September 6, 1952: Robin Roberts tosses marathon for 23rd win

The annual drive for statistics to validate an otherwise disappointing season brought the Boston Braves to Philadelphia’s Shibe Park on September 6, 1952, for a twilight-night doubleheader with the Phillies. The Phillies entered the game in fourth place, but they were 13½ games behind the league-leading Dodgers. The Braves, playing to smallish crowds in Boston, were in sixth place, 27 games behind Brooklyn.

The Phillies won the first game, 7-6, on a game-winning homer by Del Ennis leading off the 17th inning, to give Robin Roberts his 23rd win of the season. A crowd of 12,474 looked on as the Braves took a 6-2 lead, only to see the Phillies come from behind and force extra innings.

Roberts had started the game for Philadelphia against Braves rookie Virgil Jester, a former Colorado sandlot star. Roberts threw the first pitch at 6:00 P.M. The Phillies staked Roberts to an early lead, scoring single runs in the second and third innings. In the second inning, singles by Ennis, Smoky Burgess, and Puddin’ Head Jones loaded the bases. Putsy Caballero’s double-play ball brought Ennis home. An intentional walk to Eddie Waitkus put runners on the corners, and Phillies manager Steve O’Neill ordered a double steal. The throw from Braves catcher Paul Burris was cut off by shortstop Johnny Logan. Logan threw to third baseman Eddie Mathews, who tagged Burgess out when he broke for home.1

In the third inning Connie Ryan walked with one out and was brought home on singles by Richie Ashburn and Mel Clark. The inning ended when Ashburn tried to score from third on Ennis’s foul fly caught by shortstop Logan. Logan’s throw to catcher Burris was in plenty of time to nail Ashburn.

The Braves tied the score with two runs in the fourth inning. Singles by Logan and Sid Gordon preceded a game-tying triple by Mathews. In the sixth, two Phillies errors helped the Braves go ahead, 5-2. After a bunt single by Earl Torgeson and a single to center by Gordon, second baseman Ryan’s error on a grounder by Mathews allowed Torgeson to score. Third baseman Jones’s wild throw on Burris’s groundball paved the way for a two-run single by Jack Dittmer. The Braves’ sixth run came in the eighth inning on rookie Mathews’ 21st homer of the season.

Afour-run rally by the Phillies tied the score in the eighth. Clark, whose third-inning single had extended his hitting streak to 14 consecutive games, led off with a double and came home on a single by Burgess. A single by Jones knocked Jester from the game and the Braves brought in Sheldon Jones, who was not the answer they were looking for. Johnny Wyrostek batted hit for shortstop Caballero and singled Burgess home. Jackie Mayo, who had replaced Waitkus at first base when Waitkus suffered a groin pull, doubled to left, just beating the throw to second by left fielder Gordon as Jones and Wyrostek scored, tying the game at 6-6.

The Braves had a chance to regain the lead in the ninth inning. Logan singled with two outs and Torgeson singled to right. Logan overran third base and was thrown out when catcher Burgess took the throw from the outfield and threw the ball to third baseman Jones, who tagged out Logan. Sheldon Jones retired the Phillies in the ninth as the home team stranded two runners.

The game went into extra innings. When Sheldon Jones came off the field after pitching the 10th inning, he was feeling feverish, and it was determined that Jones was suffering from a virus infection. It was later determined that Jones had been sick the entire day and had not disclosed his illness to the team.2 Jones was sent back to the team hotel. Bob Chipman came on to pitch for the Braves in the bottom of the 11th.

Chipman subdued the Philadelphia bats from the time he entered the game until he allowed the blast by Ennis. In that time, he allowed only one hit, a single by Willie Jones in the 12th inning. In five of his six innings pitched, Chipman retired the side in order. Roberts, meanwhile, retired the side in order in only four of his 17th innings, yielding 18 hits and walking three batters.

In the 12th, the Braves mounted a threat when Torgeson reached on an infield hit and Gordon bunted for a hit. With runners on first and second, Mathews, who had already tripled and homered in the game, stepped to the plate. Braves manager Charlie Grimm ordered Mathews to bunt. The move backfired as Mathews forced Torgeson at third base. Grimm then outdid himself sending up pinch-hitter Walker Cooper, who hit into an inning-ending double play. Over the next four innings, Roberts pitched in and out of trouble stranding five batters.

After Roberts retired the side in order in the 17th inning, for the first time since the seventh, Chipman came out for his seventh inning of work. He faced only one batter, Ennis. It was almost 10:00 P.M. when Chipman threw his last pitch, and Ennis lined it to deep left field for a walk-off homer. The longest game of the season in terms of innings was over in 3 hours and 50 minutes.

The hitting star of the game, prior to the Ennis homer, had been Mathews. Mathews went on to hit four more homers in September, including three in one game against the Dodgers on September 27 at Brooklyn, giving him 25 for his rookie year. Among those homers was the game-winning homer in the bottom of the ninth against the Cubs in a 1-0 game at Braves Field in the first game of a doubleheader on September 14. It was the last game the Braves would win at Braves Field.

Chipman was at the end of his major-league career. The loss was the last decision in a 12-year career in which he went 51-46. He appeared in six more games with the Braves in 1952.

Roberts pitched the entire game for the Phillies for his major-league leading 23rd win. It broke a tie between him and Bobby Shantz of the Philadelphia Athletics. Roberts finished the season with a 28-7 record. He finished second in the MVP balloting in 1952. The complete game on September 6 was his third in succession. The streak of complete-game starts extended into the following season and reached 28 in all. Roberts led the National League in complete games in each season from 1952 through 1956. The 1952 season was his third of six in a row with 20 or more wins and the best year of his 19-year Hall of Fame career.

There was a second game that night. It got underway after 10:00 P.M. and was suspended because of a midnight curfew in the bottom of the eighth inning with the Braves leading 3-1 and the Phillies threatening. With runners at first and second and Mel Clark at the plate, the count went to 2-2. At 11:59 P.M., umpire Frank Dascoli stopped the game. The game was completed without further scoring the next afternoon.

The Phillies, led by Roberts’s 28 wins, finished the season at 87-67, 9½ games behind the Dodgers. The loss dropped the Braves to seventh place, and it was there that they would finish the season, their last year in Boston. Their record in their final season as the Boston Braves was 64-89.

SOURCES

In addition to Baseball-Reference.com and the sources shown in the Notes, the author used the following:

Baumgartner, Stan. “Phils Nip Braves in 17th, 7-6; Ennis’ Homer Wins; 2nd Suspended,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 7, 1952: 1S-2S.

Gillooly, John. “Braves Bow in 17th, 7-6,” Boston Sunday Advertiser, September 7, 1952: 35.

Mack, Gene Jr. “Ennis Homer Beats Tribe in 17th, 7-6,” Boston Sunday Globe, September 7, 1952: 47

NOTES

1 Associated Press, “Roberts Goes 17 Innings for 7-6 Phillies Victory,” Tampa Bay Times, September 7, 1952: S1.

2 “Jones Display of Gameness May Have Cost Braves Game,” The Sporting News, September 17, 1952: 19.