BROWNS' BYRNE FIRES CG 1-HITTER, LOSES GAME
Tribe Wins 6th Straight; Keep Pace With Yanks
CLEVELAND, Aug. 8 (AP) - Tommy Byrne pitched one of the strangest games anyone
present could remember witnessing. The St. Louis Browns left-hander took a
no-hitter into the seventh inning and finished with a complete game
one-hitter. He also walked 10 Cleveland batters, all of them before a
single out was recorded in the fifth inning. He retired 11 of the last 12
batters he faced. And he lost the game, 3-2. Cleveland's Bob Feller
pitched a complete game of his own, won his third straight start and saw his
earned run average drop below four and his winning percentage reach .500 for the
first time in two months.
A half an hour after the game's completion a significant portion of the 18,076
who watched the contest at Municipal Stadium was still milling about
incredulously.
The Browns took a 2-0 lead after two innings, posting single tallies in the
first and second on RBI singles by Ben Taylor and Bobby Young
respectively. Byrne walked two Indians in the bottom of the first, but
escaped trouble, in part due to a double play grounder.
In the bottom of the third, however, Byrne's control deserted him
completely. With one out he walked Feller, Dale Mitchell and Bobby Avila
to load the bases and then issued a fourth consecutive base on balls, this one
to Larry Doby, to force in a run. Luke Easter than lofted fly ball to deep
right that was tracked down by Cliff Mapes, with Mitchell tagging and
scoring the tying run. Cleveland had scored two runs without the benefit
of a base hit.
Byrne walked three more batters in the fourth but managed to strand the bases
loaded and walked the leadoff man in the fifth. At that point, Byrne's
control improved dramatically. After walking 10 of the first 21 batters he
faced, the St. Louis starter didn't walk any of the final 12 batters he faced.
Feller, meanwhile, allowed five hits to the first 10 batters he saw, then
allowed only four to the last 29.
Byrne didn't allow a hit until after two were out in the seventh inning when
Bobby Avila launched a fastball approximately 10 rows into the lower left field
seats for his fourth home run of the year, putting the Indians on top for the
first time, 3-2. It was Cleveland's only baserunner after Doby drew a
leadoff walk in the fifth.
Feller made the lone run stand up, pitching out of a bases loaded situation in
the eighth that was spurred by an error charged to shortstop Ray Boone on a
would-be inning-ending double play grounder. Feller retired Bill Jennings
on a ground ball to third to escape damage.
The win was the sixth straight for the Indians, and the 10th victory in the last
11 games. Unfortunately for Cleveland, the team remains 6 1/2 games out of
first place; the league-leading New York Yankees have won 11 of their last 13.
The loss was the fifth straight for the last place Browns who have also dropped
12 of 13 games.
8/8/1951, SLA51-Cle51, Cleveland Municipal Stadium 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP 1951 Browns 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 9 0 10 2 1951 Indians 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 x 3 1 1 6 0 Browns AB R H BI AVG Indians AB R H BI AVG Young,B 2b 5 1 2 1 .292 Mitchell lf 1 1 0 0 .351 Delsing cf 4 0 1 0 .257 Avila 2b 3 1 1 1 .279 Maguire lf 4 0 0 0 .250 Doby cf 1 0 0 1 .289 Arft ph 1 0 0 0 .309 Easter 1b 4 0 0 1 .229 Mapes rf 4 0 1 0 .269 Rosen 3b 4 0 0 0 .243 Taylor,B 1b 4 0 1 1 .235 Kennedy,Bo rf 3 0 0 0 .232 Lollar c 4 0 1 0 .240 Boone ss 2 0 0 0 .236 Marsh 3b 3 0 1 0 .237 Hegan c 3 0 0 0 .240 Jennings ss 4 1 2 0 .247 Feller p 1 1 0 0 .211 Byrne p 3 0 0 0 .214 22 3 1 3 Wood ph 1 0 0 0 .283 37 2 9 2 Browns INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Byrne L 4-7 8.0 1 3 3 10 2 124 58 5.55 8.0 1 3 3 10 2 124 58 Indians INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Feller W 9-9 9.0 9 2 2 1 4 118 78 3.92 9.0 9 2 2 1 4 118 78 SLA: Wood batted for Byrne in the 9th Arft batted for Maguire in the 9th E-Boone. 2B-Jennings(3). HR-Avila(4). RBI-Young,B(43), Taylor,B(2), Avila(46), Doby(54), Easter(66). K-Maguire 3, Wood, Doby, Feller. BB-Delsing, Mitchell 3, Avila, Doby 3, Kennedy,Bo, Boone, Feller. SH-Feller. HBP-Marsh. HB-Feller. GWRBI: Avila Temperature: 70, Field: wet, Sky: clear, Wind: left to right at 8 MPH. Attendance: 18,076 Game Time: 1:59