September 6, 1930: Brooklyn scores season-high 22 runs to ignite win streak

Heavy hitters for the 1930 Brooklyn Robins (L to R): RF Babe Herman (.393, 35 HRs, 130 RBIs), CF Johnny Frederick (.334, 17 HRs, 76 RBIs), 2B Jake Flowers (.320, 2 HRs, 50 RBIs), 1B Del Bissonette (.336, 16 HRs, 113 RBIs), and C Al Lopez (.309, 6 HRs, 57 RBIs). (Photo: SABR-Rucker Archive)

The schedule-makers did not do Brooklyn any favors in the summer of 1930. From August 6 through September 2 the team played only two home games. During that stretch the Robins fell from first place into fourth. Their travels had ended “ignominiously” when they were shut out by Boston’s Ed Brandt, “a five-and-ten” pitcher.1 The road-weary players were given a three-day break to recoup and prepare for the final month of the campaign.

The last-place Philadelphia Phillies were coming to town with the worst pitching numbers in the National League; they closed the season with an all-time worst team ERA of 6.71. Rested bats facing an incendiary pitching staff suggested that Saturday’s game could become a slugfest. After all, the two franchises had a recent history of high-scoring affairs. Brooklyn had scored 14 in the previous meeting of the teams, on August 31. Earlier in the season the Robins had dropped a 16-15 decision to the Phillies. In 1929 the two teams combined for 36 runs on May 18 in the Baker Bowl.

Les Sweetland had started the August 31 game for Philadelphia and surrendered 11 earned runs. He was slated to start the September 6 game. Despite that poor showing, Sweetland had been something of a jinx to the Robins. The big lefty had opened the season with a nifty 1-0 victory over the Brooklynites. Entering the game, he had only six victories, but three of them were against manager Wilbert Robinson’s squad.

The Robins sent Cuban Adolfo Luque, “baseball’s first major Latino star,” to the mound to open the game.2 The Phillies went quietly on two grounders to shortstop Glenn Wright and a fly ball. Brooklyn center fielder Johnny Frederick led off with a single to right; second baseman Eddie Moore followed with a single to left. This brought up slugging right fielder Babe Herman who launched a drive over the right-field screen to give Brooklyn a 3-0 lead. Sweetland regrouped and escaped the inning without further damage.3

Philadelphia’s pitching in 1930 was certainly suspect, allowing a franchise-high 1,199 runs. They tried to offset that deficiency with a powerful offense led by lefties Chuck Klein and Lefty O’Doul, who were both in the top five of the league in batting average coming into the game. The team would plate 944 runs in 1930, the most by a Phillies team in the modern (since 1901) era. The Robins caught a break as Bernie Friberg subbed for O’Doul in the game.

The Phillies offense responded in the top of the second. Klein singled and first baseman Don Hurst followed with a double to left. Third baseman Pinky Whitney doubled to right to score the pair. Then catcher Spud Davis drove a ball into the left-field bleachers to put the Phillies up 4-3. Luque composed himself and closed out the frame.4

Sweetland committed a cardinal sin to open the second by walking Luque. Frederick followed with a home run to recapture the lead. Manager Burt Shotton sent Sweetland to the showers. He was replaced by right-hander Earl “Hap” Collard. “The newcomer was treated no better than his predecessor.”5 Hap faced seven batters and surrendered five hits and a walk. His only out came on a Wright grounder that forced a man at the plate. Collard was replaced by Hal Elliott.

Elliott faced Luque with the bases loaded and coaxed a fly ball to short center; Fred Brickell proceeded to muff the catch. Klein backed up the play and “was on the ball like a cat.”6 He relayed to second base for a force out while the Robins’ sixth run of the inning crossed the plate. Then the Phillies completed an odd 8-7-4-57 double play by catching runner Wally Gilbert at third to end the inning.

Down 9-4, the Phillies added a run in the third on a single, a walk, and an RBI double by Davis. Elliott, a 6-foot-1-inch righty who had attended the University of Michigan, slowed the Robins attack but still yielded two singles and two triples to make the score 12-5 after three innings. The players caught their breath in a scoreless fourth inning and Luque retired the Phils again in the fifth.

“In the fifth (the Robins) laid into Elliott for a cool eight, totaling three bases on balls, five singles and a triple.”8 Herman launched the triple with two out and two on. Left fielder Friberg nearly robbed Herman but the ball squirted from his grasp. Herman was running with reckless abandon and was cut down at the plate for the third out.

The Phillies brought in rookie Albert “Buz” Phillips in the sixth. Shortstop Wright greeted him with his 19th home run of the season, into the seats in right-center. Phillips “did comparatively well” after that.9 He surrendered a double to Ike Boone (subbing in left field) in the ninth for the last Brooklyn tally.

Boone, shortstop Gordon Slade, and catcher Hank DeBerry entered the game for the Robins in the seventh. Friberg and Klein singled to open the stanza and set the stage for Hurst’s three-run blast to pull the Phils within a baker’s dozen. The Phillies managed only two singles after that.

Luque was never “called upon to show his best, twirling just well enough to protect the big lead.”10 The win pushed his record to 13-7. (The 1930 season was the last in which he reached double-digit wins.) At the plate he went 2-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored. Not bad for a player who was a month past his 40th birthday.

Sportswriter Thomas Holmes noted that there were only “about six thousand customers … which indicates that the fans of Flatbush are ready to call it a season, on the assumption that the Robins did that little thing a few weeks ago.”11 His postmortem was premature. The victory sparked a resurgence by the Robins, who won their next 10 games and returned to the top of the standings. Included in that streak was a masterful 6-0 shutout win by Luque over the Chicago Cubs.

The St. Louis Cardinals came to town on September 16 trailing Brooklyn by a single game. The Cardinals swept the three-game series and sent the Robins into a tailspin that saw them end the season in fourth place.

The 22 runs by the Robins on September 6 were their season high. They had twice tallied 19 runs, the Giants and Pirates being their victims. The Robins scored their 22 runs on 24 hits. They had recorded a season-high 28 hits in the win over Pittsburgh on June 23. Brooklyn’s explosive but erratic offense reached double digits in runs 25 times during the 1930 season. But they also suffered through 25 games in which they either scored only once or were shutout.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Baseball Reference and Retrosheet were invaluable in creating this game story.

NOTES

1 Henry Richards, “Flock to Encounter Phillies Saturday in Effort to Climb,” Brooklyn Standard Union, September 3, 1930: 8.

2 Peter Bjarkman, https://www.lavidabaseball.com/adolfo-luque-first-latino-superstar/, accessed September 4, 2019.

3 “Herman Hits Homer with 2 on in First,” Brooklyn Daily Times, September 6, 1930: 15.

4 The Brooklyn Times Union, in an article that covered the first two innings of the game, said that Hurst’s double scored Klein. Like many evening papers in major-league cities, the Times Union covered as much of the game as deadlines allowed.

5 William McCullough, “Dodgers Wallop Phillies by 22-8,” Brooklyn Times Union, September 7, 1930: 14.

6 Thomas Holmes, “Four Phillie Pitchers Fail to Halt Flock’s Bats in 22-8 Slugfest,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 7, 1930: 35.

7 Center fielder to left fielder to second baseman to third baseman. One runner was put out at second on a force play and the other at third.

8 Holmes.

9 Holmes.

10 McCullough.

11 Holmes.