Cleveland and Detroit‚ deadlocked for 1st place square off on pitching duel between the two aces‚ Bob Feller and Hal Newhouser

On August 12, 1940 — Cleveland and Detroit‚ deadlocked for 1st place (64-44)‚ square off. In the initial pitching duel between the two aces‚ Bob Feller tops Hal Newhouser‚ 8 – 5‚ to become the majors’ first 20-game winner.

The win pushes Ossie Vitt’s Indians one game in front of the Tigers in the American League pennant chase. The battle of young pitchers goes the way of the 21-year-old Feller, who is a 20-game winner for the second consecutive season. The 19-year-old Newhouser falls to 8-9 with the loss. (Vitt will later be replaced when the club revolts against him)

Cleveland jumped out to an early 3-0 lead as Hal Trosky hit a two-out, two-run homer in the first inning and Beau Bell followed with a solo blast. After a Ken Keltner double, Newhouser was hooked and replaced by Clay Smith.

An RBI-double from Pinky Higgins cut the Indians lead to 3-1 in the second, but the Indians got the run back in the fourth on an RBI-double of their own from Ray Mack that scored Keltner from first. Cleveland eliminated any doubts in the bottom of the fifth with a two-run homer from Roy Weatherly and an RBI-double from Bell that scored Lou Boudreau from second. With the bases loaded and nobody out, Smith was able to get a pop up to second and a pair of strikeouts to evade further harm.

Higgins would drive in another run in the sixth, but a single from Boudreau in the bottom of the inning scored Ben Chapman to make it an 8-2 game. The Tigers scored three in the following inning, but would get no closer as Feller completed the game, allowing five runs on seven hits with five walks and seven strikeouts.

Source – Did We Win Tonight

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