Cleveland tops Washington, 4-3, as Bob Feller’s relief work ends the rally of the Senators and keeps Ossie Vitt’s Indians in first place by three games over the Detroit Tigers.
Hal Trosky gave the Indians a 2-0 lead with his 23rd homer of the year in the first. He singled home a run in the third to make it 3-0. Mel Harder, the Indians starter of the day, allowed a run in the third on a single by Johnny Welaj and another solo run in the fifth when Buddy Lewis knocked in Rick Ferrell on a groundout. A Ken Keltner triple in the sixth scored Jeff Heath for the Tribe to make it a 4-2 game and that run would loom large just two batters later as Washington’s Cecil Travis hit a leadoff homer in the bottom of the sixth to again make it a one-run game.
Harder walked Ferrell to start the seventh and advanced him to second on a wild pitch. A sacrifice moved him to third and brought forth Feller to the mound. He induced a flyout and a groundout to strand the tying run at third, then worked two more scoreless innings, although he loaded the bases in the ninth after walking three batters, but escaped with a fly to right to end it.
Also on this date in Tribe history:
1916 – The Indians are no-hit in Philadelphia by Athletics starter Bullet Joe Bush in a 5-0 defeat.
1959 – Cleveland extends its winning streak to eight games on an eighth inning tie-breaking home run by Rocky Colavito as the Indians knock off the New York Yankees, 5-4.
1962 – The Indians end the Red Sox’s streak of 13 games with a homer in a 4-0 win in the second game of a doubleheader. Cleveland won the opener, 10-5.
1973 – Former Indians draft pick and current Double-A manager at Akron, Mark Budzinski, is born in Baltimore, Maryland.
1987 – Indians pitching puts an end to Paul Molitor’s 39-game hitting streak, but loses the game as the Brewers’ Rick Manning drives home the winning run in ten innings in a 1-0 victory for Milwaukee over Cleveland.