Week 16 Summary (August 1, 1938 - August 7, 1938)

Week Sixteen of the 1938 BBW Replay is in the books, and the drama continues. The season has moved into August, so only games in August and September remain to be played. The schedule shows that sixteen weeks have been completed, so in a twenty-four-week season, the schedule has reached the two-thirds point of the season. All teams remain behind the two-thirds point when it comes to the number of games played, though, so everyone knows what is coming over these final eight weeks of the season.

Chicago (AL) Manager
Jimmy Dykes
In the AL, for the second consecutive week, New York ended the week with a 7.5-game lead over Boston. The Yankees appear to have an iron grip on the top spot, while second-place Boston will be going forth with their best starter, Lefty Grove, fighting a severe arm injury. The Yankees have been in this kind of pennant race before, and they aren’t going to blink, so the Red Sox find themselves in a tough spot. As a team, Washington is hitting at a .333 clip for the season and is currently sitting 2.0 games behind Boston, but has a comfortable 6.5-game lead over fourth-place Detroit. The Tigers replaced manager Mickey Cochrane with Del Baker this past week, but they haven’t seen any kind of surge because of it, and, in fact, are currently in the middle of a seven-game losing streak.

Cleveland is in fifth place, 1.5 games behind struggling Detroit, but their biggest battle seems to be trying to reach .500. St. Louis is behind Cleveland in the standings, and after having been on a downward slide the previous two months, they experienced an offensive surge this past week. I am not sure this will do anything but keep them out of seventh or eighth place in the long run, but that may be all they can hope for.

 

Chicago is the team with the fewest games played (88), but three doubleheaders this past week will begin to dig into that deficit. The White Sox started their week with doubleheaders at home versus eighth-place Philadelphia on Tuesday and Wednesday, and to everyone's surprise, the Athletics swept both of the doubleheaders, Philadelphia ending the week only 2.0 games behind Chicago. The A's have won seven of their last ten games played, and while no one seriously expects them to keep it up, Philadelphia was able to convey a message to the rest of the league that they are a force to be contended with.

In the NL, Pittsburgh moved its lead over second-place Cincinnati from 4.5 games to 6.0 games this past week. Pittsburgh continues to lead the league in hitting, pitching, and fielding, and has been proven to be tenacious in the field as well. A game against Pittsburgh is never over until the final out is recorded, as the Pirates love to accumulate comeback victories, and even in games they lose, they keep the pressure on through the final out.

 

Cincinnati ended the week on a three-game losing streak, including losing both ends of a doubleheader in Brooklyn on Sunday. Before that, they had been on a six-game winning streak, but while that helped the Reds climb past Chicago into second place, Pittsburgh had a simultaneous six-game winning streak, so they could get no closer to the top.

 

Chicago sits in third place, following Cincinnati's rise past them into second-place. Gabby Hartnett replaced Charley Grimm as manager last week, but so far, there has been no upswing in performance from the Cubs. Time is running out, though, so if the Cubs are going to make a run for it they need to get started soon. St. Louis ended the week in fourth place, a few percentage points ahead of New York. Enos Slaughter has been limited to occasional pinch-hitting duties over the past four weeks, but recently returned to the starting lineup, which bodes well for the Cardinals. Mel Ott hit for a cycle in the middle of the week, the fourth cycle of the season. The Giants and Ott both got off to a strong start for the first two months of the season, but both have been relatively quiet for June and July. If the Giants are going to make a late-season push, they are going to need Ott to lead the offense.

 

Almost all teams will pass the 100-game-played mark this upcoming week, even with Monday being a travel day with no games scheduled to be played. Let's go play!



  


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