Dazzy’s Rebounds against Phils after Giant Clunker

(This is the 12th in a series that celebrates the 100th anniversary of Dazzy Vance’s great 1924 season with the Brooklyn Robins/Superbas/Dodgers.)

By Glen Sparks

Dazzy Vance’s troubles against the New York Giants continued June 24 at Ebbets Field. Dazzy dropped his third decision of 1924 to the Brooklyn Robins’ cross-city rival. Those were his only losses.

Brooklyn took a 1-0 first-inning lead against Giants starter Jack “Needles” Bentley, who had a mark of 6-2 but a 4.18 ERA. New York tied the game in the top of the second, while Brooklyn leaped ahead, 2-1, in the bottom of that frame.

Dazzy, looking for his 11th win, allowed two more runs in both the third inning and the fifth. The Giants added a solo run in the seventh, Vance’s final inning of work before 12,000 fans. It was the first time in 13 starts that Dazzy did not go the distance. (Earnest “Tiny” Osborne—6-feet-4-inches, 215 pounds–pitched the final two innings.)

Bentley, a left-hander from Sandy Spring, Maryland, finished his outing, and the Giants won, 6-3. First-place New York’s winning streak had reached 10 games. “The Stoneham steamroller is still steaming and rolling everything flat before it,” wrote the Binghamton Press and Sun-Bulletin, referring to team owner Charles Stoneham. The victory “left none other than the Hon. Dazzy Vance lying in the dust of defeat.”

Every Giants player recorded at least one hit, with Bentley and third baseman Heine Groh each getting two. “Altogether, it was a satisfactory afternoon for persons of Manhattan and McGraw tendencies,” Will Murphy wrote in the New York Daily News.

Five of the six New York runs were earned. Dazzy struck out five but walked a season-high six and allowed nine hits. In his three losses to the Giants, he had surrendered 15 runs (14 earned) over 25 1/3 innings. He beat manager John McGraw’s ballclub, 3-2, on April 25. About his latest start, Charles W. Meany from the Brooklyn Times Union concluded, “Dazzy’s fastball lacked the usual zip.”

Dazzy rebounded in his next start, his first of 1924 versus the Philadelphia Phillies, on June 28 at the Baker Bowl.  He held the Phillies to six hits and a lone run. Dazzy struck out nine in another complete-game effort, his 13th of the season, and walked just two. Brooklyn won, 9-1, and improved to 33-28, still in third place. The seventh-place Phillies fell to 24-35.

Andy High, Milt Stock, and Dazzy himself contributed two hits and two RBIs apiece. Phillies starting pitcher Clarence Mitchell lasted just three innings and allowed five runs. Dazzy belted his second home run of 1924, a two-run shot in the eighth inning off reliever Bill Hubbel. He was still batting just .133 at the end of the day.

Vance allowed only one Phillies batter to reach third base through the first seven frames. Still searching for his first shutout of the season, he allowed  a home run to George Harper with one out in the eighth. Dazzy retired the Phillies in order in the ninth inning and finished the game by striking out Jimmie Wilson. “The Brooklyn ace pitched one of his best games of the season,” according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

A New York Daily News article repeated the story of Vance’s early career struggles.“Today, he has one of the fastest ball, if not the fastest, in the major leagues. Seems quite a comeback for a man who was alleged to have pitched his arm out.”

Dazzy was now 11-3 with a 2.21 ERA and had exactly 100 strikeouts. His next start figured to be July 2 against, yes, the New York Giants.

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