Their Season Here Today

Vic Keen and Adolfo Luque, both right-handers, will oppose in the final game of the series today. This, incidentally, will be Cincinnati's last appearance in St. Louis this season. Such a schedule is in line with the many other eccentricities perpetrated by the 1926 schedule framers.

The Cards now are six games in back of first place, one game behind Pittsburgh and only a half game in front of the fourth-place Dodgers.

Manager Hornsby does not expect to return to the game until the week-end, when the Braves come in for a five-game series. Hornsby now has missed eight straight games, of which the Cards have lost six. All told, since Sheriff Blake of the Cubs held them to one hit in the second game a week ago last Sunday, the Cards have lost eight out of ten contests.

Yesterday was the first time in the series the Reds failed to score in the first inning and the first time the Cards held an early lead, but it didn't mean anything.

If Ernie Vick continues to handle the pitchers as superbly as he has in the past two games, Bob O'Farrell will be getting the regular rest he needs.

Of the ten games played by the Reds in St. Louis to date this year, each club has won five. The Reds' last appearance, therefore, is the "rubber" contest.