June 27, 1913: Brooklyn hits 8 doubles and Eddie Stack records 3-hitter to beat first-place Phillies

The third-place Brooklyn Superbas arrived in Philadelphia in late June 1913 for five games with the National League-leading Phillies. For the Superbas, it was the final stop on a 28-game road trip; Brooklyn had not played in its newly opened ballpark, Ebbets Field, since May 26.

Both Brooklyn and Philadelphia were exceeding expectations. If Brooklyn could hold on to third place, it would be a big step forward after the Superbas finished seventh in 1911 and 1912; they had not been a first-division club since 1902. Philadelphia’s lofty position was even more surprising; from 1908 to 1912 the Phillies had finished either fourth or fifth. They were without a pennant since joining the NL in 1883; now they had perched atop the league by at least a few percentage points every day since May 9.

In the series opener on June 25, Philadelphia slugged its way to an 11-8 win, defeating the Superbas for the eighth time in nine meetings. The next day Brooklyn swept a doubleheader, winning 5-2 in 14 innings, then taking the late game, 4-2. The Phillies (38-19 with two ties) still led the defending champion New York Giants (37-23 with three ties) by 2½ games, and Brooklyn (32-26 with one tie) by 6½.

In the fourth game of the series, on June 27, the Superbas slugged eight doubles – the most two-baggers in a game by any major-league team in 1913 – tallying three runs in the first inning and three more in the eighth. That was plenty of support for Eddie Stack, who tossed a three-hitter and pitched Brooklyn past Philadelphia for a third straight game, 6-1.

The 25-year-old Stack had joined the Phillies in 1910 without playing a minor-league game, and spent his first two seasons of professional baseball pitching for Philadelphia. A trade sent him to Brooklyn in December 1911. For the Superbas in 1912, Stack started 17 games and relieved in 11 more, totaling 142 innings, compiling a 7-5 record, and logging a 3.36 ERA. So far in 1913 Stack was 3-2, including a shellacking by the Giants in his most recent start; New York needed just 10 batters to knock him from the game. Now, on two days’ rest, Stack was back on the mound in the familiar surroundings of Baker Bowl.  

The Phillies sent 23-year-old Erskine Mayer to the mound. The right-hander was making his sixth start of the season to go along with seven appearances in relief. Among his credits was a complete-game 2-1 victory at Ebbets Field on April 21, a mere 12 days after the ballpark hosted its first regular-season game.

Brooklyn’s first batter, Herbie Moran, doubled, and remained at second base when George Cutshaw flied to right and Casey Stengel struck out. With two out, the Superbas exploded, firing off three more doubles. Zack Wheat’s double scored Moran; Jake Daubert’s double scored Wheat; and Red Smith, who went on to lead the NL with 40 doubles, blasted the fourth two-bagger of the inning, sending Daubert across the plate for a 3-0 lead.

Philadelphia had a chance to counter when Hans Lobert and Sherry Magee walked with two out in the bottom of the first. But Stack corralled his control, getting Beals Becker on a popout to the catcher, ending the Philadelphia threat.

In the second inning, Mayer again surrendered a leadoff double, this time to rookie William Fischer, who was playing just his seventh big-league game. Mayer escaped this peril by throwing out Stack, getting Moran to hit into a fielder’s choice, and then picking Moran off base for the third out.

Mayer did not complete the third inning. With one out, Stengel hit Brooklyn’s sixth double, and he reached third when Wheat singled. With runners on first and third, and the Phillies already trailing by three runs, Mayer’s day was over. Ad Brennan, who had thrown six innings of relief in the series opener to get the win, came in to pitch. Brennan was in the midst of his finest major-league season; the 25-year-old left-handed pitcher finished 1913 with a 14-12 record and a 2.39 ERA, in 207 innings.

Although Brennan was not sharp on this day, he did get out of the third inning unscathed. With Daubert at the plate and one out, Stengel and Wheat attempted a double steal. Catcher Bill Killefer fired to shortstop Mickey Doolin, who threw back to Killefer, easily snagging Stengel before he reached home plate. Daubert fouled out to Killefer, and Brooklyn’s promising inning was over.

