May 20, 1948: Stan Musial dominates the Dodgers again as Cardinals complete sweep

The Man continued to damage Brooklyn’s pitching. The day after he collected five hits in five at-bats, Stan Musial went 4-for-6 as the Cardinals romped over the Dodgers in a contentious 13-4 win that saw two Cardinals hit by pitches. It was the Cardinals’ sixth win in a row.1 Musial entered the game batting .393 and pushed his average to .411. It was the first time he reached the .400 percentage since the Cardinals’ 13-7 win on April 30 at Cincinnati.2

These two teams had built up quite a rivalry. St. Louis held off Brooklyn in 1946 by two games to capture the National League pennant, and went on to win the World Series over Ted Williams’s Boston Red Sox thanks to Enos Slaughter’s mad dash in Game Seven. In 1947 Brooklyn captured the pennant with a record of 94-60 but lost in seven games to the New York Yankees in the World Series. Before the 1948 season, the Cardinals were listed as the betting favorites to capture another pennant.3

Third-year left-handed pitcher Joe Hatten got the start for Brooklyn on two days’ rest. Hatten entered this game with a 2-1 record in his six games. In his previous appearance, on May 17 against Boston, Hatten came on in relief and pitched three shutout innings in a 12-3 Braves win. 

Opposing Hatten was another southpaw, Howie Pollet. Pollet had two complete-game wins under his belt in 1948. He got the start for the Cardinals on three days’ rest after he was called upon to stop a Pittsburgh Pirates rally on May 16 to secure the win in 10 innings.4

The game was scoreless when Erv Dusak singled to bring up Musial with two outs in the third. Musial laced a double along the right-field line to bring in the first run of the game and earn his 21st RBI in 1948.5 

After the Dodgers equalized in the fourth on a Dick Whitman two-out single to bring in Bruce Edwards at third, the Cardinals responded with six runs in the next half-inning. Ralph LaPointe, playing in place of an injured Red Schoendienst, began the St. Louis rally with a leadoff walk. Musial stepped in with one out and crushed a 1-and-2 pitch off the right-field scoreboard for a double that sent LaPointe to third.6

With a base open, manager Leo Durocher opted to intentionally walk Whitey Kurowski and pitch to Slaughter. The strategy backfired, as Slaughter hit a line-drive single into center field to score LaPointe and Musial. It was the 13th straight game in which Slaughter recorded a base hit after being mired in a 1-for-35 slump earlier in the season.7

Nippy Jones walked, and the bases were loaded once again. With Marty Marion batting, Hatten uncorked a wild pitch that scored Kurowski and moved Slaughter to third and Jones to second. Despite Hatten’s working the count full on Marion, Durocher called for his second intentional pass to load the bases again. Del Rice cleared the bases with a double into the left-field corner for the final runs of the inning.8

Righty Hugh Casey came on in relief of Hatten in the top of the sixth. Kurowski reached first when a Casey pitch hit him in the back. He reached third on Slaughter’s double to right field. Jones singled up the middle to score both baserunners. Rice smacked a 2-and-1 pitch off the fence in left-center field that scored the 10th run for the Cardinals.9

Musial stepped back into the batter’s box in the top of the seventh inning. He worked the count full and connected on his fifth home run of the season, the ball sailing over the wall in right field to make the score 11-1, Cardinals.10 

Tensions reached a climax in the top of the eighth. This time, Casey drilled Rice in the head. Manager Eddie Dyer implored umpire Artie Gore to eject Casey immediately. Not only had Casey struck two Cardinal batters, he sailed pitches close to the heads of Slaughter and Rice.11 Umpire Gore ejected Dyer for his continued argument. When Casey walked to check on the injured Rice, Dyer turned to Casey and said, “You’re a better pitcher than that, Hugh.”12

Schoendienst ran for Rice at first. In the bottom of the inning, Joe Garagiola took over catcher duties for the Cardinals.13

