(Updated March 7, 2021)
After going two weeks without a win, the Cardinals broke their skid by scoring a week’s worth of runs in one game.
On July 6, 1929, the Cardinals set a franchise record for most runs in a game when they beat the Phillies, 28-6, in the second game of a doubleheader at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia.
The win was the Cardinals’ first since June 22, 1929, and snapped an 11-game losing streak.
10 in the 1st
The Cardinals-Phillies doubleheader was played on a steamy Saturday afternoon. “Swarms of Japanese beetles added to the discomfort of players and spectators,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
In the first game, Cardinals cleanup batter Jim Bottomley hit a pair of two-run home runs, but the Phillies won, 10-6. It was the 11th consecutive loss for the defending National League champions and it gave them a 36-36 record. Boxscore
The second game matched starting pitchers Fred Frankhouse of the Cardinals against Phillies ace Claude Willoughby.
A right-hander from the farm town of Buffalo, Kansas, Willoughby would finish with 15 wins for the 1929 Phillies, but he struggled against the Cardinals.
Willoughby faced six batters, yielding three singles and walking three, and was lifted without recording an out.
Elmer Miller, a rookie left-hander who later in the season was converted into a right fielder, relieved, faced two batters and walked both.
Phillies manager Burt Shotton, a former Cardinals outfielder and coach, pulled Miller and replaced him with Luther Roy, who started two days earlier against the Dodgers. Roy gave up singles to the first two Cardinals batters he faced.
Rookie second baseman Carey Selph made the first out of the inning, on a sacrifice bunt, after the first 10 Cardinals batters reached base.
The Cardinals scored 10 runs in the first inning on six singles and five walks.
Given a 10-0 lead, Frankhouse, pitching with a sore thumb, “didn’t have to bear down” and “merely lobbed the ball over the plate,” according to the Post-Dispatch.
The Cardinals scored a run in the second and two in the fourth, and led, 13-4.
Pour it on
In the fifth, the Cardinals produced their second 10-run inning of the game. Bottomley got the big hit, a grand slam against the Phillies’ fourth pitcher, June Greene. Bottomley’s home run cleared the right-field wall and carried into Broad Street, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
The Cardinals led, 23-4, after five innings. They scored again in one more inning, getting five runs in the eighth. The big blow was Chick Hafey’s grand slam into the left-field seats against Greene.
The grand slams by Bottomley and Hafey were the only Cardinals home runs in the game.
The Cardinals generated 28 hits and also received nine walks and had one batter hit by a pitch.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Cardinals also hit two line drives off the shins of Greene, but the balls caromed to infielders, who made the outs.
Every Cardinals player who made a plate appearance got a hit.
Leadoff batter Taylor Douthit was 5-for-6 with two walks. He scored four runs and drove in two. Hafey was 5-for-7 with five RBI and four runs scored.
Bottomley was 4-for-5 with two walks. He scored four runs and drove in seven. For the doubleheader, Bottomley was 7-for-10 with 11 RBI and six runs scored. Bottomley hit a home run in every game of the five-game series. He had seven home runs and 21 RBI for the series. For the season, Bottomley had 39 RBI versus the Phillies. According to researcher Tom Orf, that’s the most RBI a Cardinals player has ever had against one team in a season.
Frankhouse was as effective a hitter as he was a pitcher. He was 4-for-7 with four RBI and, though he pitched a complete game and got a win, he yielded 17 hits and walked three.
Most of the damage was done against Roy (13 hits, nine runs in 4.1 innings) and Greene (12 hits, 11 runs in 4.2 innings). Boxscore
Willoughby, the losing pitcher, played seven seasons in the big leagues and continued to have trouble versus the Cardinals. His career record against the Cardinals: 2-12 with a 8.62 ERA.
After their record-setting performance, the Cardinals lost five of their next seven, falling to 39-41. Billy Southworth, in his first stint as Cardinals manager, was fired in late July and replaced by Bill McKechnie, who’d managed the Cardinals to the National League pennant in 1928.
During this period the Cardinals had a couple crazy, record setting games against Philadelphia. In September of 1926, the Cardinals took the first game of a doubleheader 23-3. In that game they set a team record for most runs scored in an inning when 12 men crossed the plate in the 3rd. In September of 1930, they won a slugfest against Philadelphia 19-16. Now I’m not sure about this, but the 35 total runs scored has been topped only once. In ’54 we lost a game to the Cubs 23-13. Can anyone tell me if 17 hits the Cardinals gave up is the most given up in a game that they won? Thanks
Thanks for your research and your insights. Here is a link to my post on how two of the all-time best Cardinals pitchers, Dizzy Dean and Mort Cooper, each gave up 19 hits in a game _ and won: https://retrosimba.com/2011/05/19/dizzy-dean-gave-up-19-hits-and-won/
Thank you I really appreciate this.