PAWTUCKET (AP) - Paul Waner's three-run homer in the top of the twelfth inning capped a four-run scoring outburst that enabled the Montgomery Burns to defeat the Pawtucket Flying Dutchmen 5 to 3 in Game Three of the DBS World Championship Series. The Burns now lead the best of seven series, two games to one.
A series-high 46,358 were on hand to see to see the first game in Pawtucket. Before the game started, the Dutchmen and their fans showed the most emotional moment of the Series when they honored the recently departed Miller Huggins. Huggins, who was a highly successful manager with the New York Yankees before the DBS began play in 1928, passed away suddenly on September 25th. Huggins, a personal friend of both Pawtucket manager Honus Wagner and Montgomery manager Wilbert Robinson was honored with a moment of silence.
Following the memorial, the National Anthem was performed by actress Marlene Dietrich. Ms. Dietrich, who currently has a popular hit song in Falling in Love Again, is currently completing the film, The Blue Angel. Fellow screen stars the Marx Brothers, Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Zeppo, provided a comical version that befuddled but amused Pawtucket reserve catcher Bennie Tate. With the festivities out of the way, the business of Game Three commenced, and as has been standard in this Series, a dominant pitching performance was turned in by Pawtucket starter "Sad" Sammie Gray. Gray went an incredible 11 innings, allowing only one run and seven hits. However, his bullpen failed him in the 12th and he had to settle for a no-decision.
The Burns struck quickly in the first inning. Leadoff man Lloyd Waner laced a triple to the gap in right-center and later scored on a groundout by Fresco Thompson. Montgomery threatened to score again an inning later when Lloyd's older brother Paul tripled into almost the exact area of the field with two outs. Honus Wagner, the Dutchmen manager, ordered Gray to give a free pass to shortstop Woody English, and Gray proceeded to strike out his counterpart Jake Miller on three pitches.
Miller, the Burns starting pitcher, also managed to weave in and out of trouble in the early going. Rogers Hornsby doubled with two out in the first, but Miller stranded him there. A more impressive escape came in the bottom of the third, when Pawtucket loaded the bases with three soft singles with two out, but Miller induced cleanup man Harry Heilmann to ground out.
Pawtucket finally reached Miller in the bottom of the fifth when catcher Val Picinich singled, was sacrificed to second, and came home on a single by centerfielder Johnny Frederick.
Frederick and his Burns counterpart Lloyd Waner made two impressive catches in the field that kept the game tied at one. In the bottom of the seventh with one out and a runner on second, Frederick hit a long fly to the deepest part of the ballpark, but Lloyd robbed him with a running, over the shoulder catch. Not to be outdone, Frederick returned the favor in the top of the eighth when he made a diving catch on an extra-base attempt by Woody English.
Gray was dominant in the middle stages of the game, at one point retiring 11 batters in a row, not once but twice. He completely frustrated the Burns offense, only allowing one base runner from the third to the ninth innings. However, his teammates fared no better. While Miller wasn't as sharp as Gray, he managed to consistently get out of jams to keep the game tied. Jesse Petty relieved Miller in the 10th after Miller was taken out of the game for a pinch-hitter.
Montgomery finally broke through in the top of the twelfth inning after Gray finally ran out of gas. His replacement, Howard Ehmke, quickly gave up singles to the first two batters he faced, and Mickey Cochrane drove home lead runner Dale Alexander with the go-ahead run. Rattled and frustrated, Ehmke grooved his first offering to Paul Waner, and he deposited it in the right field seats and a 5 to 1 Burns lead.
If the Burns thought that the issue was settled, however, the Dutchmen didn't. Johnny Frederick led off the bottom of the 12th inning with a hit to left, and Frederick stretched it into a two-bagger, sliding in under the throw of Heinie Manush. The exuberant rookie cheered to his teammates in the dugout and stirred the partisan Pawtucket crowd.
Ethan Allen then laced a rope that centerfielder Lloyd Waner dived for, but missed. The ball skipped all the way to the wall and ricocheted away from big-brother Paul who was backing up the play. Frederick scored easily, and implored Allen to come home. Allen ran through the stop signal at third and scored under the relay from Fresco Thompson for the first inside-the-park homer in Series history, and cut the Burns lead 5 to 3.
The Pawtucket faithful were on their feet, cheering for more. However, Burns reliever Petty settled down and calmly retired the next three hitters on harmless pop flies to end the game and give the Burns a 2 to 1 Series edge.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 R H E LOB DP
Burns 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 5 12 0 6 1
Flying Dutchmen 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 12 0 11 2
Burns AB R H BI Flying Dutchmen AB R H BI
LWaner cf 5 1 1 0 Frederick cf 6 1 3 1
Thompson 2b 6 0 2 1 Allen lf 3 1 3 2
Manush lf 4 0 0 0 Hornsby 2b 4 0 2 0
Alexander 1b 5 1 1 0 Heilmann rf 5 0 0 0
Traynor 3b 5 1 2 0 Whitney 3b 6 0 0 0
Cochrane c 5 1 1 1 Bissonette 1b 5 0 0 0
PWaner rf 5 1 3 3 Cissell ss 5 0 1 0
English ss 2 0 0 0 Picinich c 5 1 2 0
Orsatti ph 1 0 1 0 Gray p 3 0 1 0
Regan ss 1 0 0 0 Williams ph 1 0 0 0
EMiller p 3 0 0 0 Ehmke p 0 0 0 0
Hargrave ph 1 0 1 0 Carroll p 0 0 0 0
Petty p 1 0 0 0
45 5 12 5 46 3 12 3
Montgomery INN H R ER BB K
EMiller 9.0 9 1 1 1 4
Petty W 1-1 3.0 3 2 2 1 1
12.0 12 3 3 2 5
Pawtucket INN H R ER BB K
Gray 11.0 7 1 1 2 2
Ehmke L 0-1 0.2 4 4 4 0 0
Carroll 0.1 1 0 0 0 0
12.0 12 5 5 2 2
2B-Frederick, Hornsby, Cissell, Gray. HR-PWaner (1), Allen (1).
SB-PWaner, Whitney. CS-Traynor. SH-Gray
K-EMiller 2, Whitney 2, Bissonette, Cissell, Gray.
BB-English, Manush, Allen, Heilman.
GWRBI: Thompson.
Umpires: Home, Nallin; 1b, McGowan; 2b, Owens; 3b, McCormick; lf, Klem; rf, Wilson