June 14, 1952: Braves’ Warren Spahn strikes out 18 Cubs in 15-inning loss

The Chicago Cubs had a 32-19 record when they arrived in Boston on June 13, 1952. They beat the Braves, 5-0, in Friday evening’s series opener, with Bob Rush going the distance and giving up just three Boston hits. The Cubs were tied for second place with the New York Giants, 3½ games behind the National League-leading Brooklyn Dodgers.

When the teams took the field the next afternoon, 3,053 paid spectators showed up at Braves Field to see if the Braves could bounce back from their shutout loss.1 The sparse crowd reflected the financial struggles that led the team to move to Milwaukee just before the next season. Reporters were already speculating in June 1952 about a possible relocation: “Lack of business could force the oldest team of them all to move,” the Boston Globe wrote.2

Boston, at 20-30, was in sixth place in the NL. Two weeks earlier, the Braves named Charlie Grimm as their manager after being swept by the Brooklyn Dodgers in a three-game series at Ebbets Field.3 Grimm sent the team’s ace, 31-year-old Warren Spahn, to the mound. The left-hander was coming off three straight seasons with 21 or more wins, leading the National League in strikeouts all three seasons.

Spahn entered the game with a 6-4 record and a 2.87 ERA. He had won five straight games as a starter before being called on in relief against Chicago on June 8, in the second game of a doubleheader. His 2⅔-inning appearance closed out the Braves’ 7-6 win at Wrigley Field,4 but two days later he had his shortest start of the season, going just two innings and giving up six earned runs as the Braves lost to the last-place Pittsburgh Pirates, 7-5. Spahn “seemed thrown off stride by his relief job in Chicago,” reported the Boston Globe.5

Against the Cubs in Boston, Spahn struck out Eddie Miksis to begin the game. Bob Addis, playing center field in place of the injured Frank Baumholtz,6 singled, but Bill Serena struck out. Spahn made it a three-strikeout first inning by fanning Hank Sauer – who had battered Philadelphia Phillies’ left-hander Curt Simmons for three homers three days earlier and was leading the NL with 18 home runs.

Right-hander Willie Ramsdell started for Chicago. The 36-year-old knuckleballer was making just his second start of the season. The Chicago Tribune reported that Ramsdell had “won the starting assignment” with his 4⅓ scoreless innings of relief in the first game of the June 8 doubleheader with the Braves.7 Ramsdell came in with a 2.27 ERA in 31⅔ innings pitched in 1952. Boston’s George Crowe tripled down the left-field line with two outs in the first, but Sid Gordon’s groundout left Crowe at third.

Spahn scattered three hits over the next five innings while striking out four more Cubs. Ramsdell kept pace with Spahn, allowing just one Brave to reach base, Gordon, who walked in the fourth.

Spahn broke the 0-0 tie in the sixth when he led off and knocked one over the right-field fence.  It was his first home run of the season and the sixth of his career – three of which had come against Chicago.8 Boston had its first run against the Cubs after 14 consecutive scoreless innings.

It was the only run Ramsdell gave up before he was relieved after the seventh inning. He finished with three strikeouts and three walks.

Johnny Klippstein was the new Chicago pitcher in the eighth. Klippstein had taken a regular turn in the Cubs’ rotation since early May, but his 4⅔-inning, 5-run start against the Braves on June 8, followed by Ramsdell’s scoreless relief appearance, had caused manager Phil Cavarretta to switch their roles on the staff. Klippstein retired the Braves in order in the eighth.

Spahn had allowed just one more hit, a seventh-inning double by Dee Fondy, and seemed to be on track for his second shutout of the year as the game headed into the ninth. But Serena, who had struck out twice earlier in the game, led off by sending a pitch over the left-field wall to tie the game. It was Serena’s sixth home run of the season, all of them coming after he had taken over at third base for Randy Jackson in late May.9

Spahn recovered to fan Sauer for his 10th strikeout of the game. The Chicago Tribune said Sauer – on his way to a 1-for-6 afternoon – “couldn’t get into the act, making the third straight game in which he suffered a shutout since he wacked those three homers against Phillies.”10

The Cubs then threatened to take the lead. Bruce Edwards singled and, after Fondy struck out, moved to second on catcher Ebba St. Claire’s passed ball. Gene Hermanski’s lineout ended the frame, keeping the score tied, 1-1.

Three groundouts in the bottom of the ninth sent the game to extra innings. The Cubs had another chance to go ahead in the 10th when Roy Smalley led off with a double and moved to third on Klippstein’s sacrifice. But Miksis grounded out and Spahn struck out Randy Jackson, batting for Addis, to end the threat. Johnny Logan had a two-out single in the bottom of the 10th, just the third Braves hit of the game, but he stayed put when Spahn flied out to right.

No batters reached base for the next two innings. Miksis hit a one-out double in the 13th. He didn’t go any farther when Spahn retired the next two batters.

