July 23, 1955: Del Ennis belts three homers for Phillies

On July 22, 1955, two different scenarios were playing out in the American and National League standings.

In the AL, Chicago (56-35) was mere percentage points ahead of New York (57-36) for first place. Cleveland (55-38) was two games back and Boston (53-40) trailed by four games.

Brooklyn, aided by a 52-19 record from April through June, was alone atop the National League. The Dodgers were not even looking over their shoulder. The Milwaukee Braves provided the closest competition and they were 14½ games in back of Brooklyn with a week to go in July. Brooklyn was rolling toward its fifth pennant in nine years. The rest of the league was playing out the string and offering little resistance thus far.

Two of those teams playing out their schedule were the Philadelphia Phillies and the St. Louis Cardinals. The Phillies won the flag in 1950, but since then were treading in the middle of the pack in the NL. The Cardinals had great success in the previous decade, winning four pennants and three World Series championships. But they had fallen on hard times. After second-place finishes in 1948 and 1949, the Cardinals found themselves much like the Phillies: in the middle of the pack.

St. Louis came a-calling to Connie Mack Stadium on July 22 to begin a five-game set with the Phillies. Philadelphia (47-48) was on a 10-game winning streak, and had risen from seventh place to fourth. The Cardinals were not too shabby themselves, winning 12 of their last 19 games. But they were stymied in sixth place with a 42-46 record.

The series began with a twilight-night doubleheader on Friday evening with each team winning a game. Murry Dickson won the opener, his eighth victory. But the Cardinals bounced back in the nightcap behind Harvey Haddix and pounded Philadelphia, 8-1.

The pitching matchup for the third game of the series was a contrast of experience. St. Louis started Willard Schmidt (1-0, 0.66 ERA), while the Phillies sent the venerable Robin Roberts (15-7, 2.84 ERA) to the hill. Schmidt had made his major-league debut in 1952 with the Cardinals, but often split his seasons between St. Louis and the club’s farm teams. The 1955 season was no exception: He began the year at Omaha of the Triple-A American Association, posting a 12-5 record and a 2.56 ERA. Recalled by the Cardinals, he was making his second start for them. (Four days earlier, he had beaten the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds on a four-hitter, pitching his first major-league complete game.)

Roberts was having another masterful season with Philadelphia. His 15 victories were second in the league to Brooklyn’s Don Newcombe (16). Roberts led the league in complete games (17) and was second in ERA and strikeouts (109)

It was Ladies Day at the ballpark, with an announced crowd of 16,999 (5,595 paid) at the matinee affair.

The Phillies struck first, in the bottom of the first inning. Richie Ashburn led off with a single to center field. After Bobby Morgan popped out to second and Glen Gorbous flied out to right, Del Ennis stepped to the plate and deposited a Schmidt fastball in the center-field seats. It was Ennis’s 17th home run of the season and it gave the Phillies a 2-0 lead.

Roberts protected the lead, blanking the Cardinals for five innings. But St. Louis reached Roberts for a run in the top of the sixth. With two down, Stan Musial singled to left field. Bill Virdon followed with a double to right-center to plate Musial.

The 2-1 lead was short-lived, however, as Gorbous led off the bottom of the inning with a single down the right-field line and scored when Ennis again got hold of a Schmidt fastball and deposited it in the left-field seats for two more runs and a 4-1advantage.

Brooks Lawrence relieved Schmidt in the bottom of the seventh inning for St. Louis. But Ennis showed that he was not partial about which pitcher was on the mound for the opposition. He came up in the seventh with two men on and sent a slider from Lawrence some 400 feet away as it banged off the façade of the left-field stands and bounded back onto the playing field.

Bill Sarni smacked his third homer of the season, a solo shot, off Roberts in the ninth. That made the final score 7-2, with all the Phillies runs driven in by Ennis.

Roberts raised his record to 16-7 with the win. He scattered nine hits, struck out five, and did not walk a batter. Schmidt took the loss to even his record at 1-1. For the season, Roberts led the league in wins (23), innings pitched (305), and complete games (26). He also surrendered the most home runs (41) and runs (137).

The Phillies swept the Cardinals the next day in a doubleheader to close out the series. The homestand had begun on July 14, and the Phillies had an incredible run in front of the locals. They went 14-2 in that stretch. Ennis went 24-for-57, with six home runs, two doubles, and a .421 batting average. For the season, he raised his batting average to .296 from .261 in 1954, changing boos to cheers from fans in the left-field stands. The three home runs were a career high. He matched his one-game RBI high; he had also driven in seven runs on July 27, 1950.

Philadelphia manager Mayo Smith knew what he had in Ennis. “Don’t forget, besides hitting as well as he did, Del played great defensive ball,” said Smith of Ennis during their winning streak. “Catches he made saved at least four of those games we won.”1

Ennis led the Phillies in home runs in eight of his 11 seasons with the team. His 259 homers for the Phillies ranked him third all-time in team history as of 2022, trailing Mike Schmidt (548) and Ryan Howard (382).

Ennis was the first Phillies hitter to smack three home runs in a game since Del Wilber did it on August 27, 1951.

Philadelphia finished the 1955 season in fourth place with a 77-77 record. St. Louis completed its season with a seventh-place finish and a 68-86 record.

SOURCES

The author accessed Baseball-Reference.com for box scores/play-by-play information and other data, as well as Retrosheet.org.

baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI195507230.shtml

retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1955/B07230PHI1955.htm

Also accessed were the following:

Baumgartner, Stan. “Ennis Hits 3 HRs, Roberts Wins 16th,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 24, 1955: 1-S.

Broeg, Bob. “Ennis’s Three Homers, Seven RBI’s Beat Cards, 7-2,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 24, 1955.

NOTES

1 Art Morrow, “Hats Off…” The Sporting News, August 3, 1955: 17.