Before a Yankee Stadium crowd of 70,972, the Yankees sweep the White Sox, 8 – 3 and 2 – 0. Joe DiMaggio powers two homers off Lou Kretlow in the opener, and ex-Sox Bob Kuzava outduels Saul Rogovin to win the nitecap. With yesterday’s game rained out, the Sox are now 6 1/2 out of first place.
Against the Phillies, Cubs player-manager Phil Cavarretta earns his money by driving home three runs in a first-game win, 5 – 4, snapping the Cubs’ 10-game home losing streak. His triple in the 6th off Robin Roberts ends the Cubs’ scoreless inning skein of 31 innings, and the consecutive scoreless innings by Phils pitchers at 41. Cavarretta takes the bench in the second game but inserts himself as a pinch-hitter in the 7th when Roberts relieves, and hits a grand slam home run as the Cubs sweep, winning the nitecap, 8 – 6. The nitecap loss goes to Bubba Church, who put two runners on before giving way to Roberts. It is Church’s first and only career loss to Chicago after nine straight wins.
In game one at Cincinnati, Willie Mays steals the first of 338 bases. Then pitcher Willie Ramsdell picks him off second base. But the Giants win, 3 – 1, behind Sal Maglie. New York takes the nitecap as well, 6 – 4, as Monte Irvin (2) and Mays both swipe bases.
The Giants go 7-0 at Crosley Field this year by defeating the Reds, 3 – 1. Willie Mays has his third homer in six days and Larry Jansen wins to go 15-2 against the Rhinelanders.
P Russ Meyer hurls a 1 – 0 shutout over the Cubs, the fourth shutout in a row for the Phillies staff. Robin Roberts, Ken Johnson and Bubba Church pitched the earlier whitewashings.
Charlie Gehringer succeeds Billy Evans as General Manager of the Detroit Tigers.
Clyde Vollmer, who started the month on the bench, continues his explosive fireworks against the Indians. He singles in the tying run in the 15th and then in the 16th hits a grand slam off reliever Bob Feller for an 8 – 4 Red Sox win. The grand slam is the latest to be hit in a game in major league history. Mickey McDermott pitches all 16 innings for the Sox, striking out 15 and walking one.
The White Sox, just 3 1/2 games behind New York and Boston, open a four-game series in New York. Trailing 3 – 1 in the 9th, the Sox make it 3 – 2 before rain and the Yankees delay the game. Gil McDougald is thrown out for stalling, and Casey Stengel uses five pitchers in the inning. Finally, the Yanks win as the game is called after 30 minutes.
1951 – Ouch!! Willie Mays’s oft-recalled bare-handed grab of left-handed Rocky Nelson’s screaming opposite field line drive takes place in Forbes Field in the 1st inning of a 5 – 4 Giant loss to Pittsburgh. Mays runs to the left-center corner of the bullpen (also known as Greenberg Gardens, or Kiner’s Corner), about 410 feet from the plate. At the last minute, the wind gets a hold of Nelson’s slicing shot and starts pushing it back towards right. Mays looks up and locates the ball but too late to adjust. As he will recall on June 3, 1957, after robbing Roberto Clemente on a shot to almost the same spot, “I couldn’t get my glove around. So I just stuck my bare hand up and the ball stuck.”
“That was the finest catch I have ever seen, and the finest I ever expect to see” – Pirates GM Branch Rickey, commenting on a catch made by Willie Mays at Forbes Field. At cavernous Forbes Field, Giants’ outfielder Willie Mays, unable to reach across his body to make a catch with his glove of Rocky Nelson’s sinking 457-foot blast to deep center, sticks out his bare right hand and grabs the ball on a full gallop to make the incredible final out of the inning. Venerable Branch Rickey, Pittsburgh’s general manager, sends a note to the New York dugout during the game to tell the 20 year-old rookie, “That was the finest catch I have ever seen, and the finest I ever expect to see.”
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