After Hermanski flied out to lead off the 15th, Spahn walked Smalley, his first walk issued in the game. Klippstein bunted Smalley to second, and Miksis was intentionally walked. “The pass [to Smalley] was the hint that the 31-year-old lefthander was getting tired,” wrote Irving Vaughan of the Chicago Tribune.11

Hal Jeffcoat, who had entered the game in center field in the 10th, hit a triple, sending both runners home and putting the Cubs ahead 3-1.12 The Boston Globe noted of Spahn that “[t]he stylish southpaw … seemed destined to outlast a pair of visiting pitchers until Jeffcoat tripled.”13

Spahn struck out Serena for the third out. It was his 18th strikeout of the game. The National League record for single-game strikeouts at the time had been held by Dizzy Dean, who struck out 17 against the Cubs on July 30, 1933. Bob Feller held the American League record with 18 against the Detroit Tigers on October 2, 1938. Both came in nine-inning games.14

Three outs from victory, Klippstein struck out Bob Thorpe to start the bottom of the 15th. St. Claire singled and was replaced by pinch-runner Roy Hartsfield. Rookie third baseman Eddie Mathews flied out. Grimm sent Buzz Clarkson, a 37-year-old veteran of the Negro Leagues playing his only season in the White majors, to pinch-hit for Sibby Sisti. Clarkson grounded out, ending the game. Klippstein had allowed only two baserunners – both on singles – in eight innings of relief.15

The win was Chicago’s fifth in a row and their 17th win in 21 games. Their 34-19 record turned out to be a season peak; the Braves swept the next day’s doubleheader, and the Cubs lost nine straight. They finished the season 77-77-1, in fifth place in the NL.

Spahn’s loss made him 6-5. It was the second time in 1952 that he had pitched into extra innings. He pitched 11 in the Braves’ 4-2 defeat of the Phillies on May 27. He allowed two runs and struck out five in that game.16

After the game, Spahn blamed himself for the defeat. “I made a bad pitch to Serena in the ninth,” he said. “Otherwise we all could have gone home then. I had struck him out twice before he came up in the ninth.”17

“I didn’t feel good warming up before the game,” he added. “But once the game started I felt fine. I had the best stuff that I’ve had all year. I was giving them good pitches with good stuff. It was encouraging to me that I had a good fastball. The last two games I worked my fastball was poor.”18

This was the second time Spahn had pitched at least 15 innings. He went 15⅔ innings on April 23, 1951, before giving up a game-winning single to Carl Furillo for the Dodgers’ 2-1 win.19

Spahn finished with a 14-19 record and a league-leading 183 strikeouts in 1952 as the Braves finished seventh in the National League.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Laura Peebles and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for the box score, player, team, and season pages, pitching and batting logs, and other material.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BSN/BSN195206140.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1952/B06140BSN1952.htm

Notes

1 The Chicago Tribune said the attendance was “3,053 paying customers with 678 women guests.” Irving Vaughan, “Cubs Divide With Braves,” Chicago Tribune, June 9, 1952: 41.

2 Harold Kaese, “How Long Will Braves Stand Financial Beating?” Boston Globe, June 26, 1952: 11.

3 Louis Effrat, “Grimm Named Pilot of Braves; Club to Give Holmes Another Job, “New York Times, June 1, 1952: S1. Grimm replaced Tommy Holmes, who had been manager for less than a year after replacing Billy Southworth in the middle of the 1951 season. The Braves were 13-22 when Grimm became their manager.

4 Spahn is retroactively credited with a save for this game. Baseball-Reference.com credits him with 28 saves in his 21-season major-league career, all coming before the major leagues officially recognized saves in 1969.

5 Jack Barry, “Spahn Shelled as Bucs Trim Braves, 7 to 5,” Boston Globe, June 11, 1952: 16.

6 Addis, who had played two seasons for the Braves before being traded to Chicago on October 11, 1951, for Jack Cusick, was playing because Baumholtz had broken bones in his hand when he was hit by a Spahn pitch on June 8. Baumholtz, who led the Cubs with 159 hits in 1951, would not return until July 20. Irving Vaughan, “Cubs Divide With Braves.”

7 Irving Vaughan, “Rush Fans 11 as Cubs Beat Braves, 5-0,” Chicago Tribune, June 14, 1952: 3, 1.

8 Spahn finished his career with 35 home runs, seven against the Cubs. As of 2024, he was fourth all-time in home runs by a pitcher. Wes Ferrell was first with 38 home runs.

9 Jackson had started the season as the Cubs third baseman but struggled at the plate. When Cavarrretta made the switch to start Serena, Jackson had just two hits in his previous 25 at-bats. Serena was hitting well with a batting average of .297 on June13.

10 Irving Vaughan, “Cubs Win in 15th,” Chicago Tribune, June 15, 1952: F1. Sauer had three solo home runs in the Cubs’ 3-2 win over the Phillies on June 11. He would then go 0-for-24 before getting his next hit, a double, on June 18.

11 Vaughan, “Cubs Win in 15th.”

12 Jeffcoat was batting .182 with just seven extra-base hits when he came to bat against Spahn. He finished the season with a .219 batting average and two triples.

13 Gene Mack, “Spahn Strikes Out 18, Braves Lose in 15th, 3-1,” Boston Globe, June 15, 1952: 1.

14 As of 2024, the record for most strikeouts in a game was 20, held by three pitchers. Kerry Wood and Max Scherzer in the National League and Roger Clemens, who had two 20-strikeout games, in the American League.

15 Klippstein pitched eight innings in relief on one other occasion in 1952. He relieved Bob Rush on July 10 and pitched 8⅔ innings to earn the 7-6 win over the Brooklyn Dodgers.

16 Spahn also went 10 innings before losing to Carl Erskine and the Brooklyn Dodgers 1-0 on September 20, 1952.

17 Mack, “Spahn Strikes Out 18, Braves Lose in 15th.”

18 Mack, “Spahn Strikes Out 18, Braves Lose in 15th.”

19 On July 2, 1963, a 42-year-old Spahn again pitched into the 16th inning before losing 1-0 to Juan Marichal and the Giants – who had moved to San Francisco in 1958 – on a one-out home run by Willie Mays.