The Phillies finally plated a run in the fifth to pull within 3-1. Killefer started the rally with a leadoff double. Brennan bunted down the first-base line, moving Killefer to third, and Dode Paskert’s fly ball to left brought Killefer home.

Lobert walked to start the sixth, and with one out was forced by Becker, who then stole second. A hit could have cut Brooklyn’s lead to one, but Stack got longtime Phillies second baseman Otto Knabe to pop out to second, ending the inning.

In the eighth the Superbas jumped on Brennan for three runs, taking control of the game. Wheat smacked Brooklyn’s eighth double of the day and Daubert bunted for a single, sending Wheat to third. With runners on the corners, Smith singled, driving Wheat home and propelling Daubert to second. John Hummel slapped the Superbas’ fourth hit in a row, a single, and Daubert raced home to make it 5-1. After two outs, Hummel scored Brooklyn’s final run of the day on a single by Moran.

In the bottom of the eighth, Lobert slammed a two-out double, but Stack fanned Magee to send the game to the ninth. He closed out the Phillies one-two-three in their final at-bat to claim the complete-game win, 6-1. Stack had surrendered just three hits, and he raised his record to 4-2, striking out seven and walking four. This may have been Stack’s finest performance of the season with Brooklyn.1

Brooklyn’s offense dominated the game, totaling 18 hits; the Superbas registered at least one hit in each inning. Smith (who had a six-week-old daughter awaiting him at home2) – led the way with two singles, two doubles, and two RBIs. Wheat and Daubert – on his way to winning the batting title and the Chalmers Award, emblematic of the most valuable player in the NL – each contributed three hits. A sportswriter for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle speculated that as many as four of Brooklyn’s eight doubles would have been home runs in Ebbets Field, but the balls had been kept in play by Baker Bowl’s 35-foot-high fence.3

This third straight loss to Brooklyn – a team Philadelphia had been dominating – had to make Phillies fans uneasy. Jim Nasium of the Philadelphia Inquirer assured his readers, “There isn’t any likelihood it is a permanent condition or the first signs of hitting the skids; it is merely the natural slowing up process that occasionally hits every team that has been out there in front setting the pace.”4

The optimism expressed in the Inquirer proved to be whistling past the graveyard. On June 30 the Phillies squandered a five-run lead at Baker Bowl, losing to the Giants, who took over first place, and held it to the season’s end. Philadelphia (88-63) settled for second place, 12½ games behind New York; its disappointment was diminished only by knowing it had achieved its best finish since 1901.

The next day Brooklyn topped Philadelphia for a fourth straight time, 4-2, then packed its bags for home. The long road trip had been successful; the Superbas forged a 15-12 record (with one tie) while away from home. Although Brooklyn had dropped from second to third – behind the surging Giants – it was a half-game closer to the league-leading Phillies than when the trip began.

But Brooklyn did not capture a coveted first-division finish. A 10-game losing streak in early July dropped the Superbas to fifth place. Playing better, including a stretch of five wins in six games, Brooklyn reached 42-43 on July 27, one game behind the fourth-place Pittsburgh Pirates and within two games of the third-place Chicago Cubs. A spot in the first division was within sight, but not grasped. The Superbas faded – going 23-41 the rest of the way – to land in sixth place, just one rung higher than in 1912.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Thomas J. Brown Jr. and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Eddie Stack, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for play-by-play, and for pertinent statistical information. The author relied on game coverage in the Philadelphia Inquirer and Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and reviewed SABR BioProject biographies for several players participating in the game.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1913/B06270PHI1913.htm

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI191306270.shtml

Notes

1 Stack shut out the Boston Braves on May 31, but this game had a higher game score (80 to 70). On August 7 Stack (4-4) was traded to the Chicago Cubs.

2 “Baseball Comment,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 28, 1913: 16.

3 “Rice,” “Slugging Superbas Take Another From the Phillies,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 28, 1913: 16. “Rice” was Eagle sportswriter Tom Rice.

4 Jim Nasium, “Castoff Ed Stark Hurls the Harpoon,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 28, 1913: 12. Jim Nasium was the pen name of Edgar Forrest Wolfe, a sportswriter and cartoonist for the Inquirer.