Despite being down by 10 runs, the Dodgers refused to mail it in. Don Lund led off the bottom of the eighth with a double to left field and Carl Furillo walked. Tommy Brown smacked a two-out single to right field that scored Lund from second and moved Furillo to third, and reached second on Slaughter’s throw home. Whitman hit a double to left-center field that scored the Dodgers’ final two runs of the game.14

For an encore, Musial singled off the right-field wall in the top of the ninth off righty Clyde King for his 11th and final hit of the series.15 After reaching second on Don Lang’s walk, Musial scored on Slaughter’s single to right, which moved Lang to third base. Nippy Jones’s fly ball to center field brought in Lang for the 13th and final run of the game. Pollet allowed a double to Lund in the bottom of the ninth but finished off the Dodgers for the complete game and his fourth win in a row.16

While Musial received praise for his masterful performances the last two days, the beaned batters were also the talk of the series. After the game, Casey visited Rice in the Cardinals’ clubhouse and told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle writers that he did not intend to hit Rice on purpose. “I was trying to pitch him close to the letters,” he said. “The ball wasn’t more than an inch or so inside. Rice must have turned his head or was looking for a curve.”17 

Umpire Gore also said there seemed to be no intent on the part of Casey: “Not being a mind reader, I didn’t see anything wrong. I’m not a magician, either.”18 The Cardinals remained angered after the game. as the team claimed the Dodgers tried to “low-bridge” or throw pitches with intent at the batters’ heads.19               

When he reminisced over his 10 greatest days with the Cardinals in November 1954, Musial included May 19 and May 20 in his top five. Wrote Joe Reichler in Sport magazine, “Many of Musial’s greatest days have been against the Dodgers in Brooklyn. Stan can’t explain it except that he thinks he unconsciously plays harder against the Dodgers because of the fierce competition they always provide.”20

Perhaps the Brooklyn Daily Eagle said it best regarding the Cardinals-Dodgers rivalry: “It looks like a long summer.”21

Sources

The author accessed Retrosheet.org and Baseball-Reference.com for pertinent information, including box scores, play-by-play, and other statistical data.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1948/B05200BRO1948.htm

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BRO/BRO194805200.shtml

Photo credit: Stan Musial, Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 Martin J. Haley, “Red Birds Clip Brooks, 13-4, Slowly Pull Ahead of Pack,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, May 21, 1948: 3C.

2 The highest Musial’s batting average reached in his 1948 MVP season was .415 on July 7. Musial finished his season with a career-high slash line of .376/.450/.702.

3 “Yanks, Sox A.L. Picks, Cards in N.L.,” The Sporting News, April 7, 1948: 1.

4 Martin J. Haley, “Cards Edge Bucs in Tenth, 6-5, on Fluke Hit,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, May 17, 1948: 3C.

5 Bob Broeg, “Runs Come Cheap for Cards in Brooklyn; Musial Keeps Up Hot Spurt,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 20, 1948: 5B.

6 Broeg.

7 Haley.

8 Broeg.

9 Broeg.

10 Broeg.

11 Dick Young, “Cards Hand Flock 5th Straight Defeat, 13-4,” New York Daily News, May 21, 1948: 78.

12 “Cards Rekindle Feud on Bean-Ball Charge,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 21, 1948: 16.

13 Broeg. 

14 Broeg. 

15 In the three-game series at Ebbets Field, Musial went 11-for-15 with 20 total bases; Young, New York Daily News.

16 Haley.

17 “Cards Rekindle Feud on Bean-Ball Charge.”

18. “Cards Rekindle Feud on Bean-Ball Charge.”

19 “Cards Rekindle Feud on Bean-Ball Charge.”

20 Joe Reichler, “Stan Musial’s Ten Greatest Days,” Sport, November 1954: 15. From 1940 to 1954, Brooklyn won five pennants while the Cardinals captured four. In five of those seasons (1941, 1942, 1946, 1947, 1949), the Cardinals and the Dodgers both finished as the top two teams in the National League. St. Louis went 172-160 against Brooklyn during this time.

21 “Cards Rekindle Feud on Bean-Ball Charge.”