Week 13 Summary (July 11, 1938 - July 17, 1938)

Week Thirteen of the 1938 BBW Replay is in the books, and it was another exciting week as teams in both leagues struggle and fight to move up in the standings. All teams have passed the 70-games-played mark, and maybe half have reached or surpassed 77-games-played, the halfway point for a 154-game season. No cycles or no-hitters this week, but Joe DiMaggio hit three homeruns in a game on Sunday at home versus Detroit, the third coming in the bottom of the ninth for a walk-off three-run homerun. On Tuesday, St. Louis (NL) had four doubles in one inning, but on Thursday, Cleveland started off their second inning in Washington by hitting four consecutive doubles off Dutch Leonard.

Brooklyn Manager
Burleigh Grimes
In the AL, New York has a lock on first place, but the rest of the league has decided they are going to make the Yankees work for it. This is the same five-game lead New York has had for the past three weeks, as they haven't been able to build on that. Boston had remained resolute behind New York but just hasn't been able to make up any ground. Washington is still hitting .330 team and has used that to be able to climb up into third place, just ahead of Detroit. The Tigers have become very Hank Greenberg dependent - on days were he doesn’t hit, the Tigers look helpless.

Cleveland sits alone in fifth place, but they are intent on moving up. Over their past ten games, they have made up four games to Detroit, and they are currently five games out of fourth place. The Indians are also now two games ahead of St. Louis as the Browns' nose-dive down the standings continues. Seventh-place Chicago welcomed back Luke Appling to their lineup now that his broken leg has healed. Boze Berger went from starting shortstop to the bench, but only for s few games as second baseman Jackie Hayes wrecked his knee and Berger moved over to take his spot.

 

In the NL, Pittsburgh started off the week in first place, but by midweek, it was Chicago atop the NL. At the end of the week, Boston swept a doubleheader in Chicago, and Pittsburgh was able to take advantage to move past the Cubs back to the top of the NL. It seems likely these two are going to duel all the way to the end of the season.

 

Cincinnati is the hottest team in the NL, having won seven of its last ten, and has passed New York into third place. The Ginats had won eight in a row, but they ended this week by losing five in a row. The Giants are only 5.5 games out of first, though, and are confident that they still have a shot at the top spot. Cincinnati finally put together a series of games where they get good pitching and good hitting, and they too have eyes on the leaders of the NL.

 

1938 Brooklyn Dodgers
St. Louis is six games over .500 and is only seven games out of first, but they are almost always forgotten in any discussion about the NL pennant. The Cardinals' lineup and rotation still have holes, but with their massive farm system, they are clearly a team that is building for the future. At one point early in the season, Brooklyn was challenging for third place in the NL, but then reality kicked in, and they have been fading ever since. Similar to the Cardinals, the Dodgers have their eyes on the future and not just right now.

This coming week gets off to a slow start, but by week's end and into the following week, we can see the bevy of doubleheaders queueing up and teams struggling to get their season schedule caught up. Weather issues dictate that the White Sox and the Athletics will have six days off before they play again this coming Sunday. It's always nice to get a rest in the middle of the season, but this just exacerbates the end-of-season problems these two struggling teams will have when these rained-out games will also need to be made up.

 

Rainouts or not, there are still a lot of games yet to be played, so let's go play!




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