May 16, 1924: Al Yeargin earns only career win for Braves before losing 11 in a row

This Friday afternoon game in Cincinnati was the one and only major-league win for Boston Braves right-hander Al Yeargin. Young Yeargin had appeared in the Braves’ last game of the season in 1922 and lost, despite having been hit for only one earned run in seven innings. The Braves were shut out that day by the reigning (and soon to be repeating) world champion New York Giants. Yeargin was 22 years old when he returned to the Braves for the 1924 season, having spent 1923 in the minors again, playing in his home city of Greenville, South Carolina. He pitched well in three relief roles earlier in May and was given a start against the Reds by manager Dave Bancroft, in part thanks to a minor injury incurred by fellow pitcher Sterling Stryker.

Yeargin’s teammates gave him a run to work with in the top of the first. The Braves were facing veteran right-hander Dolf Luque from Havana. The 33-year-old Luque was coming off a 1923 season in which he had been 27-8, with his 27 wins and .193 opponents’ batting average leading both leagues. He had beaten the Braves seven times without a loss until the previous day’s game, when he was knocked out of the box after pitching just two-thirds of an inning and giving up four runs. The Braves won the game, 4-0, a shutout for Jesse Barnes.

Bancroft played shortstop as well as managing; he led off with a base on balls. With one out, left fielder Bill Cunningham singled. First baseman Stuffy McInnis then singled – also to left – and Bancroft scored.

The first two batters Yeargin faced in the bottom of the first both got on. Right fielder George Burns walked, and first baseman Jake Daubert singled to left. Burns was called out at third base when Cunningham’s throw to Braves third baseman Ernie Padgett was on the money.

At least that was the call by third-base umpire Cy Pfirman. Third-base coach Greasy Neale of the Reds differed, too vehemently, with a shove.1 Pfirman ejected Neale. Reds third baseman Babe Pinelli – later a National League umpire for 22 years – grounded out, short to first, and center fielder Edd Roush hit one back to Yeargin, who threw to McInnis.

Luque set down the Braves in order in the top of the second. Yeargin made the final out, grounding out, second to first. The Reds tied the game in the second, 1-1, on a single by shortstop Ike Caveney, an error by Yeargin, a grounder that saw Caveney go from second to third, and then a single by catcher Ivey Wingo. Luque ended the inning by hitting into a double play, a 1-6-2 twin killing started by Yeargin.

Neither team scored in the third or fourth, though in the bottom of the third Yeargin yielded a single to Daubert and then hit Pinelli.

In the top of the fifth, the Braves scored four runs to break the game open. Yeargin began it with a leadoff double to left field. It was his first major-league base hit.2 Bancroft hit a comebacker but reached on a fielder’s choice when Pinelli dropped Luque’s throw to third. Bancroft got to second and Yeargin was safe on third. Right fielder Ed Sperber struck out and everyone stayed put, but Cunningham singled and Yeargin and Bancroft scored for a 3-1 Boston lead.

McInnis singled. Bob Smith was at bat; he’d come into the game in the middle of the fourth and taken over at third base. The Braves tried a double steal. It didn’t work. Wingo threw the ball to shortstop Caveney, who threw it right back home and got Cunningham for the second out. But Smith walked, and Braves center fielder Casey Stengel then doubled, driving in both McInnis and Smith.

Luque departed, replaced by Tom Sheehan, who got Padgett to fly out to left for the third out.

Both Daubert and Pinelli singled in the bottom of the fifth, but the score remained 5-1, Boston.

Yeargin’s catcher, Mickey O’Neil, singled to left to lead off the sixth, and then Yeargin singled to center. Bancroft grounded to third; O’Neil was forced to hold. Sperber walked, loading the bases, but then Cunningham hit into a well-executed 1-2-3 double play.

The Braves added a sixth run in the top of the seventh. Smith singled to left with one out. With two outs, Padgett tripled to center, easily scoring Smith – and almost scoring himself, but he was out at the plate, “dying trying for a home run.”3

With two outs in the bottom of the eighth, Roush singled and Caveney doubled him home. Yeargin got left fielder George Harper to ground out, Bancroft to McInnis. After eight, Yeargin had a comfortable 6-2 lead.

Boston added two more runs in the top of the ninth to make it even more comfortable. With one out, McInnis singled and reached second base on shortstop Caveney’s throwing error. Smith singled, and McInnis scored. Stengel popped up to Caveney, but “then came Padgett with another booming triple,”4 and Smith scored the eighth Boston run. O’Neil grounded out.

The Braves took the field needing three outs to secure the win. Second baseman Boob Fowler got his first hit of the game, a triple to center field. Wingo singled to left, and Fowler scored. Yeargin retired the final three batters, though, with the ball never leaving the infield on a pop fly to second base and two groundouts.

The final was Boston 8, Cincinnati 3. Yeargin got the win (1-0), and Luque the loss (3-5). Yeargin had allowed 11 base hits but had walked only one. He struck out no one. There had been only one Braves error – his own, in the second inning. The Boston Herald’s assessment was that despite all the hits he was “hard to find with runners on base and was punished very little until the last two innings, when the Braves had the contest well in hand.”5

The win knocked the Reds out of first place. They climbed back to a tie for first place on May 18, but then never saw first place again. They finished the year in fourth place.

Luque’s 1924 season was very disappointing, compared with the year before. He ended up 10-15 with a 3.16 earned-run average. He continued to play for more than another decade, winning his final game – and the 179th of his career – in 1935.

Yeargin, on the other hand, lost his next two starts. He lost three more decisions in June, and three more in July. He lost two more in mid-August. Still seeking the elusive second win, he was 1-10 when August ended. His final start was in the second game of a doubleheader against the St. Louis Cardinals at Braves Field on September 20. He lost that one, too, 5-2. Three of the runs were unearned. His record at year’s end was 1-11.

The Braves finished dead last in the National League with a record of 53-100.

Though reasonably successful in the minor leagues, winning at least 82 games, Yeargin never returned to major-league ball. This game was his one and only win in the big leagues.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CIN/CIN192405160.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1924/B05160CIN1924.htm

Notes

1 Tom Swope, “Reds Are Strangers to Large Innings,” Cincinnati Post, May 17, 1924: 7.

2 In his one appearance in 1922, Yeargin had three at-bats and struck out all three times. He’d struck out in the one at-bat he had had earlier in 1924. As noted, he grounded out earlier in this game.

3 “Braves Take Third in Row from Reds,” Boston Globe, May 17, 1924: 10.

4 Boston Globe.

5 “Rookie Jim Yeargin Is Hero of Braves’ Third Straight Win Over Reds,” Boston Herald, May 17, 1924: